“Son of a bitch—”
I twist to get out of his grasp completely, pulling away in a sprint to reach my bedroom.
If I can get there, then I can close the door and grab my bat—
But Sergey’s on me before I get enough distance between us, causing us to struggle before toppling over.
The breath is knocked out of me the moment I hit the floor, feeling his tight grip on my thigh to keep me in place while I attempt to crawl away.
“Stop it,” he growls out, moving faster than I can, pinning me to the floor.
I have half the mind to scream as the fear holds me even tighter than he does, blood pressure spiking at the feeling of him behind me.
But before I can, Sergey turns me over, holding both my wrists against the floor while he stares down at me, brows furrowed. The gun is somewhere else now, lost out of my sight.
It isn’t ideal, but at least it isn’t pointed at me.
There’s a flicker of surprise in his eyes, almost like none of this has gone according to plan. But even if it’s dangerous to assume anything, he seems more annoyed by my fear than my resistance.
That can’t be right.
I squirm still, not making it any easier for him.
“Enough, Kat,” Sergey mutters, tightening his grip on my wrists as emphasis.
“Whatever sick ideas you are thinking right now, forget it,” I return, refusing to be small, even if he has the advantage in every way.
He huffs out a breath, not letting go, but also not attacking me either. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then let me go!”
“Not a chance.”
Faster than I can fully register it, he maneuvers my wrists, pinning them with one hand while the other comes down to my jaw, angling my face up to meet his gaze.
Looking at him is the last thing I want right now, but I can’t ignore the way that eye contact makes my stomach squirm. The danger and fire in the way he looks at me sends a shiver down my spine.
“Listen to me very carefully,” he begins, voice threateningly quiet. “I may not be here to hurt you, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t an integral part of this whole thing. You are leverage. Insurance. Whatever you want to call it…I’ve been trailing you because I needed to figure out who you are and how deeply you’re involved.”
My pulse races in my ears. “I’m not involved. You should know that.”
“I do now,” Sergey hums, eyes taking in every inch of my face. “I know you’ve been doing everything in your power to avoid your brother, but that doesn’t matter. You’re coming with me regardless.”
I see red immediately. “Like hell.”
He sighs, not appreciating that response, while he dips his face a touch closer until our noses nearly brush, and I curse at my body for reacting.
“If you don’t come with me willingly, I have guards waiting downstairs right now, and they’ll be up here in a moment’s notice. They’ll drag you out of here screaming if need be.”
I swallow hard, trying to find his bluff. “And the cameras? The desk clerk?”
Sergey chuckles, but there’s nothing humorous about it. “Both easy solutions for someone like me.”
Part of me wants to think he doesn’t mean it, but given everything that has happened so far, I don’t have any reason to doubt him.
“And if Yuri so much as breathes wrong while you’re in our care, we’ll put him in the ground next to Father Dearest. Got it?”
As much as I want to be brave and unshakeable, his words steal my breath even harder than the fall had.
