That Summer In The Country

Thirty-eight:

Thirty-eight:

It was Mal Aleksander ended up chasing after. He knew that he should have gone after Alina, but his brother ran out shortly after Alina did. He didn't care what the whole restaurant thought. Mal couldn't be alone. He couldn't have Mal thinking that he had stolen his first girlfriend. He had always known their relationship was troubled, he simply hadn't expected that this was the reason for it.

He found Mal down by the docks, smoking a cigarette.

"You should have gone after her," Mal told him, "I know you like to pretend to be the hero. She would have loved you for it."

"You're my brother," Aleksander said, "despite whatever shit you think of me. Mal, you know what being in this family is like. The kind of head games that our father plays with us. I was never the reason that Genya tried to leave, and she made me promise not to tell you the truth about why she did. You have to trust me when I say that I've been protecting her, I promise. That's all I've been doing. Nothing else."

"Protecting her from what?" Mal said. "She's one of the strongest women I know. Who the hell does Genya need protection from?"

"Go to the engagement party tomorrow," Aleksander said, "I'm sure there's someone Genya will want to introduce to you."

"I don't want to meet her fucking fiancé!" the words came out as a snarl.

Aleksander shook his head. "It has nothing to do with her fiancé. She'll explain everything, I'm sure. She's Genya."

Mal turned to look at him, still sucking on his cigarette. He blew smoke in his face that Aleksander waved away. "Did you really invest in her company?"

He nodded.

"Why?" Mal asked.

"It was the only way that I could help her get away."

"From what?"

"The monsters that lurked in our world," Aleksander said, "I don't think you've got to guess who those are."

If Mal understood who he was talking about, he said nothing. But he did take his cigarette out and put it out with his foot. "We shouldn't have let Alina go off like that."

"It's fine," said Aleksander, "I texted Zoya to keep a lookout."

"Zoya's here?" Mal said.

Aleksander nodded. "For the engagement party, remember?"

"Right," said Mal, "always one step ahead, aren't you, brother?"

Aleksander sighed. "I have to be, brother. It's the only way you don't let Ravka destroy you. Come on. Let's go see our girl, if she'll even speak to us."

Mal's eyes danced with mischief. "We can always make her speak to us."

He patted Mal on the shoulder. "That we can. Plenty of other pretty, little sounds that we can make her do as well."

"Oh, I like the sound of that."

"As do I," he replied.

The two of them walked back to the restaurant where their car was. They were driven home. The lights were off, but they found Alina's high heels dropped in the hallway. She was home. Good. That meant that Zoya had done her job. They made their way up the stairs and went to Aleksander's room. When they didn't find her there, they went to Mal's. Confused still when she wasn't there, they looked at the guest room that Aleksander had set up for her just in case. Alina was there, on the bed, completely asleep.

The two brothers crawled on either side of her. Mal took Alina's left hand, and Aleksander took her right. The three of them fell asleep, side by side. It was the first time they had slept together without fucking. It was nice, Aleksander thought. But he had seen the look in Mal's eyes and he knew that what they had couldn't last. When Mal found out the truth about everything, that would be the end of it. And if Alina found out well....

He didn't want to think about what could happen if Alina found out. He didn't want to think about that at all. All he wanted to do was to stay right next to her, listening to the sound of her breathing, and never let anyone take her from him ever.