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In all the years I knew my best friend, I’d never once admitted my true feelings about her father to Kristina. She would have dumped me instantly as a friend or, at the very least, mocked me mercilessly before telling me to knock it the hell off or else.
My father’s head would collapse inward from the stress of it, possibly disowning me and very possibly killing Mikhail. Leo would have a fit, which enraged me. As if he’d ever worry as much about my reaction if he got together with Kristina or even her mother if she were still in the picture. Thinking about that made me actually gag.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t so egregious for them to dislike the notion of Mikhail being with me, but what was really so wrong with it? The twenty-year age difference? What were twenty years? I had always been mature for my age, even though my father might teasingly disagree because I was often stubborn. But I knew how to take care of business and had been doing so since I was a teen.
And Mikhail was vibrant and young at heart. His body certainly rivaled any guy my age. Why couldn’t we be allowed to fall in love?
I paused with my hands frozen over my keyboard at that thought and shook my head. Of course, we weren’t in love. Not really. On my side, I was living out my lifelong fantasy. On his side… who knew? But it wasn’t love.
It would be nice, though. Really nice.
No, I couldn’t think that way, or I’d start to want that. A life with Mikhail where we made decisions, picked out furniture, planned vacations, chose baby names…
Never going to happen, and to dwell on it was a one-way ticket to a broken heart that surely wouldn’t mend. My crush on him had caused me a great deal of pain over the years already, but if I let myself believe I was in love with him, we had a chance at all the things I liked to daydream about? It would be better to turn myself over to the Novikoffs than face that kind of pain.
I pushed it all aside and tried to concentrate on debugging the few lines of code I was trying to implement into Leo’s program. A big commotion in the hall made me look up to see several unobtrusive but always hovering guards rush past my open office door. Curious and a bit frightened of what had them flapping from their roosts, I hurried to follow them down the stairs and outside.
I stayed in the front doorway, watching as they congregated in the courtyard. Everyone was looking up and several of them aimed guns at the sky. It was then I noticed a mechanical humming and followed their gazes to see a drone quite a ways up and still in the distance, but heading in the direction of the house.
Mikhail stood in the center of the guards, giving them orders I couldn’t make out. He turned to notice me in that way he had, always sensing when I was around.
“Get inside,” he shouted, taking a step toward me. “Go upstairs and lock yourself in, and don’t come out until I get you.”
His tone and look weren’t to be argued with, and I turned around to obey his orders. Before I got in the house, I heard the crack of a gun and whirled back to see one of the guards had shot the drone. I watched it spiral downward toward the courtyard as Mikhail barked orders about how to deal with it when it hit the ground. If he saw me still hanging around in the doorway when that happened, there’d be hell to pay.
Despite my fear for his safety, I turned and fled up the stairs, telling myself no one was more capable than Mikhail. He’d be fine. I took the stairs two at a time and barreled into his suite. There was a safe room behind his walk-in closet that he’d shown me in case of an emergency, and that was where he’d meant for me to lock myself into.
I didn’t like the idea of being shut in that tiny room without knowing what was happening, so I locked myself in his room, leaning against the door and straining to listen. His room was on the back side of the house, so looking out the windows was useless. Holding my breath, I waited for an explosion, a crash, more shouting. None came. All was quiet. That didn’t necessarily mean safety, though. If poison gas was released from the drone, that was sure to be silent.
Yes, he was capable and surrounded by armed guards. But that would be little help if that drone held any of the terrible things that rushed through my imagination after I thought of poison gas. Letting my breath out in a rush, I began to pace. A few minutes passed, growing to ten, then fifteen. I couldn’t handle not knowing in that eerie silence and unlocked the door. Opening it a crack and peeking my head around revealed an empty hallway.
I crept out and tiptoed down the hall, poking my head through every open door, trying to find Mikhail or anyone who could tell me what was happening. There was no sign of anyone, and that, combined with the dead quiet, unnerved me enough to quit creeping on my toes and pick up my pace.
I finally found him in his main office, just down the hall from mine. He sat at his desk, surrounded by his guards, all of them staring intently at his computer screen. The distress on their faces made my stomach drop. Something was clearly wrong. But what danger could come from a screen? I took a step into the room, and Mikhail’s head shot up. His face was stricken and pale, making my stomach sink lower.
“Get back upstairs,” he ordered, meeting my eye with a pleading look in his. “Go now, Evelina.”
The look on his face made me want to listen to him. With all my being, I didn’t want to see what had all those big strong men so upset. But something kept me moving forward toward his desk. Something told me I had to know what they were looking at, even though I dreaded it.
Chapter 16 - Mikhail
I stood in the kitchen with the cook, who was helping me prepare a romantic surprise for Evelina. Since she had enjoyed the impromptu picnic in the secluded clearing so much, I decided to put a little more effort into another one. This time I meant to take her somewhere closer to the house. Still private, but less chance of a snake sliding across our legs if we got frisky after the meal.
The cook had found a big wicker basket and had filled it with wine glasses and silverware. No more eating with our fingers or swigging straight from the bottle this time. I was being so serious about this occasion even though every day when I woke up with her body entwined with mine, I knew I had to put a stop to things. And every day, I decided to let it go a little longer.
We were discussing what food to pack when my phone interrupted us. Seeing that one of my security team patrolled the wall, I answered it right away. As well-defended as the place was, I never totally let my guard down.
“Boss, I’ve got a sighting of a drone heading your way. Should I take it out?”
I went on high alert, trying to convince myself it was someone making a documentary about the Everglades and gathering footage.
“Negative,” I said. “Let’s wait and see if it passes overhead.”
Still, I called the house guards to head outside in case more was incoming than a drone. They jumped at the chance to finally do something, and I followed them out into the courtyard to wait and see what happened. We all stood around, craning our necks as it buzzed into view. There was no way Evelina didn’t notice all that commotion, and when I turned around, she stood in the front doorway.
Terror that she might get caught on the drone’s camera made me holler at her to get inside. So far, I was positive no one from the Novikoff family knew she was here. All I needed was for them to get their confirmation and launch a full offensive against my fortress to get to her. She seemed to sense how serious I was and turned tail and fled inside.
Only then could I look back up at the drone, which was now directly overhead and losing altitude.
