Chapter 320: Olena - The maze 2

I nod, my teeth sinking into my bottom lip. I discovered not long ago that biting my lips sends them into a frenzy.

“Trust me when I tell you that I grew up around a lot of children, and our favorite game was hide-and-seek. I doubt you’ll find a place in this entire maze that will keep you hidden for long,” Artemiy says.

A thrill runs through me. I never thought a children’s game could be so exciting. Only now, we’ll be playing an adult version of it.

He steps closer. “I’m like a bloodhound when it comes to you.”

“And what happens when you find me?” I wonder innocently.

The grins on their faces grow wider.

“If we don’t find you within five minutes, we’ll only demand a kiss from you,” Vasiliy replies, making me laugh out loud.

“That’s not how it goes,” I point out, but they aren’t listening to me.

Artemiy speaks next. “But if we find you in under five minutes, we’ll want more than one kiss.”

“And if I win?” I ask.

They both move at the same time, closing the distance between us until the heat radiating from their bodies wraps around me like a blanket.

“We will find you,” Vasiliy says confidently.

Artemiy speaks next. “There’s no place in this universe you could hide where we wouldn’t find you. And you know why?”

“No,” I rasp.

“Because you are part of our souls, part of who we are,” Artemiy replies.

“You are the reason why we exist,” Vasiliy adds.

A knot forms in my throat, and tears spring to my eyes. “You’re going to make me cry.”

“I hope they’re happy tears,” Artemiy muses as his thumb slides along my cheekbone.

“When it comes to you two, always,” I murmur.

Vasiliy presses his lips to my forehead. Then Artemiy kisses my temple.

“Now, go and hide,” he urges me. “We’ll give you a five-minute head start.”

I quickly turn on my heels and leave them behind.

As the distance between us grows, I strain my ears while moving through the corn, following the glow of the moths and trying to hear if Vasiliy and Artemiy are right behind me. I can’t stop smiling because I’m sure the only reason Artemiy is so confident they’ll find me quickly is because they’ve been following me from the start, which makes my entire being pulsate with some primal need and urge. This feels more like a chase than a game of hide-and-seek, but all the footsteps reaching my ears belong to other people in the maze, my breath catching in my throat as anxiety courses through me, because all I can think about is, what if they can’t find me?

My fingers grip the straps of my purse, reminding me that I have my phone with me, and if anything happens, if we get separated, we’re only one phone call away.

Several men head my way, making the hair at the back of my neck stand on end, as my gaze searches each face, but some of them are obscured by the shadows. While none of them look familiar, it doesn’t mean they might not do something to me. I grip my bag tighter, wondering if I should pull out my phone while I dash out of there. But the men are approaching fast, and I just… freeze.

When they are right in front of me, one of them tips the brim of his hat with his fingers and says, “Ma’am.” He even has an accent that reminds me of the cowboys I’ve seen in movies.

“Good evening,” I say back, the English words sounding so foreign and strange on the tip of my tongue.

The men move along, and I let out a small breath of relief.

I thought I’d gotten over what happened last night, but I guess I’m still a bit shaken up, the proximity of strangers making me anxious. But I refuse to let that incident overshadow my happiness, because I am happy, and it’s such a wonderful feeling.

So I focus on finding a good hiding place, somewhere the guys won’t think to look for me.

It doesn’t take long to find a place between the corn, and after making sure no one is around, I crawl inside and wait for the guys to find me.

People come and go, some even stopping for a moment to look at the moths before continuing toward the center of the maze.

A couple of minutes pass, and I start to feel a bit silly. At my age, I shouldn’t be doing things like this, but a part of me is craving this chase, wanting to see if Artemiy and Vasiliy will really find me or if we’ll have to rely on our phones to be reunited.

The rustle of dried leaves, followed by heavy footsteps, scares away a couple of moths nearby. Their sudden disappearance leaves me in almost total darkness, making my breath hitch for a moment, but my heartbeat slows when I realize that whoever is nearby isn’t Vasiliy or Artemiy.

It’s curious how quickly I’ve come to learn the sounds they make when they walk, or the rhythm of their breathing when they sleep. But the two sounds I love the most are the beating of their hearts. I wish I could record them on my phone so I could listen to them all the time.

More time passes without either of them finding me, which makes me smile because, if anyone is going to win tonight, it’s going to be me.

Finally, I hear a pair of familiar footsteps.

Adrenaline rushes through my veins as I hear someone moving through the stalks, getting closer to where I’m crouched, the footsteps unmistakable.

They have found me. At least one of them has.

I wait there in the darkness until he stops behind me, and ever so slowly, he lowers himself onto his haunches. A pair of strong arms wrap around me from behind, pressing me against a chest, and I lean into him, my head resting on his shoulder, my eyelids closing as I inhale deeply, my lungs filling with his scent. But he doesn’t smell quite right, which confuses me for a moment.

My eyes pop open as I finally notice that his touch is wrong, and I know he’s not one of the men who mean everything to me, but someone else. I try to untangle myself from him, but he refuses to let go. Then he presses his lips to my ear and whispers, “Hello, Olena. I thought it was you last night.”

The sound of his voice almost makes me lose my dinner. A monster from my past has found me, ripping away the safety and happiness I’ve felt these past months and reminding me that I was never free of my chains.

“I know you saw me too and recognized me. Is that why you entered your house so fast?” he asks, but I’m too paralyzed with fear to reply.