Chapter 62
Chapter sixty-two
Dmitri
None of the bloodlust faded, even after Roman lost his voice begging Alisa to stop. Not after my knife and fists finished the job of making Roman unrecognizable. Not after my men dragged away his unconscious body.
Only once we were back in my apartment with Alisa curled in my arms, did I feel like I could breathe again. I pressed her closer to me, only the ache in her ribs kept me from crushing her against me. I leaned my head against her chest, reassuring myself with the steady beat of her heart.
“Will the Pakhan find out what happened?” Alisa said quietly.
I savored the sound of her voice after I’d nearly lost it.
“No,” I said.
The tension released from her body, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the assurance of her safety or my own.
When did the two things start to feel like one and the same to me?
“Roman knew the competition was ending,” she said.
Her body curled in on itself as she said his name. If he wasn’t already in a coma, I’d put him in another one.
“Not surprising,” I said, trying to chase away her fear with my touch.
Alisa swallowed, and a reluctant look spread over her face. “You never had a chance to finish telling me about it.”
“Because I was too busy fucking your brains out every free moment I had.” Already I was debating the ways I could use her body without triggering the injuries Roman had inflicted.
A blush crept across her face, and I decided that was my favorite shade of red in the world. I traced the blush across her skin with my hand and lowered my head to taste it with my tongue.
“Dmitri,” she said, a seriousness in her tone that had me rearing back to see what was on her mind. “Don’t distract me with sex. I need to know what’s happening.”
It wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. Her body called to me like a siren to a man aimless at sea. Still, she was right.
I spilled all the details that my spies had gleaned from the Pakhan. A warm feeling settled in my chest as I realized I wasn’t worried that she’d weaponize this information against me.
I told her that our upcoming tasks would make the previous tasks look like child's play, and she swallowed yet remained silent.
Alisa only broke her silence when I told her the Pakhan would look for any excuse to eliminate the remaining contestants.
“That’s why you were so upset that I spoke to Pakhan.”
I nodded.
It wasn’t even my own safety that concerned me. My stomach twisted into a knot when I thought of how close Alisa had come to befalling the Pakhan’s wrath. If I hadn’t been able to get to the park in time… There had been too many instances where I’d almost been too late.
“So it’s really ending?” she said. Her note of wistfulness broke me out of my thoughts.
“If I can keep you safe long enough to see it end.”
My mind spun up images of what would've happened if I’d been later to Central Park, or if I didn’t have the tracking device today.
I pressed a hand underneath her thighs and squeezed her closer. The warmth of her skin reminded me that she was still alive, but I couldn’t keep relying on chance when it came to her safety.
“How did you find me?” she asked, her brows wrinkling into a line.
“I sewed tracking devices into your clothing.”
Surprise glimmered in her eyes, but if she thought I’d be repentant, then she was wrong.
I’d meant it when I said I was never letting her go again.
“Did this start when I moved in here, or did you somehow find a way to track me before?” She spoke slowly as if working through the question in her mind at the same time. “Maybe I’m being paranoid, but a few of the times you came across me it didn’t feel like a coincidence…”
Alisa looked down at the ground as if feeling self conscious.
“They weren’t,” I said.
Her head jerked up, shock written on her face.
“I didn’t use tracking devices until recently. Before that I was stalking you.”
“You… what?”
Her mouth bobbed open and closed at my admission. I internally groaned. Alisa really needed to stop leaving her mouth gaping open, or I was going to shove something in it.
“I’m not sure why you’re so surprised, kotenok. You know what I’m capable of.”
“I can’t get over how nonchalant you are about this.”
I shrugged.
“It’s the least of my sins, and if you’re looking for an apology or repentance, you aren't going to get it. I kept you alive and safe. That’s all that matters to me.”
“You really are something else,” she said with a laugh.
“Are you mad?”
I supposed it’d be normal to be upset if you found out your man was stalking you. But the world we lived in was far from normal.
“No,” Alisa said with a wistful sigh. “Sometimes, when I was scared, I used to wish you’d show up. Even when I thought I hated you, I secretly wanted you there.”
I pressed her closer into my body, enjoying the rightness of the feeling. Alisa responded by nuzzling her head against my chest with a happy sound. We sat in companionable silence while I savored the feel of her against me.
She was warm, safe, mine.
“Alisa,” I said, breaking the silence. She turned her head away from the falling snow outside. “At the warehouse, what was your plan if I hadn’t arrived in time?”
Goosebumps raised on her skin at the reminder of Roman. My jaw tightened.
“Run. It’s not like I could’ve beat him in a fight,” she said. “I can jab someone in the eye or elbow them in the throat if I catch them off guard. But the upper hand only lasts a moment. I need to get out before they can recover.”
My mind flashed to Alisa and I’s duel in front of the Pakhan. At the time, I’d been amused by her attempts to hit me. I thought it was adorable how ineffective each of her punches were.
I ran a hand down her gently toned arms, noting how they were a third of the size of my own. When we were in bed together her smaller size turned me on, but now all I could visualize was her against another man who’d show her no mercy. I couldn’t keep relying on luck to save her.
If I lost her, I knew there would be no saving me.
Once she was feeling better, I’d start training her. And Alisa wasn’t going to like it, but she’d also need to cut back on her poison regiment.
There was no point in refining her punches if she was too weak to implement any of it.
She might be optimistic about a future where she wouldn’t be at the Pakhan’s whim, but all I could see was all the ways she could get killed before it came to that.
Alisa shifted her position on top of me and grabbed her ribs with a wince.
I carefully picked her up and led her to my bathroom. Once I set her on the edge of the bathtub, Alisa leaned back against the marble wall behind her. Her dress rode up, and my nails dug into the tub's hard stone when I spotted a nasty looking bruise blooming.
I wanted to wake Roman up from his coma just so I could hear his screams when I dug my knife into the exact same place he’d hurt her.
Alisa’s eyes followed my line of vision, but she didn’t pull her dress back down. Instead she reached for my hand, gently unclasping my death grip.
“Thank you for everything,” she said quietly while squeezing my hand.
I stared into those deep blue eyes I’d always known would swallow me whole.
The moment I’d found out she’d been taken, there hadn’t been a single question in my mind about what to do.
The business meeting I’d been at had been the most important meeting I’d attended this year.
The amount of money up for grabs was enough to pay for ten of these penthouses, and yet I hadn’t even thought about it a single time since I’d sprinted out of the meeting.
Nothing had mattered except for bringing her home safe.
I remained silent while I checked the water temperature. Warm enough to soothe her aches, but not scalding enough to hurt her.
Slowly, I reached for her dress, pausing to make sure she hadn’t drifted into that other mental place. When her eyes met mine, I peeled it off, noting the swelling on her ribs and the bruises peppering her pale skin.
Never again.