Chapter 29
Julia
“Well, it seems I underestimated your friend Gage.” Dimitri came back in and sat down on the crate again. “So, I guess he will be coming to see you after all.”
Despite how panicked the others sounded when they were talking to him outside, Dimitri didn’t seem fazed at all by the news that their attack on the Kings of Hell had failed. His tone and face remained calm as he talked. I suspected he was either impressed or trying to pump himself up for the coming fight.
“We have a surprise for him, though. If he tries to show up and disrupt the deal, there will be enough firepower on this boat to blast him into oblivion. He doesn’t stand a chance, you understand? Not a chance.”
“Are you trying to convince me or just yourself?” I asked. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to poke at him.
“I’m just letting you know,” he said. “I don’t want you to be surprised when your knight in shining armor gets dumped in the lake along with all of his little friends because they took on more than they could handle.”
I nodded. “This is all just talk,” I told him. “I’ve heard it before. You must feel really small inside to always have to talk so big.”
He laughed. I mean, he really laughed. I didn’t think that what I’d said was that funny, but he cracked up.
“You’re funny,” Dimitri said, wiping tears away from his eyes. “You have me in tears over here.”
He shook his head, still snickering, and turned to leave the room. Once the door closed, I was alone again in the utility closet on Ivan’s yacht. I realized that inside this little room, I had no idea what time it was outside. I did know that I needed to pee. I wondered if Dimitri would let me go to the bathroom or if I had to wet myself here in the chair. I hoped for the former over the latter, but I also wasn’t going to hold my breath.
I tried to focus on the swaying of the room to keep my mind from floating back over the last several days of my life. I imagined myself sitting on the crate in front of me, asking me questions about what all had happened.
“Do you regret leaving your office that morning with Gage?” I would have asked myself in that situation.
I caught myself actually thinking about the answer to that question. My knee-jerk reaction would have been to say I did regret my decision to go along with Gage, but I wondered if I really did regret it. I finally decided my real answer would have been different.
“No, I don’t regret it,” I said aloud. “My only regret is that I didn’t trust the right one.” Gage was dangerous and exciting. He showed me that there was so much more to life outside the stuffy libraries and universities where I had spent most of my adult life, and even a good bit of my life as a student.
“What would you have done differently?” I continued interrogating myself.
“I would have trusted Gage.” I nodded. Gage knew what he was talking about. This was his element, his world. In academia, I knew my way around, and I was an authority. In this world, he was one of the authorities, the experts. Because I hadn’t trusted him, I was tied to a chair and stuffed in a utility closet on a thug’s yacht in the middle of Lake Michigan. I awaited my judgment. I knew my time was limited now.
“If you survive this, will you change anything?” I asked myself.
It was the million-dollar question. Would I change anything in my life after this? I didn’t have an answer for that one. I wasn’t really sure I was going to get out in the first place. These men were never going to stop going after each other, and that left me sitting right in the middle as long as I was lined up beside either of them. If I got out, I’d have to think long and hard before deciding whether I thought a relationship with Gage was really worth all of this.
The door opened, and it was Dimitri again.
“Oh, you’re still here,” he taunted me. He sat down where my imaginary self had just been sitting, vanishing her from the crate.
“Well, I thought about leaving, but I figured you wanted to keep your chair,” I joked back.
“No, you can have the chair, Dr. Danvers. You look too comfortable in it. We wouldn’t think about taking that from you,” he said back to me.
“You know, it was really peaceful and quiet while you were gone,” I told him. “Why do you keep coming back in here?”
He actually looked hurt. “I didn’t want you to get lonely.”
I was touched. He actually seemed genuine in that moment, but he continued talking.
“I figured you needed to have someone with you in your final hours. Everyone should have someone by their side. Someone they know, at least, if not someone close to them. I think we know each other pretty well, don’t you?”