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That suggestion rooted a deep anger within me. “You don’t know my brothers. They’re nothing like that. They respect me and my free will.”
“Until they find an optimal match for you, that is. It may not have happened yet, but trust me, Levovs are not above selling their women.”
“Don’t talk about my family as if you know them!” I snapped, feeling more enraged as he spoke. It helped me to forget I ever felt some sort of connection with him.
“That’s just it. I know them in ways you don’t, and I had to learn who you really were from an outside source,” Nik threw back at me, eyes hardened with his irritation. “You fed me this facade of complete innocence. I was unbelievably pissed when I found out you were a Levov, since you decided to withhold that from me.”
“How would you have liked me to come out with it? ‘Oh, by the way, I was born into one of the most notorious crime families in New York?’ How do you think you would’ve reacted to that?” I retorted, fully aware that the situation would’ve landed me in more danger. “Would that have made me any safer if I admitted that to someone working against my family? I have the feeling I wouldn’t have made it back home.”
Nik bristled at that, physically recoiling. “You think so little of me. After everything we talked about in Europe, you think I’m just some violent criminal?”
“As opposed to what, a kind and gentle man? You abducted me from my lecture! You stormed in with guns and masks, terrorizing everyone there, just so you could grab me for your boss. I apologize if I don’t think too highly of you because of it.”
Shaking his head, Nik took a step back and scrubbed a hand down his face. “There’s more to it than that. If you had just told me you weren’t completely blind to the world of organized crime, I never would’ve had to say goodbye to you in the first place. None of this wouldn’t have happened.”
Feeling every jab and sting from his words, I looked at him in disbelief. “So if I had told you I was a Levov, you wouldn’t have sold me out to your boss?”
“No!” Nik said with great emphasis as he took up the space between us. “I wouldn’t have told him. I would’ve brought you back here and kept you out of harm’s way. Nobody would’ve known.”
“Now you mean to do the same, but against my will,” I muttered, hating how that attempt at sounding kind was soured by the reality of the situation. “You want to get revenge on me for not telling you who I really was, and you’re willing to ruin my future to make it happen.”
“You can view it as me ruining it all you like. View me how you want, but that won’t change anything,” he said, wearing a false calmness that sent a shiver down my spine. “Things could’ve been better between us, but that was not what happened. Now, we have to deal with that outcome together. My boss wanted an upper hand over the Levovs, and that is what I have delivered him. I’m only doing my job.”
“And how was it that he came to know who I am?” I questioned, feeling my blood begin to boil. “It’s convenient how the very man I met in Europe was the one to kidnap me after I returned home. You could’ve left things as you had, and everything would’ve been fine. You could’ve left me alone!”
“I brought you up to him. There, happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Hearing that confirmation from the man I once believed understood me despite our chance meeting was like a stake to the heart. I couldn’t look away from him, despite my disbelief and how my pulse pounded in my ears.
“I wanted to forget you. I did. But ever since I learned about how you withheld that information from me, I couldn’t let it go,” Nik mumbled, shaking his head absently. “After that, I needed to see you again. To confront you and demand to know why you didn’t just tell me.”
“You had to abduct me for that to happen?” I asked, voice going quieter with every word. When Nik didn’t say anything else, I continued, “I had nothing to do with my family’s business, and I never have. I did everything in my power to not be associated with their dealings, and instead, I finally found a passion outside of myself. I didn’t tell you because I don’t identify with that world. I am proud to be a Levov, and I would never change that for anything, but you are trying to force me into something I never wanted to be a part of.”
The slight softening of Nik’s features was the only indication that he felt anything at all from my words.
“You may not have had anything to do with them, but that doesn’t absolve you of responsibility. You didn’t owe me much, but your real identity would’ve been enough.”
It felt like a slap to the face, and my ears burned. “I can’t believe you…I didn’t owe you anything!”
“You’re being erratic, Anastasia.”
Like stoking a flame, my fury only grew as I pushed back against him. “You claimed you wanted to protect me, yet you turned around and kidnapped me, deceiving me all because of something so trivial. I won’t do it.”
“Do what?” he questioned, tone terse and aggravated.
“I won’t marry you. I won’t,” I said, letting those words continue to move around in my mind as I shook my head. “My brothers will find me, and that will be it. Don’t assume they’ll go easy on you just because we met before.”
Lowering his face closer to mine, Nik narrowed his eyes at me. He towered over me and could overpower me in every way, but I wasn’t willing to give in to him.
“You will stay right here in this house. We will get married, and your brothers won’t be able to do anything about it. You will make this easy for both of us, and everything will be fine.”
“You can’t make me!” I shouted at him, growing more furious with every passing second.
Despite his obvious anger, Nik let go of a breath and reached for my bound hands again. “Watch me, Levova.”
That white-hot anger was clawing beneath my skin, demanding to be let out. I was never one to let my emotions get the better of me, but in that moment, I just wanted to scream and thrash and cause as much damage as I possibly could.
But with his strength, he moved me forward with ease, forcing me toward the staircase and up the stairs. Despite my wriggling, he maintained his hold on me and didn’t let up.
