"Is there?" Mikhail stops in front of me, close enough that I can smell his expensive cologne. "Or are you simply a survivor, Alina? A woman who knows how to read the room and make the smart choice?"
I don't answer. Let him think what he wants.
"Alina." Dimitri's voice cuts through the tension. When I finally turn to look at him, I see devastation written across his features. "Don't do this."
"I have to." I try to put everything I'm feeling into those three words. The love. The fear. The desperate hope that he'll understand what I'm really doing. "For you. For Katya. For our future."
His eyes widen slightly at the last words.Ourfuture. Does he catch the emphasis? Does he understand that I'm not giving up, just buying time?
Mikhail claps his hands together, the sound sharp in the quiet courtyard. "Well, then. It seems we have a deal." He turns to his men. "Lower your weapons. The lady has made her choice."
The guns drop, but the soldiers remain alert. Watching. Waiting.
Mikhail extends his hand to me. "Come, my dear. Let's discuss the terms of our arrangement more privately."
I look at his outstretched hand, at the silver rings on his fingers, at the perfectly manicured nails. Everything about him screams wealth and power and cruelty.
I think about the baby growing inside me. About Dimitri's face when I told him I loved him. About Katya's dreams of studying art and traveling the world. About the life we're supposed to build together.
And I know, with absolute certainty, that I will never marry Mikhail Volkov.
This is a distraction. A delay. A way to create chaos and confusion while Dimitri's men get into position. I just need to sell it long enough for the plan to work.
I place my hand in Mikhail's, feeling his cold fingers close around mine.
"I agree to your terms," I say clearly, loudly enough for everyone to hear. "I'll become your wife. But you have to promise that Dimitri and Katya remain safe. Swear it on whatever honor you have left."
Mikhail's smile is triumphant as he pulls me closer. "I swear it. On my life, on my empire, on everything I hold dear. Your husband and your sister will remain untouched."
He's lying. I can see it in his eyes, in the way his smile doesn't quite reach them. He has no intention of keeping that promise. The moment he has what he wants, Dimitri and Katya will be eliminated.
But that's fine. Because I'm lying too.
I have absolutely no intention of ever marrying this asshole.
40
DIMITRI
The words coming out of Alina's mouth don't make sense. They can't make sense. My wife—mywife—is offering herself to Mikhail Volkov like she's some kind of bargaining chip, and every cell in my body is screaming at me to stop this insanity.
"No." The word tears from my throat, raw and absolute. "The deal is off. We'll find another way."
But Mikhail isn't looking at me anymore. His cold blue eyes are fixed on Alina with an intensity that makes my trigger finger itch. He's studying her like she's a puzzle he's trying to solve, his silver hair catching the torchlight as he tilts his head.
"Fascinating," he murmurs, taking a step closer to us. "Tell me, Alina, why would you give up everything for a man you barely know? A man who kidnapped you from your own wedding? Who forced you into marriage?" His smile is sharp as a blade. "Surely, you can't have developed feelings for your captor in such a short time."
I feel Alina's body tense beside me, but when she speaks, her voice is steady. Clear. "Because he's my husband. Because he saved my sister. Because he's a better man than you'll ever be."
The words hit me like a physical blow. Pride and terror war in my chest. She's defending me, standing up to a man who's orchestrated massacres and frame jobs, and all I want to do is throw her over my shoulder and run.
Mikhail's expression darkens, the calculated amusement draining from his face. "I see." His voice drops to something dangerous. "You've actually fallen for him. How… inconvenient."
He raises his hand, and I see the signal coming before his fingers finish the gesture.
"Seize her."
Everything happens at once.
