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Chapter 2 - Nik
Work was excruciatingly uneventful, and while that should’ve been a good thing in our world, it left me too much time to think.
Posted outside of the restaurant while my boss, Erasmo, and his kids ate brunch overlooking the oceanside, I didn’t have much to preoccupy myself with. The restaurant was mostly empty anyway, and any potential threats were at a bare minimum. At the very least, I had a decent view to pass the time with.
I wanted to focus on anything else, but my mind was ensnared by someone I had met in Europe. Meeting her had felt like a gift from the swanky hotel, and what would’ve been an uneventful night turned into one of the best I ever had.
She was perfect in every way. She was charming, witty, and painfully gorgeous too. She kept up with me all night, drinking and talking about anything that came to mind.
I never intended to head back to anyone’s room that night, but when it came down to it, there were no questions asked. We didn’t have to say a word to know our minds were in the same place.
The sex was too good to give up, and while every fiber of my being wanted to reunite with her back in the city, I knew I couldn’t.
Bringing an innocent woman into the fold was the last thing either of us needed. She was worth risking everything for, but I wasn’t willing to put her in danger for my own selfish reasons.
If we reconnected like I wanted to, then I’d have no choice but to explain the grittier details of my line of work and every way she could be used against me in this world. I told her the basics of what I did, how my work was more or less off the books, and how there were powerful people around me calling the shots.
We wouldn’t be free to do as we wanted. I’d constantly be on alert, afraid that someone might try to take her away from me.
As much as I longed to feel her again, the risks were too great. If anything happened to her, I wouldn’t forgive myself.
So that was how I left it. I told her I couldn’t, regardless of how every piece of me was screaming for more of her all to keep her safe, and I went back to New York while she continued with her trip.
That was how it was supposed to be. That should’ve been the extent of it. But of course, nothing ever went how I planned.
She was still in my thoughts when I came back, and while I knew it would be tough to forget about her, I didn’t mind so much. It was almost nice to have something else to think about, even if it hurt to ponder what we could’ve been.
Except, that bliss I associated with her faded the moment I discovered my Anastasia was closer to home than I ever imagined possible.
She wasn’t some innocent woman, naïve about the crime world. While I pushed her aside to keep her safe from the dangers that followed me, she was a princess of that very same life, apparently.
She was a Levov—the very family on my boss’s radar. The family he had been hoping to take down for months.
The moment I was informed of that revelation, I didn’t know what to think or how to feel.
Initially, it was pure anger. Not only that I had inadvertently involved myself with a Levov, but also that she never thought to divulge that information with me. With her knowledge of the crime world, surely she had put the pieces together. At the very least, she could’ve let me know she wasn’t naïve to it all, and I wouldn’t have felt so bad about exposing her to it.
Not that it would’ve made things any simpler, but if I had known she hailed from the same life, I could’ve at least considered a different way forward. We could’ve worked things out somehow.
After that came the fixation. Thinking about only her, wondering if I’d ever get to see her again. If I’d have the chance to ignore the conflict and revisit that place of bliss.
Even if forgetting about her would make my life exponentially easier, I just couldn’t. It was impossible to forget about someone like her.
Anastasia was different from anyone else I had met. She was exactly the kind of woman I wanted and needed, despite her being born into the family Erasmo hated the most.
Whether it was out of allegiance or just a poor excuse to see her again, I ran an idea by the boss that resonated with him well enough.
If Erasmo wanted a Levov, then he’d get one. It just so happened that I knew one, and it was about time I confronted her. About time that we put everything out on the table.
The plan was in place and everything was ready, but this godforsaken brunch was the one thing still standing in the way of me being reunited with the Levov princess.
Time crawled by, and the longer I stood there watching the waves crash against the shore, the more irritated I became.
It felt like I was going through withdrawals, itching for my next fix.
No woman had ever made me feel so addicted before, and I knew that if I didn’t get to be around her soon, I’d go insane.
But as a beacon of hope, the Caprises wrapped things up, and the black limo pulled up just as they went to leave. Stoic as always despite how I was screaming on the inside for them to hurry, I propped the door open and Erasmo's two sons, daughter, and wife piled in with him in tow.
