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I lift a brow. Perhaps it would be too obvious to tell her that this is exactly the sort of thing that I’m used to. I’m sure that she can see the sheer number of scars littering my body, only some of which are covered by tattoos. The majority aren’t. Nikolai clearly didn’t give me all of these. Though, he does tend to leave a physical mark on me every time that we meet.
I choose not to answer her question, but rather ask her one of my own.
“Aren’t you going to get in trouble for being down here?”
“How noble of you.” She chuckles. “Staring at death’s door and worried that my husband might be a little angry with me?” She shakes her head.
Husband? I had thought that she was a prisoner here like me. Or worse. Perhaps just the newest of the many women that Nikolai coaxed into his bed and then trapped there. Though, I suppose that being his wife does mean that she still technically fits that description.
“He’s not here.” She answers to my prolonged silence. “Not that he would care what I did anyway.”
The bitterness in her voice when she speaks surprises me, but I don’t think she’s going to give me any additional information even if I press the subject.
“Well, I’m better company anyway,” I grin with my bloodstained teeth.
She laughs and hits at my knee playfully, although the resulting hiss of pain makes her instantly apologize.
“Shit! I’m sorry… shit shit shit…” She starts checking me over for blood and only seems to calm back down when she’s certain that there’s nothing freshly torn from my sudden movements.
“Came down here to use me as a punching bag?” I laugh, teasing her sudden panic. It’s not like it hurt that bad. “I’ve heard that it’s very therapeutic. Might as well vent away too.”
“Like you want to hear about my drama.”
“I’m chained to a wall, gorgeous, I would listen to flies buzzing right now and be entertained. I’m certain that anything you have to say will be the most interesting thing that I’ve ever heard.” I flex and rattle the chains attached to the wall to emphasize my point.
“There is something that you might… want to know…”
I blink at her curiously. “Will the news guarantee that you will be in trouble? Because I think you’ve put yourself at enough risk here…”
It’s the truth. I have enough blood on my hands without adding this woman’s as well.
If she’s about to tell me something that would end up in Nikolai rage-killing another woman… I couldn’t live with that. I couldn’t.
She doesn’t hesitate before answering, like her fate isn’t something that she’s worried about in the slightest.
“Helena’s pregnant….”
Ice seeps into my veins. A lethal sort of frozen rage over the notion that my sister is pregnant… she’s going to have a baby and Nikolai is searching for her as we speak. I don’t even know whose child it could possibly be and it doesn’t matter. I shake my head, but the woman doesn’t move. It’s the truth then.
Fear and rage merge into a lethal sort of toxic acid in my body as I push away from Anya and pace the cell, limping deeply as I try to dispel some of the horrible energy in my body. Once wasn’t enough for Nikolai, was it? He couldn’t end one woman’s life and leave yet another orphaned child. Now he’s trying to land that cruel fate onto another? Killing them both?
“He’s doing it again…” I mutter, mostly to myself, before my fist cocks back and knocks into the concrete wall hard enough to crack bone.
CHAPTER FIVE
ANYA
“What is that supposed to mean?” I whisper. I don’t want to sound so damned scared, but I can’t help it.
I flinch when Alek moves. He probably broke a bone in his hand with that little move. I make a loud noise of protest to try to stop him from doing it again. Punching things isn’t going to help anything in this situation. It’s certainly not going to stop the news from being true.
It’s not like I’m not familiar with men and their temper tantrums but I wasn’t expecting such a big reaction from the man in front of me. I guess I thought that it would give him hope to get through this, or something, knowing that he was going to have a little niece or nephew. I really had thought that it would be good for him to know… but now he’s acting like a whole other person.
“Alek?” I ask again as he presses his forehead into the cool concrete of the wall. “Alek you’re scaring me…”
That seems to cut through to him. I subtly scoot just far enough away from his range of motion. Just in case. Maybe Nikolai is right - maybe he is violent and unpredictable. Would he truly hurt me if I said something that he doesn’t like?
My gut says no.
