Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Hollis
Dru’s right where I left her when I went into the bathroom to clean up.
Fortunately, my girl’s not one tied to location as much as routine, or else this new place, as luxe as it is, would be a problem.
Also fortunately, Feliks had a sweatshirt large enough to fit me like a dress, so she has no idea my actual clothes are covered in blood and who knows what other grossness.
She’s happy as can be to have extra screen time until she can get back into her usual bedtime routine.
Giving her the tablet I keep in my purse for when an emergency distraction is needed always gets her super focused.
“Mommy, this house is nice. We’re staying here now?
What about my stuff? I need my toys and my backpack for school.
” The way she just rolls with change speaks to how unstable our lives used to be, before my online presence took off.
Back then, every dollar had to be stretched to its very edges, and sometimes, that meant bailing from an apartment only hours ahead of the eviction lock.
It’s a point of pride that we’re not living that desperation life cycle anymore.
I’m also super proud of the lessons I learned and the way we both came out the other side with resilience and courage to do hard things.
My girl treats school, even though it’s only pre-k, like it’s the ticket to the ivy leagues. Not that she knows what those are.
“No, Dru-bee Doo, we’re not staying here. We’re only spending tonight. Tomorrow’s Friday, remember? No school on Fridays.”
“I don’t like Fridays. It takes too long ’til school again. Ms. Riley’s going to teach us how to make oobleck. I can’t miss that!” If she were standing, I don’t doubt she’d stomp her little foot.
“You won’t miss it. I promise. I don’t even know what oobleck is.
So you have to be there to learn about it so you can show me,” I reason with her, because as much as I’m the adult and she’s just a little kid, she’s the smartest person I know.
One day, she’ll move mountains. I believe that with every bit of my soul.
“You promise-promise we’re going home, and I’m not gonna miss school.” There’s not really a question in her question, so I just nod and knot the towel that’s big enough to be a blanket on me.
Feliks might already be on my last nerve, thanks to being stupidly hot and even more stupidly bossy, but his house is truly divine. I may have clawed my way out of poverty to the point Dru and I live well these days, but this place makes ours look like a shack.
The knock on the door is gentle, and I give the guy credit for at least attempting to be a gentleman when he kidnaps a girl. Not that I’ll be admitting that to him anytime soon.
“Yeah?” I answer the second soft knock. I don’t unlock the door.
Nor do I say anything polite or gracious.
Because I didn’t ask to be here. Didn’t ask for Dru to be here.
Definitely didn’t ask to be brought here against my will when he could have easily just given us a ride to our place and told me to keep my mouth shut about what I saw tonight.
“I don’t know what half this shi-er-stuff is, but the bags of stuff from your list are here. Do you want me to carry them in?” The door is thick enough to nearly keep me from hearing what he says, but there’s no mistaking his pout.
A petty part of me loves thinking about him, sulking on the other side of the door, because he isn’t getting his way. It only took me two seconds to clock the kind of guy Feliks Rykov is.
For all his nerd vibes, the man is a stone cold fuck boy.
Unfortunately for Feliks, I learned my lesson about guys like him before I was old enough to drive.
They lack the ‘stick around’ gene. Which makes indulging in their hotness and sexy time skills a risk I can’t afford to indulge in a second time.
And if there’s any single lesson I learned harder than any others from being an unhoused, pregnant fourteen year old?
It’s that sex is transactional in one way or another.
Fucking for free isn’t worth it. So no, Feliks ‘sex on legs’ Rykov can keep his ass on the other side of the door.
“Just leave them there. Unless the ride home from my list is included, in which case we’ll be right out,” I say.
“No. I could not fit a car in the bags. Sorry,” he replies, not sounding sorry at all.
“So this is a hostage situation, after all,” I counter.
I know I’m a fool for not doing everything I can to escape. It’s not as if he bothered to confiscate my phone. I could call for a rideshare if I really wanted to. I mean, if I really felt the need, I could even call the police.
Yet, here I am, doing none of the smart things I know I should do.
Instead, I let a man I’m pretty sure is part of the Russian mob bring me and my baby girl to his fortress of a mansion for the night.
If this were a horror movie, now would be the time my airhead self got killed.
Nothing about Feliks’ treatment of us makes me worried about our safety, though.
Worried for my patience and my ability to keep a lock on my temper, for sure.
But safety? Nah. If he wanted to eliminate witnesses, he and the other guy would have already done so.
And honestly, they didn’t need to come riding to the rescue to begin with.
That realization hits me like a ton of bricks, and now, I have all the excuse I need to rationalize why I haven’t scheduled an Uber home.
There’s a reason these mobbed up strangers decided to protect Petal, Dru and me. And suddenly, I need to know why.