Page 27

I shouldn’t have let her go, I should’ve been more persistent and stopped her, hell, I should’ve tied her to my bed and forced her to stay with me.

“What happened to you, solnyshko?” I mumble in the otherwise quiet night and give in to the urge.

My hand reaches for her before I can stop myself. I brush the stray strands away from her face and lower myself until my cheek almost rests against the mattress beside hers.

We are close but it isn’t close enough. I want to pull her into me, I want to hide her in my arms.

“I missed you, baby.” I confess, my voice thick with emotions.

She stirs lightly, mumbling words that leaves her lips in broken sobs.

“The…” she groans, and the sound is so painful, my breath stills.

I lean closer, desperate to hear her.

“Doc…tors…” Her brow pinches. “Are… ly…ing.”

The doctors are lying?

What doctors?

I stay with her for a few more hours, until her breathing finally evens out once more.

Every now and then, I thread a few strands of her hair through my fingers before letting them slip away again.

It’s the only touch I allow myself. For now.

I type a few commands as I hack into the fight club’s CCTV server, retrieving the footage from the night at the bunker ring. The download will take a fewminutes, so I route the transfer through my encrypted cloud and set it to mirror

directly to my phone the moment it’s complete.

The door to my penthouse swings open and I terminate the connection to the CCTV server, clear my tracks and shut the terminal down before leaving the study.

By the time I step into the living room, Roman has half my kitchen torn apart in search of food. Alec, meanwhile, is sprawled across the beige sofa he bought me when I first moved into the penthouse, looking far too comfortable.

“Oh! You’re alive?” Roman gasps dramatically.

“You saw me yesterday, you arsehole.” I deadpan, dropping onto the empty sofa beside the fireplace with little enthusiasm.

“C’mon, Moscow princess. I missed you.” He pours vodka into a glass, but I don’t bother replying.

He saunters over and presses the cold glass against my cheek before I lean away.

“You’re losing your wit. All this brooding is costing me my aura points.” He thrusts the vodka into my hand. “I can’t have that loser behaviour around me. Fix it.”

“The only thing that needs fixing is you two barging into my house.” I grunt before taking a sip, ignoring the startled looks they exchange. “What?” I lower the glass. “It won’t just be my house much longer.” Their brows furrow. “Elara’s going to live here.”

Silence and then Roman and Alec doubles over laughing.

“Oh my God, really?” Alec snorts between laughs. “She’s been ghosting you for three days.” He pats my shoulder with exaggerated sympathy. “Hate to break it to you, mate, but I don’t think she likes you.”

Not yet, perhaps. But she will.

“Now that she’s out of the picture. Can I kill her?” Roman asks with a grin.

I look at him yet he keeps smiling. “Roman.” “What?”

“Choose your next words very carefully.”