Chapter 23 Jess
JESS
“Gross! Get your disgusting, bloody hands off me.”
“Don’t worry,” Nadir consoles the crowd. “She gets like this sometimes when she doesn’t take her meds.”
Oh no he didn’t…
“What?” I retort. “You are honestly the biggest—”
He slaps his hand over my mouth, silencing me. And now I can feel my blood evaporating.
Hell no.
He doesn’t get to shut me up like he does with everyone else.
He drags me along with my heels against the sidewalk. I struggle for purchase, my legs flying everywhere as I try to ground my feet. Growing tired of my efforts, he flings me over one shoulder and throws me into the back of the car waiting out front for us.
“You need to calm down, Jess,” he says in a calm, collected voice that’s seriously starting to piss me off. He slides into the back seat with me, forcing me upright to secure my seat belt as the car merges back onto the road.
I flick the belt away from me in protest. He’s so fucking intolerable, especially with his hair messed up like that. He looks way too good.
“Taro told me he saw you outside of the children’s kindergarten today.”
I snap my head around to Nadir, who’s watching me intently from the other side of the car. “I told you about that video. There wasn’t any need for us to talk. Or for you to do that.”
The driver activates the divider, and Nadir waits for it to come up fully before continuing.
God, I wish it was going up for a different reason.
Nadir rubs his temple as the electronic buzzing finishes. “You’re wrong. There was a need for me to do that. You weren’t listening, and I needed to speak to you in private.”
“So you pulled up a video of me almost killing Savannah’s daughter?”
“In my defense, I didn’t know the woman sitting opposite you was Savannah, or that she was unaware of what happened that day.”
I clamp down on my back teeth, needing an anchor. Slapping Nadir in the face won’t bode very well for me, considering I’m in his car, being driven to God knows where by a man that he hired.
Nothing’s stopping them from turning on me.
Nadir sheds his suit jacket and examines the blood on his shirt. Christ. There’s more red than white. He’s absolutely drenched. He runs a finger over the dried blood, clicking his teeth.
Poor thing. Someone just lost their life, but who cares about that when Nadir lost his best shirt?
“Who’d you kill?”
“Just a Kozhikov assassin. Nothing to worry about.”
“Right.” I laugh dryly. “Just like Maureen is nobody to worry about.”
“Maureen is keeping out of my life, and she has a right to do so.”
“She does.” Glad we can agree on something.
“We’re under threat, Jess. This is serious.”
I circle back around to Nadir’s other comment. I fucking knew I was being watched by Taro. Intuition never lies. And it might be the only friend I have left at this point.
Not like I can feel sorry for myself. I should’ve told Savannah sooner.
“You saw Taro this afternoon?” I ask.
“Yes,” Nadir says, streaks of daylight crossing his face as we pass high-rise buildings.
God, his eyes. I’ll never forget the way they make me feel. I hate every fiber of this man’s being, but that’s not enough. His gaze still moves mountains inside of me. He doesn’t even realize the effect he has. Or maybe he does, at least when he’s turning it on.
Hard lines appear across his brow, like he’s trying to decipher something about me. “He knows about the triplets.”
My stomach lurches, but not as much as I thought it would. Of course Taro knows. It was only a matter of time.
“You need to get away from Boston for a while,” Nadir says. “Take the children.”
I glance at him. “With the children? The last time we spoke, you were telling me all about the business you needed to run, and how you had plans to bring my children into it.”
“I’m not discussing this with you,” he says. “I want you out of here.”
Déjà vu. Except this time I’m not choosing to run away. Nadir is telling me to.
The day is drawing to a close, the sun setting on the other side of the city. We drive into the shadows, but I still see Nadir’s diamond eyes staring right at me.
God. He’s in the right profession. He really could murder someone with those things.
“You’re Nadir Medvedev. Why do I need to head out of Boston with the kids? Surely you have everything handled.” I cringe. Highlighting Nadir’s power is the last thing I wanna do. But I’d rather feed his ego than move away from home. Again.
He trails a finger over his bottom lip, listening. “I do have everything handled. My concern is with you.”
He can’t be serious.
But his eyes are still fixated on mine, staring.
“Oh my God.” I shake my head. “Concerned? About me? When you’re the one with human blood on your shirt?”
My heart thumps in my chest.
And he’s still saying nothing.
“Are you kidding? You don’t think I have my shit together?”
