Silence is the only language in the car.
Jonathan is on his phone, probably finishing up business. I’m surprised he even showed up in the human world around this time.
In the afternoons, he’s usually speaking Chinese with other tycoons from the other part of the ocean.
Or Japanese.
I retrieve my phone and find a text.
Elsa: Text me when you’re done?
A smile tugs on my lips. I can almost hear her tentative voice if she were to say that.
I didn’t miss the worried note in her eyes or the fear she tried to hide when I left.
Jonathan scares her and for that alone, I want him the fuck away from her. That’s why I chose to go with him willingly.
I type.
Aiden: I’ll be doing a lot more than texting you back when I’m done.
The reply is immediate.
Elsa: Like what?
Aiden: Like finish what I started. You owe me a fuck, sweetheart. I need to pound in you so deep, you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.
Aiden: Also, I need to come down your throat again just to engrave the image from earlier to memory.
Only it’s already engraved in memory.
The way she looked up at me with her mouth filled with my cum will stay with me until the day I die.
My dick strains against my trousers just thinking about it.
Now that I’ve had that visual, I need to do it over and over again because I don’t get enough.
Not when it comes to her.
Elsa is an addiction that first got under my skin, but is now flowing through my veins and into my bloodstream.
I need to bleed out to get her out.
And even then, I doubt she’d leave.
She sees my texts. The dots appear and disappear as if she’s thinking about what to reply.
Elsa: I’ll let you do that.
I raise an eyebrow.
Aiden: Is that so?
Elsa: After you tell me a story. You’ll owe me two after a fuck and a blowjob *winking emoji*
Hmm. She’s being manipulative more than usual lately.
It makes me so fucking proud.
Aiden: Pass.
Elsa: But I was looking forward to repeating today.
Little fucking tease.
Oh, she’s good. She’s getting so good at playing my game.
Aiden: Kinda want to fuck the shit out of you right now, sweetheart.
Elsa: I’m good with that, too.
Fuck me and this girl who’s toying with my damn mind.
Aiden: You’ll let me do anything?
Elsa: Maybe.
I smile.
“Is that Steel?” Jonathan’s voice wipes the smile off my face.
Fuck.
I forgot that he was just here — and probably watching me the entire time.
I tuck my phone in my pocket and face him with my neutral expression. “Why did you pick me up from school?”
He narrows his eyes because he doesn’t like to be ignored. “We’re here.”
The car comes to a stop and the driver nods at us from the mirror.
I stare through the window and tighten my grip on my phone.
Fucking Jonathan.
Pine trees stand tall in the distance like stones of memories.
Jonathan opens his door. “Come out.”
I close my eyes and take a long breath before I follow him.
He faces a tree with his hands in front of him like he’s a soldier.
The cliff beyond the huge tree appears like a giant mouth, ready to be fed.
The area is desolate with no people or animals in sight. Jonathan made sure to buy it so no trespassers would come near this road.
He even has his top-notch security company guard this place. Two agents dressed like MI6 spies nod at us. They stand in front of their black cars a short distance away — but not within hearing range.
Jonathan doesn’t nod back or acknowledge them.
His entire attention remains on the tree.
This tree stood tall for the past ten years despite the scratches at its trunk.
It’s funny how some things never change.
I stand beside Jonathan and shove both my hands in my trousers.
“Do you know what today is?” he asks without sparing me a glance.
“Alicia’s birthday.”
“Happy birthday.” His tone is emotionless, cold even. “You would’ve been forty today.”
I grind my jaw but say nothing.
“Alicia died here,” he repeats the piece of information as if I don’t know it.
His voice is still detached, but his eyes say something entirely different.
There’s a softening in there.
Something I never see him offer anyone. Not even Lev and I whom he considers his legacy.
I face the tree again, not wanting to see that expression.
Jonathan is probably playing one of his tricks and I won’t fall for it.
“She died trying to find you,” he continues, plunging the knife deeper. “She died without seeing your face. Four hours, Aiden. She remained in pain for four fucking hours.”
“Are you getting to a point any time soon?”
He rips his gaze from the tree as if it pains him. “Have some fucking respect to your mother and quit playing house with Steel.”
“I’m not playing house. I’m —”
“Enough.” His voice is cold and unnegotiable. “End it. I want it to be humiliating and painful so she’ll come into her power as a shell.”
My left eye twitches, but I ask in a calm tone. “What if she never becomes a shell?”
He’s a fool if he thinks he’ll be able to break Elsa.
She’s the strongest person I know.
But just because he can’t break her, doesn’t mean he can’t hurt her.
“Let me worry about that. You only need to do your part of the deal, Aiden.”
Silence falls down between us as we stare at each other with identical eyes. “Or what?”
He approaches me so he’s looking down on me. “When I say end it. You fucking end it, do you hear me?”
I meet his harshness with mine. “Or what, Jonathan?”
“Or I’ll end it myself.” He throws one last glance at the tree as if he can see Alicia’s ghost and heads to the car. “You have until tomorrow.”
Fuck him and his tactics.
As long as I’m around, no one will hurt Elsa.
Jonathan included.
As soon as the car door slams shut, I briefly close my eyes and face the tree.
“Maybe you’re right, Alicia. Maybe I shouldn’t have been born, huh?”
