Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
Sage
An errant strand of sunlight hits my eye and wakes me. When I open my eyes I find the curtains closed, and a smile forms on my face when I remember that I'm in Nic's bed. More specifically, with his arms wrapped around me and my head resting on his chest.
I stroke up and down the plains of his abs, smoothing over the chest hair.
As my mind wakes and I remember my predicament, dread pools in my stomach.
I've confined myself in a hole I'm not sure I'll be able to crawl out of.
Half of me wants to forget the name Rushkoff ever existed and see the both of them out of this house forever.
The other part of me can't let it go. The part of me that feels like they're involved somehow in the plot against me.
The part that still doesn't want to ignite a war with Victor.
The part that comes alive when his brother looks at me. Even though whatever floats between us feels like passion disguised, but he looks at me like I disgust him.
I hate how it makes me feel.
Everything is simpler loving Nic.
I want simple.
Nic grumbles, his chest vibrating underneath my head as he comes to. I pat his chest with a smile as I slip out of bed, wrapping a sheet around myself and opening the curtains in full.
Nic hisses as the light hits his face. "Devil woman," he groans, rolling out of bed onto the floor to hide, but I just laugh.
I stare out the glass doors onto the back lawns as Nic grumbles somewhere behind me. My smile slips when I notice men carrying crates and suitcases back and forth up the driveway.
"What's going on out there?" I ask Nic, pointing to the men.
Nic stands, following my stare before he gulps and looks away. "Just moving some merchandise around."
I frown. "Those are Rushkoff men though?"
"Yeah, I don't know. It's their merchandise. Just getting a head start on their move I suppose."
I want to question it further but when I spin, Nicholas is there and suddenly his lips are on mine. Kissing me stupid and I smile as I forget all about what I was just thinking.
"I'm going to shower," Nic says, winking. "Someone should surprise me in there."
I chuckle. "Give me a few minutes." He slaps my butt before he walks away.
The shower starts running, only as background noise to me while I watch men carry things up the driveway and load them into cars.
I shake my head, ignoring the funny feeling stirring in my gut.
I'm about to join Nic in the shower when I hear a faint buzzing. A buzzing that feeds the anxiety in my stomach like tiny sparks of lightning.
After a few moments, it stops, but then starts again. I frown. I can see Nic's phone sitting on the dresser. It's not where that's coming from.
I move throughout the room, running my fingers along each surface. Past the bookcase, dresser, and finally coming to his desk. Like a game of hot or cold, my skin warms when I sit down in his chair.
The buzzing rings against the pads of my fingers.
Something's here.
When I open a drawer it gets louder. I rifle through the contents unashamedly.
The intensive drawer search turns up nothing, but I can still feel the buzzing against the bottom of the wood. I bite my lip as I continue to run my hands over the surface, certain that I can feel the vibrations beneath.
I press my fingers to the bottom of the drawer, but there's something strange about how it sits. Too small for its height. I curl my fingers around a thread of loose ribbon.
I know what will happen if I tug it.
I know what I will find.
Here, I contemplate shoving the drawer closed and ignoring what I see. If I stop now, I can blissfully get into that shower with Nic. He'll probably kiss me. Make love to me against the shower wall. And I'll never think about what's in this drawer again.
Only I know that isn't true.
I'll never be able to forget it.
I scold myself for the blatant violation of privacy, and then I rip the ribbon up. The bottom of the drawer lifts out to show me a secret compartment.
God dammit.
I peer inside the drawer.
There's the source of the buzzing. An older phone that can only be described as a burner for all the lack of personality is has. The burner phone has several unnamed missed calls and one message that says: call me now.
My heart starts to gallop in my chest. I pull the rest of the contents out and start to flip through them, lacking dignity and feeling righteous in my search.
There's old cashed cheques. Too many payments to count. But hardly a mafia man's money. Why would he need to hide this?
There's more paperwork inside. Nothing that means anything to me. Underneath it all, though, at the very bottom and hidden under everything else, there's a black flip book about the size of a card. The kind that people usually keep ID cards in.
The black card isn't heavy but it feels crushing in my hand. I lick my lip. I shouldn't open this. Nothing good is going to come from-
I flip the black card open and my body chills.
Icy poison slices within me, tearing up my insides.
No. Please no.
I hold my hand over my mouth and barely hold in the sob that chokes me when my ears start to ring.
Yet I can't let go of the book. I can't stop staring at it, even as the world fades around me and darkens to gray with the weight of all the lies.
It's not an ID. It's a badge.
Nicholas Baker.
FBI.
The shower water stops running, abruptly throwing me back into reality.
Instinct takes over and I burst into action, messily shoving everything I found back into the secret drawer before Nic can see me. My fingers slip multiple times, even as they clutch the badge like they're not going to let go.
Tears pour down my face, but as always, I cry silently.
He was supposed to be my prince.
"Sage?"
I look over and I just know all my emotions are written on my face by the way Nic's jaw clenches. His fists ball at his sides and his eyes go cold as he looks me over and then looks over to the drawer, which is very clearly askew. I'm bad at covering up my messes. Nic clearly is not.
"You weren't supposed to see that," he says.
The words tear bullets through me. I sob, backing up and clutching the sheets tighter over my chest. Suddenly I feel more vulnerable than I ever thought I would around Nic.
Nic.
Nic makes to step toward me. He wears only a towel hung low on his hips and I'm only wearing a sheet. We're not dressed appropriately for the eruption that is surely to follow.
"No!" I hold out a hand in front of me. "Don't come near me."
"It's not what you think," he says, raising his hands in a placating gesture and giving me the sincere eyes he's always had. Now, though, I'm not sure I can believe them.
