N I K O L A I

Moscow, Russia

Keira entered the penthouse, and I smirked at her unfocused gaze, she thought she was one step ahead of me, but she didn't know I was no longer the man she was trying to predict. Keira was playing a game she knew no rules of, and how could she, when I changed them as I pleased.

It really would be a shame to watch blood pour out of her, except that she was the one who made her bed, she was the one who started this wicked game drenched in mayhem, but now that I knew the players, I'd also decided who would be the one kneeling in the end.

And it wouldn't be me. Not this time.

Even in the darkness of the room, I could make out the tightening of her muscles as she stared out of the floor-length window towards the night sky. It was surprising how relaxed she was in this place, she didn't look around when she'd entered, and I'd take immense pleasure tainting her safe haven for her.

"I have to say, you surprised me, little wolf." I began as I stood up from the couch I'd made myself comfortable on, "I expected you to run, Keira, so I could chase you. After all, I have been watching you for days."

She stilled, surprising me again, I'd hoped she'd run, heck she should've if she knew what was good for her. There was no sign of fear on her face, just mild surprise, and it pissed me off. More than I'd like to admit. Meeting her sinisterly blank gaze, I started taking predatory steps in her direction, and finally, she took a step back. I took another one forward, and she took one back. She didn't stop until her back hit the glass, and I smirked. It was about time she realized she had nowhere to run, no place to hide, and her life was mine.

"How did you know I didn't leave? I—" Words fell from her mouth before she could think them through, and I knew it because Keira would never put herself at a disadvantage, certainly not with her words. Finally standing right in front of her, I placed my hands on either side of her head, caging her in.

I knew I hated her, I loathed every last thing about her, but whenever she was around, I wanted to be closer, maybe it was the control I relished in when she unknowingly surrendered a little, and maybe her surrender was the only reason I hadn't killed her yet. I needed her to stop seeing the shadow of the man she killed, the man she broke. All I'd ever be now was this bastard, and the sooner she'd look at me like one—and not with the disgusting emotion I'd once returned—we could get on with this game.

"Who let you in here?" She finally caught herself, her voice stern, but we both knew it was a futile attempt on her part, I still didn't miss the heaviness in her breathing, or the loud beating of her heart that somehow resonated inside my chest.

Leaning down, I ran my tongue over the shell of her ear, "I own Moscow. Did you really think you'd be able to breathe here without me allowing so?" I paused, and took her ear-lobe between my teeth, then loosened my hold, and laid open-mouthed kisses on her skin, trailing to the corner of her mouth, "Did you really think you could hide, little wolf?"

Her green eyes shone with something I couldn't decipher, and the shift of power didn't go unnoticed by me, or her. Keira straightened, tilting her head so her lips nearly grazed mine, but I leaned back, not willing to go down that road again. "I wasn't trying to hide, Niko, why would I hide from you when I'm your wife."

Instinctively, I clenched my jaw, unwilling to give her any reaction that would put me at a disadvantage, "Stop calling me that, it's Chernov to you." I said through gritted teeth, hanging onto sanity by a thin thread.

"Why?" She breathed out, bringing her hands closer to my face, but before she could, I caught her wrists in my hand and turned her around, her bound wrists on her lower back as I held her against the window, her back to my front.

"Because the man you keep calling is the man you murdered, Keira." I whispered harshly in her ear, tightening my grip on her wrist when she tried to turn her head to meet my eyes.

"Keep telling yourself that, Niko, but you know it you're not that far gone. The man I loved is still in there somewhere, and I will bring him back." Her determination made me chuckle. But it was something else in her gaze that I wanted to break. Her trust. I knew if it were someone else, she wouldn't be standing still, Keira was perfectly capable of getting herself out of trouble.

She was dangerous, but she was holding back around me.

I needed her to not trust me, to fight me, so I could take pleasure in breaking her.

"Stop trying me, Keira, it will get you nowhere, and only make me slit your throat open." I groaned when she managed to move her hips mine again, causing my dick to harden. I brought my other hand up, and wrapped it around her hair, tugging harshly until her head rested on my shoulder, her neck exposed to me. Hating how I loved the way her body still submitted to mine, remembered me. Her soft moans didn't deter me, even though I wanted to hear anything but sounds of pleasure from her. Pleas of misery, cries of agony, but not this, still I didn't stop, only leaned down and kissed the bare skin of her throat.

"You won't do that," The assurance in her voice made me bite down on her unblemished skin, speaking to a part of me that recognized her as the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, a woman I wanted to bite, and fuck, but that was about it. Love was nowhere in question, I no longer had a soul to love someone, "You know what makes me so sure?" She managed despite her rough breathing, her low, raspy voice threatening to undo all of my plans right this second. "You still wear our wedding ring, Chernov, the ring that symbolizes our vows, but most of all our love. I won't try to explain or justify my actions, but I never fooled myself, you're the one who needs to stop that."

Her words burned me in more ways than I wanted to admit, and I took a step back, no longer holding her, yet keeping my grip on her wrists firm; my body, however, mourned her deceptive warmth, "You should've tried explaining, I love it when they beg," I smirked, pocketing my left hand, leaving Keira free to turn and face me, and she did. My fingers moving against the wedding band on their own accord. It had to go, the symbol of my last tie to humanity. I'd burn it here today, exactly like Keira burned us all those years ago. I stared at her, and she stared at me, the warmth in her eyes disgusted me.

She had no right to act like she loved me after she threw it all away to be a queen amongst bandits. Now I'd make sure she had nothing, not her love, not her throne, not even The Pentagon.

