came after the family that’d harboured them.
"I hope you know what you're doing with this one." Krystoff’s voice was thoughtful, his gaze still on the slumbering woman. Jozef wished Krystoff would stop looking at her with such intensity. “She could be a threat to everything we’ve worked for. Yes, she's very beautiful and the idea of killing an innocent and a doctor is not an easy one. But in this business, we must put family first."
Jozef understood what his uncle was saying. He should have killed her in the clearing. He hadn’t been able to pull the trigger, and he wasn't sure why exactly. Something about her was different. As his uncle pointed out, she was beautiful, but Jozef had met beautiful women before and even killed them when it was warranted. Gender and beauty meant nothing to him when it came to family, loyalty and business.
Perhaps it was because she was a doctor. She had devoted her life to studying medicine and helping others. That kind of unselfish personality was non-existent in the mob. Jozef couldn't bring himself to destroy a person like that. At least not until he understood her draw.
He didn't try to sign his thoughts, but he gave his uncle an eloquent look.
Krystoff shook his head and chuckled. "Smart move declaring that she would become your wife. Make her part of the family so we can't outright kill her."
Though it had been a smart move, deciding Shaun would become his wife, Jozef didn’t actually need to marry her. He could’ve driven her back to the hospital and then disappeared from her life. He could have forced her promise of silence. No, his desire to marry her was purely selfish. He was fascinated by her. He wanted her and couldn't come up with a better way of having her. Marriage would bind them together and keep her safe from his family.
As if echoing his thoughts, Krystoff said, "Be sure, boy. This marriage will be for life. There is only one way out of the family.”
Krystoff's words didn’t faze Jozef. He wanted to tie Shaun to him, keep her by his side. Those brief moments they'd spent together in the woods had cemented a bond that transcended the very different lives they led. Though he knew Shaun felt it too, Jozef was not a naïve man; there would be many hardships in their path forward, but his desire for the woman was not one of those difficulties.
He traced her features with his eyes. She had smooth, flawless brown skin. The colour was lighter than her springy black hair but darker than her pretty golden irises. A long straight nose, eyes that tilted slightly inward at the corners and lips that he longed to see curved in a smile. Though she was tall, she was quite thin, as though she’d missed too many meals. She had slight curves packed into ugly scrubs.
Jozef enjoyed women; it was one of the perks of his position. When he went out to the clubs the bounty was plentiful. He could pick up any woman available to him. Despite his lack of voice, his scarred, tattooed skin and abrupt manners, women flocked to the power and mystery surrounding him.
Yet, Doctor Shaun Patterson put the model-like beautiful women he was used to fucking to shame. It wasn't her looks, though she was indeed just as beautiful as them. It was something more. It was her altruism that made her different. That made her shine like a beacon of goodness in the night. Despite her fear, she’d still attempted to help the dying man in the basement. She’d also helped Krystoff knowing that he could easily order her death.
Maybe that was it ‒ she was new and shiny. He wanted to touch her goodness and see what it felt like to a man who had known only violence and crime. When his fascination waned, as it inevitably would, he might be more ready to let her go.
Despite this last thought, he couldn't tear his eyes from her. Somehow, deep down, he knew that he would never want to let her go. There was something about her that told him she was his for life.
"She won't adjust easily to our lifestyle," Krystoff mused, reading Jozef’s thoughts. "A woman like her, someone who chooses to work in a war zone out of the goodness of her heart will not settle into a life of crime easily."
Though the car was dim, Jozef signed to his uncle, she will not