"Five thousand dollars. Consider it a bonus. You saved Aleksandr's life. Aleksandr brings value to the organization." I pause, letting it sink in, letting her understand I'm protecting her. "Therefore, you do too."
She doesn't reach for it, just stares at it. I watch her process, calculate. Watch her beautiful, dangerous mind work through all the angles.
I could watch her think for hours. Days. Forever.
"However…" I let the word hang there. "You're going to keep your mouth shut about what happened. You're not going to tell anyone about this conversation. You're not going to speculateabout who Volya was or what his relationship to the organization was. You're not going to talk about me, about this investigation, about any of it. Clear?" I want her thinking about me, my name in her mouth. I want her obsessing over this meeting the way I know I'm going to obsess over her.
"Crystal," she says.
I lean back, studying her like she's a puzzle I'm taking apart piece by piece, a work of art I'm trying to memorize, or the only thing in this godforsaken world worth looking at.
"You have the look of someone who knows what it means to be broken and then put back together. Most people, if you break them, they stay broken."
She doesn't say anything. Smart girl. Beautiful, deadly, smart girl.
"But sometimes people get broken and come back as something else. Something harder. Something that shouldn't exist in nature but does anyway."
I search her eyes looking for confirmation of what I already know. Looking for any excuse to keep staring at her.
"Have you ever been broken?"
Her heart hammers. I can see it in the pulse at her throat and almost hear it in the silence of this empty club. I want to press my hand there and feel it beat against my palm. This is the moment. The moment she either gives herself away or she doesn't. The moment I find out if this obsession consuming me is pointless.
"Everyone gets broken at some point," she says carefully.
Something twists in my chest. Recognition. Confirmation. The ghost of a memory I've carried for ten years. But underneath that, something else. Something that feels like possession. Like fate. Like inevitability.
She's mine. Was always meant to be mine.
"True." There's regret in my voice, and I fucking hate it. But I hate it more that she's been broken. I did what I could, but it wasn’t enough. "Most people your age haven't learned that yet."
"Most people my age haven't had to," she says.
I nod slowly. She's just confirmed everything I suspected. Everything I already knew from the moment I saw her sitting in that corner.
Yelena.
The girl I saved. The girl I gave a small chance to. The girl who was supposed to die in that desert but refused. Who survived because she's too fucking stubborn to do anything else. And now she's here, in front of me, and more beautiful than I remembered. More dangerous than I imagined. More everything. I stand. I need to get out of here before I do something catastrophically stupid. Like touch her, pull her into my arms and never let go, or tell her I know exactly who she is and I don't fucking care.
She stays seated. Smart. Every instinct is probably screaming at her to move. To run. To do something. But she stays still. Stays right where I can see her.
"You'll continue working at Lush." She cranes her neck back to look up at me. Our size difference is almost comical and makes me think about other positions where she'd have to look up at me, things I have no business thinking. "You'll be careful. You'll remember there are people who don't appreciate girls who speak without thinking about consequences." I pause, letting her absorb that and understand I'm protecting her even as I'm warning her. "But you'll also remember that we take care of people who take care of us."
I'll take care of you.The words hang unspoken between us. I'll take care of you whether you want me to or not.
"I understand," she says.
"I don't think you do." Quiet. Almost gentle. "But you will."
You'll understand you're mine. That I'm never letting you go. That I'd burn down the entire world before I let anyone hurt you again.
I force myself to walk away. I don't look back even though every cell in my body is screaming at me to turn around. To look at her one more time. To memorize the way she looks with her spine straight and her eyes defiant. But if I look back, I won't leave. And if I don't leave, I'll do something that can't be undone. Something like claiming her right here in front of Aleksandr and his men. Something like telling her that she belongs to me now.
I push through the exit, and the night air hits me like a slap. It doesn't help, nothing helps. She's in my blood now. In my bones. In every breath I take.
Outside, the city breathes around me, cars passing and people walking. Normal people living normal lives. Not understanding my entire world just shifted on its axis. That I just met the woman who's going to destroy me.
And I can’t wait.
