Alek stands over me, looking like a demon. “We have to leave. I cannot let Dimitri find you here. I have to make you mine for good.”
“You killed that man,” I gasp out. “Just… shot him.”
“Trust me. I’m not the only one who has committed murder. Your brother has many times.”
“No. Not Dimitri.”
“Yes, Dimitri. He’s tried to kill me many times just for being in the same business as him. He’s not a good man, Katya, and neither am I.”
“No.” I squeeze my eyes shut but all I can see is my father stabbing my mother to death right before my very eyes. “No!”
He kneels down beside me and cups my face. “You’re panicking again. Death is common in my life. You’re already used to it.”
“No,” I whisper.
“Yes. We both know it. Dimitri will not stop coming for you. I have to do something drastic. Something that will make him go so fucking insane, he won’t know what to do with himself.”
“What? Please, don’t.”
“Your pleas won’t work on me, Katya. No. I know what I’m going to do with you. I’m going to marry you.”
Chapter Five
Katya
The moment Alek says that he wants to marry me, I know my life is no longer mine.
“But I don’t want to marry you,” I respond on instinct. The smell of copper is strong in the air from the dead bodies in the foyer. Alek’s other guests who survived are all running out the front door, clearly freaked out after he killed Travis right in front of everyone. He’s a man who doesn’t seem to care what people think of him. He’s a man who just wants what he wants.
And right now, he wants me.
“You don’t really get a choice in the matter,” he says, cupping my face. “From the first second I saw you today, I knew you had to be mine. It’s the only way I’m going to truly hurt Dimitri.Claiming you as my own will break him down. It will be so sweet.”
“Please,” I begin to cry. “I don’t want this. You scare me.”
“No. I push you. You’re a girl who’s been locked away her entire life. Now is your chance to become a woman.” He drops his hands. “Now. I have to deal with this fucking mess your brother gave me. I’m going to bring you back to the cage for now. Just to make sure you don’t go anywhere.”
Alek picks me up bridal style before I can react and carries me past the dead bodies and to the basement. I press my face against his neck. The sight of the dead bodies is too much. I can sense Alek is smiling. He likes that I need him.
But it’s not him I need. It’s my room. It’s my safety. It’s my family.
The moment Alek sets me down in the cage, I feel like I can breathe again. No people around me. No open spaces. Just me and this cage.
I sink down and wince when my backside touches the ground. It still hurts after the spanking Alek gave me… the one in front of all of his guests. That was the most humiliating thing I’ve ever experienced and yet, it did help calm me down. The whole thing was confusing.
Alek closes the cage door and locks it. “I’ll come back in a bit. I know how much this cage calms you. Just rest.” He speaks to me in a way that seems comforting but how can my kidnapper be comforting? None of this makes any sense.
It’s been such a long day that the moment I lay down, even on the hard floor, I manage to fall asleep in an instant.
Alek
It doesn’t take long to clean up the bodies. I call one of my men, Sam, who comes and takes care of it for me. I have to fight the urge to storm over to Dimitri’s house and kill him. That’s probably what he wants from me. Get me enraged and expose myself and he’ll get the chance to kill me.
That’s not going to happen.
Instead, I go over to Maria’s house since I know she can help calm me down.
“Alek, what is it?” she asks after she opens the door and ushers me inside. I catch a glimpse of myself in the foyer mirror and see how crazy my eyes look.
