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Olga.The thought of the brisk, taciturn Russian lady made me want to cry. I thanked whatever power was out there watching this shit show that the older woman had been done for the day when Nikolai had come to get me.
An urgent thought pushed its way into my head as I watched the car's headlights, another stolen one, dip over the trees of a densely packed forest pressing in on either side of the road.
“What happened to Max?” I asked, though I was sure I’d never been more dry-mouthed in my life. Max was my bodyguard and one of Kirill’s best friends. A Chernov made man who had cared about me, even just a little.
“Shot, like the rest,” Nikolai muttered.
I felt sick, my stomach churning, and a hot tear left my eye and dashed down my cheek. “You’re a fucking bastard, and I hope you burn in hell one day,” I muttered, utterly devastated by yet another loss.
“That fact is undeniable,” Nikolai said matter-of-factly, “but I believe in dancing in the flames before the fire takes you. We’re here,” he grunted, pulling my attention ahead.
There was a vague shape of a house through the dark trees. When did it become night again? As we drew closer, I realized it wasn’t just a house. Such a word shouldn’t apply to something so big. It was three levels, sitting in a clearing in a dense forest. The architecture was rustic, yet the sheer size hinted that this was a custom build for someone and no mere hunter’s cabin.
“Whose place is this?”
“It was my mother’s. The woman Viktor met in Russia, dragged over here kicking and screaming, and locked inside this prison to die,” Nikolai said, his dispassionate tone jarring with his words.
I stared wordlessly at him.
He chuckled at my expression. “I suppose Viktor wanted to ensure his next baby mama wouldn’t run away like Kirill’s mother did.”He shut off the car and relaxed back against the seat. “I grew up here until I was twelve when I was taken from her to begin my education.”
I didn’t know what to say. It was too sad and terrible. Instead, I bit my lip and tried not to think about Max and Kirill and all the ways people hurt each other.
“Come on, I’ll give you the grand tour,” Nikolai said, pushing open the door and stepping onto the pine-needled floor. He rounded to my side and opened the door to help me out but didn’t untie my hands. “I’m sorry, I have to take precautions. You’re still a flight risk, Mallory. I’m sure you understand.”
He pushed me ahead of him toward the stairs leading up to the front porch. A man shifted in the darkness, making me stop in fright. There were several men, I realized, as Nikolai urged me up the stairs. Dressed in black, they seemed to blend seamlessly into the darkness.
“My men are here to protect us and to keep you in. They will hurt you should you disobey me,” Nikolai continued.
He caught up to me when I stumbled on the top step and nearly face-planted since my hands were still bound behind my back. Only his strong hand hauling me upward stopped me.
He held me close to him, his head tilted down so his eyes could meet mine. “Don’t run unless you want to be shackled. Run twice, and I’ll rethink if you need both feet. Do you understand?”
“Why would I bother running from here? I have no idea where we are, I’m hurt, and I have nowhere to go but the forest.”
“Yet, I bet if I burrowed into your pretty head right now, I’d see a plan being made. At the very least, I bet you are relying on the belief that Kirill will come for you.”
“Aren’t you? Isn’t that why you’ve brought me here? You know he’ll come for me, and then you can try to kill him out here, alone and isolated.
“I’m flattered you think there is a clear victor between us.”
“I said you’d try to kill him, not that you’d succeed.”
Nikolai narrowed his eyes at me, the tension building for a few heartbeats before he smirked.“What confidence you have in Kirill . . . it’s almost like you don’t know him at all. Putting a tracker under your skin and never telling you about it is the least of the things he’s done to you, Mallory.”
“What else has he done?”
“Terrible, permanent things,” Nikolai teased.
I stiffened, shoving down the hurt about the tracker and refusing to rise to his bait.“Why should I believe anything you say?”
“I thought you’d say that . . . what if I have proof?” Nikolai teased.
I stared at him, my heart in my mouth.“Tell me one thing. Is Kirill engaged?” The question came out of nowhere. I hadn’t thought about the whispered conversation I’d overheard since this ordeal began. But there it was, popping back up at the first opportunity.
Nikolai’s smile made him look cruel and handsome. How could someone so dark look so dashing? “Damn,” he muttered softly. “I hate ruined surprises.”
The look in his eyes confirmed my worst fears. Kirillwasengaged. A good deal of fight left me, and I was suddenly so tired that I could barely think straight. It was disappointment or a concussion. Time would tell.
