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“So, as you can see—“ he begins, but Vince smacks his hand on the desk to shut him up
“Listen here, Nik. I won’t be bested by a bunch of violent, power-hungry fools. You’ve made too many careless mistakes, and it will come back to bite you in the ass.”
“Ooo. That’s frightening, Vincenzo. I certainly don’t see your power growing much more. Not with a whore as your firstborn girl.”
“Otets, don’t you fucking talk about her like that!” I yell, standing up as the boys usher Espie out of the room, whose sobs break the heart that I didn’t really know I had until it broke for her.
The call ends, and I try to take off after her, but one of the boys turns around with a knife. Barth comes out of nowhere to step between us, and I push him aside.
“Stab me.” I threaten him, teeth bared. “I dare you. The only way you’re going to be able to stop me from getting to Espie, is to kill me.” I gear up to sprint right for him, but Barth shoves me back.
“Stand down.” He growls, smacking my chest as I glare at knife-boy, thinking he’s hot shit. They disappear up the stairs and I shove Barth with little success.
“Go to the Chevy waiting in the garage. We’ll grab your things.”
He growls at me and I stand my ground to prove a point, though I can’t stand being in this hellhole any longer. “Now.” He gets up in my face before turning up the stairs, leaving me alone.
“Fuck.” I kick nothing and head up after him, crossing the length of the castle until I reach the stairs leading down to the garage.
The car is already unlocked, two of our guys are sitting in the very back seat. Pretty sure this is the car Espie and I fucked around in. I recognize the black leather seats when I slide inside.
“Ready to get home, boss?” One of the guys asks as I have flashbacks of kissing down Espie’s neck. I grab a cigarette from my front pocket and stretch over the front seat, using the cigarette lighter to light it up, taking a few puffs. Neither of the guys try to keep up a conversation with me because I’ve clearly ignored them, and have no interest even looking in their direction.
We sit there for a while longer, until the guys come out with bags packed. They load them in the car next to us before getting in that one.
We’ll probably fit in a couple of cars, considering how massive of a group we have now that the Minsk base boys are with us. They’ll most likely fly back on the plane they flew here.
I take a few more drags in much-needed silence, numbing out the thoughts of Espie and the fact that that’s all I have left now— thoughts, memories, lingering traces of her on my skin. Then there’s my busted lip and cut cheek, Olive’s ring-clad hand, delivered just a few hours ago. I touch it instinctively, just as Barth comes out with the rest of the boys. Two more cars, not including mine, fill to the brim with us and Barth joins the one I’m in.
As the garage doors lift, he looks back at me with sad eyes, and I furrow my brows at him before flicking my eyes to the outside to ignore him. But he’s waving something in my face that I can't ignore.
“Here.” He hands me a paper that’s ripped out of a journal, folded in half with Espie’s name scribbled on the top.
21
ESPIE
My whole world shattered the moment I knew the truth— that Adrik Mikhailov’s affections for me were nothing more than a game. Surely, I’m smarter than this, raised better. You would think so, wouldn’t you? Now I’m nothing more than a weak link in my family, unusable and unfit to marry into a strong mafia family to strengthen our own.
“It’s going to be okay.” Olive whispers to me as we board a plane that was flown in for us from Italy, the moment Vince knew it was all over. I look out the window, rain dripping down in the early evening light. It’s blueish-gray, like the clouds hanging lowly above us. We’re waiting for take-off until there’s an opening for us to leave.
They say the storm should pause in a few minutes, long enough for us to get up into the clouds. While that’s all well and good, no amount of waiting will stop the storm brewing within me and welling up over the edges of my heavy eyes. I haven’t stopped crying since I found out the truth, and I don’t know when I will.
I suppose tears aren’t endless. Eventually, I’ll drain myself dry of them. But the pain of losing myself to Adrik, will always remain. My life will be a constant reminder of that. No doubt, Vince will marry me off to the most willing candidate, whoever that may be, and I’ll gladly accept the horrid sentence. I deserve it. Happiness is nothing to me now, not when my heart aches just by breathing.
Sure enough, just as they’ve alerted us, the plane takes off a few moments later, and we break through the clouds. Everyone has been told to leave their seatbelts on for the entire flight because of turbulence. Apparently, this storm is spanning over most of Europe and the ocean. It’s been raining since I gave myself to Adrik, so maybe there’s correlation there.
I made someone angry, and now my entire world will be filled with stormy days and the sun will seem like a distant memory. That’s the way I’ll have it from now on. It makes sense to me in this state. A memory flashes through my mind like the lightning in the clouds below us, and I clutch my stomach to stop from thinking about it, but it doesn’t work.
“Yellow is your favorite color?” Adrik’s eyes were so surprised, so intrigued as well. I liked that I could take him off guard like that.
“Yes?” I pretended to be confused, but I know my smile couldn’t be hidden behind furrowed brows and batting lashes.
“Hey, that’s a great color… it’s well… it’s very you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I laughed as he bent over and picked up a dandelion that was swaying right behind the fence lining the outskirts of the warehouse. He handed it to me like he was presenting me a lavish gift, and laughed like he was sweet, and he pursed a grin.
“It’s like this. A wildflower— sunny and bright and free.” At this, I snarked a laugh. “Hey! What?” He chuckled, waving it at me to take.
