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I struggle to keep my foot from tapping. My thumb nail is chewed to the skin, and its shortness is starting to hurt. But other than it being a nuisance, it doesn’t bother me, because it’s a reminder that I’m still alive.
We pull up to a small home that sits nicely tucked into the forest.
“Do you live here?”
His face lights up with a sinister glow. “It’s one of my favorite places to be. But I can’t come here often.”
He gets out, and I want to run. But even if I manage to get away, we didn’t pass a single car in the last half hour.
He opens the car door for me. “Demetri has you spoiled. Get the fuck out.”
“I didn’t want you to think I was going to run.”
He walks with his hand on my lower back. My heart is pounding, the quickening in blood flow has my ears ringing. I can’t stop the shakiness with each step that takes us closer to the house.
“Will Demetri be joining us?”
He doesn’t answer, but his hand presses on my back more firmly. He opens the door, but my feet refuse to move.
“I’ll wait here for my husband.”
He yanks my arm, and I fall into the house. The door closes behind me, and I hear multiple locks go into place. Instantly, I’m scared.
He yanks me back up, my arm spiking with pain as he jerks my body, but I’m more concerned with how the house smells. It’s musty, with an odd scent I can’t quite place.
“It’s formaldehyde,” he answers, seeing my confusion after I audibly sniff the air.
He flicks on the light, and nausea gets stuck in my throat.
“Meet Nina, Demetri’s first love,” he says with a sinister smile and a slow chill creeps down my body as I see what he is talking about. A fully clothed skeleton rests lying on the couch. It looks as if it was once posed but as the flesh liquified it fell. The couch has dried up black goo under the yellowing bones.
“Is this her tomb? An altar where she gets worshiped?” What the hell is this? And why would Demetri want me here? Thisfarexceeds all of my “crazy.”
Mikhail laughs. “I did Demetri a favor. That bitch was a whore who continued to cheat on him.”
A shiver dances through my body. Demetri never said anything bad about his first wife. In fact, he barely talked about her at all.
“She even saddled him with a kid who wasn’t his. That was my tipping point. If she did that to him, how could I trust her?”
My eyes dart between him and the bones. “Who is Charlotte’s father?”
“Me,” he replies snarkily, his thumb points back to him, and his face transforms into deep lines of rage.
Holy shit.
“But by then, it was too late. I couldn’t do anything about it. I had to let him raise my daughter.” He shakes his head in disgust. “I did the next best thing. I arranged it so he would bring Eva in for me. I loved her and knew she would take care of my baby. But she grew to love Demetri, and I couldn’t trust her anymore. She switched alliances. She was going to tell Demetri that Charlotte isn’t his. I couldn’t have that. Eva and Nina were so similar, both liars.”
“You’re the one who killed her.”
“It was for his own good—again. She was a betrayer. Once a traitor, always a traitor.”
I glance at the door; it has five locking mechanisms on it. “Don’t expect Demetri to come save you. You’ll be dead to him now.”
“How do you live knowing Demetri is raising your child?” I ask, and he glares, his lips pursing. “I’m only asking, because it sounds like we’re in the same boat. I’m assuming I’m not going back now. Demetri will be raising my daughter.”
I try to get him to talk. The more he talks, the more I can hope to be saved or come up with a plan.
Mikhail laughs hysterically. “That’s not how the plan is going to go. I’ve been in Demetri’s shadow for long enough. It’s time there’s a new boss.”
