Chapter 57

Hannah

Ava and I were walking to her car after school when I saw Nikolai marching toward me, a grim expression on his face. I hadn’t heard from him all day and based on my current mood, I wasn’t in any hurry to talk to him right now. Other than his expression, he looked gorgeous. Leather jacket, snug black t-shirt that clung to his shoulders and chest, and a pair of jeans that did mouthwatering things for his backside and his front side.
I felt my anger spike—not only had he blown me off all day, but now I couldn’t grab him and kiss him the way that I wanted to because he’d been acting like such a dick.
I turned right to walk around the front of one of the cars parked next to Ava’s Honda in order to avoid him. I looked over at her, noting her tense expression as she made her way to the driver’s side of the car.
“Hannah, what the fuck? I need to talk to you,” Nikolai insisted as he jogged up next to me and put his hand on the door to stop me from opening it. I turned and gave him my best look of utter disinterest.
“What?” I bit out.
Nikolai looked at me for a minute, slightly bewildered. Then he sighed and folded his arms over his chest, the picture of impatience and irritation.
“What are you so pissed about?” Nikolai asked, frowning.
I felt my face flush with outrage as anger froze my vocal cords. I just stared at him for a full minute, dumbfounded and infuriated by his idiocy and insensitivity. He’d blown me off all day—the day after we’d had sex for the first time—and there were rumors flying around the school about him hanging out at a strip club. I decided I wasn’t going to get fully pissed about that until it was confirmed. Ava was right; Jeff wasn’t exactly a reliable source.
“Are you fucking serious? We have sex for the first time…” I darted a quick look around the parking lot to see if anyone was near us. “I have sex for the first time, and I don’t hear a word from you all day? You don’t respond to any of my messages? How do you think that made me feel?”
Nikolai’s frustrated expression quickly dropped away and changed to one of surprise and regret. “Shit, Hannah, I’m sorry. I changed phones, my other one broke, and I don’t have your number and didn’t receive any of your messages.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out his replacement, a flip phone. A flip phone?
He put his phone back into his pocket and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Things have been a little crazy—really fucking crazy—so I haven’t really had time to get your number. That’s why I’m here now, because I need to talk to you.”
I frowned. What the hell was going on? None of this made sense. “So, you left me last night, went home, broke your phone, went to bed, got up this morning, and instead of coming to school, getting my number, or trying to communicate with me in any way, you spent the whole day buying your* flip phone*?” I asked incredulously.
Nikolai winced and let out an irritated breath. “Not exactly. There—”
“And while we’re on the topic of your itinerary, were you at a strip club last night?”
Nikolai’s expression went from irritated to ferocious. “Where the fuck did you hear that?”
That wasn’t exactly a denial. “Who cares where I heard it. Is it true?” I almost didn’t want to know. His reaction wasn’t giving me a lot of optimism, and the longer he didn’t deny it, the more my heart felt like it was crumbling in my chest.
Nikola let out a sigh that nearly blew me over. “Technically, it’s true.”
Now it felt like a nuclear bomb had been dropped in me, as tears instantly sprang to my eyes. I pushed him out of the way and opened the door to Ava’s car. Nikolai recovered quickly and shut it again.
“No, Hannah, you need to listen,” Nikolai commanded.
“No, I don’t. I can’t believe you! You fucking promised not to pull this shit again!” I tried to push him out of the way again, but this time he knew what I was going to do, so he didn’t budge.
“Hannah, I’m sorry. There is a mountain of shit going on right now, but please believe me when I say only a situation as dire as this could have kept me from you today,” Nikolai explained, his thumbs rubbing at my wet cheeks. “As for the strip club, I was there meeting someone from my father’s organization. I didn’t even go inside. There are some things happening with my father right now, deadly things. I can’t really get into all of it, but I need you to listen to me.” Nikolai was still wiping tears from my face. He looked so sincere. I really wanted to believe him. “Hannah, you have to trust me.”
I stared at him, the internal conflict tearing me apart. I wanted to believe him so badly, but I was so hurt, and this was a pattern for him—this inconsideration and lack of awareness. I opened my mouth to tell him to get lost, give me space, but then he cradled my face, his pale eyes pleading, and murmured, “Please.”
I blew out a breath—I was a goner. I nodded my head. “Okay, what’s going on?” I whispered.
Nikolai sighed in relief. “Okay, first of all, you need to come with me.” I gave a quick wave to Ava as he grabbed my wrist as he guided me toward his car. He pulled his passenger door open, pulled the seatbelt across my chest and fastened it. He quickly ran to the driver’s side and hopped in next to me, neglecting to fasten his own seatbelt. He started the car and sat for a moment, looking thoughtful. Turning to me, he reached over and ran his thumb across my mouth, then leaned in and kissed me.
“I’m sorry, Hannah. Seriously.” Reaching his hand around to the back of my neck, he kissed me again, harder. With a self-deprecating smile, he said, “I’m so fucking relieved you trusted me because I was about to drag you kicking and screaming out of this parking lot and probably would have ended up getting fucking arrested.”
I laughed a little. He stopped and stared at me for a moment, then pulled me into another tight hug, softly apologizing again.
“Okay, we have to get out of here and I’ll explain everything to you on the way.”
I waved another goodbye to a dumbfounded Ava as Nikolai drove me out of the parking lot.