I breathed in the cool, midnight air of Las Vegas as I stood on top of a rolling hill overlooking the Volkov Estate.
A week had passed since Allistair’s ball. Since the high of the best sex I’d ever had and the low of being pushed away—yet again—by Dimitri. Since finding out the person behind my contract was Sergei Volkov, and that it wasn’t actually Dominik that was the intended target, but Dimitri, the man who’d done nothing but cause me inner turmoil for the last few months.
The man I feared I might…love.
That was the only explanation I could come up with for that feeling I’d never experienced before. I recalled all the things Dimitri said about love when we were locked in the cell together. Recalled how Nikolai acted with that blonde woman, Tatiana.
Love was the only thing that made sense, that could rationalise that agonsing pressure smothering my chest. The only thing that could rationalise this ache in my soul for him. To be near him.
And didn’t that complicate the fuck out of things?
I had two options before me.
I could either complete the contract and kill Dimitri, or refuse, and most likely have to live out the rest of my days in hiding because Sergei would put an open contract out on me for not doing the job. That meant anyone—assassin or not—could try to kill me to claim the money attached to the contract.
If it had been a few months before, back before I’d even met the bastard, it wouldn’t even be an issue. Wouldn’t even be a question.
I would have done it with zero hesitation and then gone home and slept on the giant pile of cash I’d earnt from it.
But now…
Now, things were different.
I knew Dimitri Volkov, and it was because I knew him that I wasn’t sure if I was capable of killing him anymore.
Hurting him? Yes.
But killing him? I honestly didn’t know if I could do it.
Which was why I was there, staking out his house. I needed to talk to him about the situation.
Maybe he would say something stupid, like he always did, and then I could kill him without a guilty conscience hanging over my head.
Using my high-powered binoculars that were equipped with night vision, I did another perimeter sweep of Dimitri’s house. It was surrounded on all sides by thick, wrought-iron fencing that spread out for miles from the house itself. The home wasn’t only well protected, but it was well guarded, with 360-degree rotating cameras, foot patrols and canines.
I’d been watching for at least a few hours, and I’d yet to see a way in without getting caught—
“What the fuck is that?” I whispered under my breath. I adjusted the dial in the centre of the binoculars to zoom in and sharpen the focus. “Is that—”
A woman in a black, skintight cat burglar outfit was climbing out of one of the windows of the house.
I was stunned. One, because she’d somehow managed to get in and out without anyone noticing. And two, because she was climbing down the side of the house with what looked like zero climbing equipment. She was doing it completely freehand.
She plopped down onto the ground and stretched her body left to right. I thought she was done for when a soldier stepped around the corner and spotted her. I almost wanted to shout out and warn her, regardless of how pointless it would be to do so from so far away.
Turned out, she didn’t need my help, though. She whipped out a gun and shot him in the neck with what looked like a dart before he even knew what was going on. She then shot forward and caught his fall, lowering him to the ground softly before snatching up the dart and pocketing it.
Without any further delay, she took off, running in the north-east direction, behind the warehouse.
I was genuinely impressed with her, and couldn’t help wondering who she was and what she was doing in Dimitri’s house.
When I realised she was making her escape, heading straight for some sort of exit point, I cursed. With quick, precise movements, I packed away my gear into my backpack, strapped it across my shoulders and ran to my bike.
I owned several different motorbikes, but this one—the Aprilia RSV 1000R Mille—was my favourite. It wasn’t only fast but quiet, making it perfect for sleuthing. I much preferred bikes over cars because they made for quick, easy getaways. Given my profession, those two things were key to ensuring a successful escape.
I slapped on my black helmet and straddled my bike, turning on the engine. Pain shot through my body, and I winced, gripping my side.
Son of a bitch.
There was a seven-inch laceration just under my ribs, thanks to Johnathon. Fucker was more skilled than I thought.
After Sergei’s ultimatum, I’d run back to try to find Johnathon and complete my mission, but he’d left. Most likely, after the kiss Dimitri and I shared on the dance floor. Having his “date” kiss another man in front of everyone else would have been a bit of an ego blow for the dude.
So, he’d ditched my clutch on the table and just left. The vial of Thallium was still inside, so I was confident my cover hadn’t been blown. But still, it presented a conundrum.
How was I going to complete my contract and kill him?
The easiest solution I could come up with was to sneak into his house and put the Thallium in one of the bottles of water in his fridge. A plan I wished I’d thought of first, so I didn’t have to endure the tedious events of that stupid ball.
In saying that, though, if I’d done that first, I never would have gotten to finally fuck Dimitri.
