Chapter Seventeen Dragna
Chapter Seventeen
Dragna
Blyat’. This is why I haven’t been able to get her out of my head. These fucking lips. I knew when I kissed her, I’d be signing myself up to be so fucking gone for this girl, to be hers forever.
I belong here, kissing her, making sure she’s safe. She belongs in my life and now that I’ve kissed her there’s no fucking way I’m letting her go.
I move my hand from her face to cup the back of her head and finally, fucking finally I slide my fingers through her soft deep brown hair and I grip her by her roots. She moans into my mouth, our kiss now turning dangerously heated.
Somewhere during our lips meeting, our tongues collided and she brought her hands to the back of my neck, pulling me closer to her. I can feel myself growing harder by the second and I need to get some control, but with Willow, I can’t.
Kissing her is realising my heart is beating for something other than to just pump blood through my body.
She digs her nails into my neck and I release a noise somewhere between a moan and a hiss. She quickly breaks the kiss at the sound and looks at me like she’s worried she hurt me.
“I’m sorry! I don’t know why I did that, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” She rushes out completely breathless. She tries to bring her hands down from my neck and retreat away from me but I don’t let her. I bend down to grip the back of her thighs, lifting her and pushing her against the wall.
“Give me it all Willow.” I say as I kiss her neck.
“Do whatever you want to me.” I kiss her jaw.
“The only way you could ever hurt me is by not giving me a chance to show you how sorry I am.” I say while I bring my forehead to hers.
She sucks in a breath before clutching the collar of my shirt and putting her lips back on mine.
I wrap her legs around my waist and hold her up with one hand, bringing my other hand back to her hair and tugging on it.
I kiss down from her lips to her jaw, to her neck.
Licking, biting, sucking, all while she makes the most glorious noises I’ve ever heard.
“Dragna.” She moans while moving her hands to my shoulders, digging her nails in again. I moan against her shoulder, biting it and beginning to grind myself against her. Fuck, I need her. Right now.
That thought brings me back to reality. I have her pinned against a cafe bathroom wall. The bathroom she just had a panic attack in. As much as I don’t want to, I need to control myself. I pull away from her and wipe some of the sweat that’s beading on her forehead away.
“Fuck I’m sorry Willow.” I say as I rest my head on her shoulder again.
“Don’t, please don’t do that.” She says with a shaky voice, sounding like she’s going to cry. I immediately look at her and I can see the pain in her eyes that she thinks I’m pulling away from her again. She looks down to avoid my gaze.
“Hey, look at me.” I say as I dip my head to kiss her. When I break the kiss she looks me in the eyes and I hate myself for being the one to put the doubt that’s in them there.
“I’m not sorry for what’s just happened.
I’m sorry because I don’t want you to think I’ve taken advantage.
You’ve just had a panic attack. You’re vulnerable and for that I apologise, but don’t think I don’t want you Willow.
Fuck I want you so much you have no idea what I’ve done because I’ve been out of my mind thinking about you.
” I practically pant the last part out against her lips, holding back from kissing her again.
“Then why did you leave me after dinner just standing on my doorstep the way you did?” She asks with tears beginning to form in her eyes.
“We should talk about this when I get you home safe. Okay?” She nods and just because I can’t help myself, I kiss her again, slowly this time, before setting her down.
“Come on moya dusha. I’ll drive you.” I link my fingers with hers, bend down to pick up her things, and then lead her through the cafe.
“My purse and my phone, they’re gone.” She rushes out when she notices the table she was at is completely empty.
“It’s okay, they are in the car. I’ve got you Willow.”
She looks up at me with so much innocence in her eyes that I make a vow to myself to never let anyone or anything hurt her. To never let anything remove that innocence no matter how deep I let her into my dark world.
———————————————————
Willow has fallen asleep on the drive to her apartment. I know how much a panic attack can wipe you out, so I’m driving as slow as I can across town to take her home, giving her some time to sleep before I have to wake her up and tell her the news that she is in fact being stalked.
I told my men to get in the car with Andrei when we arrived at the cafe knowing, or more so hoping, I’d have Willow to myself. They also grabbed the dickhead she was with and should currently have him in one of our warehouses, ready to be questioned.
How am I going to tell her we know she’s being stalked, but we don’t know who by or what they want with her, especially when I’ve already been lying to her from the start when I made up about telling the police because I thought it was Andrei.
What if the first time was Andrei and only now has someone else seen that we have him following her and using that to their advantage? I have so many questions and I don’t know how we will get the answers, but for her, I’ll do anything to find out.
I scrub a hand down my face at a red light and look over at her. She looks so peaceful, so fucking beautiful and I already know my mother is going to adore her as much as I do. I just need to figure out how to keep her away from Bratva business.
The light turns green and I drive the rest of the way to her apartment wondering how the fuck I got in this position but knowing there’s no other way I would have it.
We pull up outside and I see Lev’s car, which means he’s still here and I find myself releasing a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
He can help tell the girls together about the car following Willow and hopefully it won’t scare them too much.
They can’t know I’ve put Andrei on Willow, but we can make sure they know they are safe without giving anything else away.
I don’t like that I’m having to lie to Willow, but it’s for her own safety.
My hand finds its way into her hair like it belongs there, just gently stroking strands of it away from her face. She starts to stir awake and she looks out the window confused that we’re already at her apartment.
