“My father told me he and Preston are working together.”
“What did Preston say when you asked him, did he deny it?
“I didn’t ask.” I swallow past the thickening in my throat willing myself not to cry.
“What?!” she screeches.
“You heard me. I left before he could lie to me.”
“Jesus, listen to yourself. Have you ever known Preston to lie to you?”
“What did you expect me to do? My father said he worked for him.”
“How about talk to him? That’s what grown-ups do,” she says, shaking her head.
I’m silent for a few seconds. “But he’s working with my father…” I repeat.
“You don’t know that for a fact. Do you have any clue how much he hates your father? Do you?”
“I mean I thought he did, but then my father said they work together. How do you know he hates him?”
“When you left…” She shakes her head and closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and starts again. “You didn’t see him when he came back, when he found out you were gone. He wanted your father’s blood. It was Craig and Harrison who convinced him to be smart and put his energy into finding you.” She pauses and looks at me sadly.
“He left me, without a word. He didn’t trust me enough to tell me he wasn’t leaving for good.” I clench my teeth. Call me selfish but what about me?
“He was different when he came back, a piece of him was gone. Let me call Craig to come over,” she pleads.
“No. Craig is his best friend. He’s biased.”
“You’re so damn stubborn, Skye. When he came back he was a broken man. When he found you and brought you back, that spark came back to him.”
I wince. “What about me, Lea? Does anyone wonder what it did to me?”
She gets up off the sofa and paces the room for a moment, she then sits down and turns toward me and takes my hands into hers. “Of course we did. Every fucking day I thought about you.”
My throat and chest feel thick. There is a stinging behind my eyes and I open my mouth to say something and can’t seem to choke out any words.
Lea pulls me toward her and wraps her arms around me. “Oh, Skye, come here.”
I fall into her and rest my head in her lap. My vision gets blurry and I swipe my eyes with the back of my hand. I hiccup and try to stop the flow of tears, only now that the floodgates have opened, I uncontrollably sob in her lap. When will the pain lessen? When will I stop hurting?
I feel a hand moving my hair back off my face, my eyes feel like there is sand in them. I’m not too sure how much time has passed, I sniffle and realize she’s talking to me. “We all worried so much Skye, but Preston… he was the one that was truly broken. He wouldn’t risk losing you again.”
“Tell me the truth. Do you think he’s in with my father?” I shift slightly so I can see her face.
“No. In fact, fuck no. I promise you, Skye, it’s not what you think. I don’t know what your father was trying to pull, but the Preston I know hates that man.”
My heart swells with hope. “Lea?” I croak out.
“Yeah?”
“Has he been looking for me?”
She’s silent and her hand stills in my hair.
“Lea?”
She sighs.
“Has he been looking for me?” I ask her again.
Her jaw clenches, and it takes her a few seconds to answer. “No.”
I sigh heavily.
“No one has been able to get a hold of him,” she says softly.
I sit up and frown at her as she sets her hands down in her lap. “What do you mean?”
“Craig has been to his house a couple times and he won’t answer the door.”
“Are you sure he's there?”
“Yes, he yells at him to go away.”
My chest hurts. “Do you think I was wrong to leave him?” I’m afraid I already know the answer.
“I don’t think you should have run,” she says faintly.
I nod and bite my lower lip. “I don’t know what to do.”
“No?”
“I’m afraid, Lea.”
“It will be ok, trust me.” She gives me an encouraging smile. “Just talk to him.”
“Should I call him?” I frown, trying to figure out the right thing to do. “Wait no… I need to talk to him in person.” I nod my head as soon as I say it out loud. It sounds like the right decision.
“Thank fuck, it’s only taken you a month,” she says and leans back on the couch.
“Sorry.” I slowly smile at her.
I walk up to the house and stop just out of sight of the windows. The lights in the living room are on and when I glance over at the driveway, only his cars are parked there. Oh God, can I do this after leaving him again? What if he has moved on and someone is in the house with him. It’s always the fucking ‘what ifs' that mess with my head. Lifting my chin, I take a deep breath, and give myself a pep talk. You can do this!
Before I can talk myself out of it, I walk resolutely to the front door and firmly knock three times. I can hear the TV blaring. My heart sinks as I wait outside, my resolve fading with each passing moment. I’ve come this far, and I can’t leave without at least seeing him. Curling my hand into a fist, I pound on the door. The TV goes mute and then I hear him yell, “Go away!” My eyes pop back open, and I question myself. Does he know it’s me? No, of course not.
I bang a few more times on the door and hear something smash against the wall and the pounding of his feet as he stomps to the door. It swings wide open, my breath catching at the sight of him. He looks like complete shit standing in the doorway. He’s shirtless, and in his worn Levi’s that he’s had since high school, his comfort pants. His face looks like it hasn’t seen a razor in a month, his hair looks as if his hands have been the only comb in recent days.
My heart breaks as it hits me that I did this to him, or I should say, we did this to each other. His silence claws at my belly, grating on my every nerve. It takes all my strength to not start yelling at him and demanding answers, but I know that would be the quickest way to get the door slammed in my face. After many long moments I finally get the nerve to meet his eyes, as he whispers, “Detka?”
