Alina reaches out and grabs the shampoo off the edge of the sink with a trembling hand. She keeps her back to me, and I allow her to hide herself.
She tilts her head back, letting the water run over her hair to rinse out the shampoo. Her body remains as tense as a statue.
She’s gorgeous, and I do plan to have her one day, but it won’t be today. Not while she’s in this state.
Goddammit.
I shouldn’t even care. I shouldn’t care that she’s so sad that she won’t get out of bed to do anything. I shouldn’t care that she looks so broken and weak.
I’ve given her everything that she needs to be comfortable, so if she won’t use them, I’ll just take them away.
My eyes narrow for a second, then I grab up her clothes, her mattress, and her blanket and drag them out of the cage. I’ll take them out to Daniil and Roman.
Alina’s forehead creases in confusion as she watches me, but when she sees my hardened face, she understands my expression. She knows that I’m not pleased with her.
“You’ll get these back after you eat and drink something tonight,” I explain to her.
If discomfort didn’t provoke her, maybe deprivation will. She’ll likely cave within an hour.
“Now keep going,” I say, speaking through my clenched teeth.
Alina swallows hard before squeezing a large dollop of white body wash onto her palm. She rubs her hands together, creating suds to spread over her arms and shoulders. She doesn’t look at me as she washes, her motions slower than a sloth’s.
I don’t like seeing her act like a kicked puppy instead of the firecracker that I know she can be.
That’s who I want. That’s who I fucking need to see because I’ve wanted her in my cage since I first laid eyes on her.
Hell, I would rather she throw the bottles of shampoo and conditioner at my head. Anything other than…this version of her.
Alina finishes up and steps back under the cold spray, gritting her teeth as the water washes away all the suds and leaves her glistening and clean. She crosses her arms over herself, her wet hair slicked back from her forehead.
She’s waiting on me to give her my next commands.
If things were different, I’d warm her up. Quickly. It would be simple to wrap her around my finger, especially after how I’ve already seen her look at me.
But she wants to be complicated. So, I will be too if that’s what it takes to snap her out of this spiral.
I don’t know what the fuck else I can do at this point, which is not somewhere I’ve ever been before with a woman.
Without a word to her, I leave the cage and lock the door behind me, not even casting a look over my shoulder as I walk out of the bedroom with her things. No good is going to come from me being in there any longer anyway. I’ll just get angrier with myself, and I have enough on my plate to deal with.
Alina has become far more of an issue than I ever expected.
I’ll return with a tray of food but then I’m done being distracted by her tonight.
“I don’t care if it ends up being twenty-four/seven surveillance. Up the patrols in that area and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
I internally fume as I head out of the late-night meeting, leaving my men to fix the latest mess. One of my cover businesses was ransacked while I was teaching a stubborn woman a lesson. Inventory and equipment weren’t stolen, but they were certainly damaged beyond repair.
It was a message. A threat to warn me that they’re not going to stop until my territory is theirs. Whoever they are.
I flex my fingers, wishing Alina will by now have learned her lesson and that I could get my hands on the people who did this. I can’t believe that we still haven’t figured out who it was. The security cameras were damaged before we could get a glimpse at anyone.
Dominik is good at tracking down people, of finding the missing pieces.
A frustrated sigh threatens to break from me at that thought. He could be working with me on this right now.
But then this probably wouldn’t be happening if it wasn’t for him and his idiotic actions. He deserves to rot in that cell until he comes to his damn senses.
