Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Savina
I’M LYING IN bed with dried tears on my pillow and fresh ones streaming down my cheeks.
The confrontation today with Dimitri set me off.
I know that what happened at the doctor’s office the other day was wrong.
But I don’t know what to do about it or who to ask for help.
That evil man has nude pictures of me. Who knows what he’ll do with them.
God, what if he shows them to Dimitri or his father?
Or what if he plasters them on the internet and sells them to strangers?
A fresh wave of sobs hits me. I’ve never felt so hopeless or vulnerable before in my entire life.
A flash of lightning streaks across the window before a thunderous boom echoes through my quiet room.
It’s late, and I should be sleeping, but I can’t.
My mind is running a million miles a minute, and I know I won’t get any rest anytime soon.
I haven’t been able to sleep since the office visit.
I’m exhausted. My eyes involuntarily close on their own, but my mind won’t let me rest for more than a few minutes at a time.
My hand reaches for my cellphone; and before I can even think about what I’m doing, I have a text open with Dimitri’s name at the top.
My fingers start typing, and then I delete everything.
I feel an overwhelming urge to tell him that I need him.
For some reason, he makes me feel safe. Even if everything about him screams danger, I feel the safest when he’s near.
Maybe that’s because deep down I know he’d protect me at all costs.
And not just because I’m going to be his future sister-in-law.
No, there’s something more there. Maybe there’s something there for both of us, but I can’t even dwell on that right now.
Squeezing my eyes shut and releasing a few tears in the process, I reluctantly hit the button on my phone to make the screen go black and then I toss it somewhere on my bed so that I can’t find it very easily.
I can’t text Dimitri. It would be…wrong.
He’s not my knight in shining armor. Hell, he’s not even my future husband anymore.
I should be texting Pavel, if anything. But then I realize that I don’t even know his cell phone number.
A pathetic laugh escapes my throat as I think that over. God, this is so screwed up. I’m so screwed up.
I lay on my stomach, pressing my face into my pillow. I want to cry. I want to scream. I want to —.
A noise has my ears pricking and my brain going on high alert. It almost sounds like the knob to my bedroom door is slowly turning. Sitting up, I stare at my door. Sure enough, I can see the glint on the shiny metal knob moving in the light shining through my window.
Frantically, I fumble to try to find my cell phone that I cast away moments earlier. Just when my fingers wrap around the familiar hard case of it, my door swings opens.
Slowly, I turn and see a tall, formidable, dark figure standing in the doorway. My mouth opens on a scream. But suddenly, a streak of lightning flashes throughout the room, illuminating Dimitri’s piercing eyes and brutally handsome face.
I snap my mouth shut, and instantly my body begins to tremble.
It’s like I’ve been holding myself together for what feels like forever and just seeing him here makes me want to fall apart so that he can gather up the pieces and put me back together again.
I’ve wanted to confide in him for days. I’ve wanted him here with me, comforting me.
And now he is. Or is he? Maybe I’m just hallucinating from my serious lack of sleep.
Maybe Dimitri is not even here right now.
“What…what are you doing here?” I ask breathlessly before pressing the palm of my hand over my chest where my heart is currently racing to escape my ribcage.
He doesn’t talk for a long time. So long, in fact, that I begin to think that maybe I am just hallucinating. Is he really here, standing in my bedroom in the middle of a thunderstorm?
“I went to visit the doctor,” Dimitri finally says, confirming that I am definitely not imagining this.
His words slowly sink in, and my body begins to tremble even more violently. I stay silent, though, waiting for him to continue.
“You weren’t his only victim,” he informs me, shattering my world.
So, I’m not the only one. The doctor must be some kind of sexual deviant, using his position of power to get women to take their clothes off so that he can do whatever he wants afterwards with them while they’re in a vulnerable state.
“We have to d-d-do something!” I cry out with fresh tears gathering in my eyes.
“He c-can’t get away with this!” I demand.
“I already handled it, Savina,” Dimitri tells me.
There’s something in his tone and in his gaze that has me whispering out loud, “Is he dead?”
“Yes,” he says quietly.
“Did he suffer before you killed him?” I can’t help but ask because I want to know. No, I need to know.
“Yes,” he confesses in a sigh. “I made sure of it.”
My body slowly begins to stop shivering and a sense of calmness overcomes me then, warming my cold extremities.
“Good,” I answer fiercely. A sick satisfaction creeps through me as I think about the cruel things Dimitri might have done to the doctor.
But my imagination is nothing compared to the truth, so I say, “Tell me. I want to know how he suffered. I want to know everything.”
Dimitri hesitates for several moments but then proceeds to tell me every detail of the torture the doctor endured.
Even down to the fact that he actually cut off the doctor’s dick and shoved it in his mouth before taping it shut.
Dimitri doesn’t leave any details out, and I almost feel like I was there in the room with him, watching it all happen right before my eyes.
Adrenaline courses through my veins like a high I’ve never experienced before. “How did you…how did you know there were more victims?” I ask tentatively, because I’m afraid of the truth.
“The sick bastard took pictures of all his patients. Kept them in files on his computer,” he says, and my breath catches in my throat.
