11. Maksen
11
MAKSEN
T he flight was tiring, but not because of the timezone, mostly because Katya couldn’t keep her mouth shut for a minute even though I pretended to be asleep.
After a few hours of hell, the rage toward this woman and her father grew even more as we were getting closer to the private beach house she booked for us. We were going to stay together in the same house, so that meant we needed to get along with each other. I was curious how that would turn out.
After I took a nap and recharged my batteries, I woke up and saw Katya who was already prepared for the beach. She was wearing a revealing swimsuit with little sparkly gems on it, and I couldn’t be dumb not to admit that she looked good, but she just wasn’t my type.
“C’mon! Wake up! You slept a lot already!” she chirped and jumped from one foot to another.
“And I would rather sleep again than do anything else.”
She gave me a disgruntled facial expression and put her hands on each side of her waist. “I don’t know why you hate me, really,” she complained and walked towards the bed.
I stood up, supporting my weight with my elbows and looked at her attentively. She seemed concerned, even a little upset over the fact that we arrived in a place like Seychelles and I wasn’t up for anything she had in mind.
“I don’t hate you,” I replied and ran my fingers through my hair.
“Spare me! I know you’ve hated me ever since we were children and I really don’t know why,” she explained, her lips moving into a straight line.
“You were always doing and saying things just to piss everyone off, Katya. You were keen to get attention and you would’ve done anything to have it.”
She scrunched her nose, wrapping her hands around her chest.
“I was just being myself, so I’m sorry I can’t be a fake bitch like my sister is!”
A fake bitch.
She called Annalise a fake bitch.
I could’ve described myself as an erupting volcano right now, but I calmed myself down in seconds the moment I realized that I was letting a seventeen year old girl mess with me. But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t teach her how to pay more respect to someone who could’ve been her bigger brother.
“Not wanting attention doesn’t mean being fake, Katya,” I whispered as I got closer to her. “But wanting attention? Isn’t this just the fake facade you’re trying to show everyone just so no one would question what you truly are?”
The coldness in my voice made her lips part away, and her gaze turned from a confident one into a shocked one. She pinned me with her eyes and I knew she could feel my breath hitting her face.
I smirked as I saw how her chest was rising at an alarming rate.
“I’m not afraid of you!” she suddenly spoke, taking a step back.
But she didn’t manage to get away from me, because I gripped her wrist, forcing her to stand in front of me, right where she was seconds ago.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me, but if you don’t listen to me so we can make this work, you should be afraid of this,” I lowered my voice as I took out my knife and raised it up to her face.
Her whole body shuddered at the sight of the sharp blade standing right in front of her nose.
“I guess you know what a knife can do, right?”
“M-Maksen, put that down,” she mumbled as she tried to regain her breath.
“That depends on you, Katya,” I replied and my lips moved together into a mischievous grin. “We are going to marry in six months and the only way to do that is to find a plan so Annalise could move in with you in my house.”
As I spoke the words out loudly, I realized the craziness that weighed each letter down. Lukyan would’ve never accept such a thing, but I had to try everything in order to have Annalise with me.
She furrowed her brows, not taking her eyes off the knife. “He wouldn’t accept that, and you know it.”
“Oh, he will, and you’ll make sure he will,” I added, brushing my thumb over the edge of the blade. “You’ll tell him everything that might come to your little head and you’ll make sure he accepts it.”
“I-I’ll try,” she sighed, gulping the lump that might’ve got stuck in her neck.
“Good. If you tell your father anything about this, I’ll make sure that this knife, my dearest Katya, will end in Laura’s heart,” I spit, and that was the moment she froze from head to toe.
I pulled the ace up my sleeve just to make sure she knew how dangerous I could be.
As far as I knew, Laura was her secret love interest for quite a time. It was a surprise for me when I found it out because Laura’s last name was McKnight. She was Ender’s littlest daughter and Lukyan wouldn’t be so happy to hear that his dearest Katya was in love with his enemy’s daughter.
If hours ago she wouldn’t stop talking, now her silence was the best thing that has happened in the entire vacation.
“Did I make myself clear to you?” I said as I let her free of my grip and put the knife back into my pocket.
“Yes,” she replied and let her gaze fall to the ground.
“Good. Now get the fuck out of here.”
As soon as I spoke the last word, she turned around on her heels and left the room. I heard her starting to cry before opening the door and heading to the beach in front of the house, but little did I care about how she felt.
All I cared about was protecting Annalise and making her mine.
I wonder what changed inside of me that made me realize Annalise has always meant more to me than a simple friend.
In the last couple of months, I spent several moments thinking about her and how much I wanted to get closer to her, and now that she started doing the same, it was harder for me to refrain from what I truly wanted to do.
