“No smoking in the hospital.” She scolds then frowns. “When did you get a haircut?”

“Last week. You like it?” He lights the cigarette anyway.

“It makes you look like an old man.”

“If I’m an old man, you’re an old woman, Rai, and Kirill is…ancient.”

She snickers at that before she glances at Kirill. “Are you going to tell me the reason for your visit?”

“I just wanted to make sure you’re fine. Can’t I do that?”

“Did you expect me to fall for that?”

“I can be a good sport, Sokolov.”

“Maybe in a parallel world, and even then, I won’t believe it.”

“Ouch.” Damien laughs. “Give him more, Rai. I’m interested to see how much his poker face can take on.”

Kirill ignores him and his body angles in Rai’s direction. “I heard you don’t remember.”

“I don’t. Not the past ten years, at least,” she says quietly before she chews on a small piece of apple.

“Does that mean you don’t recall the time you came into my club, drank until you nearly passed out, and then danced alone like a lunatic?”

“I would never do that!” She stares at Ruslan, who bows his head.

Wait…she did that?

My fist clenches at the thought that someone other than me saw Rai drunk. She becomes so loose and fucking adorable when drunk.

“Yes, you did.” Kirill tilts his head to the side. “You didn’t leave either and insisted on staying the night. You passed out in one of the rooms upstairs.”

“Yeah? So what?”

He narrows his eyes but soon goes back to his normal expression, which is blank, but in a welcoming kind of way instead of mean like Damien’s. “So do you remember coming on to me?”

She did that? I’m ready to punch Kirill in the nose when she laughs. “In your dreams. You’re far away from my type.”

“How would you know when you think you’re just eighteen?”

“I know I despise your guts and your face and your foxy nature and everything you do to get power. I would cut your dick off before letting you come near me.”

Damien bursts out in laughter, and I can’t help the smile that grazes my lips. That’s my woman.

“So you remember nothing of what happened that night?” Kirill probes.

“No, but that doesn’t mean I would ever come on to a psycho like you.”

Kirill smirks. “Isn’t your husband similar to me?”

She purses her lips. “I have no husband.”

“But we all attended your wedding.”

“I don’t remember it, so it didn’t happen,” she snaps.

Damien takes her hand in his. “That’s the spirit, Rai. Truth is, you and I were always meant to be together.”

My blood boils and I’m a second away from barging in there and throwing him to the floor.

“Really?” she asks slowly.

“Really. I’m the love of your life. It started when you saw me kill for the first time. You said it was hot.” He grins. “Then we had a lot of kinky sex.”

That’s it.

“You’ll have a kinky death if you don’t get the fuck out.” I barge inside, my fists clenched on either side of me.

Rai stiffens and tightens her hold on the knife. Kirill stands up and offers her a fake smile. “I hope you never get better, you little devil.”

Rai flips him off, and he smirks as he leaves with Aleksander following after him.

“What are you waiting for?” I motion at Damien. “Piss off.”

He takes a long drag of his cigarette and blows a cloud of smoke. “Isn’t it the husband whom she doesn’t remember?”

Fucker.

“Hey, Rai.” He grins at her. “The only reason you married this tool is due to being forced. Now, you can divorce him and come back to me. I don’t believe in the whole virgin kink so it’s a win for both of us. What do you think?”

I swing my fist at him, but her voice cuts me off. “Get out. Both of you.”

My eyes slowly close at her tone. Rai and I always had our problems, but the way she keeps on rejecting me ever so brutally is taking its toll on me.

“I’ll be back.” Damien staggers to his feet and smirks at me before he and his guard leave. I keep glaring at his back as he strides down the hall. Why does she remember this fucker but not me?

“Out.” She points at the door with her knife.

“You can’t chase me away for the rest of your life. I’m your husband.”

“Then I can just divorce you.”

I grit my teeth, then release them to not sound agitated. That’s the last thing she needs. “You can’t just divorce me. You have duties toward the brotherhood, remember?”

“Ruslan, get him out!” Her pitch rises, fingers trembling around the knife.

“I’ll come back,” I tell her matter-of-factly and step out of the hospital room.

I’m sitting on one of the plain chairs when a large shadow falls on me. I stare up to find Vladimir’s boring bloody face.

First Kirill and Damien, and now Vladimir. Fucking perfect.

“You should go home, Kyle.”

“I’m fine,” I spit out.

“You have dark circles and you stink.”

Of course I do. I haven’t changed clothes since the day I brought her here, and I’ve been washing up in the hospital bathroom. I also sleep sitting up in the seat because I can’t let my guard down.

“Do you want her to see you this way?” Vladimir asks, but it’s clearly rhetorical since he continues. “Go shower, change clothes, and then come back. She’s not going nowhere.”

I don’t like the way he speaks to me. It’s that fucking Russian condescension that runs in all their blood.

“I’ll stand guard in front of her room until your return. She’s asleep anyway.”

I throw a glance at her. She’s lying on her back, eyes closed, and her hand is splayed above her head on the pillow. It was one of her most adorable habits that she eventually got rid of.

If she’s really going to be the Rai from ten years ago, that means she might never accept me as her husband again.

I try to pretend that doesn’t slice me open in a hundred different painful ways.