"Will you?" Eve asked. "Be safe?"
"Yes," Dimitri said, and he believed it. "I've killed before, piccola. I've fought trained soldiers. I've done things you can't even imagine to survive. These seven men aren't going to be the thing that takes me down. Not when I have everything to fight for."
He held her closer, his lips brushing her hair.
"Tomorrow night, when they come, I need you to stay here. In this room. With the door locked. Marco will have men positioned. You'll have a gun. You know how to use it now. If anything goes wrong, and it won't....but if it does, you use it. You protect yourself. You survive. Understood?"
"Understood," Eve said, but she was trembling slightly.
Dimitri understood. Fear wasn't weakness. Fear was just the acknowledgment that something mattered enough to be afraid of losing it.
