I tried to think of all the most embarassing and/or infuriating questions I could've possibly asked him, just to get under his skin, but surprisingly I came up with nada. Dimitri wasn't the type to let little things like, 'When did you lose your virginity' or 'How long has it been since you last got laid', bother him and that was pretty much all I had to throw. There wasn't anything I cared about enough in his personal life to genuinely want to know about and as far as I knew he'd never done anything to attack me personally, outside of trying to kill me on a regular basis that is, so...wait. A sharp pulse ran through my head at the unexpected emergence of a deep seeded thought I never knew I had.

There is one thing. One thing you've always wanted to know but never knew the right person to ask.

Even just the thought of it brought back all my deepest anxieties as a kid. It felt like I was right back in that room the day Baba told me she was never coming back to us and in that moment I realized I never really escaped it. I'd mourned her death and moved on, or at least I thought had, but the feeling of fear I'd disappointed her never left me. My palms were instantly caked in sweat as I drew in all the courage I could to push past my distress and ask what was going to change the course of our relationship forever depending on his answer. Only thing holding me back wasn't the worry of what his response would be, but the result of what I would do if it wasn't the answer I hoped to get. And I wasn't even sure what answer that was. Would it really be better if it was him? Would I really be able to take him out right here and now? Still, regardless I needed to know. She deserved retribution. I scooted closer to the island so we were as close as we could be and rested my elbows on the countertop. My exterior was as calm as it could be, but on the inside I was feverish with bloodlust. The more I thought about it, it all made sense.

Dimitri sensed the shift in my attitude and sat back in his chair, tense. Neither of us were mentally ready for the next words I spoke. Everything in the house was still as if anticipating a scrimmage and not daring to set it off and the sun had started to set into the golden hour blanketing the two of us in a somber mandarin glow. Seemed like whenever the two of us were together the atmosphere was compelled to mold itself with the temperament of the moment.

"I want you to tell me who killed my mother." His body visibly slacked as his eyes flickered from apprehensive to just bewildered. He genuinely looked taken aback by my statement, but I saw right through his facade to save face. He did it. He had to have done it. The fucking coward just didn't want to admit it.

"I'm sorry...what?" I lost it. Before I could even think I leapt across the table and snatched him up by the collar of his henley, so we were only a breath apart. He grabbed my wrist with one hand and steadied himself with the other, but made no offensive moves to attack me. He was waiting for me to start the fight, which I had absolutely no probelm obliging him with.

"Allah kahretsin! Don't play fucking dumb with me, Belikov! My mother. Janine Hathway. No one else wanted her dead more than Galina, she knew my mom was Abe's weakness, so who else would she send to get the job done but you?!" (God damnit). I spat venomously in his face. He didn't flinch at my animosity or match it with his own. Instead he kept his voice calm and level like one would trying to soothe a wild animal about to attack. That only stoked the fire.

"I don't know." I threw a careless punch towards his jaw that he caught effortlessly and deflected to the counter where he locked my wrist down firmly in his grasp. His other hand gripping mine around his collar tightened in anticipation of another blow, but he kept his overall composure. The same chilling sensation I'd felt from our skin touching before rippled throughout my arm at the contact.

"You're a liar." I gritted through my teeth. I was trying my damndest to keep control of my rising rage, but it was slipping from my grasp too fast for me to catch. It was times like this being the offspring of a hot-tempered Turkish man and an even hotter-tempered short, Scottish woman was a curse more than it was a blessing.

"I'm serious, Rose, I don't kno-"

"LIAR!" Thankfully there was no one in the near vicinity of the house because my outburst was sure to cause a 911 call for a domestic disturbance. He opened his mouth to spew what could only be more dishonesty, so I decided to silence it before he could get the chance. A sharp hiss left his lips as my forehead connected with the bridge of his nose. It wasn't enough to cause a break, but he was definitely going to still be feeling that in the morning. His eyes narrowed as the, what I once thought was everflowing, well of patience started to run dry. I could tell he wanted to retaliate from the storm building in his eyes, but instead decided to stay on defense and try to diffuse the situation the best he could. In an instant he had both my hands locked against the countertop, and roughly gripped both sides of my jaw in his free hand, pulling us closer and keeping me from catching him with another assault like that again. His breath was slow and steadily brushing against my face as he dropped his mask again and allowed me to see through to the raw emotions flowing underneath. The dark brown pools in his eyes were swimming with anger, confusion, conviction, and even a little sympathy. As much as I wanted to deny it, I couldn't find anything hidden to prove he was lying. Even his heartbeat, from what I could hear, remained at a normal pace.

