There are so many words I could sling at him. So many scathing things I could use against him. But I’m tired. I don’t want to keep living this nightmare any longer than I have to.
“I want my life back,” I tell him, voice quieter than I expect. “I want my garage, my space, and my freedom…I didn’t ask for this.”
At first, the subtle, barely noticeable shift in his gaze makes me wonder if he’s considering my words. If he’s seeing me as more than a prop or an object.
But Sergey sighs. “I want peace and numerous other things, but we don’t always get what we want.”
Talking to him seems so pointless, but I can’t stop myself from trying to appeal to him anyway. At the very least, to get him to see at least one flaw in his plan. “You can’t just keep me here.”
This doesn’t even stir him. “I can and I will for as long as it takes.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “How long it takes to do what?”
He leans forward a bit, as if to inspect me further. “To remind your brother he isn’t invincible, and that he should tread lightly.”
“Is that really it? You have to go through all of this just to prove that point?” I ask, losing all patience with his ridiculous thinking. “Wouldn’t your guns and force be more efficient? You certainly didn’t have an issue using them on my dad.”
Sergey pauses at that, as if I’ve poked at something I shouldn’t have. Then he bristles. “You make it all sound so simple, but if you must know, it is more than that.”
“So what, is it about honor then? Being strategic just to prove how clever you are?”
He visibly tenses at this, and I know I’ve struck a nerve. But even as he turns to leave, I can’t stop myself.
“It doesn’t matter how long you try to keep me here. I won’t stop trying to escape or make your life any easier,” I tell him, holding as much venom as I can muster. “You’ll have to kill me before I accept any of this bullshit plan of yours.”
Sergey pauses in the doorway, and after a beat, he looks at me over his shoulder.
“I don’t want to kill you, Kat,” he says softly, catching me off guard. “I want to keep you.”
As his words stun me on the spot, he continues, leaving the room as the door closes behind him.
Chapter 9 - Sergey
Roman was pissed. Of course.
If I truly know him, then I have every reason to believe he’s still angry that I went off script and likely will be for some time. He’s pissed that I acted without running it by him or Mikhail and picked Kat up off the street ‘like a fucking stray dog’, as he eloquently put it.
While he might’ve been right that my decision to take her for myself was impulsive, that doesn’t mean he should count it out entirely.
And frankly, I don’t care.
I haven’t felt this kind of drive or purpose in months. Regardless of how much of an obstacle her resistance is, I’m not used to being this clear-headed.
Even if I shouldn’t be this invested in anyone for any reason, I can see two targets ahead of me. One is Yuri’s complete surrender, and the other is Kat’s admittance…her surrender. But not just to my word. To the thoughts and feelings she won’t admit to me, and least of all herself.
She can act indifferent or repulsed by me all she wants, but I see the way she looks at me. Before any of the truth came to her attention, I saw how she looked at me at the car meet, and the way she tried her hardest to resist my charms at the garage.
Kat wanted me to believe more than anything that she was immune to me, but I knew she was just bluffing. I know she still is.
Her anger is understandably getting in the way of her divulging her attraction to me at this time, but I know she won’t be able to hold out forever.
Maybe I am delusional to some capacity, or maybe it’s just the backed-up adrenaline that came with making such a quick decision on my own, but I stood by my choice, and I’ll continue to do exactly that.
Roman may be our pakhan, but I don’t need his approval to do what’s right for everyone. Especially when what’s right goes hand in hand with my own burning need to have Kat for myself.
She’ll calm down…eventually.
When she does, I’ll be here because I don’t have any plans of changing my mind.
