Chapter 7 - Nico #2
“Please get out,” I said, not in the mood to have this conversation anymore.
“Oh, I will, but perhaps you are the one who should get out and take a look at your office,” she said, a sinister smile on her face. I was already on edge, and her cryptic comment only made it worse.
God. This woman was driving me crazy.
‘What have you done, Vera?” I asked, my tone a soft warning uttered calmly.
“You should go take a look at it yourself.”
I turned on my heel and raced out of the bathroom and wardrobe, out of my bedroom, and straight downstairs.
Since I was living here, I had shifted all important documents here from the penthouse, and my home office contained everything of importance.
I walked inside the unlocked door, and my eyes widened at the sight before me.
“Fuck.”
The office was a complete mess. Every drawer had been opened, papers thrown about.
Things were scattered and decorative pieces broken.
Glass splinters were everywhere; the orderly state of things I preferred had gone to hell.
I wanted to kill her. I wanted to take her little white throat in my hands and strangle her to death.
I walked closer and noticed my desk. Everything had been thrown about the room except for the few files still carefully placed on the table.
I immediately knew what they were. I looked closer, and my suspicions were confirmed.
The files outlined the surveillance reports I had going on for since the breakup.
Every picture that had ever been taken was out there in the open, along with the reports of her activities.
She had seen all of that, which justified the rage she felt.
It justified the little episode she had just pulled in my bathroom. It was all staged out of the anger she felt towards me, and I couldn’t even blame her.
“The next time you decide to declare war, Nico, you should be prepared for the consequences. I am not some child who cannot play this game with you. I can destroy you, and I will destroy you if you cross me again.”
I turned around at the threat, her soft voice laced with fury.
She was standing in the open doorway, dressed in nothing but an oversized white t-shirt that belonged to me.
She had been using my clothes as if we were still together, and she had every right over them.
I didn’t mind enough to ask her to stop.
Her wet hair clung to her face, making her look doubly attractive, but her eyes were raging a silent battle.
A battle she was fighting against me.
“You destroyed my office.”
“You stalked me? How could you, Nico? You had people tailing me, taking my pictures, and giving you reports. Why would you do something like that?”
The words hit like a bullet, and for a second, neither of us spoke. Then I laughed. Short and bitter.
“You sound surprised, even though you know me better than this.”
“I am surprised because I hadn’t expected you to do something so crazy.
“You shouldn’t be.”
“You tracked my movements and my life for months, Nico. That is an invasion of my privacy.”
“Does it look like I care, Vera?”
The admission echoed between us. I didn’t deny it.
I was not going to deny it. There was no point since she already knew.
She had seen the photographs and the files, and everything was laid bare before her.
Her expression shifted, confusion replacing anger.
She had expected denial or maybe even shame.
She wasn’t going to get either. I had spent months watching her build a future with another man.
I wasn’t interested in pretending I regretted it.
“What exactly were you planning?” she demanded.
“I already did what I had been planning.”
Her face tightened. I turned away before I could say something worse.
Before I could admit that seeing her in that church, ready to marry another man, had nearly broken me.
Before I could admit that half the reason I had kidnapped her was because the thought of watching her marry somebody else felt impossible.
I walked past her and back towards the bedroom.
The conversation should have ended there, but it didn’t because Vera followed.
Of course she followed. The old Vera would have retreated, but the new Vera was furious.
And somehow, I liked her more. That realization annoyed me almost as much as everything else.
“You don’t get to walk away from me when I am trying to talk to you.”
I grabbed a shirt from the wardrobe. “Watch me.”
“Nico.”
I turned, immediately regretting it. She looked angry. Determined. Beautiful. Every dangerous thing at once. The silence stretched, and then something unexpected happened. She smiled. Not warmly or kindly. It was the smile of a woman who had finally decided to stop playing nice.
“Good,” she said.
My brows lowered. “Good what?”
Her smile widened slightly. “You finally look alive again.”
Then she turned around and walked away, leaving me standing there alone.
For several seconds, I simply stared after her, and then I laughed.
The sound echoed through the room because, for the first time since I had taken her from that church, I understood something important.
The obedient Vera who had spent days trying to reason with me was gone.
The woman who had destroyed my office had taken her place.
The woman who had deliberately provoked me this morning had no intention of surrendering.
She was angry now.
Dangerous and ready to fight.
And despite my fury, despite every reason I should have hated it, a part of me was thrilled. Finally. I already knew she was a worthy opponent. She was smart and capable and knew exactly how to push my buttons. Just the way she had done this morning.
I glanced toward the hallway where she had disappeared. Then I thought about the destroyed office and the scattered photographs. The ruined files. The challenge she had just thrown directly into my face.
A slow smile appeared. “Your turn is coming, Vera.”
And for the first time in days, I started planning. If she wanted a war, she was going to get a war, and Nico Romanov always struck back with the intentions of destruction.