He’s one of Yuri’s.
I don’t have a name to place to his face, but there’s no questioning it. I recognize him from before everything.
He was never a high-ranking employee, but he rotated around my father when he was in charge, and now he likely serves my brother if he’s still on the payroll. He had been loyal, which means he’s dangerous. And right now, he’s too close for comfort.
Even seeing him there makes my pulse speed up, and I can’t look away.
Hypothetically, I could go to him and ask for help. Maybe I could use him to escape this whole situation.
It’s a tempting thought, but it isn’t that simple, and I know it.
He scans the room, just barely pausing for a moment when his eyes slide past me. Even if he tries to make it less obvious that he’s watching, I know he is. He’s here for a reason, and I have every reason to believe he’s likely under strict orders, too.
And I also know what that would mean.
Yuri has wanted me to join him since the moment Dad’s body went cold, and now, he probably wants me to surrender. He’ll want me to crawl back to him and to become a pawn in his games. I just barely escaped whatever plans he had for me before, and something about giving in now doesn’t sit right with me.
But that’s exactly what would happen if I went to his man for help. If I begged for a way out of my current situation, then Yuri wouldn’t hesitate to pull me into the fold in exchange. I’d have no choice but to do as he asks, all for the sake of saving me from this fiasco.
Either way, I’ll be stuck in the lifestyle I never wanted to begin with. It’s one captor or another.
Sergey guides me over to a table, and it doesn’t take long for a bottle girl to come over with a tray carrying two glasses of whiskey. He hands me one, giving me a lopsided grin until his gaze sharpens while he inspects me closely. His eyes follow mine, not taking long to discover who I’m looking at.
Really, I should’ve tried harder to make it less obvious and leave my options open.
He stiffens slightly, and his voice comes out lower while he studies me. “You know him?”
I can already imagine the various thoughts churning through his mind right now, but it isn’t like that, and I don’t want him acting jealous for no reason.
Nodding carefully, I debate again whether I should tell him while I pull my attention away from the man.
I could lie. I could walk it back and say I mistook him for someone back home. I could convince him that he looks like someone I know, anyway.
But I think about Yuri again, and how it might be to follow his every command. To find myself locked into a kind of servitude I’d never want for myself, or to end up being caught in some deal he made on my behalf.
As much as I want to hope I could trust my brother, I know that’s wishful thinking.
Yuri has always been like Dad in the ways that scared me the most. He took on his determined, relentless personality, and if he’s just as serious about taking Vegas as our father was, then he’d have every reason to use me to my full potential in his eyes.
I could take advantage of the situation and get away from Sergey, or I could find myself trapped in a different sense, only to end up in a far worse situation.
Being stalked and taken from my home was always very low on the list of things I was willing to endure, but I’m still alive. Sergey may be a dangerous man from an even more dangerous family, but he hasn’t done anything to truly harm me.
I won’t condone his actions, but at the very least, he has kept his word in that regard. He doesn’t want to hurt me, and dare I say, he’s been trying to connect with me lately. Even through all of my iciness, he has stuck it out and seems just as determined to break my defenses in a good way.
He hasn’t said it outright, but I’ve noticed, and that has to count for something.
It’s either surrender to Yuri or make the conscious decision to stay loyal to a man who may not deserve it at times.
If things had been different between my brother and me, I wouldn’t have hesitated to go to him. But knowing how he is, being pulled into his chaos is the last thing I want.
Finally, I let go of a breath. “He’s one of Yuri’s men. I’ve seen him before, and he can’t be here by coincidence.”
Sergey’s expression shifts at once, and his easy charm fades into something far deadlier. His protective instincts go from idle to overdrive in a blink.
“Yuri’s trying to plant his men in our turf now…he’s likely looking for someone, and if I were to wager a guess, I’d say that someone is you.”
“Or you.”
