“I lost once,” he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “I won’t lose again. No matter who stands in my way.”
The implication sent a wave of nausea through me that had nothing to do with the drug. Did he mean me? Or Vince? Or Ivan? “My family and the Zotovs have nothing to do with this.”
“Don’t they?” Grey’s smile was knowing and cruel. “Doesn’t he?”
He twirled his thumbs. “Your mother chose the wrong man, Isabella. It was a mistake she regretted for the rest ofher short life. And now…history is repeating itself,” he murmured, more to himself than me.
“There’s no mistake to make,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. “There’s nothing… Ivan and I aren’t?—”
“Aren’t what? In love?” Grey laughed, the sound brittle and sharp. “Of course not. Not yet. And I will make sure it stays that way. The truth serum doesn’t lie, my dear. And neither do my instincts or my surveillance cameras.”
Shame and anger burned through me. Had he been watching me…us? Our conversations, our moments of vulnerability—all observed and cataloged by this obsessive man?
“You still haven’t touched the keyboard,” Grey noted, his patience visibly wearing thin. “Stubborn like her, too. Mariella never knew what was good for her either.”
I summoned what strength I had left, channeling my fear into defiance. “Like mother, like daughter,” I mumbled. Except, maybe my mother knew what was good for her…and if she chose my father over Grey, that fact spoke volumes.
Now, would just someone—anyone—come and rescue me? What did they do to the rest of the girls? Was Ivan or my brothers already looking for me?
Grey’s face contorted with rage. He snapped his fingers, and the man in the white coat approached with another syringe.
“Since you’re not providing the cooperation I need, perhaps this will help.” Grey nodded, and I felt another sharp sting in my neck. “A cognitive enhancer of our owndesign—still experimental—but it should make your remarkable brain even more…efficient. Now get to work.”
The new drug burned through my body like fire, making my vision blur and my heart race dangerously fast. I gasped, struggling to breathe as the room spun around me.
“Your protector won’t be able to save you this time,” Grey said, his voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. “You think Ivan Zotov can protect you? I made him what he is. He’s just a tool, like you.”
The words penetrated the fog engulfing my mind. What did he mean, he made Ivan? What connection did Grey have to Ivan’s past?
I couldn’t focus, couldn’t think. I was hot and cold, and my heart beat as if I was having a heart attack.
Through the haze, I sensed the doctor step closer, felt his hand on my pulse.
“Shit.”
Grey’s head snapped up, his expression shifting from rage to calculation in an instant. “What?”
“Her body’s overreacting.”
“Overreacting? Get her out of here,” Grey ordered sharply. “Back to her room. If they find her here, it will complicate matters.”
Rough hands lifted me from the chair. The world tilted and swam as they carried me through a hidden door down a corridor.
My consciousness faded in and out like a bad radio signal while my heart raced in my chest.
I was carried through a dark tunnel right toward the light at the end. Was I dying?
We entered the harsh light, which was blinding me.
For a moment, I could see nothing, could hear nothing but my racing heartbeat echoing in my ears, then everything suddenly zoomed back into focus.
Outside. I was outside again. Somewhere where they could find me.
Ivan will find me, I thought as consciousness slipped away.He always does.
And in that moment of pure vulnerability, with no defenses left, I realized a truth I hadn’t even let myself acknowledge fully: I didn’t just need Ivan to save me.
I needed him. Period.