"I'm sorry I can't help, obviously this information is very important to you, but I truly don't know. Galina never shared any plan or gave any assignment to me for killing your mother. If she had I would tell you. I promised we would be honest in this exchange with each other and I am swearing on my life to you, Rose. I don't know who killed her." I hadn't even realized I was crying until I felt his thumb lightly sweeping across the trail of tears that had started to build underneath it.

Great. Now I look like a crazy person AND a baby.

I jerked my head back from his hold and he released my hands from the table almost simultaneously. I didn't spare him a look back as I all but ran out of the kitchen and right back to the shower I had just gotten out of not long before. Now looking forward to the cold water to not only veil the tears now spilling from my eyes, but also hopefully shock me back to myself.

Dimitri POV

What the hell was that?

I internally scolded myself as I stood frozen at the kitchen counter, mindlessly studying the way the light bounced off the tears I'd just wiped from Rose's face sitting on my thumb. Just a few weeks ago I would've grimaced at the thought of being on a first-name basis with her and now I was using it practically all the time, letting her treat my wounds and wiping tears from her face. Just a few weeks ago I wouldn't have hesitated to put a bullet through her skull. What was frustrating me the most was how lenient I caught myself becoming more and more around her when it wasn't deserving. But, I couldn't help the image that overlayed her crying face. Viktoria. She reminded me of my youngest sister the day I told them all that our sad excuse of a father was dead. Neglecting of course to inform them that I was the one responsible. My sisters and I were well aware of the damage my father had wrecked upon our family, but she was too young to remember and he did his best to hide that vile part of himself from her whenever she was around. She was only a preschooler at the time. He wanted at least one child that didn't absolutely loathe him I suppose, but he didn't count on the rest of us making sure she wouldn't forget the kind of person he was.

Everyone was taken back by the news, surprised and even a little saddened by it but none of us mourned him. None except my mother and Viktoria. Viktoria broke down immediately at the news leaving the rest of us to console her, and my mother chose to hold her pain close retiring to her bedroom. We all knew she was just trying to hide her heartache from us. Despite how awfully he'd treated her, she still loved him. Despite all the bruises and late-night trips to the ER, she still held out hope that he would learn to love her...it never happened. I hated seeing her so broken down and taken for granted. I could only sit by and watch him nearly kill her for so long.

At that moment Rose wasn't my enemy. She was unguarded, impassioned and...fragile. I can't believe how different the two of us became in just the course of a day. I was purposely choosing to drop my impassive veil around her more and she wasn't just the unbecomingly immature, and infuriating pain in the ass anymore. She was a lot more.

My mind flashed back to how close we were just a few hours prior...

My breath hitched in my throat as she rose up on her knees to assist me pulling my shirt off, noticing my struggle. Even through my own heart pounding in my ears, don't know if it was from my wounds bleeding out or how close she was, I could still hear hers skip a few beats clear as day. Part of me hoped she'd just yank it off and get this over with, but we both knew that was just going to cause more harm than good. She paused for a few seconds as she was pulling it up and while I felt a slight panic that something was wrong, the hovering of her eyes on me told me all I needed to know. I wasn't ignorant of the effect my physique usually had on women, but she was the last I ever thought would fit into that category. Thankfully once it got up over my shoulders the hard part was over, but she had to adjust to my height in order to do so which put us in a much more...sensual position. I'd closed my eyes just moments before in attempt to get my breathing and heart rate under control while also avoiding her sizable bust that was growing unbearably close the more she moved. All that went out the window the second I felt the burn of her bare skin grazing against mine, a chill spread from where her chest met mine all over my body.

