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Tonight should have happened later.I could even have taken her tonight. Listened to her, gotten her into bed, and then snatched the rug out from under her.
But Vladimir said to do it at the house I’ll have the keys to. To wait.
I curse again through gritted teeth. I’m beholden to someone other than myself now, with other fingers on the strings I wanted to play on my own. My decisions are not entirely my own any longer, and that angers me even more, making me regret the choice to bring the Syndicate in on this.
But I can’t go back now.
And my own weakness, my fury at her daring to subvert what I told her to do, might have robbed me of the moment I’d been waiting for.
I could apologize to her.
“Fuck that!” I snarl aloud, hating myself all over again for the small part of me that wants to do just that–and not entirely to manipulate her. There’s a part of myself that feels truly guilty for treating her that way when she’d come to me for help, clearly frightened and distraught, and it makes me furious with a boiling rage.
She’s not Mika. She’s not here for you to fucking protect. She’s part of the reason Mika is gone. Part of that whole fucking family. Don’t feel anything for her. Anything but hate.
I need her trust back, or I won’t have what I want. It won’t be as good.
I rub my hands over my face, suppressing the urge to scream again.I could apologize to her for that. To gain her trust. I don’t have to mean it. Iwon’tmean it.
A brief sense of calm washes over me at that, slowing my pulse and bringing me to a standstill in the middle of the room.That’s it. I don’t have to mean it. It’s just to convince her to trust me. To still meet me the night after tomorrow. And then–
By then, I’ll have the keys to the house where I’ll take her. If I can soften her enough to agree to come back on her own, I might even be able to enjoy her willingly, before I let her know the trap is sprung.
Fuck.I still have to meet Valeria, too. I calculate the hours I have, pulling out my phone to send her a message. If I leave now and arrive tomorrow, I’ll make it back in time to meet Vladimir. I can arrange something to be sent to her as an apology, more gifts to soften her up, and with any luck, she’ll be there.
And then–
Then I’ll have everything I need.
—
By the time I’m back in Moscow the following evening, I’m exhausted. I’ve slept very little, only an hour or two at my own apartment, before Vladimir called me and told me to be at the compound within two hours. But as I down a cup of black coffee before heading out, I can’t bring myself to care.
By now, Natalia will have my apology. And tomorrow night, unless she refuses, I’ll have her in my grasp.
I hadn’t forgotten what she told me about what Igor had said to her. I know that she’ll be at the club tonight, and that he’d planned to extort the money out of her. I thought about it all the way to Novogrod and back, my fury rising with each kilometer there and back.
She’s mine to threaten. Mine to hurt. Mine to punish. Mine to touch and fuck.
He’d threatened to violate her, she’d said, and that angered me most of all. That he would dare to touch what I’ve bought, the woman that I’ve decided to have for myself, that I’ve focused so much of my efforts on.Igor, a man no better than the mud on my shoe, a cheap imitation of the Bratva man I know he longs to be.
I paid him, too, just as Natalia had said. I’d given him a healthy sum to avoid just this, to have her time for myself without him giving her trouble over it and risking her backing out of the arrangement out of fear for her job.
Not only had he threatened what’s mine, but he also lied to me.
I don’t take being lied to well.
I had just enough time, between returning from Novogrod and catching a quick nap before meeting with Vladimir to handle the problem of Igor.
I have no doubt that the apology Natalia will find tonight will please her even more than the dress and jewelry that she’ll find tomorrow. That it will make her see that the violence of last night was only because I want her so badly.
She’ll believe me once she sees what I’ve done for her.
“Smert elo milost.”I give the password at the gate, and this time I’m let in quickly once I tell my name. I stop in the same place in front of the building, handing over my keys and weapons without having to be asked.
But this time, the guards escort me down a different hall.
“Am I not seeing Vladimir?” I demand, and one of the guards glances back at me.
