Chapter 2
CHAPTER
TWO
ISLA
The house was once again too quiet without Julius. It was too unsteady, too daunting. The stillness didn’t come with any peace or rest. It was the kind of quiet that stirred your bones, the kind that you felt deep under your skin, in your chest, in your soul…
It stretched through the walls, filling the spaces between my breaths. It was alive and thriving and weighing heavily on my heart.
The silence was waiting, and it all felt so wrong.
There I was, standing just inside the front door, my hand still wrapped around the knob, long after it clicked shut behind me. For what felt like forever, I didn’t move.
I didn’t breathe.
I thought if I stayed there long enough, I could pretend none of this was happening, none of this was real, but the silence didn’t shift. It didn’t stir, and it didn’t break—it held.
Suffocating me from the inside out.
Julius should be there with us. That was my first thought, hitting me fast and hard, almost like it was a baseball bat to my face.
It was sharp.
Instant.
Throwing me into a tailspin of what the fuck…
Julius should be leaning against the counter, watching me cook dinner like he always did.
It was one of our favorite times together.
I loved cooking for him, feeding him my food, and watching him enjoy it.
The house lacked laughter. There was no violin, no music, and there was nothing that I recognized.
No movement.
No sound.
No him.
Julius…
My best friend.
My grip tensed on the doorknob before I forced myself to let go, dropping my hand slowly to my side.
It was too loud. Even that slight movement echoed through the walls.
I stepped farther inside, closing the door behind me more carefully this time, easing it shut like I didn’t want to disturb anything.
Anyone…
Or maybe it was because Kraven was still there, and I didn’t want to be noticed. The awareness slid over my skin before my eyes adjusted to the mess from the cops ransacking the place. It was when my body finally caught up with my reality.
My chest tightened at the realization as my jaw clenched while I looked away, trying to move past my emotions. I walked toward the kitchen, remaining in control, at least telling myself I was. Except I quickly realized something else—control never existed in this house.
It never had.
Never would.
My fingers curled around the edge of the kitchen counter, grounding myself against the cool stone. I breathed in slowly. My body felt off. Not just the tightness in my chest or the weight pressing behind my ribs, but something quieter.
Deeper.
Something I hadn’t said out loud yet.
The floor creaked behind me, and I went still again, swallowing hard. Closing my eyes for half a second, I braced myself before I turned. He was leaning in the doorway like he had been there the entire time.
Watching me.
Kraven didn’t move when I looked at him. He didn’t speak either. One shoulder rested against the frame, posture loose, but nothing was relaxed about the way his eyes held mine.
Too steady.
He was well aware of everything I was feeling, and that in itself was too much for me to experience. This felt like a moment of weakness while the silence stretched thin between us.
It was thick.
Deliberate.
Exhausting.
Kraven wanted me to feel it. He needed me to break first.
My fingers squeezed against the counter, probably turning white until I spewed, “Are you just going to stand there?” My voice was quieter than I meant it to be.
His expression didn’t change, remaining neutral and in control, which was the opposite of me.
“I’ve been standing here,” he replied all in one breath.
I pushed off the counter, turning away as if his presence changed my nervous energy in the kitchen.
“Then say something,” I ordered.
“Like what?”
Again, he was too calm.
Too measured.
Too him.
It stabbed into a fresh wound, the same one he had only inflicted an hour ago, but it still felt so very raw, so very real.
“Anything,” I implied, trying to get him to say it without me having to demand it. Spinning back toward him, I stated the obvious. “You’re just… standing there.”
“And you’re pretending I’m not.”
My breath caught.
For a second, neither of us moved.
I exhaled a long, sharp breath, shaking my head. “I’m not doing this.”
“Doing what, exactly?”
“Exactly this.” I gestured back and forth between us. “Whatever this is.”
He pushed off the doorway, stepping into the kitchen.
Slow.
Exact.
Not close enough to touch me, but close enough that I could feel him anyway. This was slightly worse, especially when the silence was heavier this time.
Julius was always right there between us—especially when we were alone—and his being behind bars didn’t change that. It was unspoken, and something we couldn’t avoid—no matter how much we wanted to, no matter how much we tried.
Our eyes locked when he reminded me, “But this is what we do best.”
My stomach twisted, sharper that time. I shifted a little with my hand drifting down my stomach, resting low and instinctively. His neutral stare followed my gesture, and an unexpected heat soured through my skin, triggering me to pull my hand away as if it burned me.
“Don’t,” I say.
He shrugged. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Silence again. This time, it was short, strained, and instantly overpowering.
“Ask?” he demanded, making my pulse jump from his abrupt tone.
“I don’t want to.”
The lie flowed past my lips too easily. His gaze didn’t change, though something underneath it did.
“You’re a bad liar.” He called me out, watching me a second longer.
That only heightened the idea that nothing about us was finished or ever would be. In fact, it felt as if something was only beginning. It was something neither of us agreed to, but again, the universe had a way of reminding me who was in charge.
I turned away first. I had to. “I’m going upstairs.”
He didn’t stop me. However, I felt him watching me again.
Every step.
Every motion.
My hand tightened on the railing as I climbed up the stairs, my legs heavier than they should be as the house creaked beneath me.
Julius should be here with us.
The thought hit stronger now, more determined and unforgiving, holding me hostage in a home that didn’t feel like that without him.
I wasn’t sure what I could do to fix this and how to get him out of jail.
My only option was to use the same lawyer we used for Kraven, but I didn’t have any money. At least not like that.
My stomach churned as I reached the top of the stairs, forcing myself toward Julius’s bedroom.
The door was half open.
I pushed it wider, stepping inside, then closing it too quickly behind me. I silently prayed I could shut out my thoughts of Kraven.
I couldn’t.
Nothing could.
Not when I was starting to understand that fate had already chosen for me.