I removed my hand from my pocket and got rid of the wedding band, throwing it behind me. The metal clinked against the tiled floor, and Keira gasped, her eyes filling with tears. Tears I wanted her to shed, but she never did. My heart mourned the loss of the one constant in my life, but I didn't dwell on it, there would be a time for that. When I was alone, when the shadows around me fell, behind the thick layers of the melodies I'd play once I got back.

"Now I suggest you get any ideas out of your head, little wolf, all you are to me is prey, and I am hunting you—"

"Why?" Keira interrupted me, her voice a broken whisper, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, it didn't make me happy. It should've. "Why don't you see that for the last eight years I died every day too just because I let you believe that I was dead! Why are you so hell-bent on making me fear you when you know that I love you?" She screamed, her agony echoed inside my heart, but I was no longer someone who'd carry her. "I've always loved you..." Her voice dimmed to a whisper.

"Fear me or love me, little wolf, I no longer give a shit" I spat out, my hands curling into fists by my sides, "my wife is dead." This was no longer a futile war to pass my time, nor was it just revenge.

Her pain wasn't a lie, even if everything else about her was veiled in secrets and lies. She loved me, but she still chose the fucking Pentagon over me. Duty over Love. Anger that I'd managed to control until now reared its head, stronger, a serpent suffocating me, and I knew I couldn't be in the same room as her, not right now.

She made a choice once, she betrayed me, she betrayed us, and now it was time to return the favor, no matter how much I still wanted her body, or how much my heart cried in her presence. Keira Knight was a dead woman walking.

"Niko—" She tried again, but I shook my head. Her resilience was of no use to me now, she should've picked me then.

I wasn't a fool, perhaps I'd been one before. Now, I knew if she'd stayed we would have had a bounty on our heads, we'd be hunted, but it should have been my fucking choice, and if she was going to run away, she should've never slept beside me for years lying to my face.

"That's enough." I raised my eyes to meet hers, and the pull in hers was a siren calling out before she'd drive you to your doom. It was the call of a storm to a sailor, who know he'd die, yet ventured into the eye of the storm. So I gave in and closed the distance between us, my hand curled around her throat as she stared me down with defiance that I wanted to fuck out of her. "Remember, Keira Knight, we are far from done, and we won't be until I say we are, but I'll give you a piece of advice, break willingly and I might take it easy on you."

Maybe it was my words, maybe it was the look in my eyes, but something in her eyes changed the trust in them was blotted out my emptiness, a large castle that I could never penetrate inside, but I would. Her eyes narrowed, "You are playing with fire, Chernov."

I laughed dryly, "Too bad I already burned then." I dropped my hand, fought the urge to look for my ring, or worse kiss her, and turned to walk towards the elevator. I stepped inside it, and leaned against the metallic wall, training my eyes on Keira's once again. "Until we meet again, little wolf," I said just as the doors closed, and it started moving down.

*

Alexei was standing in the foyer as soon as I entered the mansion, leaning against a couch, a shit-eating grin on his face as he looked at me.

"Spit it out," I growled, not in the mood for his bullshit tonight.

"You're walking down a dangerous path, man." He started, falling into step with me as I climbed up the stairs, raking my hand through my hair, "and you got rid of your leash," Her remarked, his gaze fixated on my now empty finger as I whipped my head in his direction.

"What the fuck are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you are walking a destructive path with Keira Knight and she will manipulate you," I smirked at his words, his concern.

If only he knew.

"She can't manipulate me if I know everything about her games, and play her right back for them." I pocketed my hand, turning to start walking down the corridor again.

"I don't like this."

"You don't have to. I do whatever the fuck I want, whenever I want, Alexei, no one, not even you gets to tell me what to do." I said, barely controlling my anger.

I watched him raise his hands in surrender from the corner of my eye, "I will not let you jump off a cliff, Nikolai," Yeah, like Keira he also didn't take the memo about calling me Chernov, but I suppose he was family, regardless of however I acted.

"For the last time, Alexei, stop bitching." I paused, contemplating my words, careful not to give too much away, "What I do or don't do with Keira Knight is none of your goddamn business, and I don't fucking remember asking for your input." I stopped in front of the door of my room, nodded at Alexei, done with this conversation, and stepped inside the room.

He wasn't entirely wrong, but how could you not catch fire and burn after being doused in gasoline for years?

How could you not die when you'd been breathing without dreams for so long?

How could I not seek revenge for the man she made out of me?

How could I just let her be even after she killed me?

I couldn't.

I didn't even know if I was breaking what was left of me more than if I was breaking her, but that was the thing about vengeance, you didn't care if you ended up dead, as long as the other person died.

Sighing, I rubbed my temples and got rid of my jacket. Unbuttoning the first few buttons of my shirt, I went towards the large black piano in the other corner of the room. I hadn't played in years, my muse was gone, but tonight my fingers were itching to dance over something I could control even when everything was falling apart.

I got seated, and removed the lid, flexing my fingers on the keys. I would've feared the melody would refuse to flow from me had I not known that nothing could ever defeat a memory. Keira Knight tainted my memories, and it was one of the biggest crime she did.

She should've stayed dead. I would've been miserable, living to die, but at least our love would be safe from being shattered into ash from my hands.

Before I knew it my fingers starting moving over the keys, creating a new melody, darker than anything I'd ever played before. The notes took shape in chaos around me, consuming me as I closed my eyes, and let it all flow, the ruin in my veins, the anger under my skin, the heartbreak that I kept pretending wasn't there, and worst of all the woman who damned me to hell.

Keira Knight was the sin that'd even tempt the best of sinners, but I was a mortal sinner, and resisting temptation wasn't in my blood, and right now I didn't know what I wanted more. All I knew was that she was going to pay, and I'd burn with her.

The last face I saw before I died was my wife's, but she would see the monster she made.

♤ ♡ ◇ ♧

So what do you think?

Do you think Nikolai will break Keira or will she break him first?

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