Against my commands, my eyes snapped open to meet hers and I let slip the tight grip I always kept on my emotions. I couldn't understand what I was feeling myself, so I was sure she was having just as difficult a time trying to decode them. Hers on the other hand were very clear. Rose was always quite the open book when it came to how she was feeling, something I often used to my advantage when hunting her. She was passionate, reckless, and very predictable at times. Though this was one time I'd wished she was a little more secretive. Her dark eyes were glazed over in contention, adrenaline and what I had to have been misreading as a bit of lust buried deep underneath their surface. I couldn't help the numerous visions that flashed in my mind in reaction to her hidden desire and I wanted to kick myself for even having them. As much as I prided myself on having exceptional reign over both my mind and body, even I couldn't always fight the inevitable frailties of being a man. Especially nearly saddled under someone like Rose Hathaway. As much detest as I had for her I'd be an idiot to try and deny that she wasn't beautiful. But, thinking about that now was having the exact opposite effect I needed it to. Averting my eyes once again I tried to think of as many non-sexual things as I could to keep my lower segment as subdued as possible. Last thing I needed was to give her the ammunition of knowing she had that kind of influence on me, albeit against my personal will or not.

Suddenly dying on the floor instead didn't seem so bad.

Back in the present, I had this itching feeling to go check on her and it greatly aggravated me not being able to confidently say I knew the reason why. I decided to chalk it up to just wanting to make sure my plan of getting us cooperating long enough to get the information I needed and get out of here hadn't fallen through.

Give her some space and let her come to you. In the meantime enjoy her absence and your peace of mind.

Only my mind was everything but peaceful. I was still trying to make sense of everything Rose explained to me about Ivan and had yet to make any ground on whether or not I could even start to believe it. It just couldn't have been true. I knew Ivan better than he knew himself. He had just as much respect for women as I did with where we came from, and he knew my family history so he knew better than to step into anything remotely harmful to them, or else I would've set him straight myself. Only way he would have even considered doing something like what Rose was suggesting would be if Galina threatened someone he loved. She had a knack for that. But, if that was the case why wouldn't he tell me? Why wouldn't he let me help him?

"I could've gotten you out!" My temper flared and got the best of me as I chucked the coffee cup I'd just been drinking from at the fridge. The shattering of glass shrieked throughout the wooden walls. I cursed myself for letting my anger get the better of me, but it was too much for me to choke down. There were too many questions I didn't have the answers to and the only people I could get them from were Rose, who could very well be lying because she hated me, or Galina who wouldn't hesitate to lie if it meant keeping me on her leash. Unless Ivan knew any tricks to bring himself back from the dead so he could tell me himself, I had no choice but to trust Rose and later try to find out more from Galina without tipping her off that I knew more than I let on. Only there was no way of knowing how long it would be until I got in contact with her again. A low growl rumbled in my throat as my temper reached dangerously high levels. I needed to hit something and soon. I highly doubted there was a gym to be found in the chalet, so I had to settle for roaming around in hopes the constant movement would eventually help clear my mind. I hadn't even realized I was unconsciously following sounds of grunting and heavy impact until I was right outside the door to what looked like a mini gym room with a flustered Rose coated in sweat. I stepped back to leave and give her her privacy but the creaky floorboard soiled all chances of quick escape I had. She whipped around and crouched into a fighting stance, giving me a full view of her mangled bloody knuckles from thrashing the punching bag. How long had she been at this?

She relaxed slightly realizing it was me and attempted to shield her hands behind her back. "Oh...Dimitri. Sorry, I was going to mention this to you...never. I hadn't planned on it honestly, but guess now we'll be sharing. Don't worry I'll clean all the uhm-blood off the bag before you use it." I hesitated to take any steps towards her remembering the fresh swelling that was still pounding in my nose from her headbutt earlier.

"You should let me look at those." I kept my voice stern so she knew it wasn't a request, but of course she had to put up a fight all the same. If you didn't know her it would be impossible to imagine the fiery spirit before me now was the exact same that had just been raked with grief.

"Hey, I'm the medic around here remember? I'm fine I can take care of it myself. It's just a few scratches anyway." She flexed and bent her fingers as if to prove she wasn't in pain but failed to hide the grimace as the action only caused her raw skin to split open more. Leave it to Rose to choose bullheadedness over help.

Not unlike someone else you know.

"You can hardly move your fingers let alone treat your own wounds without just making them worse. Now, sit." She shot me a glare that I returned with a pointed look that said she was in no position to fight and she knew it. With a huff she sat on the bench I had pointed to and crossed her arms in defiance. It was almost comical how she could always keep the attitude even when accepting defeat. Ironically, one of the very few things I respected about her.

