Chapter 6: Konstantin

Wednesday. Home, Arlington, VA.

KONSTANTIN'S WHOLE WORLD JUST flipped into chaos. He gripped the doorframe with one hand while mentally trying to figure out a negotiating point.

Haley could not leave.

It just couldn't happen.

There had to be a way to keep her.

He loved her.

Zasha. She needed Haley.

"You are more than her bodyguard and we both know it," he said, his barely contained frustration seething inside him.

Haley tilted her head to one side, her face as serene as always. She'd probably planned this mode of attack. "And that's the problem."

"Why is that a problem?" He pushed off the doorway, but his long-enforced rules about keeping his distance from Haley stopped him from taking a step into her bedroom. "Zasha adores you."

"I'm an employee."

"So?" He licked his lips. Imagining their lives without Haley was not possible. There would be a void where she belonged. "What would it take to get you to stay? More money? More time away?"

"This isn't a money thing. You aren't going to change my mind. This is about what's best for me."

"How is abandoning us best?"

Haley's eyes flashed. "That's not fair."

He bent his head.

She was right.

"I'm sorry," he managed to say. He did mean it. At least a little bit of him did. "What am I supposed to tell Zasha? This is going to..."

The tears.

He could see them now.

"That's why I need to leave, Konstantin. Somewhere along the way things got too personal."

He clenched his hands into fists. "I fail to see how that's a bad thing."

Haley's serenity never budged. "I hope given a few days maybe you'll see my side of things and understand. I want to do my job well, but... I can't keep doing this."

He stared at her and wondered where had he gone wrong?

When he'd realized how much Zasha was bonding with Haley, he'd changed how he interacted with her. Sure, living under the same roof with a woman he had intense chemistry with was difficult at times, but he'd figured it out. Maybe if he'd been a more generous boss or insisted Haley have more time off, they wouldn't be here?

"You won't budge?" He desperately wanted to tell her he'd change her mind, but he knew better. Haley could out stubborn Zasha.

"No," Haley said.

Konstantin turned and walked into his condo in a daze. He went into his office and poured another two fingers before tossing it back. The burn helped cut through the mental noise.

What the hell were they going to do without Haley?

He stared at the night sky and all the twinkling city lights while listening to the sounds from the other condo. A bathroom door closing. The whoosh of water. The door opening again, followed by the soft thud of Haley's bedroom door.

She was leaving them.

Konstantin sank down into one of the leather arm chairs in his office.

They weren't anything to each other besides employer and employee. He'd been distant to enforce that concept to both of them. And yet, he knew Haley's departure would hurt both him and Zasha.

Their lives were perfect. Why did anything have to change?

A soft voice in his mind whispered, You know why.

Konstantin grimaced and glanced away from the night sky to the display of pictures his interior designer had put together.

Ivana had raised Konstantin and his mother before him. He'd always seen her as a sort of grandmother figure in his life, probably because his mother had been in his life until about Zasha's age. She didn't have that though. No mother. Oh, her biological mother could still be out there somewhere, but he doubted it.

The closest thing to a mother Zasha had ever known was Haley.

Maybe he should have pursued her.

To what end?

To marry her and make her Zasha's mother? And a target?

He shook his head.

There could never be a woman in his life. It was too dangerous. And Haley was too important to Zasha.

Konstantin wished he didn't understand Haley's position. He wanted to be mad, to hold on to that anger because it was better than the alternative. But he couldn't. Not when she was merely reacting to the situation he'd put her in.

Once again, he had no one but himself to blame.

He reached out and sat the glass on his desk, then slouched down.

He had to try something. He couldn't just let Haley go. If she went, the very least he could say was that he tried to keep her.

How did he even begin to try to replace her?

There was no one like Haley. She was damn good at her job. He'd worried about hiring a woman, but she'd more than proved over the years that nothing would get by her. And she did it all with a smile. Zasha hardly ever knew something was wrong, and that was a credit to Haley.

Konstantin felt the lie of his reality shattering around him.

Haley had taken the sad facts of their life and made a home. Under her supervision, Zasha had enjoyed as normal a life as he could hope to give her.

What was going to happen without Haley?

He'd have to hire Ivana some help. He wasn't blind. There would be at least a new security detail for Zasha. And what else?

Haley filled their lives out in all the ways they'd been missing. Maybe not his directly. They had an unspoken agreement to stay in their own lanes, but he felt her impact every day when he sat down to dinner with Zasha.

How in the world was he going to replace Haley when she was irreplaceable?