Chapter 15 Bella #4
Selene doesn’t wait for further permission. She steers me out of the foyer with one arm braced around my waist, Lily cradled securely in the other. My legs feel like water, but I manage to stay upright until we’re through a side door and into a quieter corridor.
“Do you think he’s going to come here?” I whisper, my voice trembling despite my effort to keep it steady. The words feel too loud in the quiet room.
Selene stops pacing and looks at me, one eyebrow arched.
“He’s coming. That’s not even a question.
” She resumes her restless circuit across the rug, arms crossed tight.
“But walking straight through the front doors like some suicidal hero? No. He’s not an idiot.
Aleksander never walks into anything blind.
He’ll scout, he’ll probe, he’ll find the weak spot and tear it open before anyone even knows he’s here. ”
She speaks about him with a certainty that goes beyond hearsay—like someone who’s watched him work, someone who’s stood in the same rooms and seen the way he thinks. There’s no fear in her voice, only a grim kind of confidence.
“He doesn’t charge in guns blazing,” she continues, almost to herself. “Irina knows that better than anyone, which is why she’s stacking the foyer with hired guns instead of her own people. She knows loyalty won’t hold when he starts moving.”
I stare at her, the pieces clicking together. The familiarity in her tone, the absolute faith that he’ll outmaneuver this trap…it’s too personal.
“Wait,” I say slowly, my eyes narrowing. “You’re S, aren’t you?”
Selene freezes mid-step. For a second the room is perfectly still, only Lily’s soft breathing breaking the silence.
I keep going, voice low. “I saw it on his phone earlier when we were in the hotel. You were keeping tabs on me.”
Selene turns, and a slow, crooked smile curves her mouth. “He updated me as soon as you landed,” she says.
Before I can press further, she crosses to me in two quick strides and crouches again, resting her hands on the arms of my chair.
“Listen,” she says, voice urgent now. “I need you to stay right here with Lily. Keep the door locked from the inside if you can. Don’t open it for anyone except me.
I’m going to slip out and see what I can find out—where the patrols are thin, if there’s a way to get a message to him before he gets too close. ”
I nod, but even as I do, something stubborn and terrified coils in my chest. Staying put feels like surrender.
Selene straightens, checks the hallway through the cracked door, then disappears without another word. The lock clicks softly behind her.
I wait maybe thirty seconds.
Then I’m on my feet, heart hammering so hard I can feel it in my throat.
I scoop Lily up—she’s still dead asleep, warm and trusting—and ease the door open.
The corridor is empty. I pad barefoot along the runner rug, past closed doors and dim sconces, following the faint draft of cooler air until I find a side door that opens onto the gardens.
Lily is getting heavier by the minute, her head drooping on my shoulder, arms limp and legs swinging with every step. My muscles ache from holding her so tight for so long. I dart outside and tuck her down behind a thick hedge, just out of sight, and kiss her forehead. She stirs, but doesn’t wake.
“I’ll be right back, baby,” I whisper, throat tight. “Stay here, okay?”
She mumbles something soft and curls around her bunny.
I force myself to let go, heart pounding as I slip away. If there’s a chance to escape, I have to find it, and quickly. And then I’ll come back for my daughter.
I sneak around the corner of the building on the other side of the garden, and overhear a few quests who have stepped outside for a smoke.
“…she said it was quick,” one murmurs, rough with an accent I can’t place. “No one saw him after the first call.”
“It’s a pity he had to be killed that way. It was quick, yes, but messy too. His death couldn’t have been fun for him. You know what that kind of drug does to a person.”
“Doesn’t matter,” the other replies, low and certain. “Kirov’s death sent the right message. They’ll be too busy looking for the wrong suspect.”
My blood runs cold. I shrink closer to the hedge, my heart hammering so loud I’m sure they’ll hear it. I can’t see faces, but every word makes it clear—they’re talking about the man killed on the plane. That’s what Aleksander called that guy.
As the party guests wander back inside, I step back, and a twig snaps under my foot. I flinch, backing away, desperate to disappear.
I turn, trying to find my way back to Lily, but slam straight into something solid. Hands grip my upper arms, rough and sure, holding me in place.
My breath catches. I look up—and see Aleksander.
His eyes blaze in the half-light, cool and sharp and burning all at once. He looks like every nightmare and every fantasy tangled into one—bigger than I remembered, danger carved into every line of his body.
He leans in, voice barely above a growl. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I can’t move. Can’t breathe. His grip isn’t painful, but it’s absolute. I’m trapped, caged in his arms, heat flooding my cheeks. My mind is a mess—relief, fear, anger, want, all tangled together.
“I—” I try, but the words stick.
He steps closer, crowding me against the hedge, his presence swallowing the air between us. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find you?”
There’s nowhere to go. His body boxes me in, his breath warm against my skin. The world shrinks to him—his hands, his scent, the force of him pressing me back until I’m sure my knees will give out.
“Let me go,” I whisper, but it sounds weak, unconvincing, even to my own ears.
He just smiles, slow and dangerous. “Not a chance, dorogaya.”
My pulse pounds everywhere. For a moment, all I can do is stare back, every part of me burning with panic and something I’m too ashamed to name.
He drops his head closer, voice lower now. “This time, you don’t get to disappear.”