Page 43 of Marrying the Silver Fox

It’s pitch-black in the room around me, and my eyes slowly adjust to the light as I grope about in the dark. I climb out of bed, and almost instantly crash into the wall next to it. This place is tiny. I slide my hands along the walls, searching for something, anything that will brighten this room so I can figure out where the hell I am, and finally, my fingers graze what feels light a light switch. I scrabble at it to turn it on, and let out a groan as the searing light burns into my retinas.

Once my gaze has adjusted to the sudden onslaught, I look around, taking in the place around me. I don’t recognize it. It looks like some run-down old slum, somewhere my parents might have taken my brother or me when they were on the run from our landlords and looking for somewhere that no one would dare set foot into.

The air smells of damp, the thick, heavy scent almost choking, and I draw in a deep, shaky breath. There’s nothing in the room but the bed, and I fall back onto it, still woozy from whatever it was they dosed me with.

How long have I been here? There’s a window high up on the opposite wall, but it’s so grimy I can’t tell if it’s night outside or if that’s just the dirt. I need to get up on the bed, see if I can wipe it clean enough that I can get a better look at what’s going on outside, and I go to stand up on the bed⁠—

When I suddenly remember that it’s not just me I have to worry about. With a grip of panic, it strikes me that I’m carrying a child right now too. Shit. What if the shit they forced on to me has affected the baby already? I need to be careful, no risks that I don’t entirely need to take, and that means not scrambling about on tiptoes to try and reach a window that I’ll probably break my neck trying to get to…

I attempt to pull open the door, but it’s either jammed or locked. It shakes in the frame, a clatter sounding from the other side, like a padlock knocking against the wood. I know, of course, that there’s no way I wound up here by mistake. No, whoever has me in this place, they intend to make sure I can’t go anywhere⁠—

And then, all at once, the door flies open in front of me, and I spring back in a panic.

“Please,” I blurt out, hardly even caring who’s on the other side to hear it. “I just—just let me go…”

But my words fail me when I see who’s standing there, watching me, a cold grin spread over his familiar face.

My eyes widen, sickness stirring in my guts. “Max?”

He takes a step forward, pushing the door shut behind him. I feel like I must be imagining things. How can he be here? We left him back in Russia, he didn’t even come to see us off, there’s no way he could be standing right here in front of me.

“You’re awake, then.”

“Max, let me go,” I tell him swiftly. “I—I don’t know what you want from me, but you’re not going to get it. You just have to let me out of here, I won’t tell anyone what happened, I promise⁠—”

He lets out a short, sharp bark of laughter, shutting me off before I can go any further. “Shut the fuck up,” he snarls. “You’re not going anywhere. Anywhere that I don’t want you to, at least.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” I exclaim, changing my approach now that I can sense appealing to his sense of decency isn’t going to work. “You know what Nikolai is going to do to you when he finds out that you put me at risk? That you put⁠—”

“Nikolai doesn’t get a say in this,” he replies, his eyes flashing with fury at the mention of his brother. “He only married you because he thought he could get something out of my father, did he tell you that?”

I falter. I don’t know what to say. If I admit that I’m aware of Nikolai’s motivations, it might spur Max to go further, and if I deny it, I’m going to look hopelessly naive.

“That’s what I thought,” he sneers. “Trust me, pretty little thing—you’re better off with me. Better off with a man who can really take care of you.”

I widen my eyes. “What, and you think that’s you?”

I run through everything I’ve come to know about Max already—the dark cloud that he seems to carry with him just about everywhere, the drinking, the attempts at crass flirtation. I might have my issues with Nikolai, how much he seems intent on controlling me, but Max is far, far worse in almost every way I can imagine.

“You think you’re too good for me, bitch?” he snaps, pushing his face close to mine. “You’ll learn the difference. Some American whore, ready to sell herself to my brother, and you think you’re too classy to let me have you too.”

“Max, I have no idea what you mean,” I tell him, keeping my voice as steady as I can in the face of everything that’s happening. My body is tense, shoulders hunched, and he must be able to tell that I’m on the very brink of flipping out right now. I need to understand what I’m up against here, if I stand a hope in hell of getting out of this mess in one piece.

He reaches up, stroking his hand down the side of my face. “You will.”

“Then tell me,” I force out through gritted teeth, fighting the urge to bat his hand away. His touch sickens me, the way he lays hands on me like he has some kind of right to me. How could I have made my disdain for him more clear? I feel like I’ve done everything in my power to prove that I don’t want a damn thing to do with this man, and yet here he is, having flown halfway across the world just to catch up with me.

“You’re coming back to Russia with me,” he tells me. “My partner. Mine. And that way, my father will finally see that I’m capable of running the business.”

My head spins. No. No. I can’t let this happen. I feel my feet root down to the earth, as though every part of me is resisting the mere suggestion of it.

“Nikolai’s not going to let you get away with that⁠—”

“He’s not going to have a choice,” he replies. “Because you’re going to tell my father that I’m the one you really wanted. That you made a mistake marrying Nikolai, and that you’d do anything to put it right. That I’m the husband you should have had from the start, and now you can see it, you’re never going to let me go.”

“Holy shit, Max,” I snap back at him. “You really think he’s going to believe that? After everything I’ve been through with Nikolai? After he saw the two of us together?”

“And everyone saw you talking to me too,” he replies, eyes glinting, as though he has considered every possible approach. “Not hard to spin that into a story of you being in love with me all along and rethinking your choice the moment you set eyes on me.”