“That cocksucker!” I practically yell before slapping a hand over my mouth. Dimitri smirks, holding back a chuckle. It takes me a moment to realize what I just said and how true it actually is. And so, when I add, “Literally,” we both start cracking up.
Laughter echoes through my bedroom, and the irony is not lost on me.
We’re laughing about a man that was tortured and that Dimitri turned into a literal cocksucker.
But, hey, the doctor deserved every bad thing that happened to him, and so I laugh until I have tears in my eyes.
If anyone deserves celebration after their death, it’s that disgusting excuse for a human.
Once the laughter dies down, Dimitri pulls his cell phone from his pocket. “I took care of everything,” he says before pushing a few buttons on the screen and tossing it onto my bed a few inches away from me.
Hesitantly, I lean forward and stare at what looks like the charred remains of a structure that could have been a house at one point. “Is this…?”
“That’s his home,” he confirms. And then he adds, “I burned it down after I killed him. I recovered the hard drive from his computer and took his cell phone. Everything will be destroyed. I know someone who will make sure all the pictures, videos, and any data that the bastard had digitally stored will be gone. All of it will be erased. Like it never even happened.”
My vision begins to blur the longer I stare at the photo and the longer Dimitri’s words sink into my skin.
I should be sickened by all of this, but I’m not.
At all. In fact, I feel…good, vindicated, as if the dark cloud that has been following me around for a week has finally lifted.
Dimitri swooped in like some kind of dark knight and slayed the demon that had been haunting me.
I don’t know his reasoning behind it all, but I’ll dwell on that later.
For right now, all I can do is sit in silence as my mind races.
Several minutes go by. I don’t move. I don’t speak.
And then finally, I hear Dimitri’s voice breaking through my quiet thoughts.
“Say something, Savina,” he practically begs, his voice chockful of emotion. He probably thinks I’m in shock. He’s probably afraid I’ll look at him differently now, maybe even fear him. But I feel the exact opposite.
Slowly, I raise my chin and stare at Dimitri in the darkness.
When a flash of lightning streaks across his handsome features, I can see the worry in his gaze.
The truth is written all over his face. He killed someone.
For me. To protect me. And in doing so, he ended up giving justice to countless other women.
“You did good, Dimitri. You helped so many people,” I say, my voice cracking as it fills up with emotion.
Climbing from the bed, I run to him and jump into his arms. His clothes are soaking wet, chilling me to the bone, but the heat between us instantly warms me right back up.
He holds me tightly but gently. Those very hands have caused so much pain and are the source of violence, but he’s tender with me. Only with me.
I pull back to look up at his face. My fingertips graze across his cheekbone, and he closes his eyes briefly as if relishing my touch. When his piercing blue eyes open once again, he stares into me down to my very soul. “Thank you,” I whisper to him.
His eyes dart from my eyes to my mouth, and I wonder if he’s finally going to kiss me.
I’ve been imagining what his mouth would feel like pressed up against mine.
I bet he’ll kiss me slow at first but then take control like he always does in every situation he’s presented. But I don’t think I’d mind.
But Dimitri doesn’t kiss me. Instead, he simply holds me tightly to him, as if he’s afraid to let me go, and I don’t want him to. The insurmountable relief I feel in this moment is impossible to describe.
We stay in each other’s embrace for a long while until my limbs quiver with exhaustion and my eyelids grow heavy as sleep tries to claim me. I haven’t slept for days, and now that the dreadful, dark cloud isn’t looming over me anymore, my body finally feels like it can rest.
As if sensing my fatigue, Dimitri gently pushes me backwards towards the bed. “When’s the last time you slept?” he asks.
“I don’t remember. The night before my appointment I think,” I tell him honestly.
A deep frown mars his face. “You need to sleep, Savina,” he whispers.
I nod in agreement even if I don’t want to sleep right now. Other than the brief encounter in the alleyway, I haven’t seen or touched Dimitri in over a week. And like an addict without my fix, I want to stay awake and just talk to him. I hate to admit it, but I’ve missed him terribly.
I manage to climb into bed and under the blankets, but then I realize that Dimitri is turning to leave. “Please. Don’t go,” I beg, my words sluggish.
He looks torn. But eventually, he sighs in defeat as if he lost an internal battle he was having with himself. “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep,” he promises.
Stepping back, he strips out of his wet clothing until he’s down to his boxers.
I inwardly curse the darkness in the room, because I can’t see his sculpted body and tattoos very well in the dim light.
Before I can even get an eyeful, he’s climbing into the bed beside me over the covers and pulling me into his arms without hesitation.
His fingers gently skate through my hair as I close my eyes, unable to keep them open any longer. I feel safe in Dimitri’s arms. Safer than I’ve ever felt before in my entire life.
I want to tell him all of this. I want to tell him how I really feel about him.
I want to tell him why I’ve been keeping my distance from him.
Because if I’m being honest with myself, I’m starting to fall for him.
And tonight just sealed my fate and opened up my heart for him against my will.
I know nothing will ever be the same after this.
Exhaustion claims me before I can confess any of my deep, dark secrets, and I fall asleep in Dimitri’s arms.