Chapter 26
Alex's Biggest Mistake
Alex
The biggest mistake I ever made started as a fling.
Gianna was hot, fun, kind of crazy, and down for anything. She had an alluring vibe of adventure.
For a few months, it kind of worked between us. The sex was good.
But I quickly discovered that she was also boring as fuck. It was simple—she was for someone else, not for me. There was nothing behind her facade. No real thoughts, motivations, goals, or even any kind of true personality.
And one morning cemented my decision.
Gianna’s long nails tapped against the cool glass, the liquid inside sparkling in the relentless midday sun of my backyard. She lounged beside me and in front of my pool, but her facial expression was sour. She was sour a lot lately.
“Babe?”
I sipped my iced coffee, waiting for her to continue. She didn’t. “Hm?” I prompted.
“This Friday we’re having dinner with Vince and Aleka at Le Jardinier. Pick me up at eight.”
I nodded, but then I remembered. “Wait. This Friday’s Andrei’s birthday dinner. He invited us a month ago.”
But Gianna shrugged easily, like she was uninterested in this scheduling conflict. “Okay, but you see him, like, every day? And getting a reservation at Le Jardinier is a miracle.”
“Why’s it a miracle? I know the chef.”
Her jaw dropped and she raised her sunglasses, her eyes accusatory, but surprised. “You know the chef? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I had no idea you even wanted to go. Also, who’s Aleka and Vince?”
“My friends! Aleka is that Italian girl I told you about? The one who’s working with Demure on their rebrand? And Vince is her new fling. I haven’t actually met him yet.”
“Hang on. You want me to skip Andrei’s birthday for dinner with people I’ve never met, and you’ve only met half the party?” I asked, certain she’d realize her faulty thinking.
“Yeah! Come on, we’ve gone out with Andrei and Ola like ten times—”
“Twice. We’ve gone out to dinner with them twice. Also, her name’s Olga, not Ola,” I corrected her, but she didn’t hear me.
“—we’re gonna see them again soon, anyway. Just send him a bottle of something expensive. He’ll understand.”
But that’s when I understood that this was going nowhere. I didn’t show up at Le Jardinier that Friday, and Gianna didn’t show up at Andrei’s birthday dinner. I broke it off with her a month after that. Or so I thought.
Gianna came back a few weeks later. Slithered back into my life—sunk her sharp nails into me, manipulated me, and wore me down.
We’d go on boring dates, have mediocre sex, break up, get back together—over and over again.
And then again.
And again.
But our last encounter finally crushed me—I couldn’t get my dick hard for her. It just wouldn’t fucking work anymore. I felt nothing, as if there was no life energy left inside me.
I’d lie awake at night and wonder if this was the end for me because what kind of man can’t get hard for a knockout like Gianna?
But she was ugly inside. Cruel, shrewd, and dangerous.
Kind of like Xavier.
Jade took a seat on an armchair while Andrei paced the living room, both of them equally dejected.
“What? What’s with the long faces? We go in and get her.” I looked from Jade to Andrei, confused at his reaction. “We find out where she is and we just take her back.”
But instead of either of them responding, there was silence, like they didn’t even hear me, so I repeated my question, like a broken record. “What? What’s the problem?”
“We can’t do that.” Andrei finally looked my way. “We have no clue where he has her. She’s very pregnant. One wrong move and it all goes to shit.”
I locked my gaze with his, all of me heating up at his words. Was it fucking getting hotter in the house?
“Are you proposing we go through with his demand?”
“No—”
“Yes.” A woman’s angelic voice interrupted Andrei, and we both turned toward Jade, who sat with her shoulders pulled up and a crimson blush on her sweet cheeks.
I thought I heard wrong. I waited for her to shake her head, deny it, do something, but she just sat there, looking up at me with tears in her eyes. “We have to do it. I have to go back.”
“What?” I whispered, frozen in place.
“She’s probably with him, but that doesn’t matter because we all know that we’re not storming his house or whatever.
” Jade waved her hand, looking straight ahead.
“We can’t play with Olga’s life like that and…
” Jade paused and it began to dawn on me that she was serious.
“He’ll involve my father somehow. If he hasn’t already.
And that exposes both of you to imminent arrest.”
I had no idea this house had a clock, but something ticked in the background. Like a bomb.
I shuffled closer to Jade, refusing to accept her words.
"Baby..." She was right here, right in front of me, and I had absolutely no plans of letting her go anywhere.
"No way. There’s no way you're going back, okay?
" I did my best to stay calm under the circumstances.
"I won't let you go back. We just kill Xavier and then we’re done.”
Jade nodded slowly, her tears intensifying. She gazed up at me, such sadness in her eyes. “You can’t kill Xavier. You know that. This is too volatile a situation right now.”
My heart sank into my heels. What were these words?
"Jade. Listen to me.” I crouched down in front of her, the look in her eyes obliterating my entire heart.