"Tell me what I think, Nic. Tell me what I fucking think!" I yell, tripping over the length of the sheet. I chance a glance to the door, my escape route and Nic looks over his shoulder too, following my eyes. He's blocking the door. There's no time to get past him.
"Look, yes, okay. Yes I'm FBI. But if you'd just let me-"
"Let you explain?" I yell. "Let you explain!"
I stumble backward, tripping over my own feet until I fall into the glass door and remember that it opens out onto the courtyard.
An escape hatch. I reach for the handle of the glass door, when something occurs to me.
I turn back on him with murder in my eyes.
"What are they really doing out there, Nic? "
His jaw clenches.
"Nicholas?" I cry, my heart tearing in two. "Nicholas, what are they really doing out there?"
Nic purses his lips, huffing, and he really doesn't want to tell me. "The Rushkoffs are leaving. Anton broke the marriage deal. You're not marrying Victor fucking Rushkoff."
"What?!" I cry, seeing the packing with fresh eyes. I don't have to marry Victor, but. "What about the threat of war?"
Nic gives me wide panicked eyes, and when I thought I knew him, I'd say he's thinking how unlucky he is to be having these two hard conversations at once. "We can take them."
"No," I cry, sobbing into my palm. "No!"
My brain struggles to deny it. They... Isn't this what I wanted? They broke the marriage deal.
But they did it behind my back. It was meant to be my choice. I was meant to be my say.
"It was meant to be my choice," I whisper.
"Yeah? Well you were choosing wrong. Had to take matters into our own hands."
"You betrayed my trust," I whisper, then turn to shout. "And you're the fucking FBI, Nic!"
He takes another step.
"No!" I cry out, sobbing. "Don't come any closer."
"Sage, pleas-"
I pry the curtains apart and open the door, slamming it shut behind me. I struggle to hold the sheet against my breasts as I gather a deck chair and press it up against the handle to hold the door shut.
And then I run.
Not like I've run before. This time, I bolt around the side of the house, pavement nearly burning under my bare feet. My hair and the sheet fly wildly behind me as I struggle to keep myself upright.
I nearly gave up everything. Sacrificed my family. For a liar and a fed.
I'm not sure where I'm going, just that I need to get away from here. Just that tears are streaming down my eyes. Just that my heart is lurching in my chest. Just that I need to find a way out.
I feel like I'm going to combust.
I race around the side of the house. I look over my shoulder, not watching where I'm going as I turn a corner, only to slam straight into a hard chest in a black suit. The both of us stumble backward, but tattooed hands grip my shoulders. Alexei finds his feet first and rights us both.
"Fucking Christ! Watch where you're-"
I look up into his eyes and he pauses, the hatred melting off his face like it was only there to hide the layer underneath. "You're still here," I whimper.
"What's happened?"
The sheet slips out of my grip as I falter, gripping onto his shoulders too.
"Fuck," Alexei curses, pulling the sheet back up to secure it in place. "You're naked."
"Take me to your brother."
His eyes darken. "Excuse me?"
"Where's Victor?"
Alexei shakes his head. "He left last night."
"Take me out of here," I beg him, but he just gives me a stunned look.
His eyes that remain fixated on my face, also look like they're taking a lot of energy to remain there.
It's like he can't even hear a word I'm saying.
"I know you know how to get out of here!
" I yell. He blanches but still holds the sheet in place as I wave my arms frantically. "Please! Get me out of here."
I need to fix everything before it's too late.
Starting a war between my family and the Rushkoffs is exactly what a fed would want. Way to kill off two birds with one prince.
"Fine. Jesus," Alexei says, huffing at me.
He pulls the sheet tighter around me and secures it in a knot around my waist. He holds out his hand and I take it, twirling our fingers together.
I only have a moment to appreciate the strong calluses of his palm gripping my small hand in his large one before we're off.
He leads me and we run across the yard, the sheet flapping aimlessly in the wind but secure around me from the knot he tied. We run past the pool deck and away from the rose garden, until we're sprinting full speed on the lawns next to the driveway.
"Sage, no!" I don't stop running but I do turn to look over my shoulder and I see Nic standing at the front door in only his pants. Nic starts at a run and I gasp as I focus my attention forward once again.
"Come on." Alexei tugs at my hand and we continue to run, him pulling me along and my legs working as fast as they can to keep up.
We stop when we reach the front gate, and I turn to see Nic coming up fast. Alexei clenches his jaw as he looks to see Nic chasing us.
A stray hair of black hair falls across his forehead and his eyes lock on mine for only a second before he's back in action.
Alexei pulls out a gun and shoots the lock on the gate. Once, twice, then a few more times until it starts to sag and loosen. Nic is close. Coming up so close.
With his expensive oxford-shoed foot, Alexei boots the gate open and takes my hand again. Then we're running out onto the gravel road. I wince, feeling prickles of sharp rock dig into my heels. It's hell on my feet but I don't stop. I can't stop.
Alexei looks down on me, then to my feet, barely even stopping his run as he scoops me up into his arms. He pulls me up with one arm under my legs and the other under my shoulders and I instinctively wrap my arms around his neck as he keeps running for both of us.
We come a ways down the road and Alexei leads us behind a bush where a black car is hidden and waiting.
"Get in," Alexei says.
The car unlocks and I don't hesitate, jumping into the back seat while Alexei gets into the driver's side and tears off.
The gravel peels dust up off the road as we scream away, fishtailing before the car rights itself. When I look out the back window, the last thing I see is Nic standing barefoot and bare-chested in the middle of the road, pulling at his hair.