14. Maksen
14
MAKSEN
I left her house wanting more of her, and as I was walking down the stairs to the car that was already waiting for me, I turned my head and caught a glimpse of Anna looking at me.
It hurt me like hell seeing her like that, with all those tears drying up on her face and her lips not being able to curl up in her signature smile.
I hopped in the car and made myself comfortable as it had already begun moving away from the Makenova’s. My driver kept being silent all the time, but I didn’t enjoy any moment of it considering that in my head there were heavy battles between my thoughts and convictions.
I was looking at her, writing in her notebook and smiling at the teacher who was just as happy as her. The woman was teaching her how to write her first letters, which made me happier than ever. She was smart like no other girl I knew was.
That was my first memory of my childhood. No matter how hard I tried to dig deeper, there was nothing coming to the surface. It was just that moment and the ones that came after.
It was so painful that I couldn’t seem to remember anything, and at the same time, it was strange. But what was more strange was that it was her first memory as well.
It made me question my entire life, because something had happened to both of us and neither one of us could remember it.
Was the man from her nightmare the same man from mine? Did the man in her dream have the same tattoo that the man in my dream had?
So many questions yet no answers.
I looked up through the window and saw how close we were to my house. Even though my mansion and Makenova’s were separated by a river, the distance by car was longer, but it seemed that the traffic wasn’t so busy tonight.
When the car entered the paved alley that led to my house, my phone started vibrating in my pocket and I furrowed. I took it out and I saw Joseph’s name on its screen. I swiped with my finger and answered.
“To whom do I owe this pleasure?” I said sarcastically.
“To the soul of the party himself, Brown. Please, get your ass up. I’m waiting for you at Diamond Cube,” he said and I knew how dumb the smirk on his face was.
“I’m not really up for it. I’m tired and I can’t wait to get home and do nothing,” I quickly replied and sighed as the driver parked the car in the garage.
“Move your ass here, Brown,” Joseph thundered. “You became this vulnerable fucker I don’t recognize anymore. Prove me wrong and come here.”
The moment I wanted to tell him to fuck off, he ended the call and I punched the seat in front of me. He knew how to fire me up, so I just bit my lower lip and groaned from my throat.
“Turn the car back on. We’re going to Diamond Cube,” I said to the driver and he started the engine.
I really wasn’t in the mood for any party as my mind didn’t stop flying to Annalise and everything that had happened. But at the same time, I missed the days when I was just letting everything pass by me, obeying Lukyan’s orders without concern about the consequences, and just doing my job as I was being told to do. I didn’t exactly know what changed, but something indeed did.
Maybe it was the closure between me and Annalise that made me realize life was more than just following orders and doing other people's dirty jobs.
Maybe it was just me growing up and seeing life as it was, not as what Lukyan tried to put in my head. Or maybe it was just me getting sick of doing wrong when all I wanted was to do good for everyone.
We got lost in the city as the night set in, and the more we passed by the most crowded streets of New York, the more I realized it was Friday night and everyone was trying to get laid and have fun.
Even I was on my way to do the same and as soon as the driver entered the private subway park of Diamond Cube, I knew it was a mistake.
I stepped out of the car and fixed the sweater on my shoulders as Boyce came out of it too and stood by me.
“Long night?”
“Not too long,” I replied and smiled in the corner of my mouth. “I’ll have a drink with Joseph and we’ll leave.”
He nodded and started walking behind me as I began moving towards the entrance. I pressed the button of the elevator and when the door opened, we walked in and waited until we reached the second level under the basement.
It was an entire building made for people like us — assassins, traffickers, mafia mobs and all the dark species of the world. There weren’t many people who knew about the place, but those who knew made sure to be there at the end of the week.
We entered the club and the heavy smell of cigarette smoke invaded my senses, alongside the mixed smells of perfumes and refined alcohol.
The naked girls were serving bottles of champagne, while others were dancing around the strip bar like that’s what they were born to do. And then, when I turned my head to the right side, I saw Joseph, chitchatting with none other than Laura fucking McKnight.
Did he really want to play dirty with me tonight?
“Brown, you’ve finally come!” he exclaimed as I got closer to their table.
“Already looking forward to going back home,” I replied as I sat beside him and squeezed his hand.
“Stop being so boring!” he thundered at me with a furrow on his face, and by the way his mouth smelled, I knew that he had more than a bottle of alcohol.
He enjoyed doing such things way more often than I would indulge, but he was my best friend, so I had to accept him as he was.
“I’m not boring, I just care about my health and well-being,” I answered and I felt Laura’s gaze pinning me.
“Exactly! Stop being boring, have some fun with me!”
He was drunker than I’ve ever seen him before. He stood up from the seat and almost fell on the table in front of us, then he managed to step forward, turning on his heel to face me directly.
“I’m going to bring you some vodka. Don’t leave,” he mumbled and smirked at me, then turned back and walked into the crowd.
I cleared my throat and ran my fingers through my hair, and the moment I almost let myself fall prey to my own thoughts, I felt how Laura came closer to me. I didn’t raise my gaze to her, but I surely did move my eyes subtly so I could see a glimpse of her.
She was a beautiful woman indeed, so I understood why Katya was so in love with her. She had good tastes, I had to admit it.
“I didn’t know I would get to see you here tonight,” she whispered and put her hand on the back of the chair.
