Page 13

I walk over to my 2019 Toyota 86, unlocking it and getting in. I may have all the money in the world, but this is the first car I bought for myself, she’s my baby.

I’ve always had a fascination with cars, ever since I was little, but father never let me learn anything about them. I couldn’t even get my fucking permit until after he was dead.

I turn the key in the engine, purring to life as it vibrates roughly under me. Peeling out of the parking lot, I finally make my way home, ready to take a shower and just relax from the day. Not to mention seeing my Moss.

The elevator doors open to my penthouse, and I’m immediately on guard as I hear a muffled voice coming from somewhere, not expecting anyone but Penelope to be here.

Placing my hand on the gun on my hip, I run my eyes around the entire living room and foyer, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. I walk towards the kitchen, the voices getting louder and the hand on my gun getting tighter.

Standing at an angle where I can see into the kitchen and whoever is in there can’t see me, my tension releases seeing mama behind the counter, and Penelope sitting in a chair across from her.

She has a pad of paper and pen in front of her, a smile plastered on her face as she giggles at something mama says about my childhood. I move into the doorway, leaning on it as mama notices me and stops speaking. Penelope looks over to the doorway, her eyes widening when she sees me.

Seeing it’s just mama and Penelope, I take my mask off, mama looking surprised at the action. I don’t blame her. Only three people have seen my face, and I just added a fourth.

“Son!” she gushes, “We were just finishing up.” She walks over to me, wrapping her arms around me for a hug as I take my eyes off Penelope and kiss both her cheeks. When I look back up, she’s gone. My chest deflates, a sickening sadness sitting low in my stomach at her disappearance.

Mama’s voice pulls me back to the present, “She is lovely, she would make a great wife.” I sigh, not liking the idea of her being my wife, my anything, but my thoughts drown in the idea of it.

Father always said women will make you weak, it needs to be like a business arrangement. Fuck father, fuck getting married, and fuck love. The only love in my heart is for mama and Viktor.

“She is a debt, mama. She will make no wife.” My head snaps to the side, a sting erupting on my cheek from mama’s slap. I don’t get angry, who am I to question the woman that gave me life?

“Nonsense you speak of!” She snaps, glaring at me. “She is a broken girl that needs fixing. Either let her go or fix her.” Mama walks back around the counter to finish her cooking, I can already smell the table full of food from here.

“What if I break her more?” My voice breaks, uncertainty waving through. I’m broken too. I break people for a living, for fucks sake. She’s so frail and small, I’ll snap her like a dry spaghetti noodle.

I walk over to the notepad sitting on the counter where Penelope sat, picking it up before Mama snatches it out of my hands, tearing the pages off and stuffing them into her pocket.

“She told me a little bit of what she has dealt with. You can’t break that girl anymore than she already is. She has nothing left, be her reason to live before she isn’t anymore.” Her words strike in a way I can’t comprehend yet. I shouldn’t care about her, but for some reason I do. Mama speaks again, “She will not speak to you, she hasn’t since she was seven. Start there. Get her comfortable enough to talk, baby steps, Сын.” I nod, not saying another word, and walk out of the room. “Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes!” I hear Mama shout as I walk down the hall to my bedroom. Viktor won’t be joining us tonight, or else he would’ve come home with me.

Walking into my bedroom, I find it empty. She didn’t run here when she disappeared. Having a feeling she went up to the roof, I make my way to the elevator. I don’t have cameras on the roof, but I watched her go up there after me and Damien left this morning, and she didn’t return until hours later.

When the elevator doors open to the roof, I spot her immediately, and my heart drops. She’s perched on the ledge of the building, legs swaying in the wind as she people-watches everyone on the streets.

We’re fifteen hundred feet in the air. From up here, everyone looks like ants.

She doesn’t hear the elevator, so I walk over, keeping my steps light before I stop behind her and admire her beauty.

Her hair is long, extremely long. I have no clue how far down it goes, but I would say to her ass. A whole lot of hair to pull. It sways in the wind like she’s a princess, except she’s a queen.

She has my shirt on, drowning her small frame and my pants pretty much falling off her. I spot my boxers under them, and my cheeks heat up seeing them.

“It’s pretty, hm?” I say, breaking the silence. She jumps a little, and I step forward, ready to catch her if she falls. Her eyes meet mine as she looks over her shoulder.

I throw my leg over the ledge, sitting with my feet dangling over like hers. I keep my distance to make sure not to spook her, her eyes focused on my every move.

Once I settle in a spot, I pull my phone out and open the notes app, handing it to her. Her eyes sparkle at the recognition that I’m not going to force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She takes a couple of seconds to type something before handing the phone back to me.

‘I love watching people. Thinking that every one of them has something different going on in their life.’ She’s just like me, curious about the lives of others. Fascinating.

“I like watching people too. Everyone has their own lives, traumas, weaknesses, stories, weird little quirks. People are thrilling.” Her eyes are locked on me as I look out to the city. It’s around six in the evening, meaning the sun will be setting soon.

She taps my shoulder, so lightly I almost didn’t feel it. She looked at me and did the motion of typing with her hands. I hand her my phone, and she hands it back almost immediately, my face dropping as I read her note.

‘If you’re going to kill me, please don’t let me suffer any longer.’ I snap my eyes to her. My hand comes up to her face, gripping it in my hand, forcing her to look at me as I lean in closer, our noses almost touching.

“I am not going to kill you,” I growl, my anger slightly rising at her thinking I’m going to hurt her. She takes the phone out of my hand, typing again.