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He stroked his thumb over my bottom lip, his focus trained on the act. And then he was leaving the office before I could even get my bearings. I lifted my hand and touched my tingling lips as I watched him go out the door and take a left. I didn’t know what propelled me to move forward, but I found myself at the entryway looking down the hall and watching him disappear through a doorway at the end.
I looked back into the room, then turned and walked around, touching the desk, running my fingers over the smooth leather of the couch. I stood in that room for five minutes before I once again found myself walking toward the entryway.
I glanced to the right, seeing a big, beefy man standing at the end of the hallway dead center, his legs spread apart, his arms crossed. His stance was intimidating, threatening. Then again his size alone would’ve done the job of making anyone cower back. And I was only looking at his back. I could imagine thehard scowl on his face. But he didn’t look at me, just stayed immobile. Like stone.
And then I was taking a left out of the office and making my way across the soft carpeted hallway, and stopping right in front of the door I’d seen Nikolai go through. I should’ve listened to him, I knew that. I knew I should have stayed in that room and wait for him. But energy filled me, the dangerous kind, the kind that would probably get me killed.
I turned the handle and pushed it open. A set of descending stairs greeted me, and industrial lighting lined either side of the stairwell.
I gripped the banister and walked down, the air becoming colder. I wasn’t stupid to think I wouldn’t be greeted with roadblocks of some kind. This wouldn’t be as easy as I hoped, as it had been so far.
And that became clear when I reached the bottom step and rounded the corner to come to a stop in an anteroom made up of cement. There was an industrial sized light hanging from the ceiling, a metal cage protecting the bulb.
There was another door right in front of me, and a massive man standing in front of it, a jagged scar across his cheek. He, too, had the same stance as the man upstairs. Legs braced apart. Arms crossed over his chest. His nasty expression was directed right at me.
The smart thing would have been to just turn around and go back upstairs. Nikolai didn’t have to know I was here; didn’t have to know I’d disobeyed his direct orders.
But I didn’t do any of that, because either way I knew someone would tell him.
I found myself taking a step closer, morbidly needing to know what was behind that door. My stupid curiosity was having me do things I never would’ve done before, never even contemplated.
If Nikolai wanted a woman who could stand beside him and watch the ruins of his destruction, then I needed to start being that woman.
He told me he wanted a wife who was strong, a queen to stand beside him. So here I was, doing just that even though I didn’t know what the consequences would be and was scared as hell because I knew I probably didn’t want to know what was behind that door.
I was about to open my mouth, not sure what I was going to say, maybe tell him I was Nikolai’s wife as some kind of flex, but before I could say anything the guard was stepping aside, reaching behind him without taking his focus off of me, and turning the knob to push the door open.
Well. Okay then.
I was greeted with another chamber. Another door. Another guard. And it was the same process. He looked at me, as if he knew who I was, and I supposed maybe he did. Nikolai was high on the Bratva chain, a Pakhan, an heir. I had to assume something as big as news about him getting married, especially to the daughter of a member in the Cosa Nostra, would make its way around the rumor mill with his soldiers.
I could hear the steadythump-thumpof music, maybe shouting coming from the closed door. And then it opened for me and the sound exploded outward to surround me. I stepped inside, and when my eyes adjusted, my breath caught in my throat.
The door shut behind me with aclang, and I was so startled I jumped and looked over my shoulder to stare at that red steel barricade that now caged me in with the chaos I willingly walked into.
I couldn’t believe it had been so… easy.
No guards, no babysitter standing behind me. Just doors opening for me like I had…. power.
Petrov power.
I took a step forward, and another one, my heels getting stuck in the tiny slats of the metal flooring platform I was on. I stopped in front of a steel banister and took my shoes off, letting the straps hang off my fingertips as I looked down at the lower level, at the cage situated in the center.
Good God.What was I witnessing?
There were so many people it was mind blowing in its chaos. The shouting was earsplitting, with the need for violence, more blood… even death swirling in the air until you could taste it on your tongue, until it hit the back of your throat and made you gag.
They kept chanting one thing over and over again.
Razoreniye.
I was halfway down the steps before I realized I moved. I was focused on the wave of people moving back-and-forth, arms up in the air, hand curled into fists as they pumped the air, shouting forRazoreniye.
Razoreniye. Razoreniye. Razoreniye.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs I only had a few feet in front of me before the crush of bodies would swallow me whole. And as much as I wanted to get closer to the cage, a dark and rested curiosity filling me, I also wasn’t foolish.
If I fell I’d get trampled on, nothing but debris under all those shoes.