Everything happens for a reason, I guess.
Unfortunately for me, Johnathon had woken up in the middle of the night and caught me. He’d managed to get a few good hits in, one of which being a cut from a knife before I was able to take him down.
I’d been left with no choice but to kill him and make it look like a home invasion gone wrong to cover my tracks.
Shaking off the pain, I kicked the stand up and took off quickly, pebbles and dust shooting in the air as I sped forward. I took the winding roads at high speed, heading in the north-east direction. If I could get there in time to see where the woman was exiting from, I might be able to use that as my way in.
The wind whistled past me, the exhilaration that came with riding fast, with leaning into the swerves as I took corners quickly pounding into my veins. It was such an adrenaline rush, and I fucking loved every second of it—another reason why I preferred bikes to cars.
Since I knew what to look for, it made spotting her a little easier. She was running across the yard with one of the dogs on her tail, but it wasn’t attacking her—another thing I didn’t understand, but didn’t have the time to think about.
I pulled over to the side of the road and switched off my bike. My head tilted to the side as I watched her approach a small bush. She simply picked it up and moved it to the side, revealing a hole in the fence that looked like it had been blowtorched open.
Interesting.
She patted the dog on the head and then climbed through the hole, emerging on the other side next to another motorbike—hers, I assumed.
I took off my helmet and left it dangling from the handlebars. She spotted me. Froze. Cocked her head to the side. Then waved in a friendly greeting.
At least she wasn’t trying to outright kill me, which I took as a positive. I waved back. We both seemed to have similar agendas—getting into the Volkov house undetected—so I figured she might be open to helping me.
Swinging my leg, I dismounted from my bike and crossed the road quickly to get to her side. She was wearing a mask, so I couldn’t see her face properly. Just a set of light, brown eyes.
“Hello,” I greeted politely.
She smiled. “Hello!” Fuck me, you’re a chipper one. “Are you looking to get in?”
“Uh, yes.”
“You can use my entry if you want. I don’t mind. I was just visiting my boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” I was confused. Beyond confused. If she was visiting her boyfriend, why was she, for all intents and purposes, breaking in?
She nodded emphatically. “Uh-huh! My sweet Lukyan,” she sighed dreamily. “He was sleeping, so I didn’t want to wake him. He had such a tough day. My poor little baby. I just sat there and watched him sleep! He was so cute.”
“Watched…him…sleep,” I dragged out, trying hard to follow along with the conversation, but she was like one of those energiser bunnies. Just go, go, go. No stopping. “How long were you in there?” I’d arrived a few hours before, and hadn’t seen her go in, so that meant she would have already been inside—
“Four hours and twelve minutes! My longest record yet.”
Yet? She’d done this before. Several times. Who the fuck was this woman?
Memories and conversations from back in Talon’s cell came hurtling back to me. I remembered something was mentioned about Lukyan having a stalker.
Is this her?
“How did you get in there without being seen? What about the cameras? The dogs?”
She waved a hand through the air like those things were nothing. “The cameras are on a loop. I got the idea from a movie called Speed! Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Have you seen it? It’s pretty good. It’s way better than the second one! And the dogs look tough and scary, but they’re really sweethearts. They’re used to me, so they see me as a friend. It might be a little harder for you. But I sent them all to bed, so if you’re quick, you might be able to make it to the house before they come out. Who are you here to see? I hope it’s not my Lukyan because then I’ll have to kill you!” she laughed, but I had a feeling she wasn’t joking in the slightest. She gave off batshit crazy vibes to a tee.
“Um, Dimitri.”
“The dad? Oof. You’ve got your work cut out for you there. He’s got issues upon issues upon issues. Not like my Lukyan. We’ve been together for a while now, you know? It’s coming up to our six-month anniversary. We’re going to celebrate big.”
“That sounds…nice.” She sounded delusional, if I was being honest.
“It does, doesn’t it,” she breathed out. “Anyway, Pops’ room is on the third floor, right-hand side, second door from the stairs. I’d avoid the shrine room right next to it, though.”
“Shrine room?” I questioned.
“Yeah. It’s pretty weird in there. I tried to go in there once, but it gave me the heebie jeebies. It’s like time just stopped in that room. Like no one has been in there in years. There’s so much layer of dust, you can’t even walk in without leaving footprints.”
I frowned, not really understanding much of what she was saying. “O-okay. Thanks for the advice.”
“No problem! The cameras will be on a loop for about another forty-five minutes. Is that enough time for you?”
