“You can call them,” I said, making her breath falter slightly. Her eyes widened at the challenge in my voice.
“You’re insane,” she whispered. “If they find out you have kidnapped me and brought me here, they will kill you.”
“No,” I said. “They will not.”
She stared at me for a long, suspended moment.
“You slept with me,” she said slowly.
“Yes.”
“And then you followed me.”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re telling me my life is about to become leverage and somehow it is important for me to be here with you.”
“Yes.”
Her hands trembled with barely concealed rage.
“You do not get to decide what happens to me,” she said.
“You’re right.”
“Then why am I here?”
Because I’d already decided. Because I couldn’t let Kliment weaponize her, and because dragging her into my car was the only option that didn’t end with someone else doing worse, I simply didn’t answer. Instead, I stepped even closer, lowering my voice.
“You felt it too,” I said quietly, and her breath caught. “At the masquerade. You felt the connection between us.”
“That doesn’t give you the right—”
“I know,” I interrupted. “It doesn’t.”
Silence stretched between us, raw and volatile. “You’re not my enemy,” I said finally.
“Then stop acting like one.”
I studied her face, which was filled with anger, confusion, and silent strength. This was the moment, or what I called the fracture. The line that would decide everything, and I had already crossed it.
“Welcome to the war, Elle,” I said quietly.
Her eyes blazed.
“I have no idea what war you are talking about. I don’t even know who you are.”
I almost smiled.
“You will know soon enough.”
Chapter 7 - Elisse
“You have lost your mind,” I said, my voice low and lethal.
He didn’t look at me as he said “No”, the one word making me angrier than I already was. The space was exactly as I remembered it: understated and deliberately expensive, with floor-to-ceiling glass framing Miami’s skyline. It was accented by clean lines on dark wood. A bachelor’s empire disguised as minimalism. But now I could see what it truly was. Nothing but a mask of coldness, built as a form of control. There was nothing personal here that could be used to weaken him.
I turned to face him. “You have five seconds to start explaining why you abducted me, and then I am getting out of here.”
