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“I won’t deny it,” he said. “I do want to keep you here. This is where you’re safe, where I can protect you until this war with my father is over. But I’m telling the truth about my men. Why do you think the ones you saw gathered here today — attending a strategy meeting — are the same ones who rescued you last night? Do you think I’d risk my very few leaders unless I had no other choice?”
He could see her mind working, the conclusion inevitable but unwelcome just the same.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “So Iama prisoner here, just like in the grain terminal.”
“Not at all like that. There, someone was trying to hurt you. You’re being protected here.”
“Says you.”
He looked around the room. “Do you see any evidence to the contrary?”
He hated this distance between them. This negotiation. He wanted the Ruby he’d come to know before she’d been taken by his father. The Ruby who’d teased him like he was just any man, not one who was broken and damaged inside.
The Ruby whose laughter had lit up his soul, who’d rested her head against his chest in bed and had slept in his arms.
She flattened her luscious mouth into a hard line, clearly unwilling to concede the point. “How long?”
“How long…?”
“How long until this whole… whatever this thing is between you and your father, is over?” she asked.
He wanted to give her a straightforward answer, but the truth wasn’t simple. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know.” She repeated his words woodenly.
“It’s complicated,” Roman said. “My father’s men have to be won over, his finances collapsed. And there’s a governing body who have to ultimately approve my takeover.”
She lifted her eyebrows in disbelief and he saw shades of the Ruby he’d gotten to know before everything had unraveled, the Ruby who was quick-witted and even a little snarky. “What kind of governing body?”
“I know it must sound strange,” he said. “Movies portray our business as one without much structure, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. My father is the current pakhan, the boss, but he answers to a group of men who are loosely overseen by others in Russia. I have to convince them — all of them — that I’m a better leader than my father.”
She held his gaze. “Are you?”
“Yes.”
She seemed to consider his words. “So I’m trapped here until youconvincethem.”
“‘Trapped’ is such an ugly word, but I don’t see another option that keeps you and your family safe.” He reached into his pocket and removed a phone, slid it across the coffee table. “You can use this to call your family.”
“And then what?”
He stood. “Make yourself comfortable.”
She would be here awhile.
“Isn’t it dangerous for me to contact my family?” she asked, looking up at him. “What if your father goes after them next?”
“It would be foolish to draw more attention to your family. My father is many things, but foolish isn’t one of them,” Roman said.
“What if someone’s tracking this phone or my family’s phones or something?” She shook her head. “I don’t know how it works, but shouldn’t I keep my location a secret?”
“Not necessary. My father knows where you are by now.”
“That’s not reassuring,” she said.
“There are men stationed outside the door and more at the front of the building.” He stood. She would want time alone to call her father and sister. "I meant what I said, Ruby. You’re safe here.”
“Where are you going?”
