27. Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
I wished to God we did. The fight seemed to have gotten her adrenaline soaring, like it did to me. But the sirens blaring in the distance told me we absolutely did not have the time.
As hard as it was for me to do, I ripped my lips from hers, clasped her hand and ran.
I trailed my finger down Tatiana’s arm slowly as I watched her sleep, completely mesmerised. Every detail, no matter how small, drew me in. Her long lashes. That cute button nose. How soft and smooth her skin was.
After we’d fled the alley, we came back to her apartment and fucked again. And again, and again.
It was as if, because we started again, we couldn’t stop. Like we were making up for lost time.
We barely made it through the front door before we were ripping each other's clothes off. We fucked right there on the floor, then we jumped into the shower to wash all the blood off, and ended up fucking again, before finally moving to the bedroom and doing it one more time.
Tatiana had passed out shortly after, completely exhausted.
Not that I could blame her. I was too, but I was too terrified to sleep.
Too terrified that when I woke up, it would have all been a dream.
The whole night. It was a dream I wasn’t prepared to let go of, so I stayed up all night, just watching her sleep.
We were both naked, tangled up in her blanket, her head resting on my chest. Light peeked behind her black curtains, and I knew without glancing at the clock on her bedside table that it was now morning.
I didn’t feel a single shred of regret for staying awake all night. How could I when the reward was watching the most radiant woman in the world sleep right next to me? I’d do it every single night, if it was physically possible.
Tatiana snorted, a very un-lady-like snore ripping from her before she rolled over, giving me her back. I laughed softly, picking up a lock of her silky, golden hair and rubbing it between my fingers.
And the woman was adamant she didn’t snore.
My phone vibrated on the bedside table next to me. I quickly scooped it up before the noise could wake her. Although, when I thought about it, I didn’t think anything could be heard over that snoring. It was like someone had thrown rocks into a blender and turned it on full speed.
I looked at the screen.
Mikhail.
I tsked, a sliver of irritation slicing through me. The last thing I wanted to do was get up. This was the most content I’d felt in years. I honestly contemplated ignoring it so I could stay in this perfect moment a little while longer, but I knew I couldn’t.
There could be only one reason why he was calling me.
"Podozhd," Hang on, I whispered in Russian when I answered the phone.
I leant forward, placing a soft kiss on Tatiana’s shoulder before quietly slipping out of the bed. I found my pants and put them on and then left the room, shutting the door behind me.
“Alright, what’s going on?” I asked, moving further into the apartment.
“I have your in,” Mikhail said, getting right to the point. Which I appreciated, because I wanted to get back in bed before Tatiana woke up.
“Give me the details.”
“Talon owns several big, private security companies. When I called them and inquired about hiring someone for the first week of May, they told me straight away that they had no one available.”
“You think he’s using the people in his security companies to man his island?”
“Yes. I went back and dug a little deeper into their employment history. Every year, in the last week of April and the first week of May, none of their employees were available for hire. I even checked his other businesses, his maid services, his restaurants. All shut down for those two weeks. Even the calendars holding their schedules for the coming years have those dates blacked out.”
He was pulling his employees out of their normal jobs to work on the island. That meant he used the same people each time. Posing as a worker wouldn’t work, in that case.
“You said you had my in? How?”
“There’s a waitlist of people in case of emergencies. Say someone’s broken their leg and can’t work, or someone has died between this game and the last one. Well, they have a waitlist of people to call and replace them, if need be.”
“Ah,” I said, catching on. I idly walked around the apartment as I spoke. “You want to take one of the employees out of the equation and replace them with me.”
“Already done. Frederick Anderson met his untimely demise in a tragic hit-and-run incident late last night.”
I smirked.
“But not before I hacked into their server and slipped your alias into the number one spot in their security waitlist. You should be getting a call any day now to bring you in.”
“Wouldn’t people be suspicious, though? Like, the head of security? Considering they’ve never met me before.”
“No. Hiring people would be something done specifically by Talon. He’s too much of a control freak to let it be any other way. Your name being on the roster will be enough for people to think you’ve been vetted and chosen by the big boss.”
When I walked into the bedroom I used to occupy, I frowned.
The bed and all of the furniture had been pushed to one side of the room.
On the other side was all of Tatiana’s design equipment.
Her sketchpad, pencils, scissors, fabrics, sewing tape.
It was all spread out chaotically with no organisation.
My frown deepened the longer I looked around the room. I’ve seen Tatiana’s design space back home. It looked nothing like this. Tatiana was meticulously organised when it came to that kind of thing. Everything had a specific spot, and absolutely could not be put anywhere else.
I was beyond surprised to see it like this. Why was she—
“Nikolai? Are you still there?”
I cleared my throat, shaking my head. “Here. Sorry. Just zoned out for a second.”
“No problem. That was all I had to tell you anyway. Once you get the call, let me know and we’ll plan the next step.”
“Will do. Thanks Mikhail,” I said, hanging up.
I crossed my arms over my chest, staring at the room in front of me, distaste building up inside of me. I didn’t like this. Tatiana deserved a better space to work in.
I fired off a few texts to my people and turned around, intending to go back to bed. But of course, my plans never worked out the way I wanted them to.