Chapter 41
Aleksandr Volkov
I turned away from the window when Nik opened the passenger side door, holding it open for Drea. I didn’t want to watch her leave, didn’t want to watch her get in that cab and never come back.
I had been standing in my office on the second floor, peering out the window like some creeper, anxiously waiting for her to appear. Desperate for one final glimpse of her before she left.
God, I missed her already. How was that possible? It had been only one night and I missed her so much it hurt. I missed her laugh. I missed her smile. I missed the way her nose would scrunch up when something she didn’t like happened on whatever ridiculous television show she was watching.
I knew I should have been the one to do it, to put her in the car and say goodbye, but I had to be honest with myself.
I’d barely been able to stop from marching down there and bringing her back.
From throwing her over my shoulder like the first time we’d met and dragging her back to my room, where she belonged.
There was no way I could handle watching her go when I was barely in control of myself.
It was the reason why I sent Nik instead of me.
I had it all planned out. I’d let her go. Give her space and time to think. And if she didn’t come back on her own, I’d drag her back.
Knock. Knock.
I exhaled heavily, moving to stand behind my desk. A range of emotions hit me all at once.
Anger. Frustration. Excitement.
“Come,” I called out, cracking my neck.
The door opened, and Mila walked in. The sultry look she threw my way told me she thought she was here for a good reason, a fun time.
How wrong she was.
“Alek,” she breathed, biting her lip. She went to close the door.
“Leave it open.”
She frowned, and then shrugged her shoulders, stepping further into the room. Her gaze wandered around idly, taking everything in. “This is nice.”
I could tell she didn’t mean it, that she was just saying it because she thought it was what I wanted to hear.
“I didn’t know you had an office.”
That’s because I never used it. Never had the need. But with Father gone, I needed somewhere to work, and it didn’t feel right using his. I had put it back exactly the way it was before the attack, and planned to leave it undisturbed until he came home.
When I still hadn’t engaged her in conversation, she began to fidget uncomfortably.
Good. I wanted her to be uncomfortable.
She reached for the zipper that ran down the front of her dress, probably hoping to use sex as some sort of distraction tactic, but I held a hand up, stopping her.
“That’s not what you’re here for, Mila.”
Her unease grew tenfold. She knew that if I didn’t call her here for sex, it meant something bad. I’d told her enough times I wasn’t interested in anything other than sex from her.
“Did you really think you’d get away with it?” I asked, my voice dropping low.
She swallowed, visibly nervous. “Get away with what?”
I wasn’t in the mood to play games. I was tired, still in pain from the stab wound in my fucking shoulder, and pissed off I wasn’t balls deep in the woman I loved right now.
Whoa, loved?
I thought about it for a moment and then internally shrugged. Sounded about right.
I turned the laptop on my desk to face her and pushed play. When her eyes darted down to the screen, her face dropped.
The surveillance footage from the night of the attack played out over the laptop. It showed Mila entering the guardhouse at the front gate and giving a plate of cupcakes to the two soldiers on duty. Not even thirty seconds later, they both vomited up blood and fell to a heap on the floor.
Mila then ran to the controls and opened the gate, allowing four blue vans to drive onto the property—the vans that held the MC army Dominik had sent to take us out.
When Nik had first shown me, I’d been stunned into silence. Out of all the possible scenarios I’d envisioned, Mila being the one to betray us hadn’t once entered my mind. I had watched it over and over again to make sure I was seeing what I was actually seeing. She had been the one to let them in.
Mila slammed the lid of the laptop down, her unease shifting to anger.
“What did you expect?” she hissed, her face turning red.
“You think you can just throw me aside and start fucking that Spanish suka with zero consequences? That I was just going to sit by and let that happen? I was meant to be Queen, Alek. Me! Not her. I’m the one that deserves it.
I loved you! I would have made a great wife!
But you never gave me the chance to be anything more than a—what did you call it?
‘A warm body for you to stick your cock into’. ”
Amusement shot through me and I couldn’t hold back my laugh even if I tried. Mila was so shocked she took a step back, her eyes bugging out of her head. She’d never heard me laugh before.
“That’s because there’s no substance to you, Mila. There never has been. I had no interest in getting to know you because there’s nothing about you worth knowing.”
Her face grew another shade of red in embarrassment.
