“Eventually.”
She looks down, then back up. The weight of it settles on her shoulders, but she’s still got fire. She’s still glaring, trying to hold on to some version of her life that no longer exists.
Sienna needs a push.
I didn’t want to pull the aggressive notes into this conversation, but she won’t budge.
She’s going to fight me.
“It also keeps your father alive,” I continue, and her light brown eyes widen. “You refuse to come with me, I’ll need to settle the debt another way.”
She flinches, and I’d feel bad if this wasn’t the way shit goes. However, her father owes me fifty grand with zero means to get it back.
I’m going to get paid one way or another.
“How?” she asks. “He… you can’t collect money from him if he’s dead.”
“Now you’re worried about how I’m going to be paid? Are you giving me the green light, Sienna?” Her lips part, then close. “He wasn’t much of a father, was he? He gave you up easily enough.”
Her expression hardens. “That’s none of your business.”
“Maybe not,” I shrug dismissively, “but I can promise you that you’d be safer with me than you ever were with him.”
She takes a step back. “I don’t want to go with you,” she whispers, then adds with some grit, “I don’t know you.”
“I’m your best bet.”
“I don’t know that. You’re threatening me.”
“I’m promising you.”
“No, you’re promising to kill my father if I don’t go with you.”
This will take longer.
She thinks for a minute before continuing. “Why do you need me with you? I’m not involved with these men. There isn’t anything I have?—”
“I need a fake fiancée, and you need a debt paid and protection.” I straighten my spine, uneasy. “I can handle your grandmother’slodging and your bills. All you have to do is attend a dinner with me and pretend?—”
“Your fiancée?!”
Shit.
She stares at me in disbelief for a moment, then turns and sprints back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
A second later—click.
She locked the door.
Real smooth, Volkov.
10
Sienna
I lock the bathroom door so fast that I almost jam my thumb.
My towel slips a little, and I snatch it tighter around me. My heart is racing.