There were so many things wrong with the conversation, but I just nodded and thanked her for the help.
She jumped onto her bike and gave me another smile, big enough to see straight through her mask. “It was so nice to meet you! Who knows, maybe the next time we meet will be at me and Lukyan’s wedding.” She leant forward and put her hand up over her mouth like she was telling me some sort of secret she didn’t want anyone else to hear. “I think he’s going to propose soon,” she giggled. “Bye!” Then, she sped off down the street.
I stared after her, blinking rapidly. “Oh, she’s motherfucking looney tunes.”
“Third floor, second door from the stairs. Third floor, second door from the stairs,” I whispered under my breath as I carefully moved up the stairs, one agonising step at a time. I’d managed to make it across the lawn and into the house without being seen, but it had been hard.
The dogs hadn’t come out of their little doggie houses, to which I was relieved, but the guards patrolling had been difficult to avoid. I had to get in some awkward as fuck positions to make sure I wasn’t spotted, but in the end, I’d managed to slip in without being noticed.
Since making it inside, I hadn’t seen a single guard. It seemed they only patrolled the outside, which worked well in my favor.
When I made it to the third floor, I turned right and stopped in front of the second door. If I believed Looney Tunes, Dimitri would be behind it. I placed my hand on the handle, but something was making me hesitate.
My gaze shot to my left. I eyed the door of the next room, Looney Tunes’ words streaking through my mind.
“It’s like time just stopped in that room. Like no one has been in there in years.”
Why? Why would there be a room in the house that no one had stepped foot in in years? It didn’t make any sense. Curiosity got the better of me, and I found myself unable to turn away from it.
Cursing softly under my breath, I moved to the next room and opened the door, slipping inside. It was dark. So dark, I couldn’t see a thing. I whipped out my small flashlight and turned it on, casting a small beam of light throughout the room.
Jesus, fuck.
Looney Tunes hadn’t been lying. It had been way longer than a few years since someone went into that room. The layer of dust was so thick that it covered every inch of the space. It was on the four-poster bed, on the dresser, the bookshelf—even on the walls. I was stunned, frozen on the spot, unable to move.
It literally felt like time had just stopped in that room and that room alone.
My eyes roamed around the room, following the light as it moved over every surface. Something caught my eye from one of the bedside tables. I took one step, then another, and it left very clear, distinct footprints behind me, but I couldn’t stop myself. It was like I was being drawn there.
A pair of heels were on the ground like someone had taken them off after a long, hard day and just left them right there. I moved closer, stepping over a towel covered in dust. It was what I imagined a room to look like after the world had ended, when people are moving from house to house decades later, scavenging for food, and they step inside to see what the room had been like right before disaster had struck. Right before people panicked and ran, leaving everything behind. Leaving everything exactly how it was.
Disaster had struck outside of that room, and ever since, no one had come back in.
My fingers shook as I reached forward and picked up a photo frame from the bedside table. Unable to help myself, I wiped away the layer of dust obstructing the photo, and sucked in a painful gasp.
The photo was of a couple. She was gorgeous. Long, dark hair. Bright, hypnotizing blue eyes. Soft, pale skin. Beautiful smile. And he…
He was Dimitri, but not the Dimitri I knew. There was a light in his eyes that I’d never seen before. A smile on his lips that I’d never been a witness to. I ran my fingers over his face. He looked younger, his hair devoid of those streaks of silver I loved so much, his face free of those harsh, hard lines. He looked…carefree. Happy.
This is what a happy Dimitri looks like.
Pain smothered my chest, making it difficult for me to breathe. Of course. It all made sense. The reason why he pushed away from me every chance he got. My eyes flicked to her, the woman standing next to him in the photo.
He still loved her.
After all these years, he still loved her.
The evidence of that was all around me. It was in all her belongings still there, in exactly the same spots they were in before she died. It was in her clothes I could see hanging in the open wardrobe. In her shoes lying on the floor. Her perfumes sitting on the dresser. Her make-up sitting on the table.
He’d kept everything.
Everything.
Hot tears welled in my eyes. I blinked them back, refusing to let them fall. I shouldn’t have come in here. I should have listened to Looney Tunes.
Using every bit of strength I possessed to keep my hands from trembling, I placed the photo frame back in its spot and backed out of the room slowly. Once I was back in the hall, I took a deep, shuddering breath.
It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, I told myself.
I was there for a reason. I had a mission. That was what I needed to focus on.
But as I inched my way towards the door Dimitri was behind, I couldn’t help but feel like any chance of happiness I might have was slipping away with each step.
