Chapter 27
Vernis Ko Mne
Alex
Iwatched Jade sleep naked beside me. She pulled all the blankets off me and slumped onto them, hogging all the warmth. But I didn’t need any blankets because she was the warmth.
And I was about to lose her.
She dozed off at some point in the early morning hours, but I hadn’t slept a wink. I pulled the blanket, and Jade rolled into me, throwing her arm over my chest, still asleep.
Like that. I wanted her like that.
All of it. It all went to shit because of damn Gianna. But the real question was—how the fuck did I not see this coming?
How did I not predict that she would come back and cause chaos? How did I not have the foresight to know that while Jade may have been safe at the beach house from Xavier, I wasn’t safe from Gianna?
I thought back to all my encounters with her. How did she magically show up everywhere I went? The club where we took Jade—what was Gianna doing there that night? Did she know I’d be there?
“What are you thinking about, baby?” Jade’s voice startled me. I turned to her, her tired eyes so beautiful in the morning light.
I didn’t want to let her go. I vehemently didn’t want to let her go.
“Just…everything. I’m wondering when Gianna discovered that I was at the beach house.”
We both fell silent again, just lying together. My fingers traced Jade’s soft and warm skin and I breathed her in, as if for the last time.
“She said something.” Jade broke the silence, slowly sitting up. She looked like a mermaid—her long hair fell over her chest, the rest of her naked. “She said she knew you were hiding out there. Did she know about the house? Could anyone have told her?”
I shook my head to say no, taking all of Jade in. She was so smart. She was so sharp, detail-oriented, and intelligent. She was hilarious. She could be so silly, and bubbly, and at the same time such a fucking brat. And I couldn’t get enough of her.
“Hmm. She also said that you left and then came back. How did she have such details about your whereabouts?”
Jade bit her bottom lip, thinking it over, but then her gaze jumped to mine, as if a thought hit her.
“She was tracking you. She has a tracker somewhere. Your car? Your clothes? Your shoes?” Jade spoke quickly but then added, “But no. You weren’t always wearing the same clothes. And you also had the bike…”
Jade trailed off, but her eyes were on fire.
“What?”
“Your wallet.” She suddenly straightened her back. “It’s in your wallet.”
A minute later, I was dumping out the contents of my wallet onto the dining table, both of us still naked, frazzled, and heartbroken.
And there it was. With my office access key card, another one fell out—a black card, the same size as a credit card. Flat, thin, and unnoticeable, the little tracking device was perfectly hidden, never raising my suspicions.
“Fuck.”
I picked it up, boiling inside at the knowledge that Gianna had been tracking me all this time. But how long? When did she place this in my wallet? Last week? Last month? Last year?
“I’m sorry,” Jade spoke beside me. “Those things can last months without a charge.”
I turned to her then, wondering how she knew so much about tracking devices. She took one look at me and answered quietly, “He did that to me. He tracked me. For a while.”
What a fucking monster.
I snapped the card in half and threw it on the table with my other cards, choosing to focus on the one person that mattered: Jade.
Heathen. Brat. Angel.
Moya Malyshka.
Time was running out.
Jade called Xavier late last night while I paced the living room, Andrei physically stopping me from throwing the furniture out the window. Jade and Xavier agreed to meet at noon.
My Jade agreed to meet her abuser. What kind of a man was I? If I just stood by and watched it all happen? Let it all happen.
So while Jade was on the phone with Xavier, I dialed another number I knew by heart.
The thoughts looped in my mind without pause all night and morning.
I checked the clock—9:15 a.m. Less than three hours left.
“Thanks for letting me make you coffee.” Jade climbed onto the bed, where she insisted I stay while she made me coffee. She held two cups in her hands, her smile radiant and relaxed.
But I was spiraling. I was afraid. Scared to death I’d never see her again. “Also, thanks for making breakfast. Next time I’ll make you pancakes. You like all things sweet.” She sipped her coffee, still naked, still here.
Next time. Would there be a next time?
“Jade,” I shook my head, barely able to breathe.
“Jade, let’s not do this. Please. There are a thousand different ways we can end this.
If you don’t want me or Andrei involved, I’ll get someone else to do it.
It’ll be clean and quiet. No one will know.
We’ll get Olga back and you never have to see that fucker again. ”
Jade observed me silently, so close to me on the bed.
“Alex? Sasha?” She chuckled, never having called me that before. “I know you can probably make the problem disappear.” She used air quotes. “But…this is the perfect solution. I’ve thought about it.”