Twenty-Six
My voice feels hoarse as I use the name meant only for her. I scrub the back of my hand over my face. I look up at her and stagger backwards, unable to believe that she is standing at my front door. The wall stops me retreating any further and I sink down onto my haunches. Finding it hard to swallow, I lower my head into my hands. Shaking my head I whisper, “Please be real…please…” I lift my face to look at her and find that she’s still there.
I watch her step cautiously into the house and close the door behind her. My vision becomes blurred. I use my fingers to clear the tears. I can see the hurt in her eyes, they are the brightest green they have ever been and glossy with unshed tears. It’s like a punch to my gut. I did that to her.
She takes a step closer and I hold out my hand to stop her and rise to my feet. “I can explain. Please, Detka… I need to explain everything to you.” My voice cracks with emotion.
She doesn’t say anything, she just brushes my hand out of her way and then she steps closer to me and caresses my face. I briefly close my eyes, her touch feels like home. When I open my mouth about to speak, she places a single finger across my lips, shushing me.
She pulls her hand back and searches my face, for what I don’t know. Whatever it is, I think she finds it, because she slips her arms around my waist and lays her head on my chest. My body tenses, then she squeezes me and I finally release the breath I had been holding.
My arms crush around her and my shoulders curve into her. I cup the back of her head as I hold her to me. We stand like this for a few long moments, then I finally get up the nerve to pull back and brush the hair out of her face. A fat tear starts rolling down her cheek. I brush it away with the pad of my thumb.
“Don’t cry, Detka.” I wipe another tear awa
y and my throat feels as if it’s going to close.
“You should follow your own advice,” she says as she sweeps her knuckles across my face and they come back wet.
“Where have you been?”
“I was at Lea’s. No one told you?” She arches a brow.
I think back to all the times Craig was banging on my door or calling the house. “No, I had no clue.” I ignored all their attempts to contact me and try to talk to me to see what happened. I’m so stupid sometimes.
I look down at her and find her smirking through the tears. “What?”
“You look like crap.” She chuckles.
“You look beautiful, so fucking beautiful.”
She blushes and looks down at the ground. “I have to ask you something, Preston.” She slowly brings her gaze back up to mine, her eyes have narrowed, and she is chewing on her bottom lip.
“I will answer all your questions,” I tell her. “But before I do, can you promise me you’ll hear me out and not run?” I take her hands into mine and squeeze them, brushing my thumbs over her knuckles.
She looks away and blushes again, then looks up at me. I see the pain behind her eyes and that hits me low, like a kick to the balls. I have to remove my hand from her face, the skin contact is clouding my thoughts and I can’t afford to screw this up.
She squeezes my hand. “I’m willing to try,” she says softly, and then glances at the floor.
“Come on.” I take her hand and walk through the foyer and into the living room and as I do the sickening feeling in my stomach that has been there for weeks feels like it’s getting worse. I walk directly over to the large sofa, the corner spot where we both can sit comfortably. We sit down and turn toward each other and once we are settled, I pull one of her hands into mine and hold on to it. “Ok, what is your question?” I ask cautiously.
“Are you working with my father?” I can see her pulse jumping in her neck.
I watch as she tenses as if she is bracing herself for the answer. “I was, but you have to hear the reasons why.”
She slowly pulls her hand away from mine and then opens her mouth to speak.
I hold up my hand, the palm facing her. “Let me tell you everything and then you can ask all your questions.”
She hesitates, then finally nods.
I rub my temples, figuring I just need to tell it from that first minute her father started manipulating us. “Your father caught me slipping out of your window one morning at dawn. I thought he was going to kick my ass, but instead he offered me a job. One which would give me enough money to start a life with you. He wanted me to go to Russia…” I look up at her. “Well…you know the rest.” She opens her mouth to object. “Before you say anything,” I interrupt her. “I told him no. I couldn’t figure out his angle, but I just knew he was being shady. Anyway. I said no and prepared for him to start making my life hell. But it never happened.
“For weeks he left me alone. I had all but forgotten it had even happened. Then graduation day changed everything. Mama got sick and you know I couldn’t provide the care she needed. Then Bob just appeared out of nowhere in the hospital hallway, like he had been circling and smelled blood. He offered me the help I so desperately needed. The money he promised and Mama’s medical bills paid on top. I had no choice, Skye. I couldn’t let her die. So I agreed.”
She seemed to war with emotions inside, but she didn’t say a thing and let me continue. “One of the conditions for working for him was I couldn’t tell anyone. This job was going to be a means to be able to provide for you and my Mama. The kind of life you both deserved. I tried to get him to change his mind about telling you, but with my mother in the hospital, he really had me by the balls.”
I take in a shaky breath, her wide glossy eyes flash with hurt and the tears start to fall.
“When I got to Russia and nobody met me, at first I thought I was unlucky. Bob was a busy man, I just kept missing him. But when I was taken, and the Volkovs were so convinced I’d stolen their shipment, I started realizing he’d set me up. Unbeknownst to me, he had informed them I would be delivering the shipment from the US. But he never gave me anything to hand over. I had no clue what they were talking about.
