“Thank you.” I let out a relieved breath. “I’ll owe you one.”
“No, you don’t. Just tell me that you’re safe. That will be enough.”
I glance over at Kirill’s tense features but I know I couldn’t be in safer hands. I wish I didn’t know that, but I do.
“I promise you I’m alright. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay. Love you, Stella.”
“I love you too, Anna. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight. Stay safe.”
I hang up and toss my phone onto the dashboard. “There. Are you happy?”
“Ecstatic,” he says sarcastically.
“God, you’re a piece of work.”
“Ditto,milaya.”
I cross my arms at him and pretend to focus on the road. When familiar dispersed houses and woods start to appear, I quickly figure out where he’s taking me.
Back to the first place we danced.
My shoulders tense, reevaluating this entire night, and how the hell I got myself in this situation in the first place.
Why didn’t I tell Frankie I couldn’t pick her up? Why didn’t I come up with an excuse not to go to Little Russia? And why didn’t I fight Kirill when he all but forcibly dragged me out of Marcello’s car?
Because I wanted to be with him too.
Because these past two months have been agony without him.
All these thoughts in my head are troubling enough on their own, but when we pass the familiar No Trespassing sign, my anxiety spikes.
Shit.
Without uttering a word in my direction, Kirill gets out of the car and pulls the gate open. He drives through, gets out again, and closes it behind him. But instead of going straight toward the lake like I thought he would, he turns left at the makeshift fork in the road.
That’s when it hits me. We’re not going to the lake. We’re going to his lake house.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck
That means we’re spending the whole night alone together in his lake house.
No interruptions.
No outside world interference.
Just me and Kirill.
Alone.
The entire fucking night…
Kill me the fuck now please!
