“You told Lev and Sasha you would meet with them today. Are you going to get up for that?” Vito said, coming into the room and waking me up. I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back into his bed with me. 

“I don’t think so, Ilya.” 

“Come on, just a few minutes. Contact recharge.”

“You didn’t get enough wrapped around me all night long?”

“No.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Vito said, trying to pull the blankets back. 

“No.” I whined, struggling to keep the blanket up to my neck. 

“Ilya, come on. You told them you would be there to talk around noon. It’s one p.m.”

“Huh?” I said, confused, letting go of the blanket. “You let me sleep till one? Vito, what the hell!” I jumped out of the bed, the blanket and sheet wrapped around my left ankle. Vito grabbed me before I could hurt myself. 

“Mellow out, Ilya. You could have just hurt yourself badly.” He said seriously, and I shoved him away. 

“Let go. Damn it, I’m late. I have to call and tell him I’m on my—--” I picked up my phone and looked. Eleven thirty looked back at me, and I wanted to strangle Vito. “Is today the day you’ve picked for your funeral?” I said calmly, but annoyed. 

He shrugged. “Go have a shower, and I’ll make you lunch.”

“Fine.” I said and set my phone down before heading to the bathroom. Stripping down, I looked at myself in the mirror. My hazel eyes, though these days they seemed more blue than anything, looked back at me. Light blond lashes, light blond eyebrows, and my mess of blond hair framed them. I clicked my tongue, annoyed by the face that looked back at me. Judging me. 

My hair was longer than it had been in a long time. I had to brush it out of my face to see, but it didn’t bother me too much. Heading to the shower, I turned it on and let it run, looking at myself in the mirror some more. Reaching to the sink drawer, I pulled out the scissors and chopped a good inch or two off the front of my hair. Looking at it in the sink, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. 

“Vito?” I called for him. He came quickly, opening the door. 

“What do you—” He looked at my hair, my hand and the hair in the sink. “Ilya, is this the kind of day we are going to have? Give me those, damn you.” He yanked the scissors from my hand. 

“You said you wanted it shorter.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be to find someone to fix that before you have to go see Lev and Sasha?” He said, raising his voice at me. 

“You need not yell.” I hissed. 

“I’m not even yelling yet, Ilya.” He said, angrily. 

“I don’t get why you’re mad. It’s my hair.” I said flatly. 

He just huffed at me and slammed the door. I stepped under the spray and washed my body and hair before getting out. I grabbed a towel and took time to dry off. Going to my bedroom, I found a t-shirt and nicer pants and put them on. Vito was dressed and had shoes on when I got out of the bedroom. 

“Put your shoes on. I have your medication and a water bottle.”

I slipped my shoes on at the door, and took my pills, before he shoved me out the door. 

“Where are we going?”

“To get your damn hair fixed. If I do it, you will have none left.” He snapped. 

He pulled me along to the car and opened the door, closing it after I got in. He was still mad when we got there. We barely had to wait before they called me back to a chair. Vito told them to fix it, and keep the top long and the sides short. He gave all the orders, and the women looked a little confused. But she listened regardless and started the cut. 

“Did you want the sides blended to match, or should I ask your—-friend?” She asked. 

“If it will look better, then yes.” I replied. 

“It would look a little neater.” She said, 

“Alright then, please do that.”

She said little more until she was finished and brought Vito over to have a look. 

“I like this. Much better. Thank you.” He said. 

She walked with us over to the counter and had the lady there ring us up, and Vito took out a hundred and tossed it on the counter. Before he took my upper arm and took me with him as we left. 

“You know, pulling me around like this looks like you’ve kidnapped me, Vito.” I laughed lightly. 

“Is that so?” He said, as he closed my door and came around to his side. “Next time, if you need a damn hair, say something, don’t cut the fucking shit yourself. Do you hear me?”

“Hard not to when we are in the car, and you’re raising your voice at me again.” I said. 

“If you need something done like this, then ask. You don’t do it yourself.”

“Right, sorry. Forgot that I was your pet.” I sighed. 

“You are not my pet, Ilya.”

“Are we sure about that?” I muttered. 

“If you’re going to talk back to me, Ilya, speak up so I can hear you, too.” He said, as he backed out of the salon. 

I waited until we were leaving town to tell him I was starving. You could tell he was annoyed, but he turned back into town. 

“What do you want, Ilya?”

“I don’t know.” 

He pulled up at the coffee shop and ordered a few things. He ordered me things that contained no caffeine, since it would cause anxiety issues with me. Paying at the window, he passed me the large tropical blended smoothie and the muffin. 

“Straw.” I said and looked at him. 

“Your straw is in the glove compartment.”

I checked in the glove compartment, and it wasn’t there. 

“My straw is missing.”

“You will live without it.”