Nadir clenches his jaw. Looks away.
“Nadir!” I snap. “Look at me when I’m speaking.”
He’s unbelievable. All I’ve been doing since eighteen years of age is getting my shit together.
I can guarantee I’ve had more practice than him.
I didn’t start a killing business when I was young.
I earned my dues the normal way. Paid my taxes.
I came close to bankruptcy a few times, but I bounced back.
If that’s not proof that I can handle things, I don’t know what is.
But a small part of me knows he’s right. And I hate that.
“If this is about Savannah—” I start.
“It’s not about Savannah. It’s about you and Taro, and how easily you allow yourself to be manipulated by him.”
I scoff. “What? You actually believe everything that prick tells you? Sounds like you’re falling for the manipulation too.”
“You met in a park, right?”
“Right…”
“You fell for him quickly.”
I was young and na?ve…and I still am, apparently. Because it’s only now occurring to me that Taro didn’t spill my coffee accidentally.
“None of this is your fault, Jess,” Nadir says. “But I still think you should leave the city with the kids while I handle Taro.”
“Handle Taro?” I laugh. “Nadir—you could’ve done that today instead of having a good old chin-wag with the guy.”
Nadir’s expression changes, but his eyes remain focused on me.
He bypasses the comment quickly. “Leave. It won’t be for long.
” He sighs, rubbing his temple. “Look, I know you may find this hard to believe, but you and the kids are my number one priority. I need to play it safe and make sure you’re away. ”
Nadir Medvedev playing it safe? Can’t say I’ve ever heard that one before.
He levels me a glare as we approach the next set of red lights, watching me.
He needs to stop looking at me so intently, like I’m the only one who matters. Like I’m the only person in this world that means something to him.
Like I’m the only person on this earth, period.
Taro played that game, and he almost won.
And here I am, playing the exact same game with Nadir.
But there’s a huge difference between Taro and Nadir.
With Taro, I escaped the game before I let it get the better of me.
Escaping was easy enough. There was no sexual attraction involved, barely any feelings.
This time around, I’m letting Nadir play me. And I’m liking it.
He enters my body, and I open like a flower. Every single part of my anatomy wants him.
But once again, that small voice is ringing in the back of my mind. And this time, it’s encouraging me to believe Nadir.
Maybe I am his main priority…
So much that he felt the need to lie to Leon earlier in the corridor to throw him off. Nadir never speaks to me like that when we’re alone.
The lights blink green, and the car continues down the road. Nadir is still staring at me, figuring me out. Like there’s a part of my soul he can’t understand.
I sit back in the seat, my chest a little more at ease. Everything he said to Leon could be performative, but I’m still skeptical. It’s safer to be skeptical than to go all in. I’m still hung up on what Savannah said to me earlier, about Nadir refusing to show any weakness…
I dwell on her comment, staring hard at the seat in front of me.
“What happens when all of this is over?”
“What do you mean?” Nadir asks.
“When you kill Taro and I come back to Boston with the kids? Did you really mean what you said to Leon about turning my children into heirs?”
I’m giving him a chance to come clean. To admit weakness and tell me how much he loves his children.
I see the way he looks at them. He can’t be serious about wanting to turn them into business pawns.
Why smile and make an effort, look like you’re emotionally invested, if you’re planning on using them?
That was why I told Nadir about the kids in the first place. I could see that he was right there, a few steps away from revealing his human side. He just needed a little push.
The car slows down as we arrive outside of Nadir’s apartment.
“To answer your question, I’m not sure what happens when all of this is over.”
My stomach churns.
Why isn’t he sure? Don’t billionaires always know what they want?
I turn to face him. “And my children? Your children? Look me in the eye and tell me you want to take away their innocence and use them for business.”
Nadir looks me dead in the eye. Shivers scuttle down my spine. It feels like I have thousands of spiders crawling there.
“It’s very complicated.” He reaches over, his arm brushing my breast as he cracks open my door.
And here’s me thinking he’s going in for a kiss.
Only in your dreams, Jess.
“Pack your things. I’ll send someone to pick Iris, Willow, and Charlie up from kindergarten. When I’m back this evening, I’ll sort the flights. In the meantime, have a think about where you’d like to go. Anywhere in the world. You of all people deserve a vacation, Jess.”
I step out of the car, haul my bag over my shoulder, and shut the door in his face.