Trusting her to stay put I quickly went to grab the trauma kit she'd been using earlier from the kitchen floor. I scowled at the memory of childishly losing my temper. I wasn't even sure what made me snap to begin with, but I gained nothing by doing so. It could've been the fact that the more time I spent with her the more I was learning we were more alike than I wanted to admit, and that brought a lot of conflicting feelings out in me that I had yet to process. Her knowing I was planning to leave Galina, the fact that I sent my family money every week, and that I had held myself to a higher degree than her because I felt my morals were more just despite us both taking lives every day was perplexing and equally enraging. How did this woman, who I hardly spent time with outside of exchanging blows and gunfire, manage to break through every guard I'd ever constructed so effortlessly? And with marksman precision every single time. It gave too much power I wasn't comfortable leaving in her possession and didn't know how to take back. Feels like the harder I try the easier I am for her to pick apart.

I took a few deep breaths before returning to her and did my best to keep my mind blank.

Just stay in the moment, say only what you need and keep your eyes to yourself.

"You tore them up pretty bad, but I've seen worse. Just need to keep them wrapped, stay off the bag for a while and no overly strenuous activities or you'll split the skin more. If they're bleeding too much let me know and I'll change the bandages." She nodded and I immediately broke my third rule as my attention drew towards her bottom lip pulled between her teeth as she chewed on it in hesitant anticipation. There was something she wanted to say she just didn't know the time or how to say it. Out of curiosity, I threw her a line.

"What is it?" She stared down at me in confusion before releasing her lip from its tortured hold realizing it gave her away.

A heavy sigh rose from her chest, "I'm sorry about earlier," She started, waving her hand towards my now very inflated nose, "I shouldn't have hit you it's just...I know I'm a hypocrite for not being sorry for what I did to Ivan knowing how that affected you but my mom-" A pause as she fought persistent tears back, "she was an innocent. She never even set foot in this life outside of being married to my father and for her to be taken like that just for some stupid revenge ploy to get at the old man...it's not fair. She deserved so much better. Despite how lowly you think I am, I have never raised my gun to an innocent. All she wanted was to take care of us. Of me." Her voice was barely above a whisper towards the end as she cracked. A part of me wanted to be cold towards her, but I couldn't help but think of my own mother. God forbid, anyone raises a weapon against her just for the sake of being my mother. Or any of my sisters or other family. It came with the territory but knowing made it no easier to swallow nonetheless. I couldn't even fathom the agony of losing them. Against my better judgment, I offered her a small smile in understanding and sympathy. We were getting far too familiar with one another for my liking.

"I'm truly sorry about your mom, Ivan meant a lot to me but I can't imagine losing a parent from what I can only assume was a young age. That must've been hard for you." She shrugged.

"Is. It is hard for me." We sat in silence for the rest of the time it took me to wrap her hands and I couldn't fight back questions of my own that I wanted to ask but just like her didn't know when or how. She still was technically owed one of me since I couldn't answer what she wanted but for the sake of my own sanity, I had to at least try while the opportunity presented itself.

"Thanks, Dimitri..." She was nearly out the door when I grabbed her by the elbow. It was now or never. I was losing count of how many times we had touched in the span of a few hours, but the tenderness only grew with each touch like an itch that just gets more and more fervorous every time you fall to the tempation of scratching it.

"Wait, Rose. I know I said only one but I'm not asking for a bargain. I need to know more about what was going on with Ivan. Whatever is going on within Galina's organization, if it's hurting innocent women I need to know so I can stop it. And if Ivan was involved I'm sure it's because someone he loved was going to be the consequence if he did otherwise, so please can you explain it to me? I need to know. I want to make this right." She eyed me warily as if waiting for some tip-off that I was lying and intending to somehow use this information for my own personal gain. It was somewhat ironic that despite apparently knowing me so well, she often thought so less of me. Not that I was any better.

"Please. I don't have anyone else I can trust to tell me the truth." The apprehension of having to rely on her so much knotted my stomach. Had she wanted to she could've easily spun this into whatever narrative she wanted and used it to her advantage. I could only hope that she felt the sincerity behind my intentions and decided to do the right thing. With a disgruntled groan and a hand raked through disheveled tresses she tried to steel a resolve. I knew this was a tough subject for her but further sheltering it wasn't helping the cause any. After a short internal battle she eventually relented with an exasperated sigh.

