CHAPTER ELEVEN
1297 Words
MIKHAIL
Her lips were still on mine when I remembered to breathe. The bar hadn’t disappeared. The world hadn’t ended. Yet, my stomach churned so violently, it felt like the I was burning from my inside.
Not a ghost.
Not a memory.
Dana Monroe???
She is here. Warm. Real.
Pressed against me like we never had a bad encounter last time we met.
I broke the kiss first—not because I wanted to, but because if I didn't, I wouldn't stop.
I let my thumb longer at her jaw, felt every pulse jump beneath my touch. Still alive. Still defiant.
“You’re going to use that excuse again?” I murmured, a crooked smile tugging beneath at my lips. My fingers slid through her hair, slow, familiar you may say, as though five years hadn't passed. As if six months ago hatred hadn't carved me hollow. I inhaled her scent, very much familiar.
“You kissed me the day we met. Remember? And now you're telling me you're too old for me?”
I leaned back just enough to see her face.
“I don't believe this.”
Her eyes darkened, not with softness but something unexplainable.
“I don’t believe it.”
I preferred her dangerous.
Six months ago, I had buried her, not literally, but in my heart.
I buried her beneath the blood, beneath the screams of men who begged for mercy I didn't have, beneath my father's name, crown and my inheritance soaked in violence. I told my self Dana meant nothing. That she was a weakness. A mistake.
And yet,
Here she was.
Still the only lady who had ever broken me with just a single kiss.
“You shouldn't be here,” I said quietly.
And so,” she replied sarcastically, “here I am.”
Her composure told a lie. I felt it.
The way her body was tensed, the way her core tightened. The way she stuttered when I leaned closer.
“One don't come to Moscow without a reason, what's yours?” I asked. “ so tell me, Dana—what are you hunting?”
She curved her lips, slow but deliberate.
“Careful, Mikhail,” she whispered. “You might not like the answer.”
Before I could respond, my phone vibrated.
Once.
Twice.
Then a message flashed across the screen.
ANTON:
We have a problem.
I stilled.
Dana noticed.
Her eyes turned to the phone. Calculating. Reading meaning to my unspoken words.
“What kind of problem?” she asked softly.
“The kind that bleeds.” I answered.
DANA
Kissing him was a mistake.
Not because it felt wrong, but because it felt inevitable. The moment my lips touched his, every vow I made to myself shattered. Hatred, revenge, logic.…none of it mattered.
My body remembered him before my mind could think.
That terrified me.
Mikhail Petrov was fire
And I had walked straight back into that consuming flames.
When he pulled away I forced my breathing to steady, even as my skin burned where his hands had touched.
“You shouldn't be here,” he said.
“ Neither should you try to own me, I thought.
But I smiled instead.
“I’m just here,” I said lightly.
A lie.
I came for blood.
I came for war.
I came for answers.
I came for The Boss.
And Mikhail….whether I liked it or not stood directly in my way.
His phone buzzed. I saw the shift instantly. The predator snapped into place, The man who ruled Moscow without mercy.
He was followed with danger as though it was his shadow.
“What problem?” I asked.
He didn't answer. That was when I felt it.
The Weight.
My spine felt a tiny prickle.
I turned and froze. Across the bar, half-hidden in the crowd, I felt eyes on us, we were being watched.
I stood still, smiling and patient enough not to alert him.
I knew that face, it was as clear as broad day light.
I knew that face.
The face I see in my nightmares.
The man I came to Moscow in search for.
The Boss
My heart slammed againt my ribs as he raised his glass slightly—in a mocking way.
Still in shock, his mouth was moving, he mouthed two words.
FOUND YOU.
Mikhail followed my gaze. The moment his eyes locked in on the man, I felt his whole movement, it was lethal.
“What did you do?” he asked quietly.
“Nothing,” I said. “Not yet.” I swallowed.
When I had looked up again in search of The Boss, he had disappeared with the wind.
Mikhail grabbed my wrist hard.
“You’re not leaving my sight,” he said posessively.
I met his gaze, desire Abd fear that I might leave him again, it tangled dangerously in my chest.
“Then don’t let go.” I whispered.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
And somewhere between Moscow’s lights and the ghosts we couldn't outrun, I knew this time non of us would be walking away.
MIKHAIL
The moment the crowd swallowed him, I knew, that wasn't a coincidence, that was a trap that had been waiting patiently for Dana Monroe.
I tightened my grip on her wrist and we moved, my men already shifting around us without a word, I trust that Anton would’ve read my move. Too many exits and unfamiliar faces, I dashed into a door opened closer to us.
The door closed behind us with a sound that meant no witnesses needed.
Concrete walls. One hanging bulb. The kind of room where we needed to hide to strategies because Dana Monroe has been made and we needed a plan to get her out of that sticky situation. I won't watch her get hurt this time. I knew letting her act on her own would lead her to a room where questions were asked without politeness and scored were paid for in pieces.
I positioned Dana in front of me, not roughly, not gently also.
It was controlled. Calculated. Anyone watching wound think she was my prisoner
Her pulse under my fingers was fast evough tinmatch my own. I could feel every heartbeat, every flicker of tension in her body and I knew she was aware of me as I was aware of her.
“You shouldn't be here,” I murmured again, but softer this time, almost confessing.
“Neither should you, “ she replied, her lips twitching with that half-smile, half-challenge I could ever resist.
I ignored her taunt. Just then my phone vibrated cutting through the tension with shards of urgency.
ANTON: We have a problem.
I became tensed. Dana noticed it immediately. The predator in me came to play.
I tensed. Dana noticed it immediately. The predator in me shifted, eyes narrowing.
DANA
Every nerve in my body screamed at the danger, yet the pull towards him was stronger than fear. I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't be doing this with someone I'm older than. I shouldn't want him.
But I did.
He pressed a had against my stomach, bit roughly, but with that subtle warning that he meant he'd move the works for me, he didn't say it but I understood.
“I’m not leaving, “ I replied softly, testing the line he'd drawn between us.
“Then don't let go,” he replied.
Just then what looked like a confession was interrupted by Anton. My stomach sank, hd knew more th as n hr let on.
ANTON: “The Boss wants her,” Anton’s voice, cold. “Alive. For now.”
DANA
I clenched my fists, ready for the storm, but Mikhail’s hand tightened on mine, grounding me.
He was always two steps ahead. Always.
- Writer
