Honey Trap

NINETEEN

This chapter contains material that may be triggering to some readers. Please know your triggers and make sure you in a good place reading this chapter, which contains depictions of sexual assault. If you don't feel comfortable reading this chapter, send me a message and I'll fill you in on what happens without any triggering details.

I left Maddox the next morning before he woke. He slept beside me, his eyes swollen from crying the night before. It was stupid—leaving him like that, waiting for him to wake up and wonder where I went, why I left after everything from the night before. I was even more stupid to think I could run. I had some sad, pathetic idea that I could disappear in the night and vanish from both Maddox, and Nikolai's life.

Nikolai wouldn't be able to stop me if I ran then. None of his henchmen would be waiting for me at whatever bus or train station I'd run to, and while it wasn't much, I had money stored away in one of those no bank account, bank accounts you control from your phone from the first check Maddox had given me. It wouldn't take me far, but I thought it would take me far enough.

I convinced myself that I would be doing the right thing. I would be escaping before Maddox Aster paid the price for it. I thought of the betrayal on his face when I finally did what I came to do. The hurt from my disappearance following a hefty sum drained from his bank account. Maybe he wouldn't understand, but it would be better in the long run.

Still, I was a coward. I walked as far as my feet would take, still wearing hardly anything, trying to find a bus stop, only to find myself walking down the same familiar streets, opening the same half-broken door as I always did.

"Where the fuck were you?" Nikolai's voice startled me as I stepped through the doors of our apartment. He sat on the couch smoking a cigarette, keeping his eyes focused on the T.V. I'd never gotten around to letting him know where I was last night after I got pinched by the cops. Poor bastard was probably freaking out thinking I'd told the cops my entire life story. But he had to have known I wouldn't do that. They'd never believe me if I did.

"I was at Maddox's."

Nikolai's head spun towards me, looking at me up and down. An angry look washed over his face for a moment before it disappeared, replaced by a solemn, firm line. "Good. You getting closer to his money?"

"Yea," I nodded. It was both the truth and a lie. Physically, I was closer than I'd ever gotten to his personal life. He let me in his home, he was breaking down his walls. Mentally, I was further to stealing his money than I'd been before. The thought of doing it made me feel sick.

"How did it go with the cops?"

With a heavy sigh, I walked through the living room and towards our kitchen. Standing in our apartment after leaving Maddox's lavish home was a contrast I was ill prepared for. It felt like stepping into another universe, and I regretted leaving Maddox's side more than anything.

Nikolai followed me to the kitchen, leaning against the countertop, his cigarette smoke burning my nostrils. There was a tension between us that was different than most times. I wasn't sure if it was because things had changed since I destroyed my Violin, or because Maddox was the first man Nikolai felt threatened by. He couldn't have been oblivious to the fact that my previous marks had been mostly older men with disgusting personalities and habits. None had ever been as young and attractive as Maddox.

There was a conversation I didn't want to have brewing in the air. Things were falling apart, and Nikolai knew it.

"They weren't too happy with me," I answered his question about the police, neglecting to tell him the part where I punched a cop. "I told them what you said and how I refused to answer any questions. I have a court date next week."