Page 40 of Deception

There’s no end in sight as I continue weaving through the shrubbery with my heart threatening to implode. As though it will help, I tear the sunglasses off and throw them to the ground. There’s no one here to watch me cry.

I’ll always find you…malyshka…

My lungs burn and ache, and the air congeals. Every bone in my body protests as I run and run and run. I don’t stop. Lost and completely alone. I have nothing and no one.

Malyshka…

Malyshka.

I don’t know if it’s him calling after me or my head echoing what my heart is too frantic to cry.

Maleeeeshka…

It taunts and taunts as I run faster and faster. Turning a corner, I slam to a stop, face-planting right into his chest. Strong arms wrap around me as my gaze finds his. Endless blue. Deep like the ocean at night.

You’re mine. His words from earlier undo me as I give in to the heat and steel of his body with my tears and sobs storming through me.

His.

Fate whispers as he tilts my face up to his and wipes my tears with the rough pads of his thumbs.

“Malyshka.”

15

TOMASZ

The printouts float to the parqueted floor of the hotel suite. The sunlight flickers through the breezing veils across the expansive balcony opening. With the doors pushed back, the sea air fills the room, making the brine of her tears even more potent.

“It changes nothing.” Blowing out a long, shaky breath, she looks up at me. “It doesn’t make you my saviour.”

“But do you believe me now?”

Red didn’t believe me before when I told her no one was coming for her. Even when I carried her back to the boat and brought her back to the hotel with me, she refused to admit that she’s a lost soul now. The tenacity I admire is grating on me the longer she takes to accept that I’m all she has.

She belongs to me now. My mercy is the only thing that will save her. I thought that the encounter this morning would be enough to push her over the edge, but it turns out she’s good at holding on. She’s the sort of soldier that would never leave a fallen comrade behind. There isn’t much that I appreciate in a person above loyalty, and she has it in abundance.

“It’s a party,” she chortles vapidly. “Do you know how many of those things I’ve attended when I didn’t want to? Or how many photos I’ve smiled for because it’s what we do?”

Oddly, I can’t imagine anyone forcing Red to do anything she didn’t want to. She’s too strong-minded and fiery for it. Even when she’s breaking, the girl finds a way of pulling herself through. It’s why we’re here, looking at the photos of the people she keeps hoping will come for her moving on with their lives. Parties, meetings, and dinners.

“No one’s coming for you. Whether you believe it, it’s the truth. I told you, you’re a ghost now.”

Reddened eyes flick down to the floor, to the photo of the guy she was kissing in the article online. Disappointment mars her usually stoic expression. When I crouch to pick it up so I can hold it up to her face, she steps on it.

As strong and defiant as she is, the girl has a heart, and the sight of her boyfriend so close to her sister must hurt. Their smiles must tear her apart. Even if she hides it well, her emotions have a life of their own. They’re like bolts of electricity that spark from her to me. Every zap makes it harder to keep my distance.

Tugging the image free, I stand and stare down at it. “Do you love him?” The question takes me by surprise.

When I put the printout back on the table, she steps closer. Placing her trembling hand on top of it, she drags in a breath.

With a tear slipping down her cheek, she shrugs with a whisper, “I’ve always been a ghost.”

Somehow, that seems completely and ridiculously impossible. Even knowing what I’ve put together of her life before me, it doesn’t ring true.

“Like I said…” Pausing, she swallows audibly before finishing, “It changes nothing.”

Without another word, she turns and walks back to her bedroom, leaving me in the wake of her silently suffocated sobs. It takes more control than I’ve ever had to exercise not to go after her and make her either scream and shout her woe or shut it up for good. I hate the way I can feel her sorrow and her sting of betrayal.

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