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Chapter 11 - Evelina
After two uneventful days, I was going stir-crazy in my mansion prison, wondering when my father would pick me up. And not sure if I wanted him to or not. It wasn’t like I was getting to spend any time with Mikhail. I hadn’t seen or heard him since he left me at the pool. He hadn’t shown up for any meals, leaving me to eat alone in the dining room like some sad billionaire orphan whose father was off working in the diamond mines.
Why did I always think of myself as a child when I thought about Mikhail? I knew I wasn’t; he knew I wasn’t. He was just too loyal to my father’s friendship to take what I could tell he wanted. I could see it in his eyes when he was so close to kissing me at the pool. It was all I could think about. Partly because I had nothing else to do. Sure, I could read one of his many books or watch movies, but I found I couldn’t sit still. I needed to work.
I’d been working since I was a teenager, doing whatever my dad would let me do for the family. I worked through college, building up my investigative business to what it was today. Leo and I were constantly coming up with ideas to make it better. I didn’t like lazing around with a book or sunning by the pool. I needed to keep busy with something meaningful, but there was nothing to do.
I began to think he might have left, which didn’t sit well with me, even though it might mean an opportunity to slip away. I finally gave up skulking around the pool or the area of the house where I suspected his office was and set out to do some exploring around the grounds.
Once I got past the carefully maintained area around the house, the land on the outskirts was enveloped in thorny vines and palmetto bushes that were almost as tall as I was and grew so close together I couldn’t see the ground. I could almost hear all the snakes slithering around beneath their fronds. In any direction I went, it either ended in an impassable jungle or water.
It was all beautiful, and I stood staring out at the endless green water dotted with cypress trees and grasses that waved in the steamy breeze. It was definitely not like anything I’d ever seen in Russia. A bit creepy, as well as hypnotizing, watching the currents and odd bubbles while birds called to each other all around me. When a heron swooped out of the dense forest and landed on a cypress knee, I held my breath as it poked its long beak into the water. I fully expected a gator’s head to rear out from the murky water and snap it in half.
I knew that the Everglades could make me disappear even more efficiently than the Novikoffs if I risked entering the wilds. I knew Mikhail enough that his stupid wall would be waiting for me if I managed to live long enough to reach it.
Thankfully the bird didn’t get eaten in front of me and flapped away back into the trees. Disillusioned by the realization I wasn’t getting off the island so easily, I returned to the house to see a package had arrived for me. I took it upstairs and tore into it, but as I saw the contents, my excitement at a possible gift from Mikhail faded. It was several pairs of baggy jeans, oversized sweatpants, and extra-large t-shirts. They were all good brands, and the sweats were softer than a kitten, but my feelings still took a hit.
Did he really not want me wearing his girlfriend’s clothes that badly? And whether or not these new things were expensive, they were still awful. Ugly and way too large. Is that how he saw me? A big, sloppy blob?
While I certainly didn’t dress as provocatively as his mysterious girlfriend with all her bodycon dresses, tiny shorts, and halters, I still liked showing off my figure. No matter how comfortable they might be, I wouldn’t have been caught dead in the new clothes.
After my shower, I shoved the pile of new outfits back into their box and picked out the skimpiest dress in the closet to wear down to dinner. The gauzy white fabric fell to my knees but was almost sheer and completely backless. Not that Mikhail would show up to see my act of defiance, but it made me feel better about myself when I saw how hot I looked in the three-way mirror in the closet. My self-esteem was hard-fought over the years, and I refused to have it be shaken.
Even though I hadn’t seen him in two days and was sure he wouldn’t show up for dinner, I was still disappointed when he didn’t. Enough to make me barely pick at the meal and sink into a fresh round of self-doubt. I was tired of feeling like there was a vice wrapped around my heart when it came to Mikhail. I’d spent most of my younger years heartsick over him. Who cared if he had a girlfriend he liked seeing in those sexy outfits, and he only thought I was suited for sweats? Who cared if he ignored me?
I did, and I was just plain over it. It was so much easier to be mad at him than feel hurt over his actions or lack of them. Just as I pushed my plate aside, my appetite completely ruined, he appeared in the doorway. I stood there, stunned as usual by his gorgeous face like I always was, no matter my mood.
He swept my scantily clad body with eyes that grew stormier with every inch he inspected. He swore under his breath, and I straightened up, thrusting out my chin. Let him look and think whatever he wanted. If he was going to keep me prisoner, I’d wear what I damn well pleased.
However, as he continued to scowl, I felt slightly anxious. Had I gone too far? I wished I could shake that absurd jealousy and that he didn’t seem so wrapped up in what I wore.
“Come with me,” he grunted, already turning and heading out of the dining room. Like he couldn’t bear to look at me another minute.
Since these were the first words he’d said to me in two days, I followed, curiosity overtaking everything else. He stopped in the entry hall and waved to a big pile of boxes near the front door. They had to have just arrived because they weren’t there when I returned from exploring.
“Open them; they’re for you,” he said, handing me a box cutter from one of the side tables in the foyer. His face was stiff and unreadable.
I looked at the three big boxes, wondering if it was more ugly clothes. And if so, how long did he plan to keep me here? Only one way to find out. I took the knife and sliced through the top of the first box, which he helped me get down from the top of the pile. At first, all I saw was tightly packed styrofoam and wedged it out. His gruff face had tempered my curiosity, and I was unsure what to expect.
Then I saw what was under all the padding and began to hold my breath. I began to hope a little as I tore through the next box to be sure I was seeing what I was seeing. My face felt like it would crack from smiling, and actual tears welled up in my eyes.
My computer, monitors, and surveillance equipment. Cameras, microphones, and cords. It was like being reunited with my long-lost babies. I pulled my favorite keyboard out of the final box and hugged it to my chest. Mikhail laughed, and I turned to him to see him smiling as widely as I was. His stern act had been a ruse to surprise me.
And what a surprise. I blinked away the tears with a laugh, unsure what all of my things being returned to me meant.
“I don’t understand,” I started.
“Well, that’s everything that was left in Kristina’s apartment. Maybe there’s a manual underneath all those cords.”
I snorted at his dad joke. “No, I mean, why are you giving it back to me?”
He shrugged. “You seemed like you needed a distraction,” he replied cagily.
I put the keyboard down and flung myself at him, wrapping him in a hug. “Thank you, you’re the best,” I said into his neck.
The moment I was flush against his hard body, all the possibilities that the arrival of my computer setup opened up melted away. He still presented a world of possibilities I was dying to explore. I held on tighter, burying my face into his shoulder and breathing him in. Usually, when I smelled his spicy cologne, I was assailed by past memories, but now I was only thinking about the future. A future I wanted him to be a part of.
“You don’t know how much this means to me,” I said, pressing myself closer to him. I couldn’t let go.
