Chapter 42 #2
There was something familiar in them. Something that my soul recognized. And I wondered if I had finally met her. My forever. The only one who could match my crazy.
There was a way to test that. If I could make her as obsessed with me as I was with her.
Then, I would know. I would know she was perfect for me.
I would know that I’d found the one person I would never have to hide myself from.
I quickly took all of her in, committing every single detail to memory before turning on the Lukyan charm.
“Sorry about that, gorgeous. Didn’t see you.”
She shivered in my fucking arms. “Uh—I-I—”
I smirked. Her mouth dropped open.
That’s it, baby, get a good look. Come follow me instead.
I wanted to shift her attention from my father to me because, if I was being honest, I was getting jealous that she wasn’t following me instead. I wanted her attention—all her fucking attention—and I would do whatever I needed to, to get it.
I pushed her back up onto her feet and, as much as I didn’t want to, moved back slightly. I grabbed her hand, and kept my gaze locked with hers as I bent at the waist and placed the softest, smoothest kiss on the top of her hand.
She swayed slightly.
“You have yourself a good day, gorgeous,” I rumbled, winking before turning around and heading for the door.
Each step I took was pure agony. I wanted to go back. To talk to her. Demand her to tell me every single thing about her. Bring her back to my house and tie her to the bed so she could never leave.
I hoped I’d done enough to spark her interest.
Come, my little shadow. Stalk me.
My love,
I am both devastated and hurt by your act of betrayal last night. Don’t you see how perfect we are for each other? How well we fit together?
We’re inevitable, you and me. Like death. We’re bound together by forces beyond our control.
I felt it the first time I laid eyes on you.
Didn’t you feel it too? I know you did.
Let this gift be a lesson for you, my love. Not only a show of my complete and utter devotion to you, but also a display of what shall happen should you betray our love again.
Yours always, in this life and the next,
L
I kept the giddiness I felt over Lyla’s love letter to myself as Aleksandr read it outloud.
Lyla. Her name was Lyla.
It had taken me a while to figure out her identity, and oh, boy, it had come as quite a fucking shock. I wasn’t sure who I imagined she would be, but the daughter of the man who murdered my mother, who, in turn, my father murdered for retribution was the last person on this earth I expected.
It had taken me a while to come to terms with, but in the end, it didn’t matter to me. Lyla was a child when everything happened, like I was. She wasn’t responsible for her father’s actions, just like I wasn’t for mine.
Who she was didn’t matter to me. What she was doing following my father didn’t matter to me. All that did was that she was mine, and I would do whatever it took to have her.
Lying to my siblings about who she was was hard. Beyond hard. Pretending like I had no idea what was going on when, really, I was the one pulling all the strings, was even harder.
But I had to.
My siblings loved me. I knew that. But they didn’t trust my judgment, as made abundantly clear by Aleksandr’s earlier words.
“Lukyan will just fuck it up. He’s unreliable.”
They couldn’t know anything about Lyla.
So, when Aleksandr asked, “What betrayal is she talking about? And what gift?” I lied.
Effortlessly.
For the greater good.
“Well,” I began, keeping my tone light to hide my deception. “I went out last night and ended up fucking this chick in the alley.”
Lies.
Lies, lies, lies.
That never happened, but for the purpose of keeping my secret, I had to say I did. Sure, there was a tiny sliver of guilt worming its way into my heart at having to lie to my older brother’s face like that, but there was no way I could tell him I was hopelessly in love and obsessed with my stalker.
He just wouldn’t understand. He would tell me I was being crazy. Again. Acting irresponsibly.
I had to show not only him but everyone that Lyla and I were perfect for each other.
“I’m assuming that’s the betrayal she’s talking about,” I continued, gripping the box in my hands tighter. “Because this was her gift.” I didn’t want to part with it. It was the best gift I’d ever received in my life. Nonetheless, I placed the medium-sized box down onto the table and waited.
Aleksandr picked it up with trepidation and looked inside.
It was fingers. Ten perfectly manicured fingers of a woman Lyla thought I’d had sex with. The truth of the matter was, I hadn’t touched another woman since the first moment I’d laid eyes on her….because she was right. I felt our connection the first time I saw her.