“But the brothers figured it all out when they found your picture in my bag. Bob wanted me gone. He knew if he set me up, the Volkovs would put me in a shallow grave and I wouldn’t be there to stop him getting to you.”
I take a breath and keep on going. “After we figured it out and I healed, I came home with a plan to take him down, but when I got here you were gone. Fuck Skye, a piece of me died that day.”
She swipes the tears off her face but keeps silent as I keep going. The sight of her so upset has me standing up and pacing the area in front of the sofa. I turn back, and her eyes are wide and I realize she is scared I might walk away from her. With a couple quick steps, I am standing before her and I drop to my knees so that I am eye level with her and I grasp her hands.
“I went crazy, Skye. I searched and searched for you and I couldn’t be certain he didn’t have some part in your disappearance. I feared you might be dead, Skye. I lost my mind. For a while I was still that kid who left you. It took a while to pull myself together and be the man you needed. I had money all of a sudden and it took time to fully realize what that meant for me. Once I found my feet, I hired someone to help me search for you. It was only when my PI found out that Bob had people looking for you too that I finally began to hope you might still be safe, just far away.”
I release her hands and rub my temples and then take a shaky breath to finish what I need to tell her.
“As time went by I couldn’t just sit and watch while Bob got richer. So I started trading, building up a business. The Volkovs favored me, obviously, and it wasn’t long before I was taking business from him. I hired Harrison to front it for me. I didn’t want Bob knowing I was behind it. I didn’t want him to know I was Volkov blood. I wanted him to still think he was above me, so that he would have further to fall when I could bring him down.” For a moment I fall silent and she watches me reflecting on the past few years.
“He’s never acknowledged the fact that I came back from Russia you know. I’m sure it freaked him the fuck out the first time he saw me. He’d tried to get me killed after all and I’d somehow survived. When I came back I was going to head straight round there and fuck him up. But you were gone and everything changed. So instead, I kept my head down and focused on more important things. He passed me in the street once and stared. But until that morning at breakfast, the day Mama…” I catch myself before I go to yet another dark place and get back to my story. “We’d never had any contact.”
She takes both my hands and opens them from where they were tightly clenched into fists then she pulls them into her lap. I look up at her, hoping she can forgive the mistakes I have made. “With that being said, the answer is yes. Yes, I worked for your father. He had me backed into a corner and I didn’t have any other options. I couldn’t have imagined what it would do to me, to us. But that is in the past now. I can only change what is in front of me.” I stroke a curl from her face. I stay on my knees before her, my jaw tight as I wait for her rejection.
She drops my hands from her grasp and my eyes look down to where my skin still burns from her touch. I can’t face her. I’m terrified that I will see a look of disgust on her face.
“Preston?” she says softly.
I thought I would be all cried out by now, but another teardrop lands on the back of my hand. “Yes?”
She leans forward and my heart sinks, I can’t watch her leave or see the scorn on her face. I feel her soft hands cup my face. “Preston look at me.”
I swallow and look up, her face is blotchy from crying and her eyes… damn her eyes get me every time. Huge green eyes that are glossy with the remnants of unshed tears. “Preston, I love you.”
The relief is agony and I groan from the pain of it slamming into me as I cup her face and bring her forward to pres
s my lips roughly to hers. I part my lips and tears spill as she lets me kiss her deeply, almost savagely. I never thought I’d have this again and I can’t seem to part from her. Eventually I have to let her go so we can both breathe. “I love you so much,” I gasp.
Breathing hard, she strokes my face and smiles through her tears. For a long while we just stare and soak in the closeness we have both missed so much.
“He needs to pay,” she says darkly out of nowhere.
“He will,” I confirm. “We’ve been working hard, Skye. We are almost ready to ruin him. I’ve been buying up small gem companies that buy from him and his sales have been slowly dwindling. Add to that supplies in Russia have been drying up due to ‘competitors.’ Things have been getting bad for him for a while now and he can’t touch most of the money he’s always had behind him to create the illusion of wealth. That money doesn’t belong to him, it belongs to you. It was always enough to just have it in the family, he was able to use the power it gave him to build his empire and generate a healthy disposable income. But with business taking a sudden turn for the worst, he’s had to borrow money.” I laugh, mirthlessly. “Lucky for him he has wealthy contacts with Russian money.” I smile slyly. “I believe the Volkov brothers have generously invested to help him secure a deal which will get him out of this hole he’s in.”
“But they’re—” She looks horrified.
I shake my head and take her hand. “It’s okay, Detka, he has no idea we are related. It’s something we’ve been very careful about. We have been planning his downfall for five years. They are as hellbent on his ruin as I am. Don’t forget, Bob sent Vasily’s only nephew, son of his beloved missing sister, to his death at the hands of the Volkovs no less! Vasily wanted his blood right there and then, but he has trusted me to take the lead on this. He understands that my vendetta is primary here.”
“I want to help.”
I frown. “Help with what?”
“I want to be involved in his takedown.”
“No, absolutely not.” My jaw clenches at the thought of her near him or even saying his name.
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