74

Anatoli
She’s like a dose of fire to my soul.
Scorching and consuming everything in its wake. Owning it. Owning me.
I pound into her body like I own her, but it’s Avrora who owns me.
She owned me the moment she chose me.
I heard what she said to Mikhail, and my heart tells me she knows more things that I couldn’t tell her about the past and her father.
It’s the way she looked at me and how she thought she was the devil, not me.
That means Ehlga told her. I trust Ehlga wouldn’t have done so if she didn’t think it was right, so I’m okay with it.
When I look at Avrora, I see nothing but the woman I love. My wife.
Her blue gaze, filled with pleasure, pain, and love, is everything, and I need nothing more in this life than what she can give me.
I try to hold on and control myself so I can keep going, but I never stood a chance. I’ve wanted to take her again from the moment I walked away the other night.
I come and she does too, digging her nails into my shoulder.
She wraps her legs around me as we kiss once more, and when we calm down, I know I need more.
“We’re not done yet.” My voice is thick with my desire for her.
“No, I need more. I need you.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
I don’t even know what the fuck state we’re in when we walk out, but we manage to cover the parts that shouldn’t be showing and leave.
Thank God I drove my car tonight. We jump in and arrive home in record time, but I’m already tearing at her dress before we can get through the door.
We barely manage to make it upstairs, where we fall into our bed, and I devour her all over again.
That’s what we’re like all night. We don’t sleep.
It’s not until the early hours of the morning that we calm down and lie together naked on the bed with the moonlight shining on us through the window.
The Valkyrie is lying cocooned in my arms with her hands on my chest. Her soft body is pressed against the hard planes of mine, but our hearts beat together as if we’re one being.
In the calm, I sense even more that she knows about the past. She hasn’t stopped touching me in some way. It’s like she’s scared to stop. I know the feeling because I don’t even want sleep to take me away from her.
Or the truth. Talking about the truth will pull us from this moment. I don’t want it to.
In the real world, I’ve spent the last few days with Zakh, Malik and our men looking for Uther, my childhood monster, who has mysteriously disappeared.
Disappeared as in no one has seen or heard of him for days and his house is empty as if he’s moved town and country.
That motherfucker managed to blindside me and slip away under my radar. And I don’t have a fucking clue what he’s up to.
Him being the wielder of the poison that leaves my father hanging on to life adds to the theory that something else is going on. Something weird, considering Uther has worked for my father for a lifetime.
It’s going to be something that will undoubtedly wreck my plans at some point and seek to overthrow all that I’ve accomplished. We’re looking for Uther, but there’s no way Mikhail isn’t involved.
He’s still the only person this points to, but at this stage Mikhail looks clean. Too clean, in my eyes. Which is just as much a sign of guilt as a dirty motherfucker.
I have eyes on him, but I don’t know if I’m looking in the wrong place and missing all the things I’m supposed to see.
Avrora’s warm fingers trace the outline of the flowers tattooed on my shoulder, and I switch my attention back to her.
“Why flowers?” Her voice is low and cautious. When she looks at me, I see pain in her eyes again. Along with guilt.
Guilt that prompts me to address the elephant in the room. Since I got that tattoo in memory of my mother, I decide to start with that.
“They’re Lisianthus’. They were my mother’s favorites.” I keep my voice even, trying not to show too much emotion as I remember how Mom used to always have fresh flowers in the house. It was her thing to do every Friday. “I wanted to carry a piece of her close to my heart. If you look closely, you’ll see I have another scar, just underneath.”
I look at Avrora. Tears fill her eyes, showing her pain for me. They stream down her cheeks, and she looks away from me.
“Ehlga told you what happened to my mother and me, didn’t she?” I lift her chin, guiding her gaze back to me and I wipe the tears from her cheeks.
“Yes, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“I know you are. I am too, but I don’t blame you. I’ve never blamed you in that way. So you mustn’t either.”
“I feel terrible. I can’t believe my father did all that to you and took away your mother.”
“Your father was just the instrument, the biggest monster is my father.”
“I know, but it was my father who killed her and did so much to you. He’s killed the love I have for him. And I know there’s more. So much more. I know in my heart that my nightmares mean something. There’s something terrible locked away in my mind that’s to do with my father.”
“There’s a lot going on with your father, Avrora. Things that will soon become out of my control. I need you to prepare yourself for the worst.”
“You allowed him to live.”
I have to be real with her. No more beating around the bush. “I allowed him to live for the moment. I wanted him to lose everything first because that’s how you truly punish a man like him.”
More tears slide down her cheeks. “I wish I could fix it.”
“Nothing can fix it, baby girl. All we can do is move forward. You and me.”
“Do you think we can?”
“We’re going to. Because I’m not letting you go. Ever.”
She smiles through her tears and lifts herself up to kiss me.
My cock hardens again, and suddenly I’m starved for her like I was the first time when I took her innocence. But just as our kisses become ravenous, my phone vibrates on the nightstand.
No one has ever called me at this hour. It’s just after four in the morning.
A call at this hour is serious and needs to be answered whether I want to or not.
I pull away from Avrora, who immediately looks worried when I grab the phone.
When I glance at the home screen and see it’s Zakh calling, I answer straight away and get off the bed.
“Hey,” I say first.
“Sorry to call so late. We got the guy who killed the dealer, and it seems like he’s the one who’s been watching us.”
“Who is he?”
“An asshole who works for the Triad. One of their trackers and assassins.”
“Triad?”
“Yes, looks like they’re involved somehow. He had pictures on his computer.” He pauses for a beat. “Pictures of you and Avrora. And old pictures of your mother.”
My blood temperature rises then spikes. What the actual fuck? That doesn’t make any sense. “Where is he now?”
“We’re at the warehouse at the docks, in the back office. We’ve been trying to question him, but he’s not talking. Anatoli, I think Mikhail’s involved in some way, but this feels bigger.”
“I’m on my way.” I will get the fucker to talk. Why the fuck would this guy have pictures of my mother?
“See you when you get here.”
We hang up and I look at Avrora.
“What’s happening? Where are you going at this time?” She looks freaked out.
“It’s alright. I have to go check something out.” I feel like a liar. Especially when I take my gun out of the nightstand drawer and she sees it.
“Anatoli…”
“It’s okay. Please don’t worry. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
In the moonlight, her skin goes paler, and she feels cold when I touch her cheek and kiss her goodbye.
She watches me leave. Her worry stays with me even when I can’t see her anymore. As I rush down the stairs, I wonder just how much blood I’m going to get on my hands.
I’ll cover myself in it if it gets me the answers I need.