Chapter 16
NIKOLAI
“What the hell are you doing here, Alexei?” I asked, storming into my office with my cousin hot on my trail. “ Shouldn’t you be tanning in Copacabana until what’s left of your brain melts?”
Alexei had always been a little weasel. The kind of vulture that didn’t even allow my scraps to reach the ground before he pecked on them to the bone.
“Nice to see you too, Niko,” Alexei drawled, as if our reunions were always a celebration, that name I hated grating on my nerves even further.
Leisurely, he poured two glasses of Vodka from the corner bar and handed me one. It didn’t last a second in my hand as I poured the drink down my throat, craving the punishment of that burn scraping down my gullet.
“Do I have to fucking ask again, or are you going to answer the goddman question?” I asked with my glass slamming onto the desk for added effect.
I was treading a thin line with Adrianne, and fucking Alexei was the last person I wanted to have to deal with today. Or ever, really.
“You seem tense, cousin. Are you so lost that you don’t even know what time of the year it is?”
My gaze bore into his, warning him to chain that fucking tongue of his before things got bloody. Books and paperwork don’t do too well with red stains and moisture, but before I could deliver a last warning, reality dawned on me, making me fall onto the chair like I’d been pulled down.
“Call it off,” I ordered, my eyes stuck on the same spot on the floor for what seemed like hours.
“Invitations have gone out long ago, and almost everyone has RSVP’d. It’s tradition, Nikolai. You can’t mess with generations of history. Besides, they already know you’re here.”
“I don’t care, I am in no mood to host a fucking ball. Call it off.”
The Krasni Ball. Red.
The Volkovs had held this tradition since, well… fucking always. A masquerade, opulent and pretentious, open only to the magnates and highest tiers of Russian society. Held right here in this very house. It also coincided with the death of my mother.
I was forced to participate that year, even after finding her bleeding out and whispering her last breath at the bottom of the stairs. But after that? I hid in the darkness of the butterfly dome where no one could find me, spending that cruel day in the place my mother loved the most.
Only caretakers, my mother, and I knew the way through the labyrinth that led to it. There I was, safe and shielded from this tradition that brought nothing but bad memories. When I was old enough, I left the country altogether.
“Alexei is right,” Adrik said as he walked into the room, ignoring the heated tension that lingered in the air like a cheap hooker’s perfume.
“We can’t cancel now. We don’t need the kind of damage control that would require.
Let’s just endure with a smile and slam the door shut as soon as the last guest leaves.
It will be fine.” Adrik’s voice took on that soft nuance I knew he used when his intention was to tame demons that breathed a little too well.
“Speaking of fine,” Alexei started, taking a sip out of his full glass, “Weren’t you supposed to deliver the Battaglia princess to your father?”
“He wasn’t home when I knocked,” I clipped, taking a cigarette from the drawer and lighting it. Smoke filled my lungs, and I closed my eyes as I took that drag, waiting for my nerves to settle.
They didn’t.
“So he didn’t inflict those injuries I saw? Never thought that was your style.”
“Are you pointing a fucking finger at me, Alexei?” I sprang out of the seat, marching towards Alexei until I towered over him. “Because, right now, I’m still a little bit delirious from the fever, and I might not be persuaded by a mere blood bond when I cut it off of your fucking hand.”
“Back off, cousin,” Alexei said, raising his palms in surrender, but smiling like this was a game and he’d won. “I’m only asking questions.”
Adrik cut between us before I decided to punch some holes into that smile permanently. “Enough.” He turned to Alexei first. “Out. Go annoy someone who can tolerate you.”
Alexei’s grin faltered, but he still had to have the last word. “Fine. But if you’re hosting that ball, you’d better rehearse your dance steps. The last one you attended was so long ago, I don’t even think people remember you anymore. When was the last time you even saw Drea?”
I took one step forward, and that was enough for him to find the fucking door. The click of it closing was the best sound I’d heard all day.
Adrik exhaled, low and long. “You ever get tired of threatening to kill your relatives?”
“The ones I have left aren’t worth keeping,” I shrugged.
He sat on the edge of my desk, grabbed the half-empty bottle, and poured himself a drink without asking, refilling my glass, too.
“The Krasni Ball,” he said, rolling the words in his mouth along with the bitterness they brought along.
“You’re not wrong to hate it. But it’s too late to cancel.
Invitations went to every major family from Moscow to Milan.
