Chapter 15

Anton

The bottle of vodka was half empty. I'd been drinking steadily since she left. Since I had destroyed the tender truce that had sprung up between us.

I could not help it. I wanted her. I needed her.

I fucking loved her, damn it!

The sight of someone else putting their hands on her had driven me to the point of violence. I'd removed them immediately, without any grace or subterfuge about why I was furious. In fact, I was pretty sure I had just started a war. I wasn't worried about it. My brothers might be annoyed but it was a war we all knew that we would win.

I would kill a thousand men for my little Mishka. A million.

I immediately messaged my investigator to make sure he hadn't overlooked another man in the picture. Or a girl. It was so hard to know these days what was in someone's heart or what they might desire.

I stared at the iPad. Mishka was in the bath. I had finally given in to my baser urges and had a camera put in her bathroom, excluding the small room which held the water closet. Even I had limits, though I admit I had been tempted.

Watching her shower and bath had been earth shattering. Watching her brush her teeth had filled me with tenderness and a longing to be standing beside her. I wanted to go to sleep beside her every night, hold her through her dreams and nightmares, and wake up with her every single morning. I barely slept these days, and I hardly worked. I was constantly distracted by what my Mishka was doing.

Thanks to the video feed, and the trackers I had put in her jewelry last week, I knew where she was and what she was doing almost every second of every day.

I still had no idea what was in her mind, or in her heart. It drove me mad. I was so curious about this one sweet, fiery little girl. I needed to know everything about her. But I could not.

I closed my eyes, the vision of her sitting in the bath, holding her knees and crying burned into my brain for all eternity.

She hated me. She must.

But… she had kissed me back. Just for a moment. I could still feel her lips under mine. I could still feel the silkiness of her skin under my fingertips.

I spent the rest of the night drinking myself into a stupor and watching her sleep on my monitor. Eventually I fell into a turbulent sleep, waking several times, hoping it was dawn so I could see her again.