She took a big gulp of her coffee and settled in.
“Xavier has given us an out. I come back home, reintegrate into work like nothing happened, and now I can truly help you. I have access to so many documents, files, information—I can tell you everything. You can hire a team of lawyers. You can free yourself from this. It won’t be easy or fast, but—”
“Jade,” I breathed out, overwhelmed by the thought of her going back home. “This is too dangerous a plan—”
“And at the end, you can kill Xavier,” Jade interjected, so calm. “You can kill him however you want.” She nodded, speaking as if she’d truly thought about it.
I chuckled, admiring her dedication. “You want that? You changed your mind?”
“Mm-hmm. I’ll watch.”
No one deserves for their life to be taken. Her words rushed back to me, but the smile on her face told me she’d abandoned her old convictions.
“I’m not going to kill him quickly,” I assured her, thinking of how to do it. “I’m going to make it painful. And I’ll carve something on his chest. Whatever you want.” I slid my hand on her thigh, her pretty smile breaking my heart.
“I love it. I’ll think about what you can write.” Jade dropped her voice. “Can you fuck me too? Right in front of him? So he can cry before he dies?”
A little startled at her proposition, I leaned back, admiring the way the morning sun bathed her skin.
“That’s a great idea. And then you can pick how he dies.”
Jade nodded eagerly, sipping her coffee, but I could tell there was something on her mind. I waited until she swallowed her sip and then sighed, blurting out, “Alex, I have to tell you something. Before I leave.”
Jade took our cups and placed them on the nightstand behind her, and when she turned back to me, she was no longer smiling.
“Alex, I…I think,” she gulped, her gaze bouncing from her hands to the pillows, to me, “I m-mean I’m pretty sure…or, maybe that’s not…that’s a bad way—”
“What is it, baby? Anything. Tell m—”
“I love you.” The words echoed in my ears, and Jade stared right at me, not hiding it. “I’m in love with you. I want you to know. Before I leave.”
She knocked all the air out of me. My mind went blank and panic spread through me.
She loved me.
I caught her around the waist and quickly dragged her closer. Jade gasped when she ended up straddling my lap, her bare skin pressed to mine. Still naked. Still here.
Still mine.
I rested my forehead against hers and closed my eyes for a second.
“I love you,” I whispered. “I was supposed to say it first, but you didn’t let me.” I pulled her flush against my chest. “I love you. I love you.”
I buried my face in her neck and breathed her in, memorizing her.
“I don’t want to let you go. I really fucking don’t.
” My arms tightened around her and hers around me.
“I’ll burn it all to the fucking ground just to keep you in this bed.
I’ll shut everything down, change my name, move to Antarctica—fuck, anything.
Just don’t go.” Jade sighed into me. “Don’t go,” I murmured into her neck. “I can’t lose you. I can’t.”
“Hey.” Her fingers clasped around my jaw and lifted my face to hers, but I couldn’t open my eyes. Couldn’t admit how broken I was. And she didn’t push. Her soft lips grazed my cheek and she whispered, “You didn’t save me to lose me, Sasha. Can I call you that? Sasha? Why’s it Sasha?”
I nodded slowly, running my hands up her back. “It’s short for Alexander in Russian.”
We both sighed deeply, our bodies pressed together in the messy sheets of the bed, and I leaned against the headboard, holding all of Jade.
“Tell me things in Russian, Sasha.” Jade smiled wistfully, tracing her finger down the bridge of my nose. “Teach me something I won’t forget.”
I thought about it while my lips ghosted over hers. There was only one thing I had on my mind. “Vernis ko mne,” I whispered, on the verge of tears again. “Vernis ko mne.”
“Vernis…ko mne?” Jade repeated into my lips. “What does it mean?”
“Come back to me.”
Jade nodded, wiping my silent tears. “And how do I say…I will come back?”
“Ya vernus.”
“Ya vernus.”
God, her voice burrowed in my memory, but her hips…her hips moved slowly right on top of me. Back and forth.
It took Jade zero effort to turn me into a fucking feral animal.
“If you don’t stop, I’ll fuck you while I’m crying. That’ll be a first,” I admitted, and we both chuckled, our lips zinging against each other.
“Your dick’s crying too, baby.” She reached down, running her hand up the length of my cock and gathering my precum on her finger. I watched with bated breath—the way she opened her mouth and ran that finger on her tongue, her smile daring.
Fuck, she owned me.
Jade pulled back and shimmied down my body, slowly descending down…down, until her lips closed around my nipple piercing, the sensation sending sparks through me.