Page 30

Mikhail

“Must’ve been one hell of a meeting,” Enzo commented, startling me the moment I walked into my apartment. He was carelessly lying on my sofa with a pack of Pringles in his right hand.

“How did you get my key, and how long have you been here?” I queried, noting an already empty pack of Pringles and a glass of juice on the table next to him.

He gave me a puzzled look, slowly taking a sip of his drink. “You drag me from New York to Italy to oversee the security of your new office, and you abandon me in a hotel to die of boredom.”

“And you couldn’t find ways to entertain yourself?”

“I am entertaining myself,” he replied, gesturing to the snack and TV in front of him.

I rolled my eyes and settled into my sofa, kicking off my shoes and undoing my tie. I let out a string of Russian curses as the events of the night returned to me in flashes. I had no prior intentions of taking her to the meeting with me, but after her comment about needing to be home early on a Friday night, resentment boiled through me, and I dragged her into my routine. She had no right to ruin my life, break my heart into bits, and go on to have romantic date nights with Italian men while I spent my weekend hunched over business plans.

“Rough day?” he asked, munching noisily.

“Not really,” I replied, not offering further explanation.

He slowly shook his head. “Is there a reason you’re still keeping her around?”

“I’m not keeping her around. I’m giving her a taste of her own medicine.”

“And what happens when two years elapsed? She moves on to have a nice life, or you craft another document to bind her longer? Let her go with a strict warning. Nothing good will come out of keeping her around.”

“I’m supposed to let the woman who tried to wreck my life go scot-free after she practically walked right into my arms?”

“Let’s look at your preferred method of dealing with rats; you kill them, or you torture them to death after extracting information from them. The way I see it, you’re neither going to kill her nor can you torture her for information. I doubt she knows anything about Henry currently. The best thing to do would be to dismiss her.”

“The door is this way when you’re done. I’ll handle my affairs however I see fit while you focus on the security of the office,” I said dismissively, picking myself from the sofa and heading to the bedroom.

Enzo was making sense. It just was not the type of sense I was open to at the moment. His statement about what I would do when two years elapsed took me back to the club, and Arielle’s outburst echoed over the stream of hot water pouring down my back.

Maybe I took things a bit too far with my make-out session, but then she was the one who made claims of having something to do tonight. I hate this. I hate how I am the only one who seems to be affected by what happened between us. She just went ahead to relocate and have a better life, while I couldn’t find the space for another female in my life. I couldn’t punish her publicly as Enzo said. It’ll only bring more attention to me. I, Mikhail Ivanov, fell in love with a spy and got heartbroken. I’d be a mockery. My fight is with Henry, and until I find the bastard and completely destroy him, I can’t blow this up.

*****

“Good morning, Sir.” Arielle greeted, making her way into my office the next morning. I don’t like the sound of the word when it comes from her, but I’d rather drag myself through burning coal tar than admit that.

“Good morning. Please have a seat,” I replied in a professional tone, and she squinted her eyes at me before slowly settling into the seat.

I turned off my laptop and leaned back into my chair, taking her in. She was dressed in a black long-sleeved knee-length dress, paired with ridiculously high stilettos. Her hair was put up in a tight bun, her makeup was light, and overall, she looked beautiful. A far cry from the glamorous blonde I used to know, but she was breathtaking regardless.

“I want us to talk about what happened yesterday,” I said, carefully observing her.

She shrugged. “What happened yesterday?”

I curled my fingers into a fist to keep me from visibly rolling my eyes. Of course, she was going to feign ignorance and force me to go over my actions. The appearance might’ve changed, but the person remained the same.

“The event at the club.”

“You mean the part where you made me watch you almost have sex with a girl and asked me to offer myself as a replacement?” she bit out, and I felt the familiar anger only she could elicit slowly coming to the surface.

“You had no right to walk her out.” I was not an emotional being by any means, and I always have my feelings in check at all times, but she somehow brings out the emotionally unstable part of me without much effort.

“You should’ve let me go!”

