"No." She shakes her head again and backs toward the door. "No, this is insane."
