Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Sage
I'm almost convinced I'm nocturnal. Last night as soon as the sun set, my eyes glued themselves open, staring mindlessly out the window as the moon shone in the sky.
If I did sleep, it was only long enough for my tears to wet my pillow.
Once again, I spent the night awake. Awake for long enough to get to watch the sun rise and the mansion start its day.
When I come down for breakfast on the back porch, the day is already warm, with birds chirping as they splash in the bird baths around the gardens.
Freddie, Nicholas and Anton are at the table by the time I get there, so I plaster a cheery smile on my face. One that is bright enough to hide behind.
"Good morning," I announce, bounding towards the table.
"Bella," Freddie says. He pulls out my chair for me and I graciously accept the seat next to his, surveying the breakfast options and piling up my plate.
Anton barely even notices my arrival, his brow furrowed as he stares down at his eggs like he doesn't see them. Mindlessly, he sips on his coffee.
Nicholas holds his head in his hands through tired eyes. I don't think his lack of sleep has allowed him to notice I'm here yet, either. He refused to go to bed, suspicious that I was going to sneak out, so he tried to stay up as late as possible to head me off. Unfortunately for me, it worked.
I snap a finger in front of their faces. "Um, hello??"
Anton startles, nearly spilling his coffee while Nic just groans, removing his head from his hands and going back to buttering his toast.
"Sage," Anton says. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes," I lie. They either don't realize it's untrue or they choose not to call me on it.
"Tell me, how are things going with Victor?"
"Shit, Anton, she hasn't even had her coffee yet," Freddie chuckles.
It's been nine days since the Rushkoff brothers arrived at our countryside estate.
Victor has been nothing but a perfect gentleman, and if I'm telling the truth, that makes me incredibly nervous.
He's the leader of the Russian Bratva in our city.
He shouldn't be a gentleman. Like my father, I assume he's killed more men than he can count.
I raise my brow at my internal monologue. It's possible he gets his brother to do all the dirty work. Keeps his own hands clean. Maybe that's why the brother is such a lunatic.
"Sage?"
"Huh?"
Anton gives me a look and prompts me again. "Victor? How are things going?"
"Oh. Right." I shake my head and give a pursed smile. "Fine?"
"Fine?" Anton scolds me.
"Things are going... well. He's been a perfect gentleman so far." I shrug. "I don't think there's anything to worry about with the peace deal, uncle."
"That's not what I'm worried about." Anton wars to catch my eyes. "The second he stops being a gentleman just say the word and we'll make him disappear."
Nic snorts and takes a bite of the toast he'd been buttering. Plain toast with butter. "Let's just throw both the brothers in the lake right now and be done with it."
Freddie chuckles before toasting with his glass. "Ain't no wars to be started with leaders bricked to the bottom of the water."
Anton shakes his head in disapproval, but cracks a smile, anyway.
"Good morning!" The hearty voice makes me jump as Victor makes his way onto the porch with us.
He's a burly guy and he speaks like one.
Everything he says is big, bright, and puffed up to make him take up as much space as possible.
On the contrary, his brother makes all the air disappear from the room as he slinks in the shadows.
"My beautiful fiancé." Victor mocks a bow and heaps himself into a chair, piling his plate high. We watch in fascination as he fills it to the brim with an ungodly amount of food.
"I'm glad to see you're enjoying my hospitality." Anton gestures to the spread.
Victor grabs him and shakes his shoulders. "Don't be bitter! I'll be hosting you before you know it!"
Great. Victor's a morning person.
It's strange how my family seems to think we're living in the midst of enemies, but everyone is at their most relaxed when Victor is around... Weird. I can't count the number of times I've heard the name Rushkoff spoken like it was meant to be spit instead. Yet, here we are.
Victor gives a pointed look at Nicholas's plate. "Plain fucking toast with butter? You got a hangover or something, Prince?"
Nic narrows his eyes. "I just like the taste."
Victor chugs back his coffee like it's water, clucking his tongue at the taste before turning back to Nic. "Come on, bodyguard, put some protein on your plate. If you're gonna be jumping in front of bullets for your charge you need your strength."
Nic runs his tongue over his teeth, scoffing as he says, "Very funny. You've had your fun. Now shut your trap, Rushkoff."
There it is, the name sounding like a curse.
"Anton," Victor says, voice still booming. "Talk me through the expansion plans you've got..." At that point, I stop listening. With all attention on Victor, I recognize that right now, nobody is watching me, and I smirk.
There's only a small reprieve to escape. While Anton and Victor are busy joking and jostling each other like they're brothers, I take my chance to bid them adieu and bolt.
I go quietly, needing the time alone. Luckily for me, Nicholas is also distracted glaring daggers at the scene that is Anton and Victor becoming friends, so he doesn't notice me leave. Once I'm inside the house, I close the glass doors and exhale a breath, shoulders slumping.
Nine days. Nine fucking days Victor has been here and he hasn't left me alone for one second of it. Well... there were those few seconds, actually. When I humped Nic and made him come in my swimsuit. Then had to spend the afternoon chilling by the pool with Nic's cum making my pussy sticky.
Christ.
Anyway.
Yes, I brought Victor here to get to know him. To make the idea of becoming his wife a little less daunting. But I thought he'd be disinterested. That I'd be free to get to know him in public settings, watching from afar.
But no. He's charming. Polite. Interesting. Interested.
A girl needs some space.
I take the stairs two at a time, eyes on my feet as I contemplate the situation as it looks. That is, like Victor is not a monster. I'm so busy rushing up the stairs, lost in thought, that I don't see it coming when, at the top of the stairs, I collide with something.
Someone.
I puff as the wind is knocked out of me.
