Chapter 5 - Lily
As hard as I try to focus on what’s happening around me, the car ride feels like it’s taking years off my life.
I’m tense the entire time in the back with the cuffs still on, unable to relax knowing the man in the driver’s seat is a criminal.
Of course, I didn’t know Mikhail when we hooked up, but I still feel blindsided anyway.
If I had known then what I know now, I never would have gone near him. Yet, I can’t do anything about it after the fact. Not while he has me within reach and the means to make me comply.
He’s silent while he drives, resting his hand too casually on the wheel as if he’s simply taking me on a late-night drive, rather than what it really is.
Abduction.
I want to scream, and something in me wants to try the door despite already knowing it’s locked. Even if I managed to get out, I wouldn’t make it far with the cuffs.
My stomach turns as he pulls into an underground garage, and upon looking up at the building, I recognize it straight away. As hazy as I had been that night, that detail was significant enough to stand out in my mind. And seeing it again makes my skin crawl. It feels so different looking at it now.
Wordlessly, we take a private elevator up, and while I didn’t love being surrounded by his men before, being alone with him makes the space feel too intimate. Too personal.
We go all the way up, reaching the penthouse, and the doors open to reveal the vaguely familiar place.
Pieces of it register in my memory, but being sober, everything seems different. A little clearer and harsher than the pleasant images still in my head from that night.
Everything about the place seems far too expensive and luxurious to be true.
The floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the lit-up Vegas Strip, the stone floors are pristine but purposely flawed to give it a natural appearance, and the interior is far too intentional to just be thrown together.
There’s an open bar in the living room, with dark marble countertops, and even a grand piano off to the side.
It looks untouched, yet there isn’t a speck of dust on it.
At the time, I hardly noticed any of this. I was so caught up in his hands and his mouth that the details of his place didn’t matter. Mikhail had looked at me like I was a prize, and at the moment, I felt like one for the first time in my life.
Now, the penthouse feels more like a crime scene.
I tense at the feeling of his thumbs ghosting against my inner wrists before he undoes the cuffs, allowing them to slide away. Swallowing hard, I don’t risk looking back at him, but I pull away to put a semblance of space between us.
Then, Mikhail doesn’t say anything while he tosses his keys into a tray somewhere and heads towards the bar. He’s too unbothered. Way too casual about all of this.
I don’t follow at first, but instead, I stand there and take in the luxury of his place.
Despite not wanting to look into it too much, I can’t stop my mind from reeling.
The penthouse is far too opulent for someone who happens to be involved in gang activity. My brother had been involved, and we certainly never lived like this.
But as everything courses through my head at once, I remember how he said his family owned their share of businesses in Vegas. How the men seemed to listen to him instinctively.
That, compounded with the expensive furnishings around me, I know that can’t be true. He isn’t just some thug.
No…he’s higher up on the food chain. He has to be.
“You live like this,” I murmur, mostly to myself, while my eyes trail along the living room. “This place is something out of a movie.”
Mikhail pours a drink, keeping to himself before he murmurs, “You’ve been here before.”
“But I never saw it like this.”
He doesn’t say anything at this. Instead, he takes an idle drink from his glass, eyes on me.
“Even successful families around here don’t all live like this,” I continue, feeling doubtful about the minimal details he shared with me before. “There has to be something more to it.”
For a second, his neutral mask slips just enough for me to catch that flicker of something hiding just beneath it. But I can’t tell if it’s guilt or amusement. Either way, I’m onto him, and he knows it.
“You don’t just own businesses, and you’re not only muscle…you’re part of the inner circle, aren’t you?”
He hesitates again, taking a small sip from his drink before setting it down and keeping his eyes on me. He takes a subtle step forward, apparently not ashamed in the slightest. “Yes.”
That one-word response nearly knocks the wind out of me, and it all starts to make sense.
Now, I can see it as clear as day. The luxury, the cool confidence, and the way everyone seems to defer to him. Even his brother seemed to follow his lead. And it’s not just him, it’s his whole family.
As the picture settles into place, more dread forms in the pit of my stomach.
I don’t like where this is going, and I don’t like how that gut feeling seems to be filling in the blanks for me.
That name sits at the forefront of my mind and sends a shiver down my spine.
It’s one I shouldn’t know, yet I’ve been cursed to remember.
My throat goes dry.
“What’s your last name, Mikhail?”
