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Mikhail brushes a thumb over my lower lip. I taste the salt from his fingertip. “Don’t look so glum, Cordelia. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
“In exchange for what?” I ask. “I know you well enough to know nothing comes cheap.”
He smirks. “All it will cost you is your worship.”
I blink, stunned. “Pardon?”
“Treat me as your god,” he says casually. “Whatever I say is gospel. Whatever I want, you give me. Live and die by my desires and I’ll make sure you have every extravagance you could ever want.”
Ivan. I want Ivan.
But I don’t have to ask to know Mikhail will never give me that.
“If you don’t…” He lets his voice trail off as his eyes scrape over my skin. Being under his gaze feels like lying naked on an exam table. He might as well be standing over me with a scalpel. “Well, as disappointed as I’d be to see it happen, you can be replaced, sweetheart.”
“You can’t kill me. That’s what Ivan asked for, right?”
He snorts. “Ivan didn’t ask for a fucking thing. He doesn’t care what happens to you.”
“Then why haven’t you—?”
“Killed you?” Mikhail’s hand slides to my throat. “Because I’m having too much fun. If you want to live, make sure it stays that way.”
I swallow, my throat bobbing against his palm. I don’t want to think about what Mikhail’s version of “fun” looks like.
Then Mikhail drops his hand and steps back. “So you have a choice: come with me willingly and live. Or come with me unwillingly and die.”
Not much of a choice. But in this world of prey and predator, I shouldn’t be surprised. All we can do is play the roles we’ve been given. No matter how hard I fight or how fast I run, this is where I always end up. This is the choice in front of me.
And I’m so, so tired.
I lower my head and nod softly. “Okay.”
“What?” Mikhail calls loudly. “I couldn’t hear you.”
I look up at him. The words lodge in my throat, and I have to force them out. “I’ll come with you. Willingly.”
A slow smile spreads across Mikhail’s face. He brushes my cheek with his cold, clammy hand. “Now,that’sa good girl.”
Mikhail leads me through the side door where Jorden was taken and out into the alley, where a car with tinted windows awaits us. He opens the door and pushes me into the backseat with a hand on my head. Then he pauses for a moment with an easy smile smeared across his face. “Things are finally going to work out the way they were always supposed to, Cordelia.”
He slams the door closed, leaving me alone. I see him standing outside on the phone, but I can’t hear anything. It’s a good thing. I need these quiet moments to focus on my situation. To sort out the jumble of panicked thoughts in my head.
No one is coming to save me. That much is stupidly clear by now. So if I want to get out of this and rescue Jorden, I have to figure out how to save myself.
When I do, I’m going to escape this city—this life—and start over. There’s nothing and no one here for me.
Everything I loved has been taken.
7
IVAN
Once Francia leaves, I’m tempted to drop her phone on the tile floor and crush it. If I can’t break her, this worthless piece of shit is the next best thing.
Then I hear voices.
Distant, tinny voices, coming through the phone’s speaker.