Every time I touched another woman, I thought about how it would’ve been if I would touch Annalise.
Every time another woman moaned my name, I thought how it would come out of Annalise’s mouth.
Every time I thrusted into another woman, I thought of…
But I tilted my head instantly as I felt my pants getting tighter around my cock. I needed to get rid of these thoughts unless I wanted to hide in the bathroom like a fucking teenager full of hormones.
I took a deep breath in, and other thoughts came immediately to rescue me.
“Don’t marry her.”
“It’s that or not ever seeing you again because I’ll be dead.”
“Then kill me too.”
Our little dialogue replayed in my mind, and my heart ached.
Her words engraved on my soul, making my heart start beating faster.
Who would’ve thought that I was going to be like this? Thinking about one girl, obsessing over her and the urge to protect her from everything that could’ve made her suffer.
I couldn’t recognize myself at all.
I felt the need to protect her ever since we were children. I’ve always looked after her, making sure she was happy all the time and didn’t feel the absence of anything.
But I guess that happens to all the children who’ve lost their parents. Maybe I perceived her as a version of me, alone and scared of the whole world around her, with no one to rely on.
That’s how I was until I was woken to reality by the truth. I had no one to support me, so I had to become my own support.
That was when I became the man I am today. The man who creates terror in bad people’s lives, and sometimes, destroys the lives of good people.
I tilted my head to get out of my thoughts, then I turned over and looked through the window’s glass.
Katya was sitting on the beach and that made me exhale with ease because I knew she was going to stay there for a long time after our talk.
I took my phone and threw myself on the bed’s surface. It was seven in the evening and that made me happier because I was going to sleep again in a few hours.
The temperature here on the island was higher than I expected, and I hated that I was constantly sweaty. I loved the cold weather more than anything, and it might’ve been that way because I was born in late December which made me love winter.
My attention got caught by the sound of my phone vibrating between my hands, which made me frown and unlock the screen. The moment I saw Annalise’s name on it, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling like a little boy who just got his favorite toy from Santa.
Annalise
Are you sure no one can read our messages?
Me
Absolutely sure. How are you feeling?
I knew I gave her the phone, but I didn’t think she would actually send me messages. It was a real surprise that she actually did it and it made me really happy. I wanted to talk to her every fucking second.
Annalise
I’m better now. Father has left to God knows where, and I have plenty of time to study. :)
I smiled when I read her message. I knew how badly she wanted to attend a university, but all I could do was to support her in the learning process because Lukyan wouldn’t have ever let her go to to a university. Annalise was not allowed to go to a normal school or do any other activity involving other people other than spending time with Olivia or her bodyguard, but Katya on the other hand, could attend high school in the city, could go to any university she wanted and go to parties.
It didn’t make much sense to me.
Annalise had so many dreams and I had to turn them into reality. I wanted to make her the happiest she could be. But her happiness could start only from the day her father would die.
Me
What subject are you studying today?
Annalise
Shooting stars and asteroids. I already found out something that’ll leave you in awe. Do you wanna know what?
Me
Shoot :)
Annalise
Shooting stars blaze a numerous range of colors based on the elements they are made of. :o Their compounds can give off varying colors of light, like for example magnesium can shine cyan :o
My mouth was hurting from the smile that didn’t fade away from my face. She was so into astronomy it shocked me every time I had a conversation with her about it. She knew so many things about everything and I loved her even more for that.
Me
Hmm, you’d be a shooting star in that case.
Annalise
What?? What do you mean?
Me
Every time you come around me, I see new colors.
Annalise
How is that? :p
Me
That’s how I define happiness, through colors.
Annalise
Okay so…
Is she really this innocent that she doesn’t understand what I’m telling her? I’m not usually the romantic type, but she makes me want to be just so I can see her happy. I let out a loud sigh, then I continued to type in the message.
Me
You are the definition of happiness, Annalise. That’s why I’m seeing new colors every time you’re around me.
Annalise
:) :)
I laughed seeing those emojis coming on my screen as her answer. I bet her cheeks were flaming red right now as she reads the message over and over again.
Annalise
How is Katya?
I sensed a bit of jealousy in her message and I knew she wasn’t really happy knowing her sister was with me on a vacation.
The marriage and this whole situation had to be hard for her to bear, but I couldn’t do anything else other than talk with her and make sure she understood that she was in first place.
But I had to play Lukyan’s games until I was going to put up my own.
Me
She’s fine. She’s on the beach alone.
Annalise
Why aren’t you there with her?
Me
Because I’m here with you.
Annalise
She’s going to tell my father that you didn’t behave well with her. Please go and spend time with her.
