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“It isn’t me who needs protecting. They go with you, or you do not leave this house.”
I swallow hard and change tact. “How is my father?”
“You should call him.”
“Why?” I shrug. “He doesn’t care about me, not like you do.”
He takes a heavy intake of breath and says, “Of course he does,sladkiy revenok.You know how Russian men are, it isn’t always in our capabilities to show the ones we care for how we really feel.”
“You do,” I throw back. “What’s his excuse?”
Even in private, my father is as vile as he is in public.
While Aleksi and I are never seen together in the public eye, he shows me how much I mean to him in so many other ways.
“You must not speak ill of your father, Katiya, no good can come from that.”
I lean over and kiss him on the cheek. “I have to go get my things. Can I take the Merc?”
So much for just thinking about it…
“You will do no such thing,” he calls out after me as I take off toward the door. “Maxim and Dimitri, at all times, don’t make me have to come search for you myself, Katiya.”
Yeah, yeah.
I stalk off upstairs and start making my preparations.
* * *
We go across town later to my apartment to get some more of my things.
It doesn’t feel like only a few weeks since I left here but everything is still as I left it.
Except the unexpected surprise while I’m packing some bags and working out how much room is in the trunk of the car.
Vlad.
He turns up at my door, and Dimitri and Maxim are about to toss him down the stairs until I intervene. We need to have a talk. I need to tell him that he needs to start looking for another bride.
When I tell them it’s alright, Vlad shrugs back into his suit jacket and stalks past me.
I roll my eyes at them as I close the door.
“Vladimir, how lovely to see you,” I say, my voice as sweet as candy.
He turns. “Oh, acknowledging me now? I thought you may have forgotten what I look like since you were kidnapped. It would explain why you let those fuckers throw my ass out the other day.”
I don’t want to infuriate him. It’s best for all concerned if this goes as amicable as possible, even if I know it will not be that easy.
“I was hurting, Vlad,” I say, my voice softening. “I’d just been released…”
He shakes his head. “It should have beenmethere to comfort you when you were released. Now I have to make an appointment with your uncle to even see you.”
Not once has he even asked how I am.
I wait for it, knowing that it’ll never come.
Vlad’s world revolves aroundVladand nobody else. If anything gets in the way of his end goal, including me, they will be steamrolled.
