My hand stopped on a silk blue dress with a small note on it.
‘To match your eyes.’
I immediately shimmied into the dress, admiring how the soft silk hugged my body. A perfect fit. The man never did anything half-assed.
The doorbell rang, and I dashed for the door.
I rose on my tiptoes to check the peephole, and let out a sigh of relief when I spotted Gemma’s confused and slightly irritated face.
Not a bruise or bit of blood marked her.
Safe.
I pushed open the door, making sure to follow Dmitri’s orders and stay within the threshold. Gemma’s head swung to the right, and her eyes widened enormously large. My heart raced into my throat as I turned to face the cause of her shock.
Before I could react, a huge rock slammed into my head, and everything went black.
I blinked and bright fluorescent lights seared into my retinas. When I managed to see beyond the piercing light, I wished I’d kept my eyes closed.
Roman Komarov towered over me, a cruel smile spread across his lips. Instinctively, I tried to stand from the cold metal chair andrun, but something hard and rough cut into my arms.
Ropes.
His smile grew larger when a whimper of pain escaped my lips.
“You’re finally awake. I was worried I’d have to go ahead with my plan while you were still unconscious. That wouldn’t have beennearlyas fun.”
The vow of violence in his eyes promised it certainly wouldn’t be fun forme.
“Where’s Gemma?” I said, forcing my voice to sound steady when I felt anything but.
“That’s your biggest concern?” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Not what I’m planning to do with you?”
I swallowed. The images of that night he’d cornered me started to drown out the gray walls of the concrete warehouse I was currently restrained in. I dug my nails into my palms, terror threatening to turn my mind black.
As the corners of my vision darkened, I bit down hard on my cheek. I couldn’t afford to black out. I couldn’t disconnect from reality, no matter how tempting that numbness would be in the face of what Roman had planned for me.
“Dmitri will come,” I whispered to myself.
The conjuring of his name lightened the load. The darkness receded as I repeated the statement louder.
Roman flinched at the mention of Dmitri’s name, and the room snapped back into focus. I would survive this.
“He’s not coming,” Roman said. There was finality in his voice, but I noted that his earlier bravado had disintegrated with the mention of Dmitri.
“You’re wrong.”
“Want to know a secret, Alisa? I set it up, so it looks like the Italians kidnapped you. If he searches for you, he’s going to go looking in the wrong place.”
“He’ll find me.”
“Eventually,” Roman said before slamming his fist into my ribs. Pain splintered from the impact, and I held back the tears threatening to break through. I refused to give this nightmare of a human a single one of my tears. “He just won’t recognize you when he does.”
Roman absently ran a finger over his split knuckles. “Alisa, it was very stupid to try to take away my leverage.”
My eyes widened. “Did Gemma tell you?”
I’d made her promise not to tell anyone about my text.