“How am I supposed to inhale this now?” I yelled, annoyed and mad about my straw. I hated the paper straws. I couldn’t handle them. There was a silicone one in the car for a reason. 

“Ilya, bring it down.”

“You didn’t put it back in the car after the last time you got me a smoothie, did you?”

“Frankly, I don’t remember.” Vito said, drinking his coffee, and driving us out of town, down the dirt roads. Annoyed, I brought the cup to my mouth. I hated the texture of the plastic on my lips. 

I ate my muffin, while suffering with the lid. The muffin was a perfect, spiced cake with cream cheese inside. Vito made me sit in the car until he was done eating, too. I drank half the smoothie in the time I waited for him, deciding to ditch the lid. 

He snapped the lid back on before we headed to Alessio and Lev’s office. Lev was inside working on some paperwork. 

“Sorry we were late.” Vito said, and Lev looked up and laughed.

“No worries, Sasha is late too.” Lev said.

“Where is Alessio?” I asked, having not seen him around in their shared office. 

“Ah, he said he had something to do that might take him a while, but not to worry.”

“Hm. Ok.” I said, sitting down. 

“Sasha said he would be here in just a few minutes.” Lev said, cleaning up the top of his desk. “Also, I like your haircut. It looks good.”

“I had to get it done today. I didn’t have a choice.” I mumbled. 

“Vito was annoyed with the length?” Lev asked. 

“Hardly. Someone decided he was going to take scissors to his hair before his shower.” Vito said, and took a deep drink of his coffee before he tossed the cup out, and sat beside me in one of the extra chairs. Lev shook his head and laughed. 

Sasha came in, tossing a bag onto one of the other chairs, and sat down and let out a deep sigh. “Sorry, I’ll be with you all in a moment. I just need to decompress for a second.”

“That bad huh?” Lev asked, turning in his chair. 

“God, you do not know. I love that man, but sometimes I want to pop his head off his neck, kick it around before jamming it back on.” He groaned. 

“What happened?” Lev asked.

“I’ll tell you once we get done with this, I have some more stuff to do later.” He said, pulling a hand through his hair. 

“Police stuff?”

“Yeah, I’m up to my neck in more gang shit. On both sides. No better time to get this all together.” Sasha said, before opening up his bag and pulling out some things. He looked at Lev before he looked at Vito again and back at me. “Nice to meet you officially, Ilya, right?”

“Yes.” I said, and he nodded. 

“I’m Sasha. Fifth underboss of Maddox’s. So anyway, Lev and I were discussing making a group of the best teams we have for important recoveries and missions. Lev brought up Vito and yourself. Lev said that if you agreed to this, chances were Vito would too.” Sasha said, totally avoiding looking at Vito. 

“Did no one think to run this by me?” Vito said, hold back his temper but it was definitely there. I knew this tone way too well. 

“Well, no.” Lev said. “Alessio said you would shoot the idea down well before it got to Ilya.”

“You’re right, I would. He doesn’t need—-”

“Could I think about it?” I said. 

“No.” Vito hissed. 

“Sure. I can give you time to think about it.” Sasha said, checking his phone again. “I’ll leave you with all these copies of everything. I have to run.” 

He set all the papers on the table, grabbed his things, and darted out. His cellphone to his ear. 

“Lev. You should have brought this to my attention first.” Vito said.

“Look Vito, take this whatever way you feel you have to, but your judgement on Ilya is flawed. You two are personal now.”

“Personal….?” I muttered, confused before it fully set in. 

“Exactly, that’s why I should have been notified of this first.” Vito raised his voice with Lev. 

“Don’t yell at my husband. Vito.” Alessio said, coming into the office and he looked pissed off. He didn’t even give Lev a kiss, and even Lev looked shocked by this. 

“How was the thing you had to do?” He asked Alessio. 

“Fine. I brought you something,” He said. His eyes were dark when he looked at Lev and spoke. “You can come inside now.”

A man stepped into the office, and calm and levelheaded, Lev was gone. He looked at Alessio and spoke. “Just what the fuck is the meaning of this?”

“So you know him?” Alessio said. “Please come in and sit down.” 

Vito tried to leave and take me with him. But Alessio spoke again. “Please, you guys don’t have to leave, actually I would prefer you to stay. Lev’s younger brother Nikita will join us for a while.”

“Younger brother?” I said, confused. 

“Adopted.” Lev spat and narrowed his eyes at the other male. They argued in Russian and it was far from friendly. 

“Those aren’t friendly words.” I muttered, and they both looked at me. Lev pulled a hand through his hair, and spoke. “What the hell are you doing here, Nikita?”

“Your husband invited me.”

I sipped my smoothie and watched the hell unfold in front of me. Vito kept trying to yank me out of the chair, but I didn’t want to go. I wanted to see this. Even if I was a little jumpy with all the yelling.