Even though she hurt her own feelings by sending me that message, she still did. She cared so much about the others that she forgot she might harm herself because of it. She was veritable by any means.
Me
She’s going to tell your father that she had the best time here. Don’t worry about that.
Annalise
I doubt that.
I stood up from the bed and put my phone on the bedside, making my way to the terrace. I wanted to do my daily workout even though my body was tired, but I needed to keep my physical appearance.
As soon as I started doing my sit-ups and jumping jacks, I saw Katya turning back from the beach. She sat on the deckchair next to me, starting to look at me intently as if she was trying to ask me something but she couldn’t get the words out.
I rolled my eyes and stopped my exercises, then I gazed at her and gave her a subtle sign to say what she wanted. She gulped and I noticed that she might’ve cried the whole time she was away.
I saw how she instantly curved her lips into a confident smile, only to show me that she wasn’t affected by anything that had happened.
“How did you know about Laura?”
I smirked and ran my fingers through my hair.
“I know everything about anyone.”
“The only way you would’ve found out about her was if you spied on me.”
“I have people who spy on other people for me,” I burst out.
“And why would you have people to spy on me? Am I that important to you?”
Her remark made me burst out again, but this time with great laughter. “You’re nowhere near important to me, but you’re an important pawn that I can use to achieve my goals.”
“So you’re using me to get to my sister. Is that what you want? Because if you want her, I really don’t mind! You can take her and I can live my life as well as I lived it until this shitty marriage came up to destroy it.”
Wait a moment.
So she didn’t want the marriage to happen, which made her on my side in this whole charade. I could use that to benefit both of us. We could do as Lukyan wants until I find the perfect way to escape this.
Perhaps my family’s heritage involved an empire engaged in human trafficking and killing our enemies, but I wasn’t proud at all that I had to do all of those things.
I wanted to have the wealth I had, but not by doing what I had to do. Nevertheless, I loved to kill the people who made others suffer, especially those like Lukyan who took advantage of innocent girls.
“So you weren’t the one who demanded this marriage to be fulfilled?” I asked carefully.
She frowned and shook her head disapprovingly.
“You said that you know everything about anyone, so I guessed you would’ve known this already,” she rasped and folded her hands on her chest.
One point Katya. Zero points Maksen.
“I could congratulate you for being a smartass, but I won’t. Instead, I want to make a deal with you,” I declared and sat down on the deckchair right next to her.
“Do you really think that I would make a deal with you after you almost killed me in the room?”
A grin came on my face and I let out a laugh before speaking again.
“My dear, if that’s what you call almost killing you, then you probably weren’t close to actually being killed,” I declared and winked at her.
She gazed at me like I had turned into a ghost that was ready to haunt her until she was dead. But she took her eyes off of me, then inhaled deeply and fixed her hair. I was going to make her accept my deal. She had no other choice.
“Fine. I’m sorry for doing that to you, but you really have a way to make people angry beyond the limits.”
She looked at me and started playing with her fingers in her lap. Her thin lips stretched up into a light smile, and then I saw some tears forming in her eyes.
“Laura says this often, so I guess you’re right. But still, that didn’t give you the permission to do that,” she hissed and put her hair strand behind her ear.
Couldn’t she just shut up and fucking accept my apologies?
God damn it.
For the first time in your life, you have an assassin saying sorry to you, and you don’t take advantage of it.
“Neither should’ve you called your sister a fake bitch, Katya,” I replied in a serious tone of voice and it came out more like a threat rather than a simple reply.
“I was angry at her, okay? I always am. Father always makes everything for her, always protects her like she’s this fucking rare gem,” she burst out and I noticed her cheeks had turned red.
“What do you mean? She’s forbidden to do anything she wants and you’re literally living the life she wishes,” I briefly replied, waiting for her answer, more confused than ever.
“I would’ve rather been forbidden to do what I want than to be deprived of my father’s love. ”
Oh.
So she felt like she wasn’t loved by her father, which made sense to me at that exact moment. He let her do drugs and alcohol, and spend the nights wherever she wanted, and she was still a minor, not even a fully grown woman that could take care of herself, while he made sure that Annalise had a healthy life, protected in the mansion and always with her bodyguards after her. It really explained a lot now that I’ve heard Katya’s point of view.
We kept the silence a bit longer, and then I coughed and licked my lips.
“So, do you want to hear my deal?”
She turned around to look me in the eyes and I saw the reticence she had about the answer she was going to give me.
“Spill it.”
“I’ll help you have the relationship you want with Laura, because I know very well that your father is religious and wouldn’t allow you to have a relationship with a girl, more likely if the girl is his enemy’s daughter,”
She furrowed her brows and scrutinized my face. “Okay, and what would you get from helping me?”
“You have to help me make Annalise mine.”