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"Ma'am?"
She turned to look at one of Aleksei's men.
"Sir is calling you indoors."
She nodded and followed his lead.
Her feet dragged as she watched his back, trying to remember each turn they took.
After a right turn they both took, they found Mikhail stood straight as if he was waiting for them.
They strode past and he joined promptly, keeping a reasonable distance behind her.
She could feel his gaze on her as usual. It felt familiar, that blazing glare, and though she didn't want to agree with her heart, she was comfortable with this man more than she would like to admit.
A comfort that she had never felt before.
Yet that feeling felt so soothing as if her gut knew it was something she needed to feel.
They reached a door, the man flung it open and walked in, not even looking back.
Just as she held out her palm to avoid the door hitting her, an arm shot past her and kept the door open to her.
She looked back and locked gaze with those fluorescent blue eyes she knew so well.
He smiled softly whilst lightly indicating with his head for her to carry on moving.
He would do whatever it takes to ensure that she was able to carry on walking to her chosen destination.
He would move, destroy or tarnish every obstruction preventing her from goal, even if that meant himself.
He knew he couldn't stop until he saw her happy and content.
He knew that she was the answer to all his prayers, to his pleas that he threw to the wind never truly believing that there was a higher power.
He knew she was sent to him and him only.
She turned her head slowly with the reassurance that he was there.
She took a step forward with a fear that they had been caught and their truth would be uncovered.
She took another step forward knowing he was right behind her and whatever was to come they would face it together.
And another with carelessness because even if what she feared was about to happen, everything was in place, she would be avenged along with her mother.
Another with courage, she won't go down without a fight.
And a final one with a promise that she had to keep Mikhail safe so he could live his life.
They were both stood in front of Aleksei, both with strong, straight postures, both with stoic faces, not knowing what the next minute was capable of bringing upon them was terrifying. But isn't that how life works?
Alayna scanned the room, it was full of Aelksei's higher ranked men, she slowly dragged her eyes over them trying to remember a distinctive feature from each of their faces.
They looked like the type that you could pass by on the streets and not notice anything strange about them.
Not notice that they were vile creatures, able to feast on your raw skin.
It worried her.
But she buried that worry deep down and narrowed her eyes towards Aleksei.
"What's happening here?" She asked the bulky man at the head of the table, who hadn't noticed her presence in the room.
He looked and simply smiled at her, which Alayna reciprocated slowly.
"Ah, look who's here," he bellowed catching the attention of very male in the room, they all turned their heads in unison, their eyes narrowing when they notice Alayna.
A woman had never stepped foot in one of these dinner meetings before, everyone had their eyes on Aleksei in question.
He simply ignored them all, and signed to Alayna to take a seat at the other side of the table. At the head.
A wave of shock passed through the room, with some exasperated and others entirely irritated.
As Alayna gracefully took her seat with all prying eyes on her, Aleksei cleared his throat rather loudly.
"Consider her," he paused, "my daughter."
Immediately apologies were thrown from across the room to the direction of Alayna.
"She is about to be my adopted daughter. She will be involved amongst us from now on."
Alayna's body tensed, her mind in peril, the main thought being to pull out of what was about to happen.
A heavy hand sat on her right knee, out of the corner of her eye she saw Mikhail, acting completely normal.
She, however, was not.
He had never even attempted to touch her before today, there was always a distance between the two.
Her stomach felt like a mess, as if all her organs had begun re-arranging themselves.
And when he slowly began drag his thumb back and forth, her mind jumbled, she wasn't able to register anything happening in the room, she had a smile plastered on her face and her eyes would constantly dot around the room.
Unable to take it anymore, she pried her leg back from his grip and narrowed her eyes at him.
He simply smiled in response.
She could have sworn that there wasn't a spare seat beside her when she sat down.
Her eye finally caught onto the man that was sat beside her when she took her seat, casting evil glares towards her right side.
She smiled softly and dragged her gaze back to Aleksei.
He had his eyes already glued to her, she simply raised her eyebrow in question, he simply shook his head.
Her eyes narrowed down to her plate, her stomach unable to handle anything that had been placed on her plate.
She could hear the conversations happening with Aleksei. She could hear the scraping of cutlery along with the hushed concerns being discussed about her.
She felt his gaze on her.
She hummed in questioning way, asking what his matter was without actually asking him.
"Give me a piece of your chicken." She heard him whisper.
"What's wrong with your own food?"
"I want yours."
She pushed her plate towards him and he took her cutlery and began cutting up the chicken.
She looked up at him about to stop him, but he placed the forkful of food in his mouth with his eyes locked with hers.
She scowled in disgust.
A second later a fork was placed in front of her, he was trying to beckon her to open her mouth.
She rolled her eyes and snatched it from his hand, eating the food from the fork whilst tmittering profanities at him.
