I scramble up and away from him. “It’s just been a long timesince I’ve eaten. I’m fine.”
Nikolai reaches past me to snag a protein bar from the cabinetand shoves it into my hand. “Eat,” he commands.
I roll my eyes, but even I know that spiting him on this one isstupid. I force my hands to be as steady as possible as I peelopen the wrapper. The first bite tastes like chalk. The secondtastes like ashes. Neither one is easy to swallow. He watchesme the whole time, hardly blinking.
“You can stop hovering. I’m fine.”
“No, I cant. And no, you aren’t.”
I drop the half-eaten bar onto the countertop. “So what?You’re just going to linger here? Keep an eye on me? I don’tthink so. You have a life to get back to. A Bratva to run,remember? You can’t hang out here and
