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“No, I’ll be a liability. I’m going to stay here. I’m okay, Wryn.”
“Hey, what are you two saying?” Frank says, walking closer.
We separate from each other, sitting back as he comes to stand in front of us. My heart is pounding. I can’t leave Ruby behind. She’s getting out of here. We will be Ruby and Wryn again.
“Shut the fuck up.” Frank glares at both of us.
Ruby’s face pales as she looks at the floor. I don’t like her docile attitude. She’s never been like that. It reinforces my thoughts about her leaving with us.
Frank goes to step away, and the double doors burst open, making me jump. What I see makes my stomach roll, my mouth opening on a soundless scream.
27
WRYN
“Connor?” Ruby and I say at the same time before looking at each other.
He steps into the room, our guard at his back, and as he turns slightly, I gasp at the cold metal pressed against his back. Connor seems unaffected as he glares at both of us. A dip between his brows mars his gorgeous face as he stands still. He opens his mouth, looking at Ruby before he surprises me by cutting his eyes to mine.
“Are you okay?” he asks, and I nod.
“I’m okay,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Shut up, you two,” the guard says, and I do. He holds the power right now, and he looks a little trigger happy.
Tense silence falls over the room, and Ruby doesn’t drag her eyes from my husband. An odd, primal jealousy erupts through me, where I want to tell her to stop staring. Then, I shake my head and realize how silly I’m being in this moment. It must be the stress getting to me. I know we are sitting ducks here, waiting for Viktor to come back from whatever emergency he was called away to. I strongly suspect it had to do with our would-be rescuer.
I look back at Connor, strangely satisfied that his eyes are on me, assessing me. I can see the emotions swirling in his dark eyes. Snapping back and forth between anger, relief, stress, and calm. I widen mine, unsure what I’m even trying to say to him. He gives a curt nod, seemingly satisfied with my unspoken words.
The door opens behind him, and the ground sounds with harsh footsteps.
Viktor’s amused voice rings out in the room. “What fun to be able to reunite lovers again,” he says.
Ruby’s hand tightens in mine, and I let my body sway toward her. Our shoulders brush, and there’s a strange sense of comfort in her touch even though I haven’t felt it in so long.
“Please, Connor, have a seat. It won’t do to have you standing around as if I don’t know how to entertain.”
I get the sense that Viktor’s anger is at a boiling point, and his calm tone belies the raucous emotions flitting across his face. Connor sits on the other side of the coffee table, separating us. A bolt of hurt flashes through my chest at the fact that he didn’t choose to sit beside me. I know he’s livid with me, and he has every right to be. But somewhere between him discovering me with a knife at his father’s throat and this moment right now, I came to think of myself as his. The one he wanted by his side and that he would go to all lengths to protect. I guess he has done that. He’s here for me. Even after what I did to him. To us.
“Connor, my boy, you are resilient. And stupid,” Viktor says, standing and holding court as we all sit as his captive audience. “No woman is worth your life, and you inevitably served yourself up to me on a platter. I’ll give it to you; she is beautiful.” Viktor’s eyes land on me and then Ruby. “Both of them,” he adds with a sardonic chuckle.
He focuses on Ruby. “How does it feel, knowing your best friend married your beau?”
No one speaks.
“Ah,” Viktor says, waving one hand in the air, “that’s neither here nor there. What matters now is what I’m going to do with you. You are a cockroach, continuing to pop up at the most inopportune times. I was hoping to get you taken care of, but it seems, in this day and age, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
Connor leans back in his chair, the picture of ease. He doesn’t look like someone should after Viktor threatened to take care of them. “Let Wryn and Ruby go, and we can talk like men.”
I bristle slightly that he reduced us to mere insignificant women who can’t sit at the men’s table, but then I realize how absurd my thoughts are in this dire situation. He can say whatever the hell he wants if it will get us out of this.
“I must decline,” Viktor says, looking over at us. He smiles benignly, his eyes glazed over. “Ruby is here of her own free will. She can leave at any time.”
Ruby’s hand starts to shake, and I know Viktor is full of shit. She has no free will. None of us women do in these so-calledfamilies. We are pawns to be moved around by men, used at their convenience and given away when an alliance needs to happen. We have nothing but the illusion of autonomy given to us by men.
“And your little Wryn was a hard woman to keep ahold of. I can’t let her go so quickly.”
“Your fight is with me,” Connor says, his jaw clenching as he narrows his eyes.
