Thiszasranetshas no idea. Nice isn’t a part of my vocabulary. It was mercilessly excised long ago by the world around me. Death and destruction have a way of doing that to you, leaching your innocence and kindness, like blood beingsiphoned away, until one day, there’s just nothing left. It’s the same ruthlessness that has served me so well as a ballerina.
“On the count of three.” He reaches for the edge of the tape. “One. Two.” As he rips the tape off my mouth, he says, “three.”
“Ouch,” I cry out, reasonably sure he’s pulled off my lips with that adhesive.
“Sorry,” he says, completely unapologetic. “You brought it on yourself with that mouth.”
“You expected me to be grateful you took me hostage? What was I supposed to do, Andriani, throw you a tea party?”
“I don’t like tea, so no.”
“Funny for a psychotic kidnapper.”
He cocks his head at me. “Mouthy for a helpless captive chained to my bed.”
I struggle to sit up, my abs and whole body still weak from whatever he knocked me out with. “My brother is going to kill you for this.”
At least, I hope he is.
Andriani smirks, showing off a full set of dimples, and damn. He’s the kind of man who’s almost too gorgeous to be real. The kind it hurts just to look at.
A nightmare in a designer suit.
“Not if I kill him first,” he tells me cheerfully. “If you’re lucky, maybe I’ll let you watch while I do it.”
I’m finally sitting, and the fury in me is waking up too. Gathering my strength, I launch myself at him, kicking and elbowing and pounding on him with my bound hands as hard as I can.
“Go to hell, Andriani,” I snarl.
But he just laughs, my blows bouncing off his chiseled body like they’re nothing. “I already have a one-way ticket there, and I have a feeling you’ll be coming with me.”
“You won’t have to wait for Misha to kill you. I’ll do it first,” I hiss, trying to land a blow to his throat.
But I’m still shaky and drained. And he’s too strong. I’m a mouse while he’s a bear, ready to swat me down with a meaty paw. I know this, but the need to escape is boiling inside me, making me reckless.
In a blink, he has me pinned to the bed as he straddles me. My arms are captured by one of his hands, and the other is on my throat. He squeezes just enough to let me know he means business.
“Don’t do that again,” he growls.
I have nothing left to lose. Now or never. This fucker could kill me. He could rape me. He could do anything he wants to me, and there’s no one here to save me.
No one but me.
So I spit in his face. It lands on his razor-sharp cheekbone, rolling down toward his chiseled jaw. He stills. There’s danger in stillness. In silence. I’ve learned that the hard way. I know better. But I’m beyond caring. Now that Misha is Pakhan, there may not be a place for me in this world anyway.
Andriani’s eyes go dark, like the ocean at night, deep and fathomless. “That was stupid.”
In my shaky Russian, I tell him he’s going to be gutted like a pig and I’ll watch him bleed out. Maybe I’ll drink his blood to celebrate.
Andriani shakes his head, his fingertips pressing into my skin. “English, Sidorova.”
“Go fuck yourself, Andriani,” I enunciate perfectly.
I would spit again, but my mouth is bone-dry and I don’t think I have anything left. I’d give everything I have to knee him in the dick right now, but the way he’s on top of me makes it impossible.
The first time I met Scorpion Andriani, he scared the shit out of me. The second time, he kidnapped me. If we ever meet again and I’m not in chains, the third time is going to be a charm.Mycharm. And I’m going to repay the favor.
I don’t know why my other brother Dmitri suffered this prick for so long. But then, Dmitri has a way of collecting people and things he thinks will be useful. I guess somehow Andriani was one of those.