Chapter 21 #4
I had to accept it. In some ways, he was better for her.
Her life wouldn’t be in danger with him.
And he could love her in a good way, a wholesome way.
Not like the toxic, obsessive, crippling, soul-shattering love I had for her.
I was no expert in the matter, but this kind of love would consume us both.
Becket’s love wasn’t blazing and burning with screaming desire.
No, he would love her like a warm fireplace in the heart of winter, where she could rest easy.
So I let him live. I let him breathe, so he could love my baby right.
Ava turned the corner, and the breeze lifted her hair. She turned her face up, revelling in the feel of it. I swore the moonlight casted a halo around her head. Ava was beautiful in daylight, but she was breathtaking when the moon’s light touched her.
I’d first noticed it when I’d snuck into her room and watched her sleep in the cabin.
The moonlight had streamed into the window, like it was just as hungry to touch her, like I had been.
And I swore she glowed when it did. It was in quiet, mesmerising moments like that, that had me questioning everything I’d learned about the damn rock that orbited the earth.
With Ava in the room, I could see magic.
My chest squeezed. I missed watching her under the moon. It was those memories I played over and over again to fall asleep to. The ones I cherished the most—when it was just me and her and the moon.
Ava stopped at a pitiful potted plant hooked on the railing of someone’s front doorsteps. She emptied her water bottle in it and took off some of the dead leaves weighing it down. “I’ll be back to come check up on you. And bring you some fertiliser,” she cooed to the plant, before walking on.
God, she was precious. My little witch. The odd and peculiar woman who made me believe in magic.
Huh! Imagine that. Grayson Varon believing in magic. But I did. How could I not after spending so much time with her? Everything about the little witch was magical. Right out of the fairytales my mother used to read to us.
And sometimes she was my princess too. Making me want to give up my wicked ways and pledge my life to her. Protect her and take care of her and give her everything her radiant soul could ever want.
And in the quiet moments, where it was just the two of us, where she gave me her very being while I loved her body, she was just mine.
My girl. My baby. The beginning and the end of my world.
My reason for existing. The only one I had ever let in deep enough to the point where her absence was destroying me, slowly but surely.
I swallowed down the longing stirring in my gut. No, she wasn’t my baby anymore. She was Becket’s nightingale now. Whispering in his ear my sins and letting him take care of her. Letting him take my place.
And I had no right to be jealous of that. The loss of her came at my own hand and I had to find a way to deal with it.
She continued her walk at a leisurely pace, in no hurry at all. It was quite odd how at ease she was, considering she was walking alone in the city after dark. But not once had she glanced over her shoulder, not once did she cross the street when a figure approached from ahead.
Why was she so relaxed? After everything she’d been through.
Strange little thing.
My heart swelled at the thought that maybe, subconsciously, she recognised that there was a guardian devil watching over her.
That inner knowing of hers I could never quite understand.
Like the way her body broke out in goosebumps when I’d been close enough to touch her.
Or how she’d known I was there, before she could see or hear me, in the art installation in Florence.
Her gut instincts had never been wrong. And she never needed to fear anything as long as I was with her.
A movement caught my eye in the alley near Becket’s apartment as Ava rounded the last corner. I stopped in the shadows, waiting. A small glint from the moonlight reflecting off something metal. Like a knife, or a gun.
Fuck.
I walked past the street, breaking out into a sprint as soon as I was out of sight, running up the next street, so I could enter the alley from behind, and surprise whoever the fuck hid there.
I pushed my body to run faster, faster, feeling the adrenaline fuel my muscles from the horror scenarios my brain so effortlessly predicted and played out.
Up ahead stood a car, parked before the alley. By the way the body of the car slightly leaned lower on the driver’s side, I knew someone was in there. A big guy.
I snuck up behind the car, keeping low, lucky to find the window rolled down.
My knife was already in my hand. The tattoo on the man’s arm confirmed it—Bratva—and I struck.
Before the man could react, my blade was buried deep in his throat, severing his vocal cords.
I pulled it free, only to slide it over his throat, watching the blood spill out as he gargled like a slaughtered pig.
He grabbed hold of his neck, instinctively trying to hold the blood in while he stared at me in shock.
I chuckled lowly. “Naslazhdaysya adom, brat.”
His hands fell to his sides, his head lolling forward. I straightened. I had two minutes and thirty seconds before Ava reached the alley. And I could see the other fucker in the shadows, waiting on her, a silver revolver in his hand.
My steps were silent and precise as I walked up behind him. My first cut was the tendon on his trigger finger. He dropped the gun, and I caught it, just before it hit the ground. Revolvers had a knack for going off when dropped. And I didn’t want to scare my princess.
The man lifted his boot, trying to kick me in the face while I was low, but the idiot was as slow as a banana slug.
He wasn’t even going to put up a good fight for me.
I jerked back, letting his foot whizz past my face, then swung out and cut the Achilles tendon on the foot he was balancing on.
He dropped like an ox, and I had my hand over his mouth before he could scream.
I breathed out a pleased sigh. It was beyond satisfying seeing someone go down so fast with precise little cuts to precise little tendons.
