Page 33

For one second there’s only the sharp sting of it. Goddamn, what a woman.

I catch her wrist before she can pull it back to hit me again.

“You don’t get to do that twice,” I say slowly, my cheek smarting as I walk her backward until her body hits the wall.

She goes rigid against it, chest heaving, eyes wild. I don’t let go of her wrist. I don’t step back. I’m close enough now to smell her sweat and something floral. I do my best to not take a deep breath.

“I let you have that one.” My mouth is at her ear, low enough she has to go still to hear it. “I won’t be that generous again.”

She shoves against me, trying to put distance between us, and the movement drags her hips against mine before either of us can stop it. A low and rough sound comes out of my mouth, and I have to close my eyes to keep from doing something in this room I can’t take back.

She freezes the instant she feels exactly what she’s done.

The hardness that’s rapidly tenting my pants.

“Careful,” I murmur into her hair, voice not as steady as I’d like. “Keep moving like that and we’ll both learn something about tonight neither of us planned on.”

She goes utterly still.

I take a breath and find my way back to the one thing I know how to hold onto, which is leverage, because leverage I can use even while every other part of me is screaming to close the last inch between us.

“Cut this out,” I say quietly, still struggling to maintain control, “or the next video you see of her is the last one. Do you understand me?”

She nods once. If looks could kill, I would be six feet under.

I let go of her wrist and step back. I’m immediately cold the moment I’m away from her delicious warmth but I straighten my shirt and I don’t look at her mouth again. Then I turn to go.

“What are the other reasons?”

I stop and cock my head to the side. “Come again?” I slowly turn around.

She’s still breathing hard, but her voice is steady now. “I’m not stupid. You told me at dinner this served more than one purpose. That I’m not the only reason. Either you tell me the rest right now, or I stop cooperating with anything you ask of me for the next twenty-six days. I mean it.”

I look at her for a long moment.

I’m not deciding whether to tell her.

I’m deciding how much of it she gets tonight.

Then I sit down on the bench by the weight rack.

I haven’t gotten this close to her on purpose since the study, and I can tell it throws her more than anything I’ve actually said.

“There are people in my organization who want Seraphina as leverage,” I say. “The plan was to use her to start a war—get the Bratva and the Santoros and Brennans tearing each other apart over a missing child and clean up whatever was left when it was over. That plan was already moving before I ever touched it. I just got there first.”

I hold her eyes and I can see the shock on her face.

“She’s alive because of me, Katerina. Not despite me.”

She stares at me, working it over, looking for the catch in it. “And that’s supposed to make this better? Or is this just—” Her jaw tightens. “Is this manipulation? Are you just telling me whatever’s going to keep me compliant?”

“Yes,” I shrug. “Some of it is.”

There’s no point lying to her. She’d see through it anyway, and a lie right now would set me back and I don’t have time for that.

“Everything I do involves manipulation, one way or another. That’s just who I am, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise tonight.” I lean forward. “But Seraphina really was in danger and I really am the reason she isn’t anymore. Both of those things can be true at the same time, even if one of them happens to work out well for me.”

Katerina scoffs and crosses her arms over her chest. “How am I supposed to believe any of that?”