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I falter. “What?”
“What would you bet on having made me money?” My father watches me, cruel and hard.
“I don’t understand.”
He sighs. “It’s not a hard fucking question, Kirill.” He lifts my hand. “A finger? A toe?”
“A ball?” Igor laughs at his suggestion.
“I d-d-don’t know.”
“I think two fingers is fair.” My father holds up the little finger and ring finger on my non-dominant hand.
“He can’t shoot as easily if you take two,” Igor points out. “One, but with a jagged knife?”
Father nods. “Da, good thinking.”
I can’t focus on what they’re saying. The relief that floods me is so overwhelming I can’t breathe. He just wants a finger? I thought I’d have to do a week in that hellish dark place. I can’t. I’ll smash my head open on the wall if he puts me in there.
I want to laugh but know if I show him the thought of losing a finger doesn’t scare me, then Father will think up something worse.
“I suppose we ought to find a watch appraiser,” Father says. “If you made me money, we will let this go with just the beating. If you have lost me money, then I will take a finger.”
I send up a prayer that the watches have increased in value.
The thought of Mackenzie seeing me without a finger and knowing my father cut it off as a punishment, and I meekly let him, makes me feel sick.
Will she still want me?
Chapter 11
Mackenzie
Dom sounded pissed on the phone.
I’m worried World War Three will break out when we get back. I’m already anxious about returning. I still don’t want to see my mom or Nataniele, but I’m happy to be back under Tino’s wing.
A part of me is still ashamed, though. I know Camile is going to judge me for falling back into bed with him. She only knows half the story, and I’ve got no intention of telling her the full truth about the professor and the reason behind me being at Verona Falls in the first place.
I feel safer with him. I can’t shake the memory of hiding in the bathtub, believing the thuds on the door belonged to him. At least with Tino, I’ve got someone I can turn to.
Dom, Kirill, and Tino might act like assholes, but I do believe they will protect what’s theirs, and if I can make them believe I’m their property, they’ll become the shield between me and Professor Paxton Kassell. They are just the sort of domineering, possessive assholes to act that way, and I can use that to my advantage.
Despite what Valentino is probably thinking right now, I haven’t just rolled over and forgiven him. Being with him last night served me well, too, but I won’t let my guard down with him, or any of them, yet—if ever.
Mom is probably going to be angry I’ve left the car sitting in a random motel parking lot, but I don’t really care what she thinks anymore. If she wants the damn car, she can go and get it herself. Or maybe she’ll get Nataniele to send someone to retrieve it.
“You okay?” Tino asks as we pull up to the college’s main entrance.
I suck in a breath. “Yeah, I think so.”
There are a couple of ostentatious looking vehicles parked near the spot Tino has chosen. They look more like tanks than cars, and they are completely black, with blacked out windows, too. I assume they belong to a couple of Nataniele’s friends.
We climb out of the sports car—a bright red Audi R8 with an engine that’s felt like a monster growling beneath me—and Tino goes to the trunk to grab my few meagre belongings. He slams it shut and hooks his arm around my shoulders and then places a kiss to the top of my head.
“Come on, Duchess. I’ve got you.”
I smile up at him gratefully.
