Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Why?
My mind spins. I watched him kill three men yesterday. Why would I then get drunk and put myself into a bed with him? Was it some sort of biological mode of self-preservation? Do I want to mean something to him since I know he killed somebody? Or is it that the casual violence somehow ignites something in my blood, something primitive? Or even worse—am I just horny? I’m afraid that may be the answer.
But last night was more than sex. He was right. Even now, in the morning light, I’m too chicken to ask him what he meant by a claiming. I want to convince myself that he was just being dramatic or even romantic, but I know better. Alexei doesn’t mess around. The carefree young man in those videos I watched is long gone.
This man chooses his words with deliberation.
I smooth down my blouse and shiver as a biting breeze snaps at me when I walk outside. Bulbous clouds cover the sky, looking ready to open up any second. A thought occurs to me, and I stop cold.
“What?” He’s right behind me.
“Um, well, I think I should tell you that I’m on the pill.” It’s a little too late to have this talk.
He runs his hands down my arms, his body warming me from behind. “I know. Saw them in your cabinet.” He kisses the top of my head. “I’m clean, just so you know. Had a checkup right before being arrested and haven’t been with anybody in seven years.”
Heat spirals into my face. The man either pinched, kissed, licked, or bit every inch of me the night before, and now I’m embarrassed? I hurry around the corner to where I parked my car at the curb, wishing Alexei would just peel off without a word. I look up to see my beloved vehicle and stop short. “Oh my God.”
He walks to my side. “Go back inside.”
“No.” I hurry toward my now destroyed vehicle. It looks like somebody has taken a bat to it. How had I not heard anything? Heat flushes my face. Oh yeah, I was busy last night. All night.
The windows are smashed in. The tires are slashed, and dents are everywhere. Scrawled black paint very clearly reads, “You will die, bitch.”
Oh my God. I take another step back and look up at Alexei.
His jaw firms and fire flashes through his eyes. Unlike me, he appears well rested and solid. As if he had a great night’s sleep. “I told you to go back inside.” He moves toward the vehicle and peers through the broken windows. I step up to do the same to see all of the leather slashed into pieces. “He’s a killer’ is carved into the driver’s seat.
I take a step back.
“Rosalie? What happened?” Yells an older male voice.
I look up to see Felix turn the corner and run toward us, his seventies-style jogging outfit brightening the entire day.
I shake my head. “Doc, you shouldn’t be here.”
He lets out a shrill whistle. As if on cue, elderly men pour out of my pink boarding house. I glance up at Alexei. This is a disaster. He needs to go.
A cacophony of exclamations arrive as they all bustle toward us dressed in everything from a bathrobe to a business suit.
“What happened?”
“Oh no.”
“Oh my.”
I drop my chin and then shake my head.
“Who the hell are you?” Merlin glares up at Alexei. Although early in the morning, Merlin is already dressed in a three-piece suit with a bow tie. I hadn’t realized he was going out today.
“I’m Alexei. Who the hell are you?” A slight grin tugs at Alexei’s full mouth. His gaze sweeps the group of elderly men.
I take a deep breath and hope my face isn’t as flaming red as it feels.
“Alexei Sokolov, please meet Felix, Kenny, Merlin, Ozzy, Percy, Wally and Yardley.” I swallow. “They’re my boarders.” More like my family.
Merlin holds out a hand and shakes Alexei’s, grunting as he obviously puts an effort into squeezing Alexei’s hand. Alexei looks over his head at Percy, who’s staring right back. Something passes between them, and a shiver skates down my spine.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Nothing,” Alexei says smoothly. He’s dressed nicely in gray slacks and a white button-down shirt he borrowed from Garik. It’s good enough for court, but the shirt is a little tight. He shakes the hands of the men and pauses with Percy. “Percy, did you say?”
“I surely did.” Percy is about six foot two, but old age has bowed his back. His eyes are a luminous black and his hair a thick silver. He was one of my first boarders, and I think he once worked as an accountant. Many years ago.
Alexei releases him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Did anybody hear anything?”
The assembled group walks around my brutalized vehicle, all of them mumbling and shaking their heads. I’m sure most of them had already taken out their hearing aids for the night when this happened.