Page 20 of The Red Room
“Did he say anything when he was walking you outside?” she asks.
This was a mistake, Natalia. I thought things could be different, but I was wrong, his rough voice replays in my head. “No. Just that we aren’t compatible,” I lie. I hate myself for doing this, especially with Courtney. She’s been there for me more than anyone ever has, my own family included. I shouldn’t be hiding things from her. The fight. How Nik’s eyes were vicious black pools when I stopped him. I just can’t make sense of it, and the last thing I want to do is pile on another serving ofmyproblems on Courtney’s plate.
“Not compatible my ass. I saw the way he looked at you.”
A giggle leaves my mouth and cuts over the line. “Before or after you passed out?”
“Listen, bitch. I still feel groggy from that shit,” she says with frustration. “Guess their family’s liquor brand is just as terrible as their bloodline.”
“Yeah, maybe.” My shoulders slump, and a heaviness forms in my rib cage. Nik was the first man that ever treated me like more than a last resort. It all felt, as cliché as it sounds in my own head, too good to be true. And now I know it was. “You still coming over tonight?”
“Can’t. Roman’s taking me out to dinner,” she says, her voice soft. “You hate me?”
I smile wanly and adjust the focus on the Bakers’ engagement photo. “Only a little. Have fun.”
“Don’t make plans for tomorrow. Roman wants to go to a bar downtown. Swears by it. I’ll have him bring a friend. Someone to make you forget all about the Vostik douchebags.”
Typical Courtney. Honestly, I’m shocked Roman’s lasted this long. He somehow made it past her three-date max which doesn’t happen unless they’re very rich, or very good in bed. I somehow guess it isn’t the latter unless he has a prescription strong enough to handle her.
“I’ll check my busy schedule,” I say sarcastically.
“You’re going. Bye, Nat.”
She ends the call and I’m left in the silence of my apartment, save for the leaky faucet in the kitchen, and the AC struggling to stay on. It probably won’t make it another summer if the last heatwave was any indication. I put in a service request months ago, but I’m probably one of a hundred tenants in the queue.
“Time to forget about the Vostik douchebags,” I say to myself, repeating Courtney’s words. But I can’t.Fuck, I’ve tried so hard to forget everything. Chalk it up to a bad dream that goes away the second my morning alarm goes off.Nik.I can’t forget the way his name rolls off my tongue even if I scrub it clean with sandpaper. How he looks at me with those beautiful eyes lighting any room he steps in. His thick arms keeping me close to his chest. The intoxicating scent of him swirling around me. No, I have an odd feeling it might take some time to stop missing that feeling. To stop missing him.
Two heavy knocks rap the door of my loft. I jump, nearly losing my laptop in the process, and with it, the pictures promising a rent check paid on time this month.
What now?Did the newspapers find out I was just dumped by Nikolai Vostik, the owner of Club Völk, after one date? And now they want a picture for the front fucking page?
I swing open the door to find an empty hallway. No sound of footsteps retreating nor a single person to be seen.
Resting at my feet is a small black box. There’s no name or address, just a blank box.
“This is getting old,” I shout down the hallway, hoping whoever left it can hear me. Picking it up, something rattles against the sides. It’s not heavy, but definitely meant to be protected judging by the material it bounces against. Maybe it’s a gift card for Vostik brand vodka. Now that’d be ironic.Hey, thanks for playing, great kiss, but you are not our grand prize winner.
I roll my eyes and open it, ready to trash whatever the hell Nik decided I needed as a parting gift. The silver glints off the poor lighting in my loft, a small woven chain connected by a clasp, and at the front, a symbol.
His family’s symbol.
I’ve seen it tattooed on enough people to recognize it instantly.Nik. Dimitri. Yuri. Alec. Viktor.The thought of his brother’s name is enough to send shivers racing down my spine. They all had this branded on their skin. This quarter-moon shape unlike the one standing full and proud in the sky tonight. The small crescent gleams, curving sharply beneath the fluff of a metallic cloud.
Rage simmers in my stomach, well past the point of boiling over. Venom. A deep black bile heaves up my esophagus. The fucking audacity.Don’t come back, he had told me, and now he expects me to wear this fucking necklace like I’m some trophy he conquered?
No, no, no.
Nik’s gonna regret sending this when I throw it back in his goddamn face.
I grab my keys and leave the apartment too fast to even lock the door behind me. The stars are blocked out by the city’sglow, but the moon glares down at me from the sky, visible in all corners of Los Angeles. I throw myself to the backseat of the Uber despite the one-and-a-half-star review this driver has garnered so far. I don’t care right now, nor does he when I shove myself inside his car as it rolls along the sidewalk, never stopping fully.
What am I doing?
I’m not dressed for the club.Hell, I’m not even dressed to be out in public, but to be honest, I couldn’t care less. Sweatpants and a wrinkled shirt will have to do for the fury I’m about to unleash on him. No more Mrs. Nice Natalie.
“App says it’s closed tonight. Ya sure that’s where you wanna go?” the man asks and adjusts his hat, toothpick resting between his gapped teeth.
“Yes,” I say firmly. “Take me to Völk.”