Scrawled on the inside of the lid was:
She lost her fingers for daring to touch what doesn’t belong to her. Take care with who you allow to touch you, my love.
Lyla had been watching me, like she did most nights. I was at the club. I didn’t lie about that part, but I was there for business. The club owner had been late for his payment to the Bratva, so my father sent me to collect it.
The club owner didn’t have it. Surprise, surprise. And instead tried to offer me something else in a bid to buy more time.
Or should I say, someone else.
He pushed one of the girls who worked the club at me, thinking what everyone else thought.
The playboy of the Bratva couldn’t say no to pussy.
Neither one knew that my heart had been claimed a long, long time ago. I was firmly a one-woman man.
The woman ran her fingers across my chest in a sultry attempt to get in my pants—which I promptly declined—and then, the next morning, those very same fingers were sitting in a box on the hood of my car, wrapped nicely in a big, beautiful red bow.
I’d never been more turned on in my life. My little shadow was possessive of me. Killed over me.
It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen, and only made me more head over heels for her than I already was.
“Ring-a-ding-ding, you’ve got the king,” I answered.
“Where are you?” Nikolai asked.
I couldn’t tell him where I really was. So, I said the first thing I could think of that would garner no more questions.
“Getting my dick sucked. Why?”
“We need you home. Now. Family meeting.”
Say something Lukyan-like.
“Can I finish first?”
I could almost feel him rolling his eyes through the phone. “We have a lead on Father.”
My spine snapped straight and the binoculars fell from my hands. What? “Be right there.”
I silently cursed to myself as I hung up the phone and started packing away my gear. I didn’t want to leave. I’d brought enough food and water to be camped out here for days. But my father was in trouble, and if we finally had a lead on him, we had to act on it. I had to go.
I snapped the stand on my sniper rifle back into place and loaded it into my suitcase. After zipping my backpack shut, I flung it onto my back and picked up my binoculars again, needing one last look to tide me over.
In the next apartment building over, Lyla sat on her couch, surrounded by darkness, the only light illuminating from the television in front of her.
She’d been parked there for hours, immersed in whatever program was playing.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell you which one she was watching. My focus never left her. Not once.
She had a bucket of popcorn in her lap, and several empty energy drink cans on the floor around her.
Her brother had come over earlier. Lev Voznesensky. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something about him I just didn’t like. Maybe it was the way he spoke to her, like he was talking down to her. Maybe it was the way he would bark orders at her and expect her to follow them.
Whenever Lyla wasn’t following me, I was following her.
She’d bugged my phones and laptops to keep track of me, so I had to get another phone—one she didn’t know about that I used solely for the photos and videos I took of her.
Photos of her walking down the street. Sitting in a restaurant, eating lunch. Riding her bike.
She’d meet up with her brother once a month, the location different every time, and discuss something so important they’d play music to hide it. Just in case anyone was listening.
I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew it had something to do with my father and why she was following him.
I allowed myself ten more seconds. Ten more agonizing seconds to catalog and imprint her every detail into my mind before leaving.
If I was lucky, I could hopefully be back later tonight to watch her before she went to bed.
As I pulled up at home, I quickly adjusted my clothing. I had a part to play in all of it. I couldn’t have anyone be suspicious about where I was spending my time.
My fingers pulled and plucked at my hair, making it as messy as I could. I shrugged out of my coat so it hung loosely around my shoulders, and then undid my shoelaces to give off the appearance I’d dressed in a hurry, before rushing inside.
She’s here.
Lyla is here.
I stayed motionless, making sure to slow down my breathing to give off the illusion of sleep as Lyla crawled through my bedroom window.
So far, Lyla had snuck into my room three times, and each time, it had been hard to remain still.
Every part of me loved having her in my space.
I just wanted to acknowledge the burning connection between us and fuck her on every surface in my bedroom.
Lyla did nothing but watch me. Sometimes, for hours on end.
It excited me. Made me want to give up on the insane plan I’d concocted and court her like a regular person.
But we weren’t regular people. Finding someone to match my crazy was extremely important to me. In everyday life, I treated everything like it was a game.
This was anything but a game.
This was my chance at happiness. Lyla was my chance at happiness. And I would do whatever I needed to do to grasp her and never let her go.