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And not Cora as she was just a few hours ago when I fucked her on my desk like I’d never get to do it again. The Cora I see superimposed over Katerina is Cora as she was in that photo of her from the paper, her bony arm wrapped around Mikhail’s. A wilted Cora. A dying Cora. It was like touching him drained the life from her.
I see that same mute horror in Katerina’s face.
One day, I’m going to kill them all for what they’ve done to these innocent women.
“How did you convince him to let you talk to me alone?” Katerina asks when I’m close enough to hear her quiet murmur.
I ignore her question. “If you have a wire, tell me now.”
“I don’t have a—”
“Give me a signal,” I demand, stopping a few feet away. “One he can’t see.”
She glances over her shoulder, looking back at the car idling at the base of the drive. I know Konstantin is inside watching our every move. It was a condition of this meeting. The other condition was that we wouldn’t be recorded.
She holds out her arms and lets them fall to her sides. “I don’t have a wire. If I did, I’d wink or something. But I don’t. It’s just the two of us.”
Just the two of us and the dozen-plus Sokolov soldiers hiding in my bushes.
“How did you convince him to let you talk to me alone?” Katerina asks again.
“I didn’t need toconvincehim,” I growl. “No matter what your father tells you, I have the upper hand. He needs this deal more than I do. I can do whatever I want.”
She shakes her head sadly. “If that was true, neither of us would be here right now. I’d be an ocean away from these people.”
Tears well in her puffy eyes. She’s done a lot of crying the last few days; that much is obvious. I reach out and squeeze her shoulder. I never wanted to marry Katerina, but I always liked her. She was a hell of a lot better than anyone else in her disgusting family.
“I’m going to get you out of here and back home. You just have to trust me.”
“I do trust you, Ivan. Or at least, I trust that you’re better than the men in my family. You tried to do the right thing by me even when you didn’t have to. But here we are again and I’m not sure evenyoucan get me out this time.”
“My plan doesn’t depend on you being sure. I just need you to stay out of my way.”
“What plan? What are you going to do?”
“There is more than your life on the line here,” I say softly. I trust she doesn’t have a wire on, but I’m not going to take any unnecessary risks. Not with this. “Follow my lead and I’ll get you where you want to go. Do you understand?”
Katerina stares at me for a few seconds, pondering. Then she leans in. “I’m not marrying you or anyone else. I never wanted that. I want to be on my own. Independent. Whatever your plan is, take that into account.”
I nod. “Already done.”
“And when I leave, I’m taking my sisters with me,” she adds in quickly.
Harder to manage, but not impossible. Given the way Konstantin keeps trying to sell them off to the highest bidder, it’s probably a good idea. “I’ll do my best.”
She obviously doesn’t love that answer, but it’s all she’s going to get. “Thank you, Ivan.”
I press a hand to her lower back and walk her towards the front door—the sign to Konstantin that our conversation is over. “Don’t thank me yet. Save it for later. When you’re free.”
Katerina and I are standing in the entryway when Konstantin and Mikhail walk through the front door.
Mikhail’s face twists into a smirk. “Well, aren’t you two a pretty picture? Together at long last.”
On second thought, fuck the plan. I’ll skip dinner and kill him now.
“Enough.” Konstantin elbows past his son and looks from Katerina to me. “Have you made your decision, Ivan?”
“I told you I’d have an answer for you at dinner, didn’t I?” I snap.
