“Was this your plan from the beginning?”
“Not in so many words. But I’m adaptable.”
She breathes deeply. Her eyes are locked on me, but I can see the gears turning in her mind. Searching for a loophole she won’t find.
Finally, she sighs. “Fine. I’ll stay here for a year. I won’t fight. I’ll be the obedient wife. But my family is off-limits.”
I nod. “Agreed.”
“Happy now?” she asks bitterly.
“Not quite,” I say. “There’s something else I want from you.”
22
OLIVIA
Aleks’s eyes roam the walls of my room.
He lingers on the image I’ve drawn of him, and I find myself waiting for him to say something about it. A comment on the likeness, an insult on the crudeness.
Instead, he says nothing.
I can’t stand the silence. “What else could you possibly want from me?” I finally ask.
“Your cooperation.”
“I am being cooperative. That’s what this is.”
“Not quite,” he says. “I need information from you.”
I frown. “Why on earth would you think I’d agree to that?”
He gives me that tilted smile of his that makes my heart ache and beat faster at the same time. “Because you’ll get something out of it, too.”
“Which is…？”
“The chance to see your family again.”
My eyes go wide. I don’t even have the forethought to manage my expressions; I just give him exactly the reaction he’s looking for. I know that’s not wise, but I can’t bring myself to care.
He sees it right away, of course. “Is that a yes?”
“I… I’m not sure yet,” I say. Too little, too late, but I have to start getting my shit together or I’ll never win a single one of these head games with him. “I need to know what you expect from me.”
“Simple. Your brother has been leading an investigation into my Bratva—”
“You want me to get information on an FBI investigation?” I interrupt incredulously.
“That is the gist.”
“Rob is never going to tell me a thing. Especially not now.”
“There’s only one real piece of information I want to know.”
“Which is what?”
“The tip he received,” he says. “The one that tied the abductions to my Bratva. I need to know his source.”
“He might not even know his source,” I point out. “People report stuff anonymously all the time.”
“Then it will cost you nothing to ask.”
The conversation between us, like always, pings back and forth so fast that my head spins. I find myself staring into his blue-green eyes, wondering how he managed to close the distance without even realizing it.
“You’re asking me to betray my brother.”
He shrugs. “I wouldn’t say it like that.”
“Of course you wouldn’t. Tell me, then: how would you say it?”
“You’re helping me find out who is really responsible for these disappearances,” he snarls. “Because there is a predator out there, Olivia. And it’s not me.”
“Wow. You’re very convincing.” I clap my hands softly. “I almost believe you.”
“Why would I lie to you?”
“Because you’re trying to manipulate me,” I suggest. “Or maybe just because you’re a huge asshole.”
He smiles savagely. “If I were trying to manipulate you, I’d fuck you again. That’s when you really let your guard down.”
My cheeks flush with embarrassment. I back away from him.
It’s ridiculous for me to assume Aleks doesn’t sense the connection between us. He notices everything, and the sexual tension crackles venomously at all times. I’ve never experienced anything like it.
But I can’t be the only one it affects so profoundly. Not with the way he looks at me, eyes both feral and filled with lust. Like he wants to own me and destroy me in the same breath.
That should terrify me. But all it does is make my breath come faster and my body tingle harder. Even now, I’m trembling. And it has nothing to do with the conversation we’re having.
It should. But it doesn’t.
And I hate myself for it.
That in and of itself is a betrayal to my brother and my family. My only solace is in resisting it. I have to if I’m going to come out of this in one piece on the other side.
One year.
God, it sounds like a lifetime.
“And if we both do what you want?” I ask. “I ask the question, my brother gives the answer, I report back to you. Then what?”
“You’ll get back your freedom and your brother will continue being a dedicated servant of the law.”
I shake my head at his caustic sarcasm. “You don’t know him at all, do you?”
“No, and I don’t care to.”
“His job means everything to him,” I explain, even though I wasn’t asked. “He does it because he genuinely wants to make a difference.”
Aleks rolls his eyes. “Is this supposed to impress me?”
“It’s supposed to make you understand that my brother will never be able to look at his job or himself the same way again. If you get what you want and he drops the investigation, he’ll feel like he betrayed his badge and his country. It will eat him alive.”
His face remains impassive, completely unmoved. Then again, I never expected anything else.
“You may do exactly what you promise and let us both go,” I continue, “but don’t think for one second you’re giving us back our lives.”
He turns and walks slowly across the room, moving at a casual pace. He’s so relaxed I can’t even tell if he’s heard me.
Then he speaks. “Do you think I’m not a man of my word, Olivia? Do you think I’m lying about letting you go when a year has passed?”
“I have no reason to trust you or your word.”
He walks over to the table by the balcony and sits down in the same chair his mother chose the last time she was here. Eerie how similarly they move.
“Sit,” he says, gesturing to the seat across from him.
Even at this distance, I’m painfully aware of his presence. I don’t need to get any closer.
“Thanks, but I’ll stay where I am.”
He raises his eyebrows and then shrugs. “Your doubt wounds me,” he says. “But ask yourself this: why would I keep you once you’ve served your purpose?”
This time, I’m proud of how little my face moves when he flings the insult at me.
“I have no desire to keep your family, Olivia,” he continues. “But your brother started something here. And I have to stop it.”
“Even if he’s right?”
“He isn’t,” he says firmly, eyes flashing.
I squint at him, trying to figure out if his sincerity is imagined or not. I hate the fact that I want to believe him, especially because it means that my brother might be mistaken. That all of this might be for nothing.
“Of course you’d say that.”
“Don’t mistake me for a saint,” he says. “I’ve murdered and stolen. I’ve tortured and lied. I’ve destroyed businesses and men, I’ve brought my enemies to their knees, and I’ve never apologized for any of it. I still don’t regret a single thing I’ve done. I doubt I ever will. Because whatever I’ve done, I’ve done for a reason. Taking these women, though… what reason could I possibly have had for that?”