"Ok...just let me clean up and we can meet in the living room in ten. But I'm expecting something warm to drink when I get up there, Belikov. Been freezing my ass off ever since we got up here." As weird as it felt to say, it was nice seeing her act like her usual self. That I was well equipped to deal with.

"I'll see what we have." She smiled raising her ample cheeks up to her eyes, my stomach churned a little at the unusual sight, before taking off down the hall.

"And it better not be that liquid death you call coffee!" She called over her shoulder. I bit my cheek in annoyance that she had once again hit her exact mark without even trying.

—Δ—

"So...are you actually going to start talking anytime soon or was this just a scheme to get free cocoa?" I scrutinized watching her guzzle down the last of the richly sweet concoction I'd made using Mama's secret recipe. The secret was using double the packs and adding a bit of liquid coffee cream. Any flavor would do but I was particularly fond of french vanilla. She gave me a sheepish smile wiping the chocolate mustache from her lip.

"Sorry, not my fault you made it so delicious. I wasn't expecting you to be so versed in the art of kitchenry, living with all those women did you good, huh?" I grumbled incoherently in response, massaging my temples at her persistent attempts to avoid the paramount topic we were here for. It took all the will I had to trust she would, for once, take this seriously but it started to feel like I had just wasted my time and energy bothering with it.

"Rose..." I warned pushing my mug aside to cross my arms over my chest. We'd been sitting there for about fifteen minutes, which easily felt like an eternity when dealing with Rose, and she was once again testing my patience. She muttered something along the lines of 'warned you' and 'damned Russian' but I chose to ignore it. I'd already gotten too far to turn back, so she was going to tell me whether she liked it or not. The air around us chilled due to the stifling tension. A calm before the storm. She sat forward, lacing her fingers with one another on the coffee table sitting between us. I don't know how I let her goad me into sitting on the floor but my legs and back were cursing me for it, it was only a matter of time before they went numb bunched up under the small table.

"Fine. But don't take your anger out on me, okay? I'm just the messenger." I gave her a curt nod in acceptance and she continued on, "Galina may be known for selling hard drugs and weapons but her real trade is sex trafficking. Mostly women but she dabbles in men and...others as well. I don't know the full extent but I do know it's where the majority of her profits are reaped from. Recently she came into a new venture thanks to an unknown business partner interested in young-altered women specifically. Women that could be sold off and their...purchasers wouldn't have to worry about any lasting consequences. Ivan was a part of the American based segment. That's where he found me. I don't know if he was given strict instructions to grab me or if he got lucky. She has separate squads, again don't know the full extent, that she sends out internationally and they go and kidnap women and children aged thirteen to early twenties, bring them back to get 'fixed' in Vorkuta then they're sold off. It's supposed to be an instantaneous process. There's a day or two for recovery, depending on how it goes, sometimes they don't even get that it could be a matter of hours before they're sent off to the highest bidder in a nicely wrapped and doped up package. No records, no traces back to who they were before, nothing. Once they're gone, all that's left to identify them is a serial number on the bill of sale."

I was at a loss for words. My head was practically exploding from the impact of all the pieces that started clicking together all at once. Ivan didn't have any family of his own from what I knew. As much as he flirted and yearned for someone to share his life with he never took a serious interest in finding a partner. Every time he got back from a trip he and his room reeked of perfume and his excuse was always 'You know me, D, got into some mischief over in the states. Couldn't help but bring back a souvenir or two.' I felt stupid now for never questioning him about it.

He had grown up with me and my sisters and always considered them his own. Unless there was some secret lover he had, which I highly doubted cause he wouldn't have been able to keep his mouth shut about it for more than a second, he did what he did to protect my family. Galina knows how close we were and she knew she could kill two birds with one stone if Ivan didn't do whatever she asked, freeing her to take my sisters as collateral damage. He'd be wracked with guilt for letting harm come to them, I would hate him for it knowing we could've stopped it and I'd have nothing left to lose and no one to live for. Who knows what kind of monster she could've molded me into then...

