The longer I’m in the cage, the more comforted I feel. This enclosed space will keep me safe. I know it will.
Until Alek comes back, carrying a tray of food with him. “Here.” He opens the door and sets the tray by my knees. “Eat. I don’t want you dying of starvation.”
I stare at him until he sighs. “It’s not poisoned,” he explains. “If I had wanted you dead, I would have shot you in the head. Much faster and easier. Here.” He sits down beside me and scoops up a large portion of the potato dish and takes a bite. I continue to watch him until he swallows it.
“There.” He shows me his tongue. “All gone. It’s not poisoned. Eat.”
Slowly, I sit up and start to eat. I could let myself die of starvation in here but that would take weeks and I can’t bear the hunger inside of me. I’ll need my strength to escape the first chance I get.
But to escape means entering the world. Means going outside. Means talking to people and asking for help. All of which terrifies me almost as much as Alek does.
We don’t say a word until I’m finished eating.
“Good,” Alek says, taking the tray from me.
“How long are you going to keep me for?”
“Until Dimitri loses his mind.”
“But that could take a while.”
He flashes me a cold smile. “So I guess you’ll be staying with me for a while then. I have plans for you, Katya. Big plans. Come on. You’re not staying in the cage for tonight.”
My heart picks up its pace. “What? But I want to stay here.”
“You are truly strange. Who wants to stay inside a cold cage in a dank basement?”
I shrug because what else can I do?
He cups my face with both of his hands. “You’re going to become mine, Katya. What better way to hurt your brother than take the thing most precious to him?”
“I’ll never be yours. I can’t be anybody’s.”
“Because you don’t want to be? Or because you already belong to someone else?”
“No. I’ve never dated anyone before.” My face burns at the admission. My lack of experience is something that has always bothered me. And yet, I cannot get myself to leave my room of my own accord and change that fact.
He drops his hands from my face but his eyes study mine in a way that makes my blush burn hotter. “You are truly innocent, aren’t you? I haven’t met that many women like you.”
“I’m not sure I’m a woman sometimes.”
“Then what are you?”
“A little girl,” I whisper. Why am I admitting these things to him? It makes no sense.
“You’re not a little girl.”
“I feel it though.”
“Then we should change that. You want to feel like a woman? Want to know what it feels like to be desired?”
“I don’t know,” I mumble. It would be nice but it’s also so embarrassing. Why do I have to be this way?
“You’re leaving this cage, Katya. No objections. Come on.” He gets up and stands outside the cage door, waiting for me to move. “I’m going to remain right here until you leave this cage.”
“Are you going to hurt me if I don’t?”
“Do you want to test that guess?”
