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“Easy, don’t hurt the girl. She needs to be presentable.” The lingering fear gnaws at me as I swallow past the tightness in my throat.
“Please don’t do this,” I whimper as I’m pulled up the steps to the imposing front doors. The bell is rung, and a few minutes later, an older woman answers and guides us into the house to what appears to be an in-home office.
Shoved into one of the chairs in front of the desk, I twist my hands in my lap as I await my fate. I’m left alone for a few minutes as men gather outside the now-closed doors. The roaring fireplace calls to me, and I can’t resist going over and warming up. I feel frozen as I sit alone. Hating that I don’t get a choice in anything in my life.
I hear the click of the opening door before anything else, and my body stiffens, transported to a time when I had late-night visitors to my room. Before my father discovered the betrayal of the two men closest to him. Terror streaks down my spine with the velocity of an out-of-control train about to hit an oil tanker in the middle of the ocean. Impossible, but still impactful.
“Miss Vovk, please have a seat.” I feel like I’m being strangled as I watch Anton Renznikov enter the room, followed closely by his two brothers, with my father sandwiched between them. Anyone with half a brain knows these men. Knows to fear them.
As the last one in, the blond flashes me a grin, and I recognize him from when he was with Dez earlier today. I don’t understand what’s going on. My confusion has me doing as I was asked and sitting in a chair across from Anton.
“Did this man drag you out of bed?” he asks me.
“Of cou–” Father starts, but Anton raises a hand to shut him up. In almost any other circumstance, I’d be laughing at this.
“I was speaking to the girl.” His eyes never leave mine.
Swallowing what feels like rocks in my throat, I tell him, “Uhm, well…” My father glares at me as he’s being sat in a nearby chair. “Yes.” I glance down at my nightgown. Distracted when I hear a baby cooing, I turn to find Dez entering the room with a little girl in his arms. She watches him with worship in her eyes.
My body moves before I give it permission, and I’m standing on my feet. “Dez.” His eyes remain glued to me. They’re cold, and I can’t read what he’s feeling. Growing anxious, I begin scratching at my wrist. It’s a terrible nervous tick that I can never manage to control.
“Stop it.” Father slaps at my hands, forcing me to drop them at my side.
“I’ll be taking her out of here,” Vasyl says, grabbing the baby from Dez as a deadly look enters the young man’s eyes. I know that look. I see it regularly. My father is one mouthy remark away from killing me almost every day.
“You hit her.” The venom in Dez’s voice makes my knees quake. Even I recognize the violent intent.
Father doesn’t distinguish the threat and its reality and continues to talk back. “What am I doing here, and why did you want me to bring her?” He ignores Dez, who moves around to stand next to Anton.
The head of the Odessa Organization shakes his head at my father’s brashness and addresses his question. “As you might have heard, Dez is taking over your loan, as well as many others, and since he doesn’t know you, doesn’t have that same relationship with you as Vasyl, well, he’s made a decision.”
I watch my father choke back a response as he waits. “I want my money,” Dez says plainly.
“That’s ridiculous. My deal was with Vasyl.”
“I bought the debt from Vasyl,” Dez explains, and I get a nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomach. “You owe me money, and I don’t know you well enough to let it stand.”
“I don’t have it.” Father’s chin raises in challenge, but there’s fear in the shaking of his jowls and how his feet cross and uncross.
“Then I will have something else. Collateral.” Dez’s eyes slowly slide over to me. I’m shaking my head before anyone else can pay me any attention.
“She’s promised to an associate already.”That’s news to me.
“Father,” I hiss at him. “What have you done?”
“Shut up,” he barks, his eyes wild when they meet mine.
“You’d be wise not to speak to my bride in such a disrespectful manner.” Dez’s deadpan voice makes my mouth dry.
“Where is Vasyl? I’ll speak with him about this.” My father stands up, prepared to leave the room in search of the man. As his hand reaches for me, Dez moves quick as lightning to stand beside me, that knife that I was so fascinated with earlier, in his hand.
His body is simultaneously relaxed yet tense, prepared for battle. “Don’t touch her.”
“You’re not getting my daughter. She’s already been sold for a rather large sum of money.” My jaw drops at the second part of Father’s confession. I hadn’t been aware money was involved.
Dez’s hand, with the knife nestled in his palm, is open in front of me, waiting for me to take it. I hesitate, but he doesn’t force the issue. “I’ve paid your debt, Vovk. The girl is mine. The priest will be here on the weekend.” Swallowing, I wait for someone to speak up. I feel like we’ve played right into Dez’s hands, and while I’d been attracted to him when we met, I don’t know how to feel about him essentially purchasing me like I’m a commodity.
“You can’t do that!” Father reaches for me, grabbing a chunk of my hair in his scramble to regain some semblance of control. Dez reacts just as quickly, the knife flipping in his hand, and he arches it downward in a move so swift I don’t process what’s occurred until he bends down to pick something up off the floor, and my father is screaming.