“I didn’t tie you down. You stayed because you wanted to,” I retorted, and her eyes flashed with anger. Good, we’re even now.

“You’re the one who dragged me to the club with you even after I said I had something to do. You were the one who said no one leaves the club until the deal is settled.”

“And the deal wasn’t settled at the time the girls came in? I saw Antonio leave with the guests. You decided to stay!”

At this point, we were both breathing heavily and staring daggers at each other. This wasn’t the way I intended the conversation to go, but I was too far gone to turn around. I admit to dragging her to a meeting that had nothing to do with her, but the drama that followed was entirely up to her.

After what seemed like a lifetime elapsed, she closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath, and when she reopened them, she was the picture of serenity, and that infuriated me more.

She closed her eyes and took in oxygen, and she was fine while I continued fuming. How could she have that much control of her emotions, as if the history we share has no effect on her?

“Mikhail,” she started in a low tone, and I felt myself visibly tense at the sound of my name rolling out of her tongue, “I’m sorry for spying on you. I’m sorry for walking into your life, but if you’re going to punish me, just get on with it already! Torture me like you torture the men who betray you, do whatever you want, and just let me be. I’m tired of playing your stupid games, and I want out.”

A dry chuckle left me as I watched her struggle to maintain the composure she just regained. “You want out of my little game? Tell me, Arielle, should I say, Cara, did you ever plan on letting me out of yours? No, here’s a better question.” I paused, looking her dead in the eye. “Were you ever going to tell me it was all a game?”

“You’re not a saint, Mikhail,” she replied in a bored tone, rolling her eyes in the process. “drop the act. It’s not like you’ve not had someone infiltrate for you in your line of work.”

“Unlike you, I don’t stab my enemies in the back. I hold a stake to their face, and I drive a stake into their heart.”

“And you force them to look into your eyes while you snuff the life out of them. I’ve seen that one already. What’s new?” She said, cutting me short.

“At least they look into my eyes. I don’t have to resort to deceptive means to get what I want.”

“It’s not like you were completely innocent. You are a fucking criminal, and it was only a matter of time till someone gave you a taste of your own medicine.” She bit out, and I stared in shock at the woman standing in front of me, and how she was totally different from the sweet, empathetic person I used to know.

“So that's what it was all about? To give me a taste of my own medicine,” I replied, stalking towards her.

“You are a criminal, and I was merely following orders,” She said in a tone that sounded more like she was trying to remind herself of who I was.

“Was any of it ever real? Did you even love me?” I asked, standing in front of her.

“Mikhail, I don’t think this is a wise conversation,” she replied, her eyes darting between me and the door.

“Just answer the question, Arielle,” I hissed, taking a step forward ? ”

“It’s useless,” she shot back, taking a step backward.

Tension rolled off me in waves as I stood in front of her, watching as her chest rose and fell in anger. “I deserve to know. Telling me the truth is the least you can do after what you put me through.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she muttered, looking everywhere but me.

And I don’t know why I was pushing the conversation. She was right. It didn’t matter if she meant it or not. The end remained the same, but for some reason, I couldn’t drop it. I needed to hear her tell me to my face that everything was a lie, and she felt nothing for me.

I hooked a finger beneath her jaw, forcing her eyes to mine. I could see little specks of blue through her contacts, and I found myself getting lost in them again. “Tell me some of it was real, and I’m not making up these things in my head.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she maintained, trying to force her eyes from mine but I held her in place.

I could feel my heart pick up at a faster pace as we stood there staring into each other’s eyes. The tension between us grew so thick you could slice through it with a blunt knife, and at some point, I don’t know which one of us moved, but I felt her take in a sharp inhale as my nose brushed against hers, her eyelids slowly dropping.

The need to kiss her became suddenly overwhelming, and just as I dipped my head to capture her lips in mine, the doorbell rang so loud we practically jumped away from each other, and Arielle was out of the office in a flash, taking the moment along with her.

After my brief meeting with Antonio, I sent a text to Enzo to get some of his men to tail Arielle.

I couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was hiding more than just the agency.