“Oh my god did I fall asleep?” She covers her face with her hands like she’s embarrassed I saw her sleeping and I can’t help but smirk at her.
“It’s okay moya dusha.” I laugh a little as I talk and she peers up to look at me between her fingers which only makes me laugh more.
“I didn’t know you were capable of this emotion.” She says looking at me like I’m from another planet.
“What, laughing, being happy? There’s a lot you don’t know about me, but I want to change that, if you’ll let me.”
I get out of the car before she can say anything back and walk round to open the door for her.
I help her out and we walk hand in hand to her door where I left her standing before.
She gets her keys out without speaking a word to me and opens the front door.
She looks up at me like she’s waiting for me to leave her again, only this time I press a hand to her lower back, guiding her inside before following her.
We reach the top of the stairs and I take in the hallway.
Photos of Willow and Aline line the walls, from toddlers to recent pictures from nights out, pictures of their families, other friends and holidays over the years.
Willows innocent life laid out before me.
She is beaming in every photo with her gorgeous smile on display and I realise she’s kept walking as I’ve stood deathly still looking in amazement at her face in every photo.
“Dragna, you okay?” I hear her call to me from a doorway into the kitchen area.
I turn around to look at her and she looks like a goddess.
The light from the kitchen illuminating behind her making her look like some kind of ethereal creature and she doesn’t even have to try. She’s just naturally that beautiful.
She continues to stare at me and I realise I haven’t actually said anything to her, I’ve just been staring at her at a loss for words over how I have went from vowing to never need a woman to not being able to function without having her close to me.
“I’m fine.” I clear my throat. “Where can we talk?”
“Lev and Alina are in there, so we can go to my room.” She says as she hikes a thumb over her shoulder walking closer to me.
“Actually, Lev and I need to talk to both of you.”
“Oh? Is everything okay?” She starts to toy with the sleeve of her sweater and I know she’s feeling anxious. I walk to her and gently take both her hands in mine.
“Come on moya dusha.” I walk towards the doorway she was standing in and walk into her kitchen which is open plan to a much larger living area than I expected.
Her apartment is a decent size, it’s what most would probably consider cute and it suits her a lot.
Lev sees me from his spot on the sofa and sits up before greeting me.
“Moy brat! Isn’t this lovely, the four of us hanging out.” He grins and I don’t return the niceties. His face falls and he realises I’m about to drop a bomb and not just any bomb, but the bomb.
He sits up and says something to Alina that I can’t hear but it makes her sit up and take her attention away from the movie they were watching.
“We all need to sit down and talk.” I say while guiding Willow behind me by her hand. I take a seat on one of their armchairs, finally letting go of her hand and gesturing to the sofa for her. She takes a seat beside Alina and Lev comes to stand behind me.
“What’s going on. You both look terrifying right now.” Alina says trying to laugh but it comes out nervous.
“There’s no easy way to say this, but you were right Willow. The car you saw following you to work that morning, it’s been following you around since then.” I try to say as softly as I can.
“WHAT!” Alina shrieks and Willow just slumps back in the sofa and brings her knees up to her chin, not saying a word.
“The police are keeping an eye on the situation and I promise you both that you’re safe, especially with us around, but there is currently no information.
No details on the cars registration, nothing.
So we need you both to be extra vigilant.
If you see the car, or any other car for that matter looking suspicious, you call me or Lev straight away.
One of my business associates is in surveillance and can get a camera installed out the front of the house too just for extra precautions. ”
“Hold on a minute, Willow is fully being stalked?” Alina says while putting a hand on Willows knee.
“And you want to put cameras up around outside as if this person is capable of causing actual harm. Who the fuck is this person and what the hell do they want with my girl.” Alina says angrily as she stands and begins pacing back and forth.
Willow still hasn’t spoken and just stares straight ahead, unblinking still hugging her knees to her chest.
“Willow, are you okay?” I ask gently and I bring a hand up to touch her knee. She still remains frozen when Alina stops dead at the bay window.
“Is that the car?” She says shakily while clutching her stomach and chest. Lev and I rush to the window and see a fully blacked out Mercedes, exactly as Willow described and the exact match to Andrei’s car.
The headlights are on full beam as it drives past the apartment and our cars, the driver clearly not caring that we are watching from the window.
It’s as if they are taunting us, knowing we don’t know who it is and knowing we can’t do anything. If it didn’t mean leaving the girls here alone before we have a camera installed, I’d be out there to ram the car off the road with my own to find out who this motherfucker is.
They clearly have no idea who the fuck I am if they think they can stalk Willow and get away with it.
“How soon can the cameras be installed?” I hear Willow say from the sofa, void of emotion, still sitting in the same position and not turning her head to look at us.
“I can call him right now and his team can be here in thirty five minutes.” I reply as I make my way to her and crouch down in front of her.
She’s terrified, shaking and looks like she’s on the verge of another panic attack. I grab her hands and press my thumbs into the pressure point between the webs of her thumb and index finger.
“Do it. Please.” Is all she says and I shout to Lev to call Nikolai and have him send over some men to install the cameras.
Lev strides out of the room to call him leaving Alina sitting at the bay window while I remain crouched in front of Willow.
I continue pressing my thumbs to the pressure point in her hand while she continues to stare blankly, her eyes glazing over.
“I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you Willow. You have me to look after you now and I promise I won’t let anybody come close to causing you any harm.”