Sergei shoved back at him and grunted. “This isn’t your business.”
Axel gave him another hard shove. “You need to talk to Grisha.”
Sergei’s dead gaze shifted between me and Axel. Then with a bored shrug, he walked away from us both.
My voice shook. “We need to talk.”
His tone was polite sarcasm. “You think?”
“Privately.”
“Let’s go for a drive.” He motioned with his head toward the row of vehicles parked along the driveway.
My hesitation must have been written all over my face because he added, “Just to the end of the driveway.”
I followed him to his personal car, an expensive sports model. I watched in silence as he drove down the road and then parked beside the gate.
He killed the engine.
We sat there in an extended silence. My mind raced, but my thoughts were disjointed and uncoordinated. I couldn’t seem to form thoughts in my head, much less articulate them to him.
“What is your end game here?” His taut voice cut through my erratic thoughts.
“Obviously to avoid being married off to Sergei against my will.”
He looked frustrated. “Your little game put a target on my back with your uncle.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s not a game.”
“You’re messing with my life,” he gritted out.
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you messed with my life and my freedom.”
“Freedom?” He sounded exasperated, like I was exaggerating my situation.
“Would you be willing to give Sergei complete control over your body, your finances and your freedom? You don’t get a gun or get to fight back. You just let him have control? You good with that?”
He clenched his jaw but didn’t answer.
“I almost made it.”
“They would have caught up to you eventually.”
“They never would have found me without you,” I shot back. “So this is a mess of your own making.” I thought about the reason I actually needed to speak to him. “Besides, I thought you’d be happy to get a chance to have seniority over Sergei.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Because my uncle is summoning you to Zavidovo as my guest.”
He looked at me, really looked at me, for the first time. “The family weekend in Zavidovo?”
“The one and only.” My tone was dry.
“How’d you manage that?”
My eyes widened as I comprehended his question. “You think I somehow coordinated that invitation for your benefit? What, to reward you for kidnapping me back to my fate?”
“I didn’t kidnap you.”