She could hear his muffled laughter, and wedged her heel on his toes making him whine in pain.
She could hear him grumbling about how she was so aggressive.
"Get used to it." She smiled smugly setting down her glass of water that she had taken a sip from.
"I won't." He answered back sassily, picking up her glass with the intention of drinking from it. However, his intentions were stopped when he no longer felt the glass within his grip,
"What on earth-" He sat gaping at Alayna as she gulped down the water all at once.
"Why?" He asked astounded.
"Stop touching everything I touch." She asserted, annoyed at his clinginess, but also aware that a pair of eyes were watching her intently.
She needed to make sure that she showed no soft spot towards Mikhail.
He could hold that over her.
She wasn't going to allow that, she needed to have the upper hand at all times.
She had to distance herself from him, yet he would be the only one who's arms she would fall into.
The room's noise decreased as Aleksei rose from his seat.
"Let's make a toast today." He grabbed his glass of champagne, "first to out newest addition, my daughter, Alayna."
The men rose their glasses and took a sip of their various alcoholic drinks all except the two sat at the other end of the long table.
Another chair scraped the floor and Alayna rose to her feet.
"I'd also like to toast something." She said filling her glass up with water.
Aleksei nodded and sat with an amused expression.
"It take some people a lifetime to find their true enemies, the ones that have lurked in the shadows whilst putting on a mask during the day, but luckily for me, my mother led to them all. And today has marked the start of my journey to vengeance. So," she lifted the glass higher in the air, "to vengeance." She gulps down her water in one go.
"To vengeance." The words echoed through the room as the others raised their glass and took sips of their beverages.
"For both the living and dead." She added quietly, a promise to herself.
Aleksei narrowed his eyes, sensing that there must have been some sort of double meaning behind those quiet words.
Alayna simply smiled, before placing her glass down and strutting out of the room, lightly tapping Mikhail.
They both walked outside to her car and bundled into the car together.
"Take me home." She ordered.
He obliged, starting the engine and driving them towards the main road.
The radio was put on to mask the awkward silence.
Her eyes remained glued to the outside of her window. His kept flickering between the winding road and her.
Frustrated with her ignoring him, he turned the radio off, hoping to get her attention on him.
Her hand reached over to put it on again, but he swatted it away.
"Leave that, talk to me."
He was met with stiff silence.
"What's wrong?" He asked in a whiney tone, whilst pulling up.
"This!" She exclaimed pointing to the space between them.
"We are way too comfortable with each other, when he's sat knowing what we are conspiring!"
"Of course he knows, Alayna! He RUNS the damn cartel!" He exasperatedly grunted, annoyed with her response.
"We are getting far too comfortable with each other knowing that we will throw each other into the blazing fire when the time comes."
He leaned forward, shrouded in vexation at her words. "Alayna, don't you dare doubt my love and what I can do for you. I won't let a scratch of harm come near your skin. And we won't push anyone into the fire, I will enter that fire for you and I'll make sure I'll come back only when I have fully extinguished it. Do you understand?" His domineering prance forced Alayna to lean into the car seat for a second.
She looked away from him for a second and looked right into his eyes, "I don't want your love. Heck, I don't even believe in love. My father failed to love me as his daughter and I had to fucking kill him to make sure he doesn't interrupt my life further. I've been abused consistently during the course of that marriage and guess what? I still belong to him. This entire family fucked my mother's life over resulting in her practically killing herself, and yet they had the audacity, THE AUDACITY to present themselves as saints. Now, I have your uncle, who had driven my mother to take a decision that fucked her entire life, and I won't be able to kill him cause his bullet will definitely travel faster than mine. Mikhail, you can't love someone that doesn't want to be loved." She added before taking a massive gulp of air.
She had let tears fall down her cheeks, she had allowed herself to be vulnerable.
In front of him.
And him only.
"I'll try to win you over a thousand times."
"What if I reject you a thousand times?"
"I'll still keep trying."
"Why?"
"Because your worth it. I want to walk next to you, I want to come home to your loving arms. I want you to always challenge my thoughts and beliefs. I want to be yours."
She hastily licked her lips, and moved her gaze to the outside.
"Leave."
That's what she did, whenever her emotions rose to new heights she avoided the root of it. And it was almost always him.
"Leave and give me the keys before you go. I don't want to see you around here."
He pulled out the key.
"Fine. Take it. Before I go, the plan is going to go through and I'll shoot him."
Before she could react, he was out of the car, and the door had been slammed shut.
She watched his back as he walked down the street, hoping he will turn and give her that boyish smile.
Yet he didn't.
He walked away.
She watched from her spot.
An emptiness was uncovered in both hearts.
One that could only be fulfilled by the other.
One that could remain unfulfilled for years.
******
Rate the chapter out of 5 please
A plain sort of chapter, it will get spicier in the upcoming chapter!