“I didn’t know I would come here either,” I quickly replied and glanced at her.
Her lips were covered in a layer of red lipstick that matched her olive like skin. That was her signature. She couldn’t be Laura if she wasn’t wearing red lipstick all the time.
“I heard you won over my father,” she said between her lips and she smirked at me. “You’re a hell of a subject in our house, you know? I’m falling asleep and waking up with your name spoken to my ears,” she added, this time on a more seductive tone of voice.
I knew damn well what she was trying to do, but she wasn’t aware that I knew about her and Katya. So it was funny for me to watch her trying to seduce me while she had a girlfriend. Well, not that funny, it pissed me off a bit too.
I drove my gaze to her lips, then to her beautifully rounded chest and came back to her face. I could see how her breathing quickened and her lips parted so the air could escape between them in the alert rhythm it needed to. I tried to offer her a piece of what she desired, but I was waiting for the right moment to destroy her tactics.
“It must be a delight to hear my name all the time, isn’t it?” I whispered close to her face and the glimpse in her eyes proved she was down for me at any moment.
“Maksen Brown,” she demurred and came closer to me, her breathing now hitting my neck. “A delight to my tongue as well when I’m saying each letter of your name.”
“It must be even more delightful to say Katya Makenova, am I right?”
The grin on my face made her swallow her lump. Not so courageous anymore, huh? Of course not, because she was a twenty four year old woman who was in love with a seventeen year old girl.
“You two! You’re not fucking on my watch!” Joseph yelled at us as he came closer with a big bottle of Vodka under his arm.
I laughed at his words and I eyed him attentively. He put the bottle on the table and took two glasses from the ice bucket. Without even asking, he poured the colorless liquid and filled both glasses.
I took it and drank the whole glass, feeling how my entire esophagus was almost caught up in a fire. But it felt good having those tingles all over my body once the fiery liquid burned its way down to my stomach.
“See? It’s not that hard to have some fun!” he exclaimed as he sat beside me with his own glass of alcohol.
I laughed because I knew that if I brought him some arguments about why having alcohol didn’t equal having fun, he wouldn’t care and would simply get angry or start talking about something else.
Laura kept silent as we were analyzing the entire room of people. The music was not too loud, which made me more comfortable considering I didn’t want to be there in the first place. Joseph was devouring some of the girls dancing, and I knew very well he must’ve had his eyes on one of them.
I looked at my empty glass and a veil of truth fell on my eyes, making me realize that I really shouldn't have been here.
I was just as numb and empty as that fucking glass was, and I didn’t know why I accepted coming here. I needed to stay home and think how I could’ve helped Anna remember her childhood.
Instead, I was here with a woman who just wanted to suck my cock even though she had a girlfriend, and Joseph who was just being himself and I couldn’t judge him for it.
I looked up at Boyce who didn’t leave my side and gave him a subtle message with a little turn of my head. He came closer to me and I stood up, letting my gaze fall on Laura.
“I’ll leave you two to have fun together,” I said as Joseph pinned me with his eyes too.
“Boo! Party pooper!” he exclaimed and I saw how his eyelids were slowly falling and making him look like he was going to faint soon.
“Have a great night!” I said and I walked past the table, Boyce following me close enough for me to notice his presence.
I knew a lot of people from here saw me socializing with Laura McKnight, but I also knew that these people were going to tell Ender that his precious daughter almost fucked his feared enemy.
Little did I care.
The moment we reached the elevator, I heard the sound of some pumps hitting the floor and before I turned on my heels to look around, I knew it was her. Boyce also turned to her, just as a precaution.
“Leaving so soon?” she said as she got closer.
Even though she was wearing high heels, she was still smaller than me by about two heads, which made her perfect for any man’s fantasies. I looked down at her and I noticed how she used her doe eyes to make me fall for her words.
“I don’t belong here. Not anymore,” I replied and felt how my body tensed under my clothes.
“Then let’s find a place to which we both belong,” she whispered and put her tiny hand on my chest, not breaking our eye contact.
I put my hand on hers and squeezed her fingers between mine. She glanced at me, biting her lower lip and I knew she was sure that I was going to tell her to come to my place.
Too bad she didn’t know me well enough. At each party I attended and she was present, she tried to make me fall for her and give her the attention she craved, but from this night on, she’d not ever try to reach out to me.
“You don’t belong in any place I do, because I belong to the only place where you’ll never be able to be, and that’s the heart of someone who loves me.”
A flicker of tears came into her eyes, but she immediately gave me a wicked look and stepped back from me. She didn’t say a word, just scrutinized me and kept the storm inside her.
“You should pay more respect to Katya because she truly loves you. Have a good night, Laura.”
And with that being said, I turned on my feet and entered the elevator. Before the doors closed, I looked at the woman standing in the same place, and she was still analyzing me in a way that could’ve made anyone wonder if she was going to kill someone or not.
But she was just devastated that she had heard the truth after a life of trying to lie to herself.
The moment I sat on the backseat of the car, my lips curled into a sincere smile and Annalise’s image came to my mind, contouring itself into the most beautiful thought I ever had in my mind. And it felt good.
I felt something for her, but I didn’t know how to describe it. Completely different and unfamiliar than anything I’ve ever felt in my life.
Calming.
Enchanting.
Magical.