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“Forgiving in what way?” I yell out to him.
Bodhan turns and walks a few paces back towards me, looking at me with a careful grin on his face. “The girl you’re keeping in your apartment… the spy.”
I freeze in shock as Bodhan continues.
“She was hired to watch over you and pass secrets to Vadim’s enemies, and you kept her alive. If you can forgive her for that, I’m sure you can forgive Vadim for his loyalty towards Boris.”
Bodhan turns before I can respond and walks towards his car. There’s something filling inside me as I watch Bodhan throw a hand up to wave to me as he opens the door to his car and sits inside.
Rage. I feel rage at Tatyana. The skin around the back of my neck boils in fury when I think of how she’s been acting. I knew she was hiding something from me, but I didn’t think it could be something like this.
She betrayed me. Vadim is dealing with the sting of betrayal from Boris, and I’m dealing with it from Tatyana. She’s not just the daughter of my enemy. Not anymore.
Now,she’smy enemy.
* * *
The door breaksoff from its hinges and spins away towards the closet when I kick it in. I march down the hall, ready to destroy the woman who was hired to spy on me.
Tatyana reaches the bottom of the stairs and stops when she sees me. It’s hard to describe what I feel when I see her. All I know is my gun is out of its holster and aimed directly at her. Tatyana’s eyes go wide as she falls backwards onto the staircase.
“I’ve known some treacherous women,” I hiss at her as I approach her curled body, “but none like you.”
“Vikt–”
“Shut up!” I yell. Whatever she’s about to say is a lie. It’s all lies. I cut her off by pressing the barrel of my gun to her temple. My finger curls around the trigger, tempted to fire at any moment. The rage I feel amplifies my senses.
Tatyana chokes back sobs through shaky breaths, but she has a look in her eyes. She knows that I know. I should kill her right now. It’s the only justice for her betraying me, but my body refuses to do it. There’s some power stopping me from doing what I wouldn’t have hesitated to do under any other circumstances.
“You’ll tell me every detail you know, right now, on these stairs, or you’ll die here,” I growl.
Tears stream from the corners of her eyes and run down the sides of her face. “You know everything now, Viktor. There’s nothing else I’m hiding from you.”
I press the barrel of the gun to the side of her head, just above her ear. The dark curls of her hair obscure the gun barrel and wrap around my trigger finger. I melted every time I felt her hair graze against me, but now all I can feel is pain.
“Who hired you?” I force between my gritted teeth.
“Arkady,” she says between sobs. “He’s the only one whose name I know, I promise!” Tatyana breaks down and curls herself away from me, facing the staircase.
The anger in me churns deep in my stomach. Apart from wanting to keep herself alive, I know this is an act. I know it. She needs to face consequences for her betrayal.
I yank her to her feet, pulling her arm to drag her towards the entry door.
“You’re going back to the cells,” I say as I drag Tatyana along.
“No!” she shrieks as she hurls herself to the floor. Her sobs grow to where I can no longer understand what she’s trying to say, but I don’t care. I scoop her into my arms and clasp her to my body as she kicks and struggles against me. We reach the elevator and I drop her on the floor in front of it, leaning in to press the button to open the doors.
“If you put me back in those cells,” Tatyana says in a weak voice, “I won’t be alive when you come back.”
I scoff at her threat. She’ll be locked up with no method of escape. No way to harm herself in revenge. But I look down at her and see a look of determination in her. From the moment I brought her here, she’s been trying to escape. I know Tatyana enough to know how determined she is. Even if I restrain her, I know she’s clever enough to find a way out.
I shouldn’t care, but I do. If I decide she needs to die, I want to be the person who makes that decision. I don’t want her taking her life as an act of defiance.
The elevator doors slide open and I hesitate. A voice inside me urges me to find another way. Is it leniency? Mercy? Tatyana doesn’t deserve it.
I don’t give mercy. That’s not who I am.
But no one has ever affected me the way Tatyana has. This is all new for me, and as much as I feel hate pouring through me when I look down at her, there’s something else I know.
