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I wake in a state of confusion.
The car has stopped. It’s dark outside. The familiar bright lights of the city are nowhere to be found. My body feels too heavy to move, muscles cramped up from the awkward position I’d fallen asleep in across the backseat. A terrible throbbing sensation radiates from behind my eyes. I struggle to sit up, but when I do, I have to cling to the car door to peer out the window.
We’re at an airport. A private landing strip with a jet on the tarmac, its engines roaring and ready to go.
I shake my head. I don’t understand what’s going on.
And then it hits me all at once.
The water. The sleeping pills…
“Ben?” I croak.
When I turn to look, I realize he isn’t in the front seat. The keys are still in the ignition. I’m in the car alone, but I don’t think he could have gone very far. Shivering, I summon the strength to open the door. My legs are still numb and useless, so I end up falling out of the car onto the hard pavement.
A strong hand grips me by the upper arm and hoists me to my feet. It’s a cold, boney hand—one I would recognize anywhere by the sharp bite of nails into my flesh.
“Did you have a nice nap?” Mother asks me.
I blink at her. To say I’m confused is an understatement. “W-what are you… What’s going on?”
She starts to drag me toward the jet. I’m still loopy from the drugs in my system; I have no energy to fight. “We’re going home.”
I struggle against her vice grip. “Home? N-no. Where’s—”
Ben comes into view, a hard edge to his face, a facet of him I’ve never seen before. But he won’t look at me.
“Where’s my payment?” he asks my mother.
She snaps her fingers. One of her guards approaches with a heavy briefcase. He pops the top open, exposing rows upon rows of crisp hundred-dollar bills. My brain is still too hazy, but it looks like perhaps a hundred thousand dollars or so—peanuts where the Salkov accounts are concerned.
My heart sinks. “You… You betrayed me?”
“I’m sorry, Alina,” he says, and he sounds like he means it. But he also doesn’t do anything to help me.
“Were you working for her this whole time?” Anger simmers in my veins, threatening to boil over. I’m utterly blindsided.
“She approached me a few weeks ago,” Ben says, not making eye contact. “All I had to do was deliver you to her and she’d take care of the rest.”
“You sold me out? How could you?”
“I don’t want to be a bodyguard forever, Alina,” he tells me, a slight whine in his voice. “With this money, I can finally do something of value with my life.”
“But I thought you said Merrybell stuck her neck out for you!”
Mother yanks on my arm, preventing him from answering. “Come, Alina. We’ve already wasted too much time.”
I don’t stop struggling against her. I’m not going without a fight. “Butwhy? If Pyotr finds out you’ve taken me, this’ll mean war between our families.”
“I said come!” She lifts a hand to strike me across the face, but just enough feeling returns to my body that I’m able to slap her away.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” I shriek.
“Insolent girl! Don’t you understand? You’re finally free of him.”
I stare at her blankly. I’m missing something here, a part of the puzzle I don’t yet have. “You…wantme to leave him? But what about the treaty?”
“On the plane. Now.”
