Chapter 36
YELENA
Life is good.
The second that nauseatingly cheesy line slips into my head, I roll my eyes at myself. At least, I want to, as I would normally do at anything with that level of Hallmark-card corniness.
But with the autumn sun shining down, the last of the gorgeous New England fall foliage of red, golds, and yellows all around, and still being able to feel Achilles’ hands around my throat and his huge cock deep inside me…not to mention literally still feeling him dripping out of me?
Yeah.
Life is fucking great.
It’s been a few weeks since that night on Ya-ya’s rooftop, when I told Achilles everything that happened with Kyle. Since then, life has gotten even better.
The obvious one is that there’s no more worry about any drama with the Drakos family, since they’re now business partners with my dad.
The new contract involving the building behind Dimitra Drakos’ estate includes an “in perpetuity” clause that stipulates the building can never be expanded vertically.
And the joint business venture involving my family and Achilles’ is considering buying two more buildings surrounding the properties, which would further guarantee no immediately adjacent skyscrapers blotting out the sun.
Which is great. Ya-ya’s rooftop has become one of my new favorite places to be, and I’ve now gone to have lunch with her and Neve without Achilles twice, which was lovely.
Here at school, I’ve pretty much moved into Kingsward.
Damiano still has a chip on his shoulder about it, but he’s getting over himself.
Wren is living at Laz’s seaside house on the outskirts of town, which she was initially constantly complaining about.
But in the last week or so, she’s slowly come around.
We might not be sharing a bathroom anymore, but we still see each other literally every day.
In fact, we had breakfast on campus just this morning, and not once did she groan about Laz's “Draconian rules” surrounding living at his house.
I still think there’s something going on with Galina, but she’s been completely tight-lipped about it, which is super suspicious because she’s usually incapable of keeping a secret for longer than eight and a quarter seconds.
Similarly, there’s something up with Arianna.
She keeps disappearing without explanation.
Galina says it especially happens at night.
And yet our friend hasn’t said shit about it.
Meanwhile, Lucia has become my source of news for all things Morvaine Manor, since I’m barely there anymore. But she is, because she’s set to pledge The Order in the upcoming Initiation Trials, which is awesome.
Apparently, something big is going on with Jude, who has been ramping up his Machiavellian plotting to new levels. But similar to Ari and Galina, no one seems to know what his plans are, except that they have something to do with a grudge against Kirill.
All I know is, I’m pretty sure I want nothing to do with…well, whatever it is.
But the juiciest piece of campus gossip right now is the implosion of Santoro Equities, and Kyle being officially declared a missing person.
Unfortunately, he really is missing, not “missing”. As in, Achilles didn’t “make him disappear”. The coward literally ran off once he heard that my father wanted his skin as a rug following the dissolution of our business relationship with his family.
But that's all background noise to me at this point. I’m way too focused on the realization that somehow in the last two months, I’ve gone from being caught in Achilles’ web to falling completely head over fucking heels for him.
There’s no other way to put it.
We spend every night in his bed together.
During the day, I find myself impatiently waiting until our schedules overlap so we can meet up on campus or else waiting with bated breath for him to jump me—suddenly being right around the corner, or grabbing me from behind.
Once he scared the shit out of me after a run when he slid into the showers in the women’s locker room…
which wasn’t empty, by the way…and fucked me in the shower stall while I desperately tried to make sure no one else could hear.
Spoiler: everyone knew.
He’s the first thing I want to see in the morning. The last person I want to talk to before I fall asleep. He’s the reason I’ve been skipping through life like a freaking Disney princess these last few weeks.
Did I mention life is fucking great?
I inhale the cool fall air, grinning as I head down the wooded path toward Morvaine.
Occasionally, I do need to make a pit stop at my actual campus residence.
For example, tonight, after his football practice, Achilles and I are going out to dinner at this cute little place on the water in town.
And the ragtag collection of my hoodies and school uniforms that have taken up residence in his closet at Kingsward isn’t going to cut it.
I’m fishing around for my phone as I get to Morvaine Manor when a strong hand suddenly wraps around my wrist. I gasp as I’m spun and shoved abruptly against the wall next to the massive front door, and my eyes go wide as I look up into Jude's chiseled, livid face.
“Hello, cousin,” he hisses, his eyes piercing mine. “We need to have a chat.”
