I roll my eyes. “No promises, but I’m not leaving again.”
“I regretted it the second I said you could go, Nenoka. Iconsidered interfering with the Pakhan’s private jet to stop you leaving.”
I huff out a laugh as Art snakes his arm around my waist. “You should have.”
Art ducks his head to my neck and inhales, crushing me against him. “Either way, we’re never doing that again,” he murmurs.
I nod my agreement as his mouth opens in a possessive, claiming kiss against my neck. “I promise.”
I call in to Middlefield to announce my return while Art sleeps off his hangover. When he’s recovered that evening, Art loops his arm around my waist.
“Your freckles,” he smiles. “There are more of them. It suits you.”
“There was sunshine in Italy. You should have seen the amount of sunburn I went through to get here.”
“And you still came back to this.” He points outside at the rain.
“To you.”
I stroke my hand over his cheek and fix his face on mine, so we’re staring straight into each other’s eyes.
“Because it killed me being away from you again. The second that plane left, I wanted to come back to you.”
His full lips part and his eyes heat on mine as he traces a finger over my left cheek. “Cassiopeia. It’s still there, even amongst all these new freckles.”
39
ARTYOM
We forgot to close the curtains last night in our rush to be together. The light wakes me up gradually. The morning should feel peaceful and satisfying.
Things have been set right this morning, because I finally feel like Nina and I understand one another.
Instead, my senses scream that something is wrong.
The bedroom is silent.
Too damn silent. Half-asleep, I reach across the bed, thinking I’m just being paranoid, but Nina’s not there, the sheets cold and empty.
A jolt of fear hits me. I can’t hear another soul in our wing of the Estate.
I seize the empty sheets in my fist and tear them off the bed.
The feeling of completion from last night evaporates like early morning mist.
We fell asleep together. I fell asleep inside her. She didn’t leave me of her own accord. Not after last night.
Nina promised. And I said I would never let her leave me again.
So where the fuck is my wife?
The very bottom of my stomach drops and doesn’t stop falling as I rush across the hallway to Ava’s room.
It’s empty, too.
The sickening feeling twists deeper in my stomach like a hurricane of dread.
“Nina? Ava?”