“What I want to know is, what was your plan exactly? Did you think helping my uncle overthrow us would get you the position you’re so desperate for? That attention you crave so much?”
“I do not crave attention.”
In the background I could hear what sounded like loud, angry footsteps. Someone was stomping around the house, doors being opened and slammed shut.
“You’re a power hungry whore. All of you crave attention.”
Her hands curled into fists at her side. “I don’t have to stand here and listen to this.” She turned to leave, but my next words stopped her in her tracks.
“I don’t know why you showed up here in the first place. We didn’t think you’d be that stupid. You betrayed us and yet you still came running when I called. Why?”
She spun. “Because I thought—” her mouth clamped shut.
“Thought what? That I was finally going to choose you? Did you think we wouldn’t find out what you did? That we didn’t have security cameras in the guardhouse?”
She averted her eyes.
“Oh, you didn’t,” I chuckled softly. “You see Mila, that’s where you went wrong. Thinking you were smart enough to pull something like this off.”
“I did pull it off!” she yelled, stomping back to the desk. “I killed those guards and let those men in. If they’d done their fucking job, I would be Queen!”
“Is that what Dominik promised you if you helped him?”
“I went to him! I offered to help him and he agreed to marry me when he became Pakhan .”
“And when that plan failed, you thought you’d still try your luck with me?” I shook my head. “It’s unfathomable to me how someone could be that fucking stupid.”
Behind Mila, I saw Drea walk up the stairs through the open door, her chest heaving and eyes darting around frantically.
I frowned. What was she still doing here? I thought she’d left.
Her head swung our way and her gaze locked on Mila. Fury overcame her and she marched towards us with single-minded focus, each step full of determination. Her brows were lowered in an angry frown and her jaw clenched so hard I was afraid she’d shatter her teeth.
Mila was in front of me saying something else, something I hadn’t heard because I stopped listening. All of my attention was on Drea as she pushed my office door open wider and went right up to Mila. She grabbed a fistful of Mila’s hair from behind and slammed her face into my desk.
Mila screamed, her arms flailing. Drea didn’t stop. She slammed Mila’s head down over and over again, her face completely consumed with rage.
I arched an eyebrow in amusement, watching her with a pleasant mixture of surprise and eagerness.
Blood splattered over the desk. Something cracked. Possibly Mila’s nose. I wasn’t sure.
Slam!
Slam!
Slam!
Drea released her grip and Mila crumbled to the floor with a pain-filled groan.
But Drea wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. She began kicking her, stomping on her with the heel of her foot while she swore at her in Spanish.
“Puta estúpida,” You stupid bitch
Kick.
“Te voy a matar,” I’ll fucking kill you.
Stomp.
“Zorra sucia y podrida,” Dirty, rotten whore.
Drea grabbed the antique letter opener on the desk and stabbed Mila in the chest, twisting it slowly before yanking it out and stabbing her again.
She then straightened, blowing out a breath as she pushed a strand of hair out of her face.
Her eyes cut to me, the anger increasing all over again, her lips curling up into a snarl.
“You couldn’t even wait for me to leave before you called in your whore, huh?”
I frowned. “I didn’t call her here for that.”
“No?” Drea jumped up on my desk, staring down at me. It was the first time she’d ever been in the position to do so, and I didn’t particularly mind it. She was looking at me with that angry glare I loved so much.
“No. I brought her here to kill her. She’s the one that opened the gates yesterday. The one that made sure the alarm wasn’t raised when the raid started.”
Her eyes narrowed, like she was trying to figure out whether to believe me or not. She must have decided she did because she let the subject drop. She placed a foot in the centre of my chest and pushed, forcing me down into my seat.
My brows shot up in surprise, but I didn’t fight her.
“You sent your brother to let me go.” She said it with an accusatory glint in her eyes, her voice taking on a threatening tone.
“I did. Because if I did it myself, I wouldn’t have let you get in the car.”
“Really? Why’s that?”
“You know why.”
“Tell me anyway.”
I ran my eyes over every detail of her face. Those soft, feminine features. Beautiful caramel skin. Mesmerising amber eyes. That warm, fuzzy feeling I always got when I thought about her bloomed in my chest, coated in a thick, dark possessiveness that almost choked me. “Because I love you.”
Her breath hitched.