Pulling out now would scream weakness, Nikolai.
We cannot afford that kind of vulnerability. ”
I ground out my cigarette in the ashtray, choking the fire out of it like it was the sole culprit for the anxiety running through my body. “It’s a circus. Masks, red ribbons, and handshakes that end in betrayal. For what?”
Adrik merely shrugged.
“It’s also a tradition. The ribbons are a matchmaking stunt. People show off alliances, seal business deals, pretend they like each other. We just need to play along.”
“Or sneak inside dressed as guests,” I muttered. “Too many faces in masks, too many open doors. If Vladimir still has loyal men out here, this is their way in.”
“We’ll tighten security.”
“It’s not enough.”
“Then triple it,” he said, his voice steady. “We’ll have eyes everywhere. There’s no turning back now.” We both swallowed that harsh reality along with a generous dose of the clear liquid in our glasses. “Sasha’s up and asking for you, by the way.”
“She shouldn’t worry about me.”
“She always will.” Adrik pushed off the desk, setting his glass down. “You need sleep. And maybe one night where you don’t go to war with ghosts.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“Then drink less.”
I didn’t answer, so he sighed. “I’ll go check on Sasha. Try not to burn the house down while I’m gone.”
“No promises, especially since that sounds like a reasonable enough motive to cancel the fucking ball.”
Adrik glared at me sideways before leaving the office without a reply.
Finally alone, the silence swallowed the room, and my ears rang like I’d been in a club all night with music thumping loudly in my ears. Now, only the clock ticked, steady and taunting. I poured another drink, watched the vodka swirl, and told myself I was just thinking.
About the ball.
About the weak spots in the walls.
About protecting her.
Was she warm enough down there? Had she eaten? Did she still hate me? Or worse, did she regret letting me touch her?
Stupid little Babochka. How could she have consciously allowed a monster to consume her?
The glass hit the desk too hard, spilling a line of vodka that crawled toward the papers. I wiped it away with my sleeve, then stared at the fire until my reflection blurred in the glass, and the room turned dark.
Night had fallen while I sank into my thoughts. It was darker than usual, absolutely no moonlight filtering through the windows. It matched my mood to the T. But as much as this damn date had haunted me for my whole life, my mind was flooded by something else this time. Someone else.
“I lock her away to keep her safe,” I muttered, the words rough in my throat. “And I can’t stand the silence she leaves behind.”
I finished the drink, and before realizing what the hell I was doing, I was downstairs already, looking at the stationed guard sitting at her door.
“Uydi.” Leave. I ordered, voice low and resolute, watching as he almost tripped on his boots following my command.
My hand hovered over the handle while my heart pounded in a rhythm I hated myself for recognizing. Anticipation.
“Fuck it,” I whispered.
I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see.
Adrianne had her back to me, her wet hair falling down her back and around her shoulders, wearing nothing but a hoodie that was too big for her and landed right above her knees.
My hoodie.
“You’re wearing my clothes again,” I said as I shut the door behind me, entranced by the way she looked with my clothes on. There was something so fucking alluring about it that my cock twitched even as I tried to still my racing heart.
She spun towards me, my voice catching her by surprise, and that look on her face? Pure magic.
“Oh, I… I didn’t know. It was in the closet. I’ll take it right off.”
She was probably thinking that I’d rip it off her and burn it again, but this time, I wanted her to burn instead.
“No need.” I grabbed her wrist as gently as I could, but firm enough to stop her from running off towards the bathroom. Slowly, Adrianne turned to meet my gaze, trying to understand what dark part of me she was getting at this hour of the night. “I don’t mind.”
“You’re not going to force me to take it off and burn it in the tub? I don’t think this basement would clear the smoke as well as the warehouse did.”
A light chuckle left my chest, and she and I were both caught off guard by the sound.
“What was that?” Adrianne teased, the glint in her eyes making it hard to bite back the smile that threatened to spread my lips. “Did you just laugh? Oh my God! That’s prime time news, Nik! I never thought you were capable of such a thing.”
Nik.
She called me Nik.
Damn if my cock didn’t just grow into a full erection at that simple word. Worse than that was the flutters in my stomach at the sound.
Blyat! What the hell was that?
I tried my best to keep cool, not react, and be the ruthless fucking killer she needed to see in me. But there was something about this little butterfly that disarmed me with one simple glance.