“Fuck, you have to be more careful.”
“Vaffanculo! Let me go! You have to let me go.” I close my eyes against the burn in my throat, the tremor in my voice.
“I will not.”
Please. I don’t let myself say it. I’m not begging. But I’m also not breathing right. There’s a pounding in my ears as my heart rate spikes. My tongue feels too large for my mouth. My fingersare numb, my arms tingling as I lose grip on my captor. “I hate you.”
“You’re not the first,moya voitelnitsa.And you won’t be the last.”
His voice, his touch, his apparent concern for my wellbeing—they are the antithesis of Rocco. This man has sworn he won’t hurt me, but he’s still going to keep me here against my will. Still going to keep me captive.
I’m seconds from blacking out. The Russian is still talking, still holding me, but his words are lost to the buzzing in my ears. The last thought I have before I give in to the darkness is that I might be free of the frying pan, but I’m sure as fuck stuck in the fire.
6
ALIK
Ihate you. She used the last of her strength to say those three words and I can’t stop thinking about it. She sounded so defeated. Her green eyes turbulent before she couldn’t keep them open anymore.
That was a week ago.
Dr. Ruiz has been here every day, morning and night, checking on the patient, monitoring her progress. Giving me increasingly suspicious looks when I can’t produce her name.
Marya. That’s what I’ve started calling her. A name pulled from the folklore of my childhood and one that suits the Pagano woman perfectly.
She is improving, the doctor tells me, but still incredibly weak. It’s impossible to say how long it will take her to recover from the torture thatsvoloch’put her through. Her mind will no doubt take longer than her body.
After Marya passed out in my arms, her pulse rate continued to be erratic, her breathing too shallow for the doctor’s liking. Ruiz has kept her mildly sedated since. I’ve tried to leave her in peace, to give her time to recover, but every nightI find myself lingering by her bed and repeating her words in my head.I hate you.
Oh,moya voitelnitsa, as soon as you wake up, you’ll discover how hateable I really am.
There isn’t a single reason why I should care what she thinks about me. It shouldn’t even be a blip on my radar. But for some unfathomable reason, I can’t stop obsessing over it.
Me. One of the coldest, most ruthlessArkhangelsmybratvahas ever produced. The killer whose humanity was beaten out of him in boyhood.Iam suddenly spending sleepless hours standing by this woman’s bed, anxious to know what version of her I’ll get when she finally wakes up.
The one with fire in her eyes and fight in her veins, the natural-born warrior, a flesh and blood Marya Morevna?
Or the one who seared me with a lifeless look, her soul as broken as her body, the victim of a villain more horrific than the monsters in fairytales?
She doesn’t want to be locked up here, I get it. But I’m not letting her go. It’s been more than a week since her uncle’s house exploded. I haven’t heard a word from Cosenza, and I haven’t found proof that Rocco Pagano is still alive.
If that fucker and the rest of his clan are dead, his niece is now my only shot at finding out where Rina went after Pagano sold her. Either she knows, or she knows someone who does, and she’s mine until I can get the truth from her.
Blyad!I dig my nails into the back of my neck. I’m losing my fucking mind. And my edge. First, I abort anArkhangelhit, then I sabotage months of infiltration and, instead of taking Rocco Pagano from under his own roof, I kidnap this woman instead.
No, not kidnap.Rescue.
Not that she sees it that way. To her I’m just like her scum of the earth uncle. One jailer no better than the other.
The thought is worming its way under my skin, making itimpossible to sleep. That, and she’s taken over my bed. I slept in a chair next to her the first night and I’m not making that mistake a second time.
Talk about losing my fucking mind. The last time my dick gave me this much trouble I was a sex-starved virgin. Every time I step into this room, I have to keep the unruly bastard on a tight leash and even then I’m almost always half-hard. Exactly why my visits are for informational purposes only. To confirm she’s still breathing.
I give Marya a final once-over, checking her IV and straightening the bed covers before I slip out of the room. My phone vibrates in my pocket as I hit the hall. A text from Cosenza. Fucking finally.
I feel my mouth twist into a cruel smile as I read his message.
Rocco Pagano is alive.