Chapter 176
Vladimir:
For an entire week, Elena didn’t say a word.
She didn’t even look at me, nor did she respond when spoken to. I didn’t force her to. I knew better than to do so after everything that she’s been through. But I had to admit that it did hurt me to see her in this state. And the worst part about it was the fact that I knew that I was the reason behind her pain.
“I take it that you and your concubine are not doing very well, are you?” Konstantin asked, shaking his head in question. The man was heading off to Paris in two days, and I could tell that even he had noticed that I wasn’t walking around with my mate. “I didn’t expect you to grow tired of her this easily. But it seems to me that I was wrong.”
“I have things to take care of. It has nothing to do with me getting tired of her, Konstantin.” I said, choosing to dismiss his question. He shook his head at me, and I rolled my eyes, not bothering to say a word. I knew that he wanted to play with words, wanting to find the response that was to please him. “Are you ready for Paris?”
“I am,” he said, and I nodded. I didn’t want the man to keep talking about Elena and I. I knew that he was trying to have the pleasure of seeing my mate being broken, and I didn’t want to do so for her. I didn’t want to hurt her that way.
“And I am going to have to deal with things here. Who are you taking with you?” I asked, shaking my head in question at the man. His eyes studied my expression for a second, and I could tell that he was debating about how he was going to respond to my question. “I can assume that it is someone that you don’t want me knowing of.”
“I am going with Batrov. But I did not speak because I didn’t want you to think that I played you. You know, with what he did to Elena and your anger toward him. I was trying to think of the right way to say it.” He said, and I had to fight back raising an eyebrow at the man. He didn’t say a word for a second, and I shook my head at the man. His eyes studied my expression for a second but the man was patient as he waited for me to say anything.
“You are going to need to be careful. While I understand that you might trust him and him alone, the man can try to do something out of anger because you chose to fire him. He might even try to get on your good side too.” I said, and he nodded. He put a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it gently as he turned to the door, clearly wanting to leave the room.
“You just worry about what you’re going to do here when Killian comes, and leave me to worry about the rest.” He said, and I nodded. I knew that he was going to try and dismiss the topic. I couldn’t expect any less.
“Don’t worry, I am going to deal with Killian my way. You just worry about your own safety and I am going to worry about my own thing here.” He said, and I nodded. The man walked out of the living room, leaving me alone, and I shook my head as I tried to ignore the pain that I felt for my mate who was still sitting in the room. She wasn’t even leaving the room, and I knew to be thankful for the fact that she was even staying with me in the room. It was the only hope that I had to the fact that she wasn’t completely disconnected from me.
“I am going to find out how to fix things with you, malyshka.” I whispered, getting up from the couch. “I’ll manage to fix things, I give you my word, baby girl…”
***********************************
I didn’t say a word as I entered the bedroom. Elena was in the bathroom, taking a shower.
I placed the red flower bouquet on the bed, wanting it to be the first thing that she saw when she walked out of the bathroom. I walked out to the veranda, waiting to hear her leaving the bathroom.
I lit a cigarette and took a whiff of it. I blew it, staring into space, thinking. I had a lot to take care of, and one of them was the fact that I had a fucker to deal with. That fucker was Batrov right now. I had to find a way to stop him from going to Paris with Konstantin. I was going to have to find the right person to go with him. Someone who I could trust. A man who would listen to me, but right now, I had no one who would be worthy of that. I just had to deal with the fact of sending him alone. I was going to have to make someone go and watch him in Paris though. Him being alone was going to be the only way for that to happen.
The bathroom door opened, and I looked turned to see Elena walking out of it with a towel in her right hand. She was wiping her right cheek from the water that dripped from it. She didn’t react when she saw the flowers. However, she did walk toward them.
I walked out of the veranda behind her, and wrapping my arms around her waist, I pulled her to chest. She didn’t react for a second, but I rested my chin on her shoulder, purring as I looked at my beauty.
“You still don’t want to talk to me, malyshka?” I asked, whispering as I looked at my woman. She didn’t respond, instead, she looked down at the flowers for a second. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, baby. Nor did I mean to break your self-esteem, baby. But there are things that I need to do, things that I am against.”
“I need to drive their attention away from you. They are trying to break you, baby, I don’t want that for you.” I said, leaning in to her cheek. I kissed it gently, letting my lips linger there for a second, and I ran my finger over her hand. She kept her eyes down on the floor, shaking her head as she tried to calm herself down. “Yell at me, malyshka. Tell me that you’re angry. Hit me if you want to, but don’t block things inside you like this. The two of us are going to be alone, baby. The two of us are going to be able to work things out together as a man and his woman. But I don’t want you to…”
“You broke my wings, Vladimir,” she said, stopping me. My heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest as I processed her words. “He couldn’t break my wings the way that you did. But you made me rise then chose to break my wings. And right now, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get up from this. I just don’t…”