“I can just take you home. Another cab will take too long.”
“Nooo, that’s…okay.” My words stumble over themselves.
No way am I getting in a car with a stranger.
He chuckles. “Honey, relax. I’m not trying to hurt you. You look like hell. I’m just trying to be a gentleman.”
His arm tightens. Too tight. My pulse spikes. I try to pull back, but my limbs are sluggish, my vision smearing like wet paint.
He opens a door. Black? Blue? I can’t make out the color.
Oh my God.
“Get off of me.” I push, but it’s weak.
“Shut up and get in before you cause a scene, stupid lush whore.”
Fear clamps down on me, cold and suffocating.
He tries to shove me inside. I fight, weak and uncoordinated. When I open my mouth to scream, his hand slams over it.
Pure terror slices through me.
This is it. This is how I die.
Then, out of nowhere, he’s gone, ripped away from me like a toy snatched from a child. I stumble, gasping.
Shapes move in the dark. Three? Four? But my vision won’t focus.
Strong arms wrap around me, holding me upright.
“No…” I groan, trying to shove him away. “Leave me alone.”
“Shh, detka. You are safe now.”
That deep, familiar voice cuts through the haze, and relief slams into me so hard my knees nearly give. But beneath it, something else pulses. A note I’ve never heard from him before.
Pain.
He cradles me against the strength of his body, and my lashes flicker, head lolling against his solid chest that smells just like the cologne he always wears.
“Aleksei?”
“It’s me, detka. You’re okay. I have you.” I can feel the agony drip from every syllable.
My fingers curl into his jacket, and the fight goes out of me.
Because no matter how twisted this is, no matter how much I hate him, a part of me knows I’m safe now.
ALEKSEI
She’s quiet, hardly breathing, her limbs limp and tangled in my sheets with my comforter tucked around her. I almost like the sight of her here in my bed, amongst my things. Like she’s always been here.
I sit at the edge, elbows braced on my thighs, watching her chest rise and fall like I’ve forgotten how to do the same.
I should have gotten there sooner. Should’ve skipped the fucking boardroom, canceled every meeting, torn apart the cityif I had to. Instead, I let her slip through the cracks and straight into the hands of a predator.
Now she’s pale and curled in on herself like a wounded animal.