He doesn’t say anything for a long, drawn-out moment to a point that’s nearly painful. Then, he clears his throat and takes a few steps closer, almost suffocating me just from his proximity.
His expression is colder than before and almost grim.
Then, the name leaves his lips like venom.
“Lukov.”
My blood freezes over, and I can’t bring myself to move.
Lukov. The very family I never wanted anything to do with.
That name had been whispered about since I was vaguely conscious of what went on behind the scenes in Vegas, but they always felt more like an urban legend than anything else.
There were rumors about them having significant control over the city and related gang activity, but it always seemed to remain exactly that. Rumors.
But now, I’m face-to-face with one of them.
I hooked up with a Lukov. Me, of all people.
“Jesus Christ,” I whisper to myself, rubbing a hand over my eyes beneath my glasses.
I almost want to laugh at how ridiculous everything seems, but I can’t. Not with how dangerous this situation is, with my life hanging in the balance.
The air around us feels heavy, and I know he’s studying me, but I can’t bring myself to look at him just yet.
He doesn’t know I’ve been somewhat aware of his family due to what happened with my brother, and I don’t exactly feel like indulging that information just yet.
I knew I took a risk that night, but I had no idea just how big it was. How detrimental it would end up being.
My stomach turns at the rush of panic churning through me again.
“You’re going to kill me.”
Mikhail takes another step closer, tone sharper than before. “I’m not. If I wanted you dead, you already would be.”
As if that helps.
“Your brother hauled me to an interrogation room, and you’ve just brought me here after the fact. You admit what you’re connected to, and you want me to just accept that?” I ask, words incredulous.
His jaw tightens. “I told you already, I’m not going to hurt you.”
Even if he sounds sincere, I don’t believe him. I can’t, given the situation I’m in.
Without thinking, I bolt.
Moving without hesitation, I rush to the door. I don’t know where I’m hoping to go or how I’ll be able to make it, but the instincts flare in me, and I can’t help it. The need to flee and at least attempt to save my life pulls at my body, urging me forward.
My heart rams against my ribs, screaming at me to get as far away as physically possible. To not stay regardless of what it might cost me.
Try as I might, he’s on me immediately.
One moment, I’m an arm’s length away from the door, and the next, his fingers dig into my waist, pulling me clean off the floor.
My breath catches, but I thrash while he presses me against his shoulder and pins me there like I weigh nothing at all.
Despite kicking and slamming my fists against his body, he doesn’t even flinch. He’s too strong—too steady.
“Let me go!” I scream, feeling nothing but pure adrenaline coursing through my system.
He doesn’t listen. Instead, Mikhail carries me down the hall before kicking a door open and shutting it behind us.
Then, he places me on the bed with a firm grasp, containing me to the spot.
Immediately, I scramble back, trying to put distance between us. My lungs burn, and my pulse is so loud in my ears, drowning everything else out.
He stands by the bed but doesn’t come any closer. Instead, his face is too neutral while he watches me, and it makes my stomach turn.
“Breathe, Lily.”
I grit my teeth. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I’m not going to hurt you. You’re doing that to yourself by not calming down,” he murmurs, putting his hands in his pockets. “You’ll give yourself a heart attack at this rate.”
“You’re part of a crime syndicate. You abducted me…you lied to me!” I snap back, barely holding back how insane the whole situation is making me feel. “And you want me to calm down?”
He just barely flinches, and his brows furrow. “I didn’t lie to you. I just didn’t tell you everything.”
“Because that makes all the difference in the world.”
Mikhail takes a small step forward, keeping his attention solely on me.
He speaks slowly and intentionally, “I didn’t intend for you to get pulled into this. You weren’t supposed to see anything tonight.”
I shrink as far away as I can on the bed. “Then why won’t you let me go?”
“Because if anyone else saw you in that alleyway, you’d be in a much worse position.”
Those words are cold and entirely serious, leaving no room for debate, shutting me up immediately.
“We’re supposed to clean up loose ends, and you are one. But I told my brother I’d handle it,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Thanks to our code, you’re safe.”
“Am I really?”
His eyes narrow slightly. “Yes, you are. I don’t say shit for the sake of it.”
He can say it all he wants, but I still don’t believe him.
“You sound far too confident,” I mutter, finding it hard to make eye contact with him despite how gorgeous he is.
“I do,” Mikhail says firmly, leaning a touch closer, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Because with me is the safest you can be.”
I hate how much faith he has in himself.
And I hate how something in me wants to believe him.