“This—this is just Xavier fucking Knox!” I laughed, barely able to keep it together.
“We can get it done in under an hour. Fuck, I'll call whoever I need!
We get Olga, Xavier goes, and all this gets resolved! "
Why weren’t either of them on board with my plan?!
"And what if something goes wrong? What if Olga accidentally gets hurt? She's eight months pregnant, Alex." Jade was trying to convince me to change my mind, but that was just ludicrous!
"She won't!" I blurted out forcefully. "We won't let anything like that happen!"
True fear coursed through me at the possibility of letting Jade leave my side.
"Andrei, get Roman's guys, fuck, anyone and everyone! We go in, get her, and that’s it! And then you and I will leave! There has to be a way to circumvent this, come on! We can’t follow that cocksucker's demands!”
Andrei paced somewhere behind me, sniffling loudly. This was like a car crash, but in slow motion, where each limb was being torn off my body slowly and meticulously.
"And what if she's not where he is?” Jade asked. “What if he has her somewhere else? What if you kill him and then we never find her? What if it's a trap?"
Jade asked a series of questions I had no answers to. "If Gianna told Xavier where I was…maybe he already arranged it all with my father. And they're just waiting. Waiting for you both to walk into this?"
I had nothing to respond. Jade sat in front of me, looking into my eyes, trying to figure it all out in her head, and that’s when I realized.
She’d already decided.
I shook my head again, denying reality. “Jade—”
“If you’re involved—” she nodded, giving me all her attention, “—that’s where they’ll get you. Not only will you be admitting to my kidnapping, but you’ll also be there to commit a crime. That’s how they will get you.”
Jade grabbed my hand, calmly imploring me to understand, but I refused.
“My dad only has to make a phone call and there will be no bail for you. No due process. No lawyers, Alex. He’ll finish this quicker than he ever anticipated.
And neither one of you will ever leave the prison cell.
It has to be just me. I have to go back. ”
Jade's words were throwing me into a spiral of rage, regret, and sorrow. How, how could this all deteriorate so quickly?!
"In fact…" she continued, as if cluing in to something else, “we may be very short on time. If Gianna told Xavier that you have me—" Jade pointed at me, continuing her terrifying monologue, “—my father can bust in at any moment, but…something tells me Xavier hasn’t told my father…yet.”
The ticking sound intensified, and Jade leaned back on the chair, her hand falling out of mine. “I feel like…if my father knew, he’d already be here. So maybe Xavier’s just playing his own game. Maybe he wants to deliver me to my father. As if he found me. And get into his good books again.”
I was an inch away from a nervous breakdown. The deep regret and repulsion that swirled inside me were now forming into logical understanding—we were fucked. This whole plan backfired on us with the force of a nuclear bomb.
I jumped to my feet, whirling toward Andrei. "I just wanted simple, fast, and straightforward, damn it!” I shouted at him. “Where the fuck did Gianna and Xavier come from?! This wasn’t part of the Goddamn plan!"
Andrei leaned on his hands on the back of the couch but produced no answers.
My head was about to explode.
"We’re not fucking doing this! Jade, you're not going back! End of discussion." I twisted back to her, panic catching the words in my throat.
But instead of being surprised at my outburst, she smiled. Carefully, she lifted herself off the chair and tippy-toed toward me, her mysterious smile halting my negative spiral.
"You look so hot when you're angry,” she whispered, sliding her soft hands up my chest and around my neck.
It all dulled for a moment, her proximity enough to take the pain away. "But save some for Xavier, okay?" Like whiplash, I was back to our burning problem.
"Baby, please..." I cupped her cheeks, hiding my own imminent tears. "Please let's figure something else out."
But Jade shook her head, breaking my heart all over again. "There’s no other way. And we have very little time."
My knees hit the floor right in front of her, and my fingers dug into her waist. I was ready to plead. I was going to plead.
"Please, please...just let me kill him. I’ll just kill him and the problem will go away!” I whispered loudly, knowing that my efforts to convince her weren’t enough.
I was descending into pure hell in my mind, and tears streamed down my cheeks. What kind of a coward was I if I voluntarily let her go into his hands? After everything he did?
I’d rather die.
Suddenly, that idea seemed to be the winning one. "I'll go instead of you." Yes, this was obvious—how did I not think of this before?
"Go where?" Andrei piped up out of nowhere, but I’d forgotten he was even there.
Jade’s soft fingers wiped my tears, but she shook her head, denying my proposition.
"You can't, my love. That won't get Olga back. You know it will put you behind bars and me in my old cage. No." Jade was blasting through every last smidgen of hope. "No, I have to go. It's the only way. I have to go back and then we can figure out how to fuck over Xavier…and my dad."
Her fingers—so soft and warm against my cheeks—held me so gently, like this was the last time.
“Trust me,” she whispered.
Just like that, on my knees and holding the most precious gem, my whole world shattered in one evening.