Our plan was to go house hunting after our elopement and honeymoon. I unpacked boxes alone in a new sublet apartment six weeks later.
That was the first time it sank in to me that he wasn’t coming back.
“We are.” Mikhail waits a beat before saying, “But that’s only a three-hour drive away, and it doesn’t have an airstrip.”
My brows furrow, sprouting lines across my forehead. “Then why are we in a plane?”
“Because I spent a fuck ton of money on her and didn’t get to take her out once. So I thought, what the hell, why not do it now?” A flash of anger he’s too slow to shut down says the words his mouth refuses to speak.
This was another wedding gift. That’s why my name is engraved on the headset.
Mikhail didn’t have a dime to his name when we met. Well, he did, but it was swallowed by the jukebox at my family’s bar seconds before he asked me to dance.
During our courtship, I knew his family was rich and ruled all aspects of his life with an iron fist, but I didn’t know the full extent of their influential power and wealth until the month before we broke up.
Mikhail had recently turned twenty-one, so the trust fund he had no clue about paid out. He was a little flashy with some things he purchased, like a service for the jukebox, some newer, updated records for us to groove to, and an engagement ring for me. But for the most part, he was responsible with his money.
Or so I thought.
Emmy isn’t engraved on just my headset. It is on Mikhail’s as well, and it is the name he gives the air traffic control officer when he announces that we’ve reached our desired elevation. “Lidny Traffic, Emmy 152, seven thousand feet.”
As the control tower replies, I remove my hand from Mikhail’s thigh and stray my eyes to the scenery, needing time to think.
I don’t understand Mikhail’s game plan. Honestly, I don’t. Why would he buy a plane and name it after me and purchasehalf of my mother’s bar, then throw away our relationship as if it were worthless?
Did the gaudy purchases make him realize he deserved better than me?
They must have, because that’s the only explanation I can come up with as to the cause of his motive to end everything, and it pisses me off.
“We should go back. I don’t like this. You…”
I stop talking when my shaky hand causes me to flick the mic button on and off during my last two sentences. The break in transmission and the crackle of our connection make it seem as if I saidI don’t like youinstead of I don’t like this, and the misconception ensures I’m not the only one now angry and confused.
Chapter 10
Mikhail
Taking Emerson to the private airstrip was a mistake. I wasn’t thinking with my head when I made my decision. I also wasn’t thinking with my heart. My dick took center stage like it did anytime Emerson negotiated with her body to get her way.
I thought maybe if she saw how hard I had been trying to give her the best life before she dumped me, she’d stop treating me like the enemy and, instead, give me the respect of a man she tore to fucking shreds.
I should have known better.
One of Emerson’s best traits is her spitfire stubbornness. I love that she won’t take shit from anyone. I just never anticipated I’d be her target one day instead of her spotter.
My phone rings as our chauffeur-driven car glides down a long driveway. I smile when I see the name flashing across the screen. Emerson snarls.
Our opposite responses remind me of the tit-for-tat game we kept a tally of our entire relationship, and it has me mentally calculating ways to even the score.
After sliding my thumb across the screen, I squash my phone to my ear. “Hey, sunshine. Miss me already?”
Andrik, in a muffled voice, threatens to kill me unless I choose a new nickname for his wife. He believes I only give pet names to the girls I want to fuck. Since he is on the money, I screw up my nose before fighting the urge to gag. I didn’t know Zoya was my sister when I gave her my digits and a nickname.
The rueful churns of my stomach weaken when Zoya asks, “Konstantine is tracking your movements. He said you’ve arrived at Zelenolsk Manor, but the tint on your SUV is too dark to infiltrate with a drone, so he’s clueless if you’re with company or riding solo. Please tell me she said yes.”
I take a moment to digest all the secrets she spilled before I fling my eyes to Emerson.
She is trying to act unaffected by both my conversation and the nickname I gave.
