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Sergey clapped my shoulders, and then he pressed it. “I’m proud of you, Nik. You have my permission to do whatever you want, as long as you treat her right.”
“I don’t intend to treat her terribly. She will be cared for.”
“I know.” I saw something I’d never seen in my brother’s eyes. He looked like a proud big brother, and after how hard he’d tried to raise my brothers and me while making sure we took over our father’s brutal legacy, he’d earned the right to be proud of my decisions. “I’m sure you’ll be a good husband and a great father.”
I smiled although I wasn’t sure I’d be. I wasn’t sure of anything right now, goddammit.”
Sergey turned to leave. “One more thing, Nik. Caring and protecting is an act of love.”
“What are you driving at?”
“Her ex’s name is Aaron Turner. Vlad found him trying to violate her.” He looked at me. “Do whatever you want with him.”
I didn’t realize my fists were clenched until moments after Sergey was gone. Anger burned inside my veins, my jaw twitching and my fists wanting to punch the bastard.
The thought of another man touching Giselle raised my blood pressure. Thinking of him trying to force himself on her filled me with the urge to kill.
Giselle was mine now, and no one was allowed to touch what was mine.
Chapter 8 - Giselle
“Devochka,” an old woman said to me as she entered the living room. She was wearing a long black skirt and a loose white top.
I struggled to understand what she said for a moment before I eventually gave up. “Sorry, I don’t speak Russian.”
She regarded me like a cat would regard a lizard before preying on it. “Upstairs. Now!”
I scrunched my nose. I didn’t like the tone of her voice one bit. “Excuse me?”
She glowered at me from head to toe. “Boss wants to see you, you can’t meet him dressed—” she assessed me with disgust in her eyes. “Like that.”
“What’s wrong with what I am wearing?”
She gave me another disdainful and thorough look. “You look cursed. A woman should dress more decently.”
I rolled my eyes. Christ, was she from the Victorian era? I’d been through so much today that I didn’t have it in me to play nice. “A woman shouldn’t be working for a man who kidnapped another woman young enough to be her daughter.”
The old woman didn’t say another word for a couple of minutes. Then she sighed. “Come with me if you want, but I have a feeling you’ll regret it if you don’t.” She swiveled around and headed for the black and white checkered stairs, her chunky heels clinking on the marble floor.
I tensed once I stopped hearing the clinking of her heels. Nikolai’s home was a gigantic white mansion with minimalistic white and black décor. I could tell he loved to keep his home simple. If only his life were that simple.
My heart rate hadn’t slowed down a bit since I was brought in here. I wasn’t sure what Nikolai would do to me or with me since he’d kidnapped me. I’d heard stories about men in the mafia kidnapping women, forcing them to give birth to heirs, and then killing the women afterward.
Even if Nikolai didn’t plan to kill me, I knew from the moment he mentioned marriage that he didn’t intend to ever let me go. Shivers shot down my spine at the thought of having to spend the rest of my life locked up in here.
I didn’t have a family that would look for me. No one would look for me. The most I could do was try to blend in until I got the chance to escape. Maybe I could play along and convince him to postpone the wedding until I was ready.
I got up from the sofa and hurried up the stairs. “Hello?” My voice echoed through the hallway as I peeped from one room to the next, searching for the old woman. “Where are you?”
A door opened at the other end of the hallway, and she poked her head out. “Right here,devochka.”
Bile rose in my throat. I didn’t know the meaning of the word, but I hated it when she called me that. It was condescending in some way. I shuffled my way to the room and watched as she dressed the queen-sized mattress with white sheets.
“You’re still not going to tell me what that means?” I asked.
She growled but didn’t care to answer.Rude!
I looked around, everything in there was white. The walls, the ceilings, and the furniture. Everything. It was like a torture room. “Is this where I’ll be staying?”