“Jude,” I croak, my eyes dropping to where his hand is still wrapped tight around my forearm. Then I look back up into his furious face.
…And see black and blue swelling around his left eye.
My brow furrows. “What…”
His grip on my arm tightens even more.
“Jude, let go of me.”
His jaw clenches. He does drop his grip on my arm, but then he plants both of his hands on either side of my head, caging me in.
“What the hell is going on, Jude?”
My cousin smirks. “We have a fucking problem, is what's going on.”
I search his stormy eyes, his clenched jaw, examine the marks on his skin. The fresh black eye is the most obvious one. But there are other, smaller bruises—and are those bite marks?—on his throat.
I frown. “What happened to your eye?”
Jude smiles coldly. “That’s our problem.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of my cousin spending all her time and all her nights with such a violent, angry motherfucker.”
My jaw drops. “Excuse me?”
“Your boyfriend has a fucking temper, Yelena.”
Shit.
I stare at him. “Are you saying Achilles did that? What’d you do to him?”
Jude’s eyes narrow. “Wow. Love that family loyalty, cousin,” he growls.
I shake my head. “I just mean—”
“You don’t think Mr. Golden Boy is capable of doing something like this unless I did something to warrant it?”
I mean, I don’t. But I’m not going to say that to Jude right now. He looks straight-up murderous.
“Jude, what the fuck happened—”
“Your boyfriend decided to stick his golden fucking nose into my business,” he snarls. “Which merited me shoving it back out of that business.”
My brow furrows. “Wait… Who threw the first punch?”
“Jesus, Yelena,” Jude growls. “Your boyfriend is not who you think—”
“I know exactly who Achilles is,” I snap. “Way better than you.”
He laughs coldly. “I highly doubt that.”
My eyes roll. “I’m sorry, are you sleeping with him? Has Jude Nikolayev, the notorious lady-killer, suddenly switched teams—”
“No,” he spits venomously, making me jump. His jaw works as his eyes slide over my face. “But believe me, you do not know Achilles the way you think—”
“Is there a problem here, folks?”
I look past Jude and see a woman who looks to be in her mid-thirties dressed in a black pants suit, her hair pulled back, a holstered gun at her hip…
…and a police badge in her raised hand.
Jude turns to look at her, and instantly the charm comes out to play.
“Not at all, officer.” He flashes one of his infamously charming panty-removing grins as he turns to her.
“It’s chief, actually,” the woman says, completely immune to Jude’s charm. “I’m going to ask the question again, and I’d like Ms. De Luca to answer, not you, handsome.”
Jude grins. “Flattery will get you—”
“Shut the fuck up,” she snaps. Her gaze goes to me. “Everything okay, Yelena?”
I nod, not really sure what’s happening. “Y-yeah? Yeah, it’s all good. He’s my cousin…” I shrug. “Just family drama.”
The woman frowns, eyeing Jude’s face. “Family drama have anything to do with that shiner?”
“Gosh, no,” Jude says with another charming smile, though I can see venom lurking under the surface now. “I’m just terribly clumsy.”
“Really,” the policewoman says dryly. “Well, I need to speak to Yelena. Alone. So go find somewhere else to be. Try not to trip.”
Jude smiles. “Protecting and serving. Thank you so much, chief.”
He turns back to me, giving me a look. “Tell Achilles the next time he wants to stick his nose into my business,” he mutters, “it won’t be a love tap he gets.”
He slips past me inside the house.
The policewoman clears her throat. “You sure everything is okay, Yelena?”
“Yeah, Jude is just…” I shrug. “Dramatic.” My brows furrow. “Sorry, how do you know my name?”
She finally smiles. “This wasn’t the introduction I'd planned on.” She sticks her hand out. “Mallory Cross. Acting chief of Hawthorne Hollow police.”
A shiver ripples up my spine. “Oh?” I croak.
She smiles. “Yelena, I obviously know who you and your family are. I’m not here because of any of that.” She turns and nods her chin at one of the stone benches beside Morvaine. “Can we sit?”
“Sure.”
After we get settled, she turns to me. “This will be in the news tomorrow, but I wanted you to hear it first.” Her brows furrow.
“My predecessor, Daniel Mercer, has been relieved of his duties as Chief of Hawthorne PD, in light of his financial connections with Kyle Santoro, who I’m sure you’ve heard is currently missing. ”
A shiver ripples up my spine. “Financial connections?”