Chapter 18
ANTON
Every day, the men update me on where Liliana is. Her routine is mapped out, and I doubt there’s much left to learn about her movements.
None of the Sokolov guards know why she’s my target of the moment, and that suits me for now. The second I let on how much this young blonde is starting to matter, I show the world I have a weakness.
I never have to seek out a woman. They come to me, every woman in the city hungry for my attention and hopeful for my money.
I never have to chase a woman, either. They leave when I expect them to, and since I put my work as pakhan above everything else, no follow-up is ever required. Once I’ve had a lover, she’s gone. On my terms.
Except Liliana.
“Are you planning to speak with her again?” Viktor asks as we enter the lower level of a warehouse where I intend to witness the execution of a spy my men captured after a long game of cat and mouse.
I glance at him, bothered that he’s being slightly nosy. This is Viktor, though. He’s not asking to pry, even though the novelty of me holding this long an interest in a woman—even from afar—has to be confusing him.
“I’m not sure yet,” I admit.
I can’t stop thinking about her, and I can’t figure out what to do with her either. She’s in a twisted spot, serving one purpose as one of the many who owe the Bratva money. Her other purpose, as the woman I crave, runs far deeper.
“Because of the loan her parents have on the bakery?” he asks.
I button my suit jacket as another guard opens an inner door for us. We step into the viewing area of the cell, and though a window separates us from the killing, I don’t let the gruesome scene change the subject. Only with my loyal assistant can I be this open.
“Because of the loan,” I agree. “She’s too proud to accept charity.”
He tosses me a dubious look.
“And it matters.” I clear my throat. When I get Liliana to submit to me, and I will, I want her to do it with no leverage or obligation hanging over her.
Now that business stands between us, I hate that she might cave just to wipe the slate clean.
The thought of her sleeping with me again to buy off the debt turns my stomach.
Because then it’s business.
Not personal.
And I want everything with her strictly in the realm of what’s intimate and personal between us. Nothing else. No contingencies.
“You want her to submit because she wants to?” he guesses as the Sokolov enforcer slits the spy’s throat. Blood rushes out, dark and fast.
I nod. It reads as approval of what I’m witnessing, a stamp of agreement that my men have killed this hard-to-catch spy of my enemies. But it’s also a gesture for Viktor to read. He’s exactly right. I don’t want Liliana surrendering to me for any reward other than the bliss we found together.
How to achieve that remains a mystery. Still, when I return to my building at the end of the night and say goodnight to Viktor as he heads to his floor of the skyscraper I call home, I try to trust that a solution will present itself.
I’ve got men watching her. She’s within my sight, if only indirectly, and that reassures me she won’t slip away.
But I’m not sure how long I can keep testing my own patience like this.
Or why I’m doing it at all.
I’m Anton Sokolov. Ruler of crime in this city.
People bend to my will, but with her, I’m hooked on the possibility that she could be more than a conquest or an escape. I can’t shake the idea of her being so much more, a reason for my life to feel brighter and fuller than ruling with absolute power.
I enter my penthouse and come to a stop.
Elena stands in front of me.
She smiles, a seductive curl of her mouth as she hugs herself. In a long black fur coat, her face caked in makeup, she clears her throat.
“I was wondering when you’d finally come home.”
My anger lights up in an instant. “This is my home.”
“You used to say home was wherever I was.”
I doubt I ever uttered such romantic nonsense to her. But it’s not worth calling her out on such a trivial lie. “Leave.”
Instead of obeying, she lowers her arms. The coat falls with them, sliding down to pool at her feet. In lingerie, she juts a hip out and smiles wider. “So soon?”
“Leave. Now.”
I’ll be damned if she thinks she can get away with sneaking in here and seducing me. She’s thrown herself at me plenty of times before, and my stance will never change.
“It’s been so long since we’ve—”
“Leave.” I say it with a finality that would have men shaking with fear.
It does the trick. She frowns, though no lines show with all the work she’s had done, but I catch the disappointment in her eyes. She bends to scoop the coat into her arms and doesn’t put it on. Because she’s not done pushing her luck.
“Fine. I can see you’re not in the mood tonight.”
I’m very much in the mood for a lifetime of seduction and intimacy—with Liliana.
“But just remember that the Grayson Ball is coming up.” She tacks on another smile, as if she’s gaining ground with me, and walks up to me.
“And since I know you better than any other woman on this planet…” She trails her finger down my chest, eyeing me hungrily.
“I know you’ll be far too busy to ever get a real date for yourself. ”
Before she can hook her fingers under my belt, I snatch her hand and glare at her.
“So you may as well take me again. Right?” She grins.
“Wrong.” I shove her away. “I am not taking you.”
Just like Roman is prone to do, she throws a fit and growls. Pure frustration shows on her face as she pants at me and steadies herself after my rough push. “You are so fucking cold, Anton. You’ve got ice in your blood.”
I watch her as I pull out my phone. She can think I’ll humor her, but this is it. She’s pushed her luck too many times to count.
“You’re impossible,” she hisses. “So fucking aloof. It’s impossible to get anything from you!”
I stare her down without emotion as I lift my phone to my ear. “Remove Elena from the property,” I direct the head of security, who apparently let her in. “She is banned from accessing Sokolov territory. Effective immediately.”
She sucks in a deep breath. “What?”
I lower my phone, wishing this finally felt like a victory. I divorced her decades ago, but it’s taken an eternity to cut her completely out of my life. My tolerance has run out.
“You can’t mean that!” she accuses as the door opens and guards enter. “Anton, you can’t mean that!”
I nod at the men who grab her arms. Her coat falls, but even the sight of her body fails to get a single reaction out of me.
“Anton, you can’t—Let me go!”
She screams and protests, fighting the guards who carry her out.
The last man takes her coat, and when the door shuts behind them, I heave out a sigh.
Later, staring at the ceiling in bed, one contrast keeps returning to me: Elena always wanted something from me, while Liliana fights to owe me nothing. That difference is getting harder to ignore.
Her streak of avoiding me has an end, though.
Because as I consider making an appearance at this gala, I know I’ll be showing up with her on my arm. I smile, trusting my plan to get her there. A foolproof strategy takes shape in my mind.
I will have her again.
And I won’t lose her this time.
I eventually drift off to sleep with a smile on my lips.