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He crossed the room to where Amara stood, her back razor straight and her shoulders stiff as she watched him approach her. She must have been as exhausted as I was, but she didn’t show it. That’s where her years of training came in. She could mask her fatigue better than I could. I was reminded yet again that I was an amateur compared to her, and as much as she angered me with some of her decisions regarding Ivan and Avery and my history, I had to admire her.
“Why don’t you ever flinch with me around, Amara?” Maksim asked, getting close to her. He was inches from her face, and she didn’t even react. She was ice cold and still as a marble statue. “Why don’t you ever react? Why don’t you ever notice how much everybody wants me?”
Amara blinked and said, “You’re nothing to me, that’s why. You’re the spoiled son of a deviant sociopath who needs a kick in the ass more than he needs another groveling admirer.”
Maksim’s fists clenched, but his face didn’t show his anger.
Amara looked at me as she said the last two words, her eyes piercing me like arrows through my heart. Fuck, she hadn’t picked up that I was faking it. I guess I was too good at pretending to want Maksim, the sick fuck. I cursed those theatre courses I took at college last year. I squinted my eyes at her and tried to convey my plan. To go along with Maksim until I could escape and help my Kings.
I shook my head, an almost imperceptible motion, but I caught the slightest twitch at the corner of her eye as she caught on.
Thank god, I couldn’t have carried on with the ruse if she believed it was authentic, in the unlikely scenario that she thought that my feelings for my Kings were that fleeting. My heart raced at the mere thought of giving up on them so easily.
“I’m sure you’ve said that about many successful men,” Maksim replied, looking down at my friend and Ivan’s right-hand assistant. They already had him held hostage, and how Ilya’s son was hellbent on abusing her, there must be something more to all of this. It was beginning to feel personal, and not just about the marriage or joining houses as Ilya had claimed. “But I’m also certain that you’ve fucked those very same men when you were forced.”
“Are you suggesting you’re going to assault my personal assistant?” I demanded and walked over to where they were standing. My fatigue fled as soon as my ire was raised. I wanted to fight no matter how weak my body actually was. “Are you going to rape her right before our wedding? Perhaps she’s right, and you are a spoiled brat.”
I was taking a risk, but I wanted his attention on me, not her. I wanted him angry with me so she could slip away at some point. I had to capture all of his interest, or she would never get away and save my Kings.
“Looks like you’re just as obnoxious as your sister Avery,” Maksim said, looking at me. “I guess I like strong, demanding, fuckable women. This one? She’s not fuckable.”
“As if that’s an insult,” Amara replied with a scoff.
I nudged her foot with mine, warning her. I wanted all the attention off her and directed towards me. It would be so much easier.
But at that moment, the smell of food was beginning to overpower my senses, and I was losing focus on Maksim and his giant, fragile man ego.
“Why don’t we sit and have a nice dinner,” I purred, reaching out to hook my hand in the crook of his arm. “Come, join me. We need to get to know each other, don’t we.”
Maksim glanced over to Amara who still held her contemptuous gaze on his face. He wasn’t satisfied leaving it like that. I could feel his pettiness in the twitches and shrugs of his body. He wasn’t happy with her being there, and he was trying to show off for me.
“You’re right, this one isn’t worth my time,” he said at last, and I exhaled slowly to release the tension from my body. I was mentally preparing to fight him if he made a move against Amara or gave any orders to have her harmed. Luckily for me, in my weakened state, I didn’t have to make good on that promise.
“Let’s leave her here, and we’ll go eat somewhere else. I’m sure your rooms are much nicer than these,” I said.
Avery was watching the entire thing with her glittering, calculating eyes. She didn’t want to let us have any alone time, but she didn’t have a choice.
It was up to me to direct this operation now, and Amara had to figure out her part and help my Kings. Avery was just along for the ride, following in Maksim’s wake just like the rest of us.
As for me, I was walking straight into the mouth of the beast and just hoped I’d survive to see another day.
CHAPTER3
“This wine isfrom some Italian vineyard where Ilya invested a fortune,” Maksim said in his suite. His was nicer than ours, of course, and had a massive room with a living room and nook attached. The nook overlooked the gardens of the estate and was quite striking as it was done all in glass for maximum exposure to the view. “Now, don’t ask me anything about it. In that, I will admit that I am an uncouth bastard.”
He laughed a guttural, self-indulgent chuckle that sent snakes slithering up and down my spine. Every single hair on my body was vibrating from the danger I felt, but I was stuck. I had to get Ivan out of Ilya’s grasp and give Amara time for her rescue.
“Oh wow, that’s so cool,” I said. “It looks pretty, and I like the label.”
Maksim picked up the bottle, rolled it in his hand, and looked at the other side, where a bullfighter was stabbing a bull to death.
“Heh, yes. Spanish bullfighting on an Italian wine. No wonder the bastard needed Ilya’s money to stay in business.”
I let out a ladylike laugh, a tinkle of sound to stroke his need to be admired. I’d only spent an hour with Maksim since leaving the suite with Amara, and already I wanted to grab the nearest marble statue and bludgeon him to death just to make him stop talking. He was relentlessly boring and insufferably egotistical.
I came within a narrow margin of feeling pity for Avery that she’d put up with him for all these years, but not quite. She didn’t deserve much more than lip-curling disdain because of her own sociopathic tendencies. She was just as boring as he was, with her constant need to prop him up and act as his ever-loving sidekick.
“What an idiot!” Avery chortled at Maksim’s declaration. “What a bunch of fools. Ilya would give you control of that account if he knew what he was doing.”
