M For Moscow

26 | time to hide

Karina Gold stood on the DJ booth in her Platinum boots and body-con snake dress. In her left hand, she held a red balloon from the decorations and in the other was one side of her hoop earrings purposely removed for her prime motive of spreading horror as Moscow's top tormenter.

We all knew what she was going to do next and yet, when she did it, everyone gasped.

I immediately searched for Luka in the crowd. When I finally spotted him in the sea of faces, he was talking urgently into his watch that now as I looked at it closely wasn't the same one he'd normally wear. As I held my gaze onto him, he suddenly turned his head in my direction with the same look of fear plastered on his face like the one I had on. He nodded firmly towards me, immediately relaxing my shoulders, before pointing at the exit where a group of security guards came sprinting through the mirrored hallway and towards the booth, like heroes without capes.

Frozen on-stage, I watched as they tried coercing Karina to come down and behave like the normal, well-mannered person she never was. But no matter how many threats they sent her way, she wouldn't budge. In fact, she wouldn't stop sneering at me.

Luka, who must've been watching as attentively as all the guests and professional photographers, caught sight of the colour draining from my face and started moving his way through the crowd and up on to the platform. His broad back blocked the paparazzi from taking any more embarrassing pictures as he proceeded to help both Lena and I off the stage although honestly, it seemed like I needed the most aid.

Something else that didn't help was the fact that Karina had managed to find a microphone nearby and was frantically screaming my name through it to the highest of capabilities of a woman on drugs.

"Macy! Macy! I know you can hear me. Don't you dare walk away from me!"

It was clear the party vibes were long gone when she had bursted the bubble with the accessory she probably used to kill their family cat, so the seven of us, including Horatio, Renée, Lili and Liv, boarded an elevator down to the penthouse.

The whole time it took for us to move from the roof, one floor down and into the safety of Luka's suite, I shook uncontrollably. Luka had to take off his coat to cover me.

Inside, everyone gathered by the fireplace, seeking some warmth although it was coming summer. Something about being terrorised had that effect on you.

Luka, on the other hand, kept pacing the floors out of nervous habit. He only stopped when Miron bursted through the door after and held down his shoulders.

Probably the most confident guy I had ever met, this was the first time I was actually seeing Miron Sokolov... afraid, and I did not like it.

We watched as he placed his hands on his hips and told everybody the news.

"Good news is she's trapped by the security guards. Bad news is she still won't come down." he said, turning to Luka for an answer who shook his head in reply.

"I don't know how this happened. I had extra security on tonight; she shouldn't have been able to crash the party."

I got up from my seat next to the fireplace pokers and went over to him to kiss his cheeks. "You can't blame yourself for this, OK?"

"Who else can I blame, then? I put you all in danger tonight." he said to the room, voice-breaking.

But I made him look at me. "You think we didn't expect something like this to happen? Like we didn't know what we signed up for when the four of us hit that 'Publish' button?"

Through the peripheral view of my sight, I could see Renée, Liliana and Olivia nodding along to my every word.

"Luka, listen to me. We all know how crazy Karina can be and how much she won't go down without a fight. And we're not scared, baby." I assured him as he kissed the palm of my hand cupping his face, tears springing free from his eyes from relief. Suddenly, the right words came to me but I had to look around the room for confirmation. When I got what I needed, I held his chin up to see me and wiped the tears with a thumb.

"We're all behind you every step of the way."

Because what did I see when I looked around the room?

Eight faces full of love for each other, for their family, for their world and for Moscow.

***

"I'll see you soon, moya lyubov."

"Still don't know what that means." Luka reminded me, chuckling as he handed me the last duffel bag and closed the trunk of his BMW.

I giggled at how bad he was in Russian, making a mental note to buy him a dictionary on my way back.

We exchanged a hug that felt like a million light-years had passed. Maybe it was because now was the time we needed each other the most and I wasn't sure when I'd be back but we held on a little longer than usual, like the world depended on it.

When we broke free, I bit my inner cheek from crying, knowing deep down although this was the one of the hardest things I had to do, it was also the right thing.

"I'll see you soon, my love." he said, unknowingly repeating the exact line I had said earlier. Somehow that innocence made me want to stay a little bit longer.

If it wasn't for his constant persistence and nagging for me to leave the city over the past few days since the wrecking ball incident of Karina, I would've never made it onto the plane.

It was clear that these next — I don't know, weeks, maybe months — would be difficult for the both of us, but somehow I felt like it would be harder on my part.

After all, he was my first boyfriend and we didn't get all the implications of a relationship down, nevertheless a big city one. I mean, he was the one choosing to stay in Moscow where there were twice as many women to one man and I was going back to the motherland where boys hardly noticed me growing up.

Then, the terrifying thought hit me.

What if Luka cheated on me? If a man like Sergei Volkov could get a girl in bed every night, what more could a devilishly handsome man like Luka?

I shook my head violently until the stewardess in first class had to stop and ask if I was alright.

Embarrassed, I nodded my head and shot her a, hopefully, normal-looking smile. She shot me back a sympathetic one, like my face said it all.

I sunk back deeper in the chair.

This was going to be a long eight hours.

***

Macy's going back home! Do you think it's the right move to make?

I'd love to know in the comments below!

I'm also planning to enter this book in the Wattys 2020 but I have about 20,000 words to go so wish me luck!

Lots of love,
Mel