Page 72 of Essence of Fear

Fuck Russia.

Fuck being safe.

She wouldn’t stay here one more minute. She wouldn’t share the same home—or the same air—as a man who was just as bad as the monster who’d held her captivate for days so that he could beat and rape her as often as he liked. Staying here was as bad for her mental health as her nightmares and flashbacks. It was a different kind of bad, but she was only now realizing just how much.

After all, Vadim handed her to the monster. She was the gift, wasn’t she? Her father didn’t even care.

No.

She wasn’t staying here.

12.

VIKTORIA WALKED past the men waiting for them as they exited into O’Hare’s arrivals. To his benefit, the man standing right at the front—Konstantin—didn’t blink at his sister’s cold attitude as she went by like he didn’t even exist.

He did raise his brow to Pav.

“You couldn’t convince her to stay there another week or so, then?” Konstantin asked.

Pav could have laughed at that idiotic statement, but he didn’t think the other man would appreciate his dark humor. “Can anyone really change that woman’s mind after she has decided something? If you know the secret, let me in on it, too.”

Konstantin tipped his chin in Pav’s direction; a silent agreement. “Point taken. Still—”

“Still nothing. She’s a grown woman and she has access to everything and anything she might need right at her fingertips. Including credit cards to buy her own tickets home. Did you want me to let her come home alone? Because that was her plan.”

“Fine,” Konstantin muttered heavily.

“I did try,” Pav replied. “I explained it would be safer. I told her what I knew of the situation back here, and that she should give it more time. I suggested a hotel or somewhere else other than Chicago.”

“And what?”

Pav pointed a finger at the woman still walking away from them without as much as a glance over her shoulder. “You’re looking at the result.”

Konstantin scowled. “It’s not safe for her here.”

“As she told me, this is also her home.”

“What?”

Pav shifted on his feet, avoiding Konstantin’s gaze as he said, “Chicago is her home. This is all she knows, yes? Why should she have to leave it? I’m here. I’ll be with her. Surely, you can spare another man or two that will watch her from afar. After all of that, I’m sure no one will be coming after her. It would be a death wish.”

“We believe Boris is working with people. How or who, is the better question, and one we don’t have any answers to. That’s a real threat, Pav. And what, you’re so caught up in feelings for my sister that you can’t make a choice for her because—”

“Exactly that,” Pav interjected sharply.

Konstantin straightened. “I beg your pardon?”

“I will not make choices for her. I will tell her if I think something is a bad choice, but it is hers to make. People have already taken enough from Viktoria—I won’t be someone else who just adds to the list, Konstantin. Take that as you may.”

“I sincerely hope she explained more to you than she did to me when she called and told me you were both coming back,” Konstantin said. “About why, I mean.”

“She did.”

“And?”

The answer was simple.

“Vadim,” Pav said.