"It all makes so much sense..." I murmured to no one in particular. My head fell into my hands growing heavy with remorse. "Why hadn't I seen it?" My control was slipping again, but this time it wasn't anger breaking through it was anguish. I could hardly breathe as the weight of all the victims of Ivan's crimes, now resting on my shoulders for not seeing any signs, sank to my chest. A small hand squeezing my shoulder offered a bit of comfort but it wasn't nearly enough. I further struggled to breathe as my lungs tightened with all the words and questions I wished I'd said back then and now forever unspoken lodged in my throat.

"She doesn't want you to. You and I both know she'll stop at no end to get and keep what she wants." She didn't say it and even without her pointed look I knew she was alluding to me. Galina never tried to hide the fact that I was her most prized possession. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she had orchestrated the whole thing knowing Rose would retaliate and I'd have one less ally around to aid me in escaping her. The more I thought about it the more it made too much sense. The list of information I needed out of her was growing by the second, along with the risk of her finding out about my treachery. I couldn't be sure she hadn't caught wind of it already.

"Thank you for telling me this, Rose. I promise as soon as I get back I will do everything in my power to take her down." She was taken aback by my declaration but it was quickly replaced with a fiery passion I hadn't felt brought out in myself for a while. Already forgetting her injuries she threw a playful punch at my shoulder, after struggling to stretch across the table to reach first, and regret instantly flashed in her eyes as she doubled over in pain. I bit back a chuckle. What was happening to me?

"Looks like I'm rubbing off on you, cowboy. Only been a day and already planning a full on mutiny." The slight lift of the mood immediately plummeted. It sounded nice in theory, but how was I going to pull something like this off alone? Aleskei was a good friend but not exactly rebel soldier material, and I could never forgive myself if I allowed anything to happen to him. There were no other suitable allies I could count on, especially not within her network, and going outside of it was too risky considering the hefty price tag placed on my head in just about every country. I had enough funds to consider buying the help, but it wasn't early close to the amount I'd need to counter any offer Galina would give them to turn on me. I was at a loss.

"Hey...if you're looking for help count me in. Now I usually don't work for free, but I'll consider giving you the friends, family and I also want this bitch sent straight to Hell discount." Raising a brow in debate of her crassness I considered the offer. It wasn't a terrible idea. Rose has just as much, if not more, reason for taking out Galina and I didn't doubt she could take care of herself in a war. The only setback was whether or not she'd put a bullet in me and cut her losses at the end, but I might just have to take the chance. We'd made it a crucial part of our lives by now to hunt one another, this would be no different. Just another race to the finish.

"I might have to take you up on that. But first, we need to get out of here and back to civilization."

"Oh come on, Comrade, snowy wasteland with hardly any people, minimal wildlife, and a woman who'd rather freeze out in the cold than touch you should feel just like home!" Part of me wanted to toss out the fact that I was sure she'd thought quite a lot about touching me when we were on the kitchen floor, but I thought better against it.

Or so I thought I did.

"Oh, I'm sure you thought about touching me a lot, Hathaway, with the way you were ogling me shirtless." The mockery laced in my voice was foreign to me, but for the moment it felt great seeing her normal sunkissed tan skin burn to a tomato red as her mouth hung open. Belikov 1, Hathaway 0.

"I-that was-you-whatever! I've been with plenty of men you're not special. Wait-" She quickly shut her mouth realizing declaring herself to be promiscuous wasn't helping the case like she thought it would. I raised a brow, unable to stop the corner of my lip from trailing up along with it. Maybe she was in fact starting to have a greater influence on me. Negatively or positively was yet to be decided.

And here we have another one! Is anyone else feeling a little hot or is it just me? XD Hope you guys are enjoying the weekly updates I'm trying my best to keep them consistent, but if I ever need a break I'll let you all know of course. Looks like the two of them are actually starting to have some common ground, but don't get too comfortable we're not out of the turbulence yet! They are still enemies after all ;).

Already starting on the next chapter, hope you all like the slightly longer chapters I started at 5k words a chapter and am now going into 6k these last few. We'll see if they get longer the more I keep going, I don't want it to go too quickly so I want to keep a good pace.

How do you guys feel about the progression of Rose and Dimitri's relationship? I'm having a lot of fun tipping the line between love and hate so far!

I really love this story and I love seeing and reading everyone's reactions to it as well it really makes me feel good about writing again. I hope you all are having a good week and I'll see you soon!