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“What did it feel like with him?”
I think about that for a moment. “Calm. Unruffled. And for a girl who spent her entire childhood and adolescence without either one of those things, I guess I clung to that when I found it. I called it love, and whenever I started to maybe question my feelings for Anthony, he’d do something sweet that would force me to reconsider. Even when his parents disapproved of our marriage, he married me anyway. But Anthony was just the calm before the storm. It was never going to last.”
“Am I the storm?” Misha asks with amusement.
I lean in and press my lips to his. “You are everything.”
38
MISHA
After an hour of working out, I’ve worked up a good sweat. I feel good. Strong. In control.
A sensation that’s all too fleeting these days.
Petyr is still a phantom, the Babai are thus far next to useless, and my three enforcers are nowhere to be found.
Konstantin has launched a full-scale search for the missing men, but it’s hard to do that effectively when we’re still keeping the news from the council. I haven’t decided if it’s a generational thing or not, but the older council members tend to lead with brawn, rather than brain. Once they find out, it will be all-out war. Whereas I’d rather know what exactly we’re up against.
I’m finishing up a set of curls when I hear a timid knock at the door. I drop my weights on the matted floor and wipe the sweat from my brow. “Enter.”
Rada slinks in, her hands knotted in front of her. “I’m sorry to disturb you, sir, but a package has arrived at the gate. It’s a big one. Addressed to Mrs. Paige.”
I frown. “Who is it from?”
“There’s no note, sir. Mr. Konstantin asked for your presence before they open it.”
That can’t be good.“Thank you.” She turns to leave but I catch her. “Rada?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Don’t mention this to my wife.”
Her brow pulls in concern, but she nods. “Yes, sir.”
I go downstairs, but the entryway is empty. The porch is empty, too. Then I look down the drive and see Konstantin standing inside the security shack with a handful of my guards gathered around him.
My suspicions swirl violently as I walk down there without even bothering to put a shirt on. “Konstantin?”
My cousin waves me over, his voice low. “Get in here. The package arrived about ten minutes ago. It’s sealed ten ways to Tuesday. We’ve almost got it open.”
“Rada said it was addressed to Paige.”
Konstantin nods. “It was in a crate when it arrived. Carried in by a delivery driver.” He snorts, hardly able to believe it himself. “He was in a brown uniform and everything. It was legit.”
“But you’re worried.” He better be. This is suspicious as fuck, and I pay my cousin to pay attention.
“Absolutely. The thing had like ten layers of wrapping. By the time we got down to the last one, I started to smell something.”
He gestures me into the security room, and I know exactly what he means. The smell is rancid. And familiar.
There is nothing so singular as the smell of rotting flesh.
“Open it,” I order.
Konstantin pushes a guard out of the way and breaks the last seal himself. The box opens and the smell that was faint before becomes suddenly overwhelming. It’s a foul, cloying mist in the air. My lungs are coated in it.
“Fuck,” I hear someone mutter, just before two of my guards run out of the station to throw up in the bushes outside.
