Free Arrow to the Soul by Lea Griffith Page B

her stance. “Let him come closer, Mr. Beckett. The more the merrier.”
    It was all too much for Adam at that moment. He threw back his head and laughed at the ludicrous scenario. That a barely five foot tall woman would threaten him still yanked his chain, but he’d seen her reduce Ken Nodachi to his knees, knew she was capable of that and much more. As was the woman in the workout room. God knows she’d put him on his ass fast enough.
    “You laugh at me, but I will kill you if you’ve hurt her,” Bullet bit out between clenched teeth.
    “She drew my blood asking about a woman who is fifty times what she is—a fucking killer. How dare she? And how dare you think I would harm a woman weaker than me. I am not Joseph Bombardier,” Adam returned in a voice full of all the things he couldn’t act on.
    The door to the workout room closed and the snick was loud in the sudden quiet of the hall.
    He smelled her. Plum blossoms. Goddamn it.
    “I don’t need championing, Bullet. Your Mr. Collins is correct, I baited him. Self-preservation apparently brings out the evil in me.” She laughed without humor and it cut Adam, made his lungs stop working.
    “You are okay?” Bullet asked again.
    “I am as I’ve always been, sister. Now go soothe your Mr. Beckett, he looks ready to chew nails.” Arrow’s voice was filled with soothing humor.
    It grated down Adam’s spine.
    “We will talk, sister. I’d like to see the babies if I could later. Then I’d like to form a new yumi ,” Arrow said as she stepped around Adam and walked down the hall.
    The sway of her hips made him close his eyes tight.
    Bullet sighed. “She isn’t like me, Adam. She will crush you. There is no softness in her.”
    “She may try, Gretchen . But I agree, she isn’t like you,” he bowed his head to her.
    “Adam is a big boy, Gretchen. He can handle himself,” Rand said and his eyes promised hell should Adam say any different.
    Rand and Gretchen walked off, disappearing into the kitchen leaving Adam alone in the hallway.
    Her scent lingered and his muscles tightened.
    Behind his closed lids he could only picture her upturned, heart-shaped face, rouged cheeks, and skin the color of cream. Her eyes pierced his memory. He felt so much when he looked into them.
    And that’s what bothered Adam the most. That even when she taunted him with Aziveh, it wasn’t Aziveh he thought of. It was her . Arrow. Saya .
    He’d wanted to lick her bruised and bleeding knuckles, ease the sting he’d known she was feeling, but she’d mentioned Aziveh and Adam’s heart turned to ice.
    How fucking dare she?
    How dare she make him feel something for her other than disgust? How dare her amber eyes replace the soft brown of his heart’s?
    Yet, that’s what she’d done. And Adam hated himself for it.

Chapter Seven
    Arrow showered and walked out of the bathroom naked.
    “Uh—sorry about that,” a man’s muffled voice sounded from the door.
    Dmitry Asinimov. Arrow didn’t respond, simply stepped into new underwear, bra, T-shirt and cargo pants. She wrapped her hair in a knot slowly, methodically. Her heart didn’t speed up, her breathing didn’t change. She was used to surprises and this didn’t rate on the scale.
    “Why am I forever seeing you women naked?” His voice was strained but humor tinted the tones. He sighed. “Are you dressed?”
    “Yes.”
    He turned then and she saw he was holding a kit.
    “I’m here to take care of your hands,” he said in a firm voice.
    “I don’t need you,” Arrow responded in a low tone.
    He shrugged his massive shoulders and smiled. Something about that smile drew Arrow in. The huge Russian reminded her of someone… Bone . His easygoing manner reminded her of her deadliest sister.
    “You may not need me but your hands do. They bleed still,” he pointed out with a look at her hands.
    Arrow lifted them, glanced dismissively at her torn knuckles, and then she was the one shrugging. “I’ve dealt with worse,”