“We might not have the best life now,” he said, his voice calm before he shook his head.
I giggled, and a slow smile crossed his face.
“But I wanted you to have a…bit of a different day. My plan was a real picnic with a blanket and all the food in a basket, but B.B’s mum suddenly drove out with their blanket, so I couldn’t borrow it. And, I had no idea baskets were so expensive!”
“I love this. Just like this. I don’t need blankets or baskets.”
“I’m glad.”
“Thank you, Siroc. Really. This means a lot to me. I don’t have the words, but you already made my day. You’re a gem, and I really hope you see that.”
“When you say things like that, Alina, it makes me want to kiss those pretty lips,” he said, his voice low.
“Then, do it.”
He threw his head back for a second before saying, “Nah, that’ll be wrong. You’re still a kid.”
I had expected him to say that.
“I’m 18 today,” I told him, pursing my lips in anticipation.
“I know. But that just happened today,” he remarked, chuckling. “There’s no rush, baby.”
I collided against his body, and his hands came around me.
“I love you, baby. Just know that.”
In that moment, I pictured us, many years later, dancing to a birthday song on the rooftop garden of our big mansion somewhere in the elite area of town.
And I was content.
I wiped the tears, which had almost dried up on my face, with the back of my hand as the click of the door brought me back into reality.
“Hi,” the guy who entered the room greeted, approaching the chair I occupied.
What does one say when a gangster comes to you with a ‘hi’?
“Alina, right?” he inquired, leaning against the dark, empty shelf that spanned the majority of the left wall. “I’m Ruslan. Everyone calls me Russie.”
“So, I came to check if you needed anything. Food, water, anything,” he divulged. “And, no, we have no plans of poisoning you or anything.”
“Coming from the people who literally kidnapped me from my workplace just a few hours ago,” I said, a wry chuckle leaving my lips.
“Okay, that’s fair,” he yielded. “But, look at it this way, we have no need for your dead body; we only need you alive.” Then he shook his head as he said, “I just scared you even more, didn’t I?”
“I’m not scared. I see dead bodies every day,” I answered, shrugging.
He bent his head slightly as if to comprehend what he just heard.
“I’m a nurse. At a clinic.”
“Ohh,” he remarked, sighing with a smile. “I didn’t go with the extraction team, so I missed that detail.”
“Right.”
“So, do you need anything? It’s midnight, but considering the long drive here, you might be hungry.”
“How far are we from the city?”