“Shh, big guy,” I whispered. “We don’t want to disturb the peaceful walk of that beautiful woman you came for.
She had such a good day. Let’s not ruin it. ”
I plunged the blade into his neck, severing his vocal cords too, just in case he was a pussy, then brought my knife up to his eye, watching his mouth gape open in horror as he tried to scream but only a whoosh of air came out.
Stupid move. He was going to struggle getting oxygen back into his lungs with no vocal cords.
“Who sent you? Blink once for Rurik, twice for Michael.” If it was Michael, it would be pure revenge for being in prison. But if it was Rurik…
The man stared at me wide eyed, refusing to blink.
I chuckled under my breath. They were always so brave.
Until they weren’t. I pushed the tip of my blade into the corner of his eye, making a scooping motion with my knife, as if I was about to scoop his eye out.
The man writhed silently underneath me, and I pulled my knife free. “One more chance. And make it quick.”
The man blinked once with his good eye. Rurik. The king of kings, as he liked to call himself these days.
Fuck! He found her. He found my girl.
I stabbed my knife right through the fucker’s eye into his brain. He went limp underneath me. I pulled him behind a garbage bin and straightened my clothes. I would deal with the bodies later.
I stepped forward, sticking to the shadows, searching for Ava. She was still fifty meters away from the alley, her lips curved into an easy smile, blissfully unaware of what had just transpired in the shadows before her.
My body relaxed, and I laughed silently as she readjusted the bag of heavy books in her hand and blew a lock of hair from her face. Everything was perfect when the only thing that bothered her was an unruly curl.
I drank in every one of her movements, every line of her body, my heart feeling heavy.
Once she disappeared into that apartment, it would be a while before I would see her again.
Rurik had found her, and I couldn’t wait any longer.
It was time for me to leave her and get to work.
I would need to arrange for someone else to guard her.
While I planned the auction and figured out Volkov’s escape from prison.
I clenched my jaw at the panic slipping up my ribs. Leaving her now was the hardest fucking thing I’d ever had to do. Even worse than leaving her in that vault. She needed my protection more than ever.
Ava came to a halt before the alley, and I couldn’t seem to blow out my breath. It got stuck in my chest. She turned slowly and stared down the alley, right at me.
My insides flipped. Could she see me?
No. There was no way. I was perfectly hidden within the shadows, something I’ve perfected over the years. I could give the goddamned ninjas a run for their money.
I stood as still as a statue, not even daring to breathe. Not that I could. What was she doing?
She took a hesitant step forward, a crease forming between her brows, and I finally inhaled a soundless, shattering breath.
Six more steps, and she would be in my arms.
The thought ripped through me, stirring a desperation from deep inside me that I’d kept bound and gagged.
Ava took another step towards me, and my breathing turned fast and ragged, my hands shaking like a madman.
Five more steps. Just five steps. It was all that separated us. Why was I doing this again? Why wasn’t I falling to my knees in front of her? I could be good to her. I would break my fucking body, twist it into unimaginable positions to morph into the man she deserved.
“Ava?”
Ava’s head snapped to the side, from where the voice came—the front door of Becket’s apartment.
Fucking, Becket! He must’ve sat by the window, waiting on her like the fucking dog he was.
Ava didn’t answer him. She turned back to me, squinting into the shadows that hid me. She cocked her head to the side.
What was she thinking?
She took two more steps towards me, and my heart hammered in my throat.
Yes, baby. That’s it. Now three more.
Three more steps, and I could wrap her in my arms where she belonged. Fuck Becket and his puppy love. She was mine! She was my girl.
But only if she came to me. Only if she stepped into the shadows with me, where I could safely steal her away. Becket wouldn’t let her go without a fight. And I couldn’t kill Becket. She would never forgive me.
“What are you doing?” Becket asked again.
She quickly looked to him, then back at me, chewing on her lip, inching forward as if pulled to me.
Three more steps, little witch.
Together or death. That’s what I had promised.
And in my own fucked-up way, I hadn’t broken it.
Every single minute without her felt like death.
And I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t tolerate the constant pain that throbbed through my body every second we were apart.
It was fucking agony, and I’ve had enough! It was time my baby came home.
“Come inside. It’s getting cold,” Becket called again.
Ava blinked and took a step back.
No.
She was so close!
I reached for her, but it was too late.
She took another step backwards. “Coming!” she called, then turned, walking to Becket. She gave the shadows one last glance over her shoulder before she disappeared from my sight.
The air rushed out of my lungs, and I collapsed to my knees. I stifled a scream, pressing a fist to my aching heart as reality crashed back into me.
My mind turned numb to everything but the pain constricting my chest—the loss of Ava. The loss I somehow go through again and again, with the pain only getting worse each time I had to watch her go.
“What were you doing?”
“I don’t know. I… felt something.” She sounded embarrassed to admit it.
I couldn’t feel the gravel beneath my knees or the sticky blood that coated my right hand as I listened to her vanish into the building. It was just the incessant throbbing in my chest and their voices.
“You are so strange. How was your day?”
I could hear Ava chuckle. “Oddly magical.”