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“Did you want this to go anywhere?” He leans into the table too. A grin tugs on his lips as he looks up and down my body.
Did I?Maybe deep down I thought I could get some kind of leverage out of this conversation, but that wasn’t the case. If anything, we just pissed each other off. So I don’t say anything. It’s like feeding a stray animal I never want to see again; the more I give him, the more he’ll come.
“Don’t worry. That was rhetorical, my love.”
It feels as if every atom in my body is about to explode. This man infuriates me, but I can’t let my rage get the better of me—he feeds off that.
Mikhail stands from his chair and walks over to the ledge with built-in cabinets. He grabs something off the top and makes his way back to me. He kneels to the ground and grabs onto my ankle. A part of me wants to knee him in the face, but that would only make my situation a million times worse. Instead, I sit still while he straps a black piece of plastic around my ankle and presses a button. The red light blinks repeatedly.
He’s going to track me. The ship isn’t small, but I wouldn’t deem a tracker a necessity unless he wants to know exactly where I am. That’s most likely the case, after all, but does he really think I’ll go anywhere if he’s threatening my family?
“I expect you to eat every last crumb off the plate.” He places his drink on the table and stands up to walk to the door. “Your door will be unlocked. You have fresh linen. Do you need anything else?”
“Wow, thanks so much for taking such great care of me. I’ll be sure to leave you a fantastic review on Kidnap.com once my stay is over,” I say, smiling at him.
He stops in his tracks and turns to walk toward me. His blinks are slow as he lowers himself over my body. As his hand lies flat against the table, I hear the beat of my heart echoing in my ear. His face is so close to mine I can feel his breath.
I shouldn’t have been so reckless with my words.
“And what makes you think your stay will ever end?” He lifts a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. Then he brings his thumb to my bottom lip and traces along the curve. “Watch this pretty mouth of yours.”
My hands clench around the soft, thin material of my dress. I try to ignore the feeling my body creates at his touch, but I can’t. A warm sensation builds in my stomach, mixed with nausea.
Mikhail seems to notice how my body reacts to his touch.
I just made his job easier.
CHAPTER7
MIKHAIL
The night I put a tracker on Sloane, she stayed in her room. She does the same thing the second day, the third ... and the fourth.
I’m giving her the freedom to roam as she pleases—as sherequested—but she refuses for some reason. I hate people going through my things, but I kind of want her to. I want her to get to know me without me having to talk to her. She should know who I am and what I’m capable of. If she did, maybe she wouldn’t fight me so much.
God, the fucking mouth on her. She never knows when to shut up. Every time she opens those lips some snide comment comes out. It’s amusing—she always looks so shocked by her own words as if she never thought herself capable of being a little offensive. The girl is a glimmer of sunshine in a dark room. Eventually, though, the sun will go down and there’ll be nothing but darkness—and that’s when it’ll get interesting.
I can tell being trapped in here isn’t something she’s scared of, and that pisses me off. For the first couple of days, she paced her room day and night—I could hear her light-footed stomps on the floorboards—but now she’s content resting in bed. Something’s changed. Was it the locked door?
“Did Adrian call you this morning? How did his encounter go?” Dimitri asks.
I let out a bitter noise when I remember the phone call I had with him. “Yeah. His finger is gone and his eye is still fucked up. He’s watching the city right now.”
When Adrian told me he wanted to deliver Sloane’s hair to Giovanni in person, I let him because I thought the outcome would be funny. He told me about the endless stream of threats Giovanni gave him. It was all fun and games until he took his finger. That pissed me off, but I can’t say I didn’t expect it. Taking his ear would’ve been a typical move for Giovanni, but a finger is different.
Some things with Giovanni haven’t changed. Once he has his heart and mind set on something, he goes for it. Which is exactly what I want him to do. Giovanni will take his men with him to Russia in the hope of finding Sloane. That’s exactly what I want.
Little do they know, she’s right under their noses. Only about ten miles offshore. She’d be easy to find if I stayed in the city, even at the beach property my father purchased. The Romano and Genovese families would see her, especially if they got the police involved.
But they don’t have a single fucking clue where Sloane is. Three families with all the resources they could need at their disposal, and they can’t even find her. It’s laughable.
Giovanni has caused more fights than I can count, and he can’t decide what his next move will be. The moment he’s brought to me, I’ll put him through hell and thrive on his empty threats. Or maybe I’ll let him sweat for a little while longer.
“What, he can’t handle her body or her attitude?”
“Probably both.” I shrug. Adrian was the first of us to crack. He believes in the tale ofKoldunyaandclaims the moment Sloane looked at him he forgot everything he was doing.
The tale is fucking stupid.