"Fucking hell, DeMarco, watch where you're going," Alexei says, nostrils flaring with violence as he glares down at me. His thick tattooed hands clutch the balcony banister for balance.
"Jesus Christ," I say, clutching my chest. "The other Rushkoff brother slinking in the shadows. Great."
"Slinking in the-" Alexei huffs. "You ran into me."
"You were clearly in the way." I bat my hand at him, attempting to move past him, but he stops me.
"Not so fast," he smirks. He releases his hold on the balustrade and runs a hand through his slick black hair.
The look he directs toward me is cold and calculating, and my heart moves to a gallop.
I don't like it when he looks at me for too long.
"Over a week here and yet we've barely had the chance to get to know each other. "
Alexei smiles then and it's all malice. It's sadistic and evil. The epitome of what I would have expected from a Rushkoff. I'm quietly unnerved but I hold my ground, because I don't want him to see that.
Lucky for me my voice holds steady as I talk. "Did you ever think that may be by design? Who says I give a fuck about getting to know you?"
His nostril flares. I'm already starting to recognize some of his tells. When he's seconds from unleashing his legendary temper. For some reason, I seem to be very good at getting it to flare up.
Even as he takes a step closer to me, trying to intimidate me, I don't move an inch from where we glower at each other.
"Still," he says. "I think I should get the chance to size up the vixen that thinks she's going to ensnare my brother."
I roll my eyes and fold my arms, hoping he doesn't see my throat bob. "You're such a drama king. We've had plenty of time to get acquainted."
"You're going to be my sister-in-law. I should think we'd get to know each other, as family."
"Sister-in-law?" My brow scrunches.
"It generally happens when you marry someone's brother," he says, looking at me like he thinks I'm an absolute idiot.
He's in my way, and I really just wanted to escape, not have a confrontation. I need to end this conversation. One, because I never planned on having it. Two, because I really don't like the way he's looking at me. And three, because I really kind of do like the way he's looking at me.
"Whatever," I say, placing a hand on his shoulder that I intend to use to push him out of the way.
But as soon as my palm makes contact, he grabs my wrist, wrapping his thumb and middle finger tightly around it.
His eyes are hard now, blazing, and with painful slowness he drags his eyes from mine to glare at where his hands are clutching me.
He looks at my hand like he wants to bite it off.
"You know," he takes a step forward, and instinctively I go to take one back, but he clutches my wrist tighter.
"You'll be spending a lot of time around me, DeMarco.
" He takes another step towards me, and me another one backward.
"All these men here that you've got wrapped around your little finger won't mean shit when it's my roof you're living under.
" He steps again and I back up into the wall.
He finally takes my wrist off his shoulder and pins it above my head. "When you marry my brother-"
"If," I huff, glaring at him. God, I really hate this man and his attention. Don't look too closely at me, Rushkoff, walk away.
"What?"
"If I marry your fucking brother."
His head jerks back like he's been smacked. My wrist finally falls from his grip as he drops his hold on me to fold his arms. "What the fuck do you mean if? There's no if. I've seen it. Vic's been the perfect gentleman."
"Maybe I don't like gentleman."
Alexei chuckles like a villain, throwing his head back to relish in the laugh.
All I can see from this angle are his sharp teeth as he runs his tongue over them.
He doesn't touch me again, but he does lower his head to meet my eyes.
Low enough and close enough that we're sharing breath.
"Oh, I believe that. That look in your eye. You want them rough."
I suck in a gasp and I can taste him on the air. His pupils dilate and I think he might be facing the same confronting storm as I am. I push out a breath and I swear I can see it as he breathes in and sucks it into his mouth.
His gaze darts down to my lips (holy shiiiiiiiiit) and then he leans in to whisper in my ear. "You want it to hurt. Don't you, princess?"
I grind my teeth. "The only person I want to hurt is you."
"I believe that too," he says.
I almost hold my words in. I'm almost smart enough not to speak what I'm thinking. Almost. "Your brother isn't rough."
He looks back at me and gives me a sharp look. "No. He isn't." I hear everything he doesn't say. But I am.
I don't like the way he's looking at me. I don't like the closeness. He's rude and brash and he challenges me and I hate it.
Smirking, he opens his mouth to say something that I just know is going to be insulting and foul. Before he can, I decide I need to diffuse this situation the only way I can.
So I stomp my foot into his.
He jumps back with a yelp. "What the fuck-"
He charges at me. I brace, ready to be shoved back against the wall to bear the brunt of his wrath, but it never happens. Before he can reach me, he's shoved violently out of sight.
I relax my shoulders and find Nicholas standing between us.
"Everything okay here, Sage?" Nic says, his breath panting. He must have run the whole way to find me when he realized I was gone. Alexei and Nic glare at each other, and it's like it's been forgotten that I'm even here at all. That is until Alexei makes eye contact with me and Nic actually growls.
"I- I'm fine," I say, eyeing Alexei as he limps back, jaw grinding as he shakes out his foot.
At that moment, my monitor goes off, beeping at me for attention. Alexei's face snaps back to me, twisting in confusion as he watches me tend to the monitor. Something like recognition draws over him, hardening his features as his jaw clenches so hard it looks painful.
"What the hell is that-"
Nic steps up to me and takes my arm at the elbow, cutting off Alexei and pulling me away. "It's none of your fucking business, Rushkoff, is what it is," Nic says as he drags me up the hallway and away from the psychotic Rushkoff.
"I think that should be warning enough," Nic says. "Threats are inside the mansion just as much as they are out."
He gives me a meaningful look and I nod once, averting my eyes. I chance a look back over my shoulder, seeing Alexei in the hall, head tilted as he watches us disappear.