Venomous Mistake

🐍14🐍

I sat on the floor with the syrniki with cranberry and strawberry jam I got for lunch. I have a bottle of water to wash it down, peaking at the bouquet of blue flowers the bastard sent me. I left it near the door, hoping it would disappear, but it stared at me for twenty-six hours.

I look at the laptop again at the green line with forty-six per cent at the end of it. It's been like this since fucking last night after I did the wrong codings twice. I gulped down my water and stood up. I might as well keep busy if I want that damn coding to load faster. When has that ever worked?

It's moving to the hour of one, and I get ready for a shower. What did Marco think about bringing me real flowers, and I have no vase to put them in? Worse yet, the damn flowers were the grandest bouquet I have seen wrapped in a black round box with a blue ribbon. Everything he does is in blue. He even makes my fucking life blue.

I have a shower and dress before getting back to the laptop. It said fucking error, making me groan in anguish. It's the third fucking time. Who the fuck installed these cameras and guarded the security room? That fucker was blocking my access. Wasn't my code powerful enough? "You'd better work if I fucking start you over." Even that will take two days minimum or three. I just had to do it before I left Russia again.

My muscles are stiff, and I'm damn hungry because you can't get enough food without money. I enter my suitcase after a while and pull out the rest of the marmelad that the bastard bought me. I open another tab in the meantime and frown at the information on the screen. It disappears in a flash, and I make quick typing.

Somebody hacked into my firewall. I've got my information wiped out in a wink with a fucking beating heart. Who the fuck did that? Did Javier find me? He can't locate me. That wasn't the plan for him. That's not the plan I have for him.

You can't run from me, Clara Aguilar. I've got my eyes on you. Kill him and come back to me. I've got your most precious gem.

The words appear red over a black screen, and I sit there wide-eyed. "No." I shake my head, refusing to believe any of it. My hands tremble as I type carelessly, getting the security footage at the house. They're in the living room on a rug, playing with the cat they randomly found on their doorstep.

I couldn't stay away. Before I left Chicago, I had to see Neva and what she looked like. It was my worst mistake. I thought Javier would never find me. Now he knows about her.

I sprang to the suitcase and pulled out my burner phone before dialling the first number. Blood whooshed to my ears as I walked back and forth, hearing the phone ring. "Pick up." I'm on the fucking verge of crying. Fuck, I haven't felt this pain since that day.

"You've reached the Rockefellers. Please leave a message at the beat."

"No!" I cry. "God, no." I typed the number and waited for someone to pick it up. There's a ping on the laptop, and I rush to it. The first camera goes black, and I watch in sequence as they turn off like a domino effect. I'm frozen, knowing I cannot do anything in Russia. My eyes stay on the image in the centre—the Rockefellers playing with their daughter and her kitten, Frida.