"Laney—"
"You saidshe's mine now, right?" I throw his words back at him, and something flashes in his eyes. Heat. Surprise. "That I'm your responsibility? Well, Laurie ismyresponsibility. She's my twin. My other half. She needs me. And I'm not letting you go without me."
He studies me in the dim light of the parking garage. I watch his throat work as he swallows, his hand gripping the door so tight his knuckles go white.
"You stay in the car," he finally says. "You don't move. You don't make a sound. You do exactly what I tell you when I tell you. Understood?"
Relief floods through me so fast I feel dizzy. "Understood."
"And if I tell you to run, you run. No arguments. No looking back. You run, and you don't stop until you're somewhere with people and lights, and protection."
"Okay."
He closes the car door with a little more force than necessary, rounding the front and getting back into the driver’s side. He puts the car back in drive and pulls out of the parking garage as he calls someone called Kaiden through the dash, updating him on where we’re going and what we’re doing. Then we head east, away from the Strip, into the parts of Vegas that don't make it into tourist photos.
We don't speak for the first few minutes. I watch the city blur past, trying to process everything that just happened. The alley. The gun. The blood.
I just watched a man kill two people like it was nothing. Like he was swatting flies. He tortured one of them for information, shot him in both knees before putting a bullet in his brain.
But I don't feel scared of him.
I know I should. But instead, I feel... safe. Protected. Like something feral and dangerous has decided I'm worth keeping alive, and nothing in this city is going to touch me while he's breathing.
"You aren’t afraid of me," Yakov says, and it's not a question.
I glance at him. He's watching the road, but I can tell he's aware of me. Of every breath, every movement. Attuned to me.
"Should I be?" I ask.
"Most people would be." His response is low and matter-of-fact, like he can’t quite understand me.
"Most people didn't just experience their sister's kidnappers trying to grab them in an alley." I pull my jacket tighter around myself, even though it's warm in the car. "You saved my life."
"I killed two men in front of you."
"Men who were going to rape and traffic me, according to you." The words taste like ash. "You think I'm going to cry over them?"
His mouth quirks. Not quite a smile, but close. "No. I don't think you're the crying type."
"I cried earlier. At the apartment." I don't know why I'm telling him this. "When I found all of Laurie's plants dead. The food spoiled. Evidence that she hasn't been home in at least a week." My voice cracks despite my best efforts. "I cried for exactly sixty seconds. Then I got up and kept looking."
"Sixty seconds," he repeats softly.
"That's all I could afford."
We drive in silence for another minute. The buildings get shorter, more industrial. Warehouses and storage facilities. Empty lots filled with construction equipment.
"You're very beautiful," Yakov says suddenly.
I blink. "What?"
"Your sister. When I saw her photo from the casino's hiring records, I thought she was striking. But you..." He glances at me, and the heat in his gaze makes my breath catch. "You'reidentical, yes. But there's something about you. The way you move. The fire in you. It's..."
"What?" I ask, trying to keep the suspicion from my voice.
"Irresistible."
The word hangs between us, heavy with meaning I'm not ready to examine.
