Page 21 of The Runaway
“Yeah, we were. Have you been out all evening?” Nodding, I rocked back on my heels as Ophelia deflated a little. “So, you probably don’t want to come with us, then? We’re going out to eat.”
“Um— I could go. I’m hungry, yeah. Where are we going?” She perked up immediately, and my stomach growled as her eyes brightened. “What?”
“Well, if you’re going to stay in America, I want to spend time with you, Joci. We won’t see each other after this.” My eyes widened in surprise, and she blushed as she reached to touch my arm over my jacket. Goosebumps washed my skin, my mouth drying when it opened only to expel air. Simply nodding dumbly, I clamped my lips shut under furrowed brows.
“Okay. I have to change.” Once again, I turned to head towards the elevator, and Ophelia didn’t try to stop me. Before Aleksander invited me to America, I thought we, she and I, could’ve been friends. Maybe, even confidants in a business where those kinds of relationships were dangerous.
Now, though, I couldn’t be Ophelia’s friend, and there was no point in trying to keep the relationship alive. In 22 days, I couldn’t exist to her, and she couldn’t exist to me. My life depended on my cutting all ties to anything remotely Russia, and Ophelia was the strongest one by far.
Jabbing the elevator button, I stared at the golden circle for the second it took the doors to slide open. Blinking hard, a breath surged into my nose when I saw Aleksander Makovich leaning on the reflective wall. Reluctance seeped into my bones, and he gestured me in without looking up from his phone.
“I know you’d rather not, but I would appreciate you telling me you’re going to fuck someone.” Tensing as the doors slid shut, I frowned as heat slithered up my neck, but Aleksander didn’t look up from his phone. After days and days of nothing but English, hearing Russia was almost strange. “You still work for me, Joci, and this isn’t a vacation trip. Next time, text me or something.”
“O— okay.” The elevator started ascending before he glanced over at me, eyes narrowed and searching.
“Didn’t go well?”Ah, what the Hell.I was so tired that I couldn’t even think of a lie, and it wouldn’t matter, anyway. Shaking my head wordlessly, I leaned against the wall to rub my face with both my hands. “The fact that you showed him is something in itself, Joci.”
“He wants me to meet his family, and I said ‘yes’… like a dumbass. I was gonna show him, but then he asked me aboutThanksgiving?” Scrunching up my face as I licked my lips, the unfamiliar tingling on my tongue spreading up into my nose. “I would’ve chickened out, I think, if he didn’t.”
“I had the unfortunate circumstance to meet Sassan’s mother when I tortured her. You’ll be fine. Speaking of torture…”Why can’t he just shut up and leave me alone?It seemed silly, right now, to think such a thing. In less than a month, I’ll be dead to Aleksander Makovich. All I had to do was stick this out. “Kiri is being sent from Russia to head things up here in America. I’ve advised her of your situation, and she’ll be watching you until your year is up. You remember Darren, right?”
“Ugh…” My frustrated groan was all the answer Makovich needed, and I nodded with a scowl as the elevator clattered to a stop. “How can I forget? He’s worse than you.”
Leaving the elevator, my mood soured long before I noticed Aleksander following me to my room. Darren Willians was a terrible asshole, arrogant and mismanaged, and I fished my keycard out of my pocket before Aleksander continued.
“This morning, Carlyle agreed to amend our contracts, so Darren will be arriving in a few hours to sign some agreements. His girlfriend is also in New York City right now. You’re going to be keeping an eye on her for me.” Pausing mid-step at the suggestive lilt in his tone, I glanced over at Aleksander as he plucked my key card from between my fingers. Closing the distance between us and my hotel room door, he swiped the card and pushed the barrier open to gesture me inside. Instant, intense cramps gripped my gut, and suspicion soured my tongue and stiffened my strides.
“You didnot…” I hissed when I saw some girl sitting on the sofa, but Aleksander didn’t care enough about my discomfort even to smirk. “Are you holding her hostage or something?”
“Of course not, Joci. This is America. I can’t get away with that, especially with Santino watching me. No, she’s simply rooming with you for the time being.” My scowl darkened, and I stalked over to my suitcase to flip the top hard. “She’s not here for me, anyway. She’s Darren Willians’s acquaintance.”
“You have a problem, Aleksander Makovich, with thinking everyone’s expendable and using it against them when you know sure as Hell that you’re not gunna do anything. Okay— with all the respect you deserve, Darren can and will fuck youreally badif you mess with him. You’re the boss, blah blah— whatever. He’s the one with influence outside Russia, not you.” The woman popped up, her angel face and perfect smile puffing out her cheeks under sparkling, green eyes. She spoke with no malice, no grumpiness, but that was the curious thing while she walked across the hotel room to hold out her hand for me. “I’m Delilah.”
“Joci…” I shook her hand— she had such a delicate grip. Everything about her screamed innocent, but there wassomething… “Nice to meet you… I think…”
“I have no intention of being a bitch or getting all up in your space.” Delilah was so chipper, and I only nodded dumbly as she pulled back to flop onto the sofa again. Inside Russia, she’d be dead by now for saying what she said; it really was true, wasn’t it? Aleksander Makovich hadnoinfluence outside the Motherland even though he was king. “Anyway— I appreciate you giving me a few bucks and all, but I’m not giving you any information on my boss. Sorry. She’s way scarier than you.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on…” I was so lost, and Delilah gazed at me with raised brows as curiosity flashed in her bright eyes.
“I’m your English teacher. Aleksander didn’t tell you? I taught second grade before I took up modeling. Did you think I came here because I was so scared of him? He’s paying me, and I get to see Darren.” Alarm bells rang shrilly in my head, and she smiled widely again as I sat on the foot of the bed. “It must suck so bad living under a totalitarian terrorist regime. You know, now that you’re here in America, Joci, you don’t have to be deathly afraid of everyone.”
For the next few weeks I do.
22
Jacob
“You look like shit, dude.” For once, I was glad to have Caleb around so I wasn’t alone with my thoughts, and he popped open the fridge as I stared blankly at my phone. “Wanna talk about it? Is this because Aunt Lisa’s going around telling everyone about how you paid for a wife to show off at tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Not really. I couldn’t care less about what Mom was telling people. I honestly… I fucked up, and I don’t know how to try to fix it. You’re good at that— you got any tips?” Maybe, if my expression was so damned gaunt and twisted, Caleb would make a big deal of what I’d said. Glancing up as his brows drew together, my lid twitched while the other night’s disaster played in my mind’s eye. “I told Joci she looked better with her clothes on, and then we screwed for a while, and then I told her I needed some time by myself.”
“Oh…” Short story shorter, I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my scowl as self-depreciation saturated my tongue. Slowly, Caleb closed the fridge door, and his own face drawing in seriousness. “Was she upset you said that?”
“No. She had surgery— has a huge, multi-pronged scar down her front—” Honestly, the scar reminded me of that holy symbol inI, Frankenstein, with longer, horizontal scars under her breasts and shorter ones creeping out from just above her hip bones. “I wasn’t expecting that. I looked up, and… there it was.”
“So, what? You feel bad for judging her for a scar?” Jerking my head in a nod, I tightened my grip on my phone. I had to get to work, but I just couldn’t physically bring myself to think or do anything. “Did you call her, yet?”
“Not yet. I’m gonna on my way to work, but I don’t know what to say.” Raking my hand through my hair, I exhaled a hard sigh through clenched teeth. I’d been struggling with this since Monday. Every single thing Icouldsay raced through my head, kept me up at night, but none of it seemed to be right. “I know she showed me because she wanted to get it out of the way, but I feel like shit because I reacted exactly how she expected me to. What kind of person does that make me?”