“Are you sure you are not hurt or drugged?”
“I am sure.”
“Did he touch you?”
“Yes,” I snapped, “I am married to Fyodor.”
His expression darkened.
“Well, as Avgust said, that marriage means nothing. You are coming back with us, and I am sure we can get it annulled or something.”
“It means everything to me, and I am not going anywhere.”
Another burst of gunfire echoed from the stairwell, and smoke began to creep faintly through the hallway.
“You’re not thinking clearly, Ellise,” Avgust said. “He has manipulated you.”
“He hasn’t.”
“You think we believe that?”
“I’m not being held here against my will or something insane like that. Staying here is my own choice, and I am not going anywhere with you guys, no matter how much you ask of me. And don’t you dare try to force my hand at it.”
Iosif’s eyes flicked around the room as he looked at the shattered glass, the armed guards, the surveillance equipment.
“You expect us to believe this is voluntary?”
“Yes.”
Avgust stepped closer, lowering his voice.
“Elisse. You don’t have to defend him in front of us. We already know he is a monster to kidnap you and bring you here against your will, and then he went ahead and trapped you in this marriage. We will not let you live here with him.”
“I’m not defending him, I’m choosing him.”
The words felt like detonating a bomb between us, and Iosif’s face hardened into something unrecognizable. I could see he was growing angry since neither of them must have expected me to behave this way. They probably expected me to run towards them scared, ready to return home and get out of here.
“He kidnapped you.”
“He married me.”
“He leveraged you.”
“He let me choose. I had the choice of calling you two to rescue me weeks ago, but I did not do so because I did not want to be rescued. I still don’t want to be rescued. I want to stay here. With him. And nothing you do or say can change that decision for me.”
Gunfire erupted closer now, and I could hear Romanov men pushing back from the lower floors. The operation was still very much active, making me realize how it wasn’t a clean extraction. It was a war zone, and that was exactly what I hated the most. I hated that men who had nothing to do with any of this were killed because of me.
Iosif grabbed my arm, then, clearly, an element of force attached to it. “You’re coming with us, and that’s it. I am not going to hear any arguments against this. I won’t let you stand here and vouch for this madness.”
I jerked free.
“No.”
“Elisse.”
“I said no.”
“You’re not thinking straight.”
