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“Let me see if I can help you with that!” The deep, familiar voice makes me freeze as a large shadow falls across my path.
I look up into Lev Belov’s cool silver eyes and start to back up toward the sunroof, but he moves really quickly for a man who was supposedly cripple and needed leg braces a few days ago. Lev slams the hatch and locks it from the outside, ensuring Temur is trapped in there as the glass is bulletproof.
“While I do love the submissive stance and seeing you on your hands and knees at my feet,” Lev reaches down and yanks me to my feet, “we can look into that in a more comfortable place.” He winks. “Right now, you and I have a whole lot of catching up to do and someone to visit.”
“No.” I try to pull out of his grip, but it tightens on my arm. “I’m not going anywhere with you, you psycho! You killed my friend and your own father.”
I glare at Lev, my heart pounding with a mixture of anger and disbelief.
“My father was a fucker who was trying to kill me,” Lev tells me with a twisted smirk. “And Stacy…” He pauses, his expression shifting to one of mild disgust. “She was supposed to die a year ago. She’d outlived her purpose.”
“You son of a bitch,” I spit, my voice trembling with fury as I begin to struggle against the restraints. “She loved you.”
Lev lets out a long, weary sigh as if exhausted by the very concept. “Oh, Isabella,” he says, his voice dripping with condescension. “What is love, really?” He shrugs nonchalantly, the coldness in his eyes unsettling. “It’s just endorphins and brain chemicals causing people to do stupid shit. It’s a chemical weapon designed by a person’s own body.”
His words slice through me, cold and cutting. As he speaks, the realization dawns on me like a slow, creeping darkness. Lev’s dismissive attitude toward love, his calculated manipulation of everyone around him, and his ability to use and discard people like Stacy without a second thought—it all fits. He’s not just cruel; he’s something far worse.
I remember the psychology class my father forced me to take. There were papers I read about people like Lev. Sociopaths. People who can mimic emotions without ever feeling them. Charming, convincing, and utterly devoid of empathy. They manipulate and deceive, leaving behind a trail of emotional wreckage, and Lev is the perfect embodiment of that. Every interaction, every moment of apparent kindness—it’s all been a part of his game. He doesn’t see people; he sees pawns, tools to be used and discarded as he sees fit. Lev’s cold, calculating nature isn’t just part of who he is—it’s the core of his existence.
And I’m trapped here, face-to-face with a monster. Another horrific thought dawns on me. What if Lev is the monster my mother was referring to in her journal that Andrey told me about? He used to work with her in the lab and was interested in what she did.
Oh fuck! Did he somehow have my mother killed?
“You know, I thought your father had trained you better, Isabella,” Lev says, his voice cold as he pulls me along the rooftop. The wind whips around us, stinging my face. “I thought you’d know how to school your emotions, how to hide what you’re thinking. So either you never excelled at that, or you just don’t care that I can read every thought going through your mind.”
“Fuck you!” I spit, fury and fear battling within me as he drags me to the edge of the roof. He spins me around, forcing me to face him, my heels teetering on the brink.
“Oh, I’m sure we will, beautiful Isabella,” he murmurs, his eyes darkening with a sick desire as they rake over my body. “Well, once we’ve taken care of that nuisance growing inside you.”
“What?” I splutter, my heart pounding in my chest. “You wouldn’t dare—“
“Oh!” Lev laughs, the sound cruel and heartless. “You’d be amazed at what I’d dare.” He gives me a lecherous smile, one that makes my skin crawl. “Tell me, have you ever free fallen?”
“What?” My brow furrows in confusion, dread pooling in my stomach.
“You know, a free fall—like off a cliff, a rock face, or maybe even a building,” Lev says, his voice almost casual, before he shoves me with a force that knocks the breath out of my lungs.
I scream when the world tilts, the sky spinning above me as I plummet. The ground rushes up to meet me, my mind a blur of terror and disbelief. Thoughts flash through my mind, disjointed and frantic. My father’s face. My brother’s laugh. The life inside me that’s barely begun.
I’m going to die.
The cold wind whips past me, and then suddenly, impact—hard, but not the unforgiving pavement I’d braced for. The air rushes out of me as I hit a massive inflatable cushion, the kind used in stunts or rescues.
I’m not dead. I’m alive. The realization floods me with a mix of relief and shock, my body trembling uncontrollably. My heart pounds in my chest as I gasp for breath, my mind reeling from the terror of what just happened.
Lev’s cruel laughter echoes in my ears, chilling me to the core. I’m alive, but for how long? I barely have time to gather my thoughts before the cushion beneath me shifts violently. Lev’s weight slams into it, launching me back into the air.
“Woo!” Lev shouts, exhilaration dripping from his voice. “What a fucking rush.”
His large, beefy hands clamp around me, trying to drag me off the cushion. Panic surges through me, but my training kicks in. I let the bounce of the cushion propel me, using the momentum to my advantage. With a swift, brutal motion, I sink my teeth into his hand, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth as he yanks it back with a curse.
“You crazy fucking bastard!” In the split second that follows, I twist my body, using every ounce of my gymnastic skill to spin and deliver a vicious kick to his face. Lev’s surprise registers just before the force of my kick sends him staggering back. I seize the moment, grabbing his gun and flipping off the cushion with a graceful somersault, landing in a crouch in the alleyway below. “That’s for pushing me off a fucking roof!”
A second guard lunges at me, but my instincts take over. I fire, the gun’s recoil jarring my arm as the bullet hits his leg, sending him crumpling to the ground. Without wasting a second, I take off, sprinting down the alley as Lev’s shouts echo behind me, taunting and threatening.
“There’s nowhere to go, Isabella!” he calls out, his voice laced with malice.
I round the corner, my heart pounding in my chest, only to see Stacy rushing toward me. My steps falter as disbelief floods my mind.
