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“Didn’t check who she belongs to, huh?” Connor queries joyfully. I suspected I was being watched in this apartment the moment I landed, but I didn’t think they’d be so responsive. So quick on the scene. It’s why I didn’t risk telling anyone I’d returned to New York, although I’d received a few messages since last week’s event. I ignored them.
“You have to leave.” I try my hardest to keep an even tone but fail. Because I know firsthand what his father is capable of.
“We have a problem if my father thinks he has any ownership over this woman.” Dmitri’s’ voice slices through the air and goosebumps erupt over my skin. The tension and energy shift with a lethal edge. “Stay in the room, Cricket.”
Tears spill over my cheeks with the use of the uncouth nickname he gave me in college when he first saw one of my ballet performances. It’s entirely not welcome in the current circumstances.
“I don’t think there will be a problem for much longer.” Connor smiles, and it’s like he’s been waiting for this moment as he cocks the gun.
Bang. Dmitri takes a shot to the shoulder but is unflinching as he pounces on Connor and wrestles him to the ground. I step out of the safety of the room and point my gun at them, rolling on the floor. It’s the same gun I pointed at Dmitri only minutes ago, but now I aim at Connor.
But if I shoot Connor, won’t The Lion punish me?
Won’t he punish my family?
My hands are shakier than they were only minutes ago when I first raised them.
Blood is seeping onto the wooden floorboards, and Dmitri grapples the freed gun and flicks it to the side. And then he’s punching.
Wildly.
Violently.
Unrelenting.
It strikes fear in me and resurfaces every brutal act I’ve witnessed in the last five years that I try to shove back down. But bile rises in my throat, nonetheless manifesting from the terror. This untapped and murderous intent is closer to his father than he realizes.
I can’t help but be taken aback into the abyss of all I’d learned and seen in Russia. How—
Snap. My mind goes blank. Silence. My hand goes to my mouth as Connor’s body goes limp on the floor. I stare at the body wide-eyed as Dmitri stands up and looms over his prey. “Did you just break his neck?” My voice is minuscule. Tiny in comparison to the insufferable tension circulating the room.
Trepidation trembles through my body as he approaches me. I limply lift the gun again, but he’s already caught my wrist, pushing it away. His gaze is a raging, living, tangible thing as it lands on the rose gold amethyst bracelet I wear. His father’s mark and branding. Something he didn’t notice last time because I hid it beneath the cuff of my long red dress.
“When did you get this?” He seethes. So much hate fills his stare. Bile rises in my throat, but I push it down. “Did he trap you? Did he hurt you?”
“You need to leave.” My trembling voice doesn’t sound like my own. I’d kept it together for so long that I wasn’t willing to let myself fall apart now. “He’s going to come after you and everyone else.”
The truth.
The fear.
The monster would come.
He always did.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner!” he snaps. “I can protect you.”
“You can’t!” I scream as I yank my wrist from his. “No one can stop him. He’ll kill us all.”
He winces under what he probably imagines to be an insult to his ability to protect me. Dmitri has heard stories of his father, but he’s never had to deal with him. He’s never seen his cruelty close up. After all, he was only five when his father cast out Dmitri and his mother.
“Over my dead body. You’re coming with me,” Dmitri snarls. His violent rage tightens his expression. His dress shirt spreads with red as if he still doesn’t register his own wound.
I step away from him and out of his grasp.
This is a test.
If I go with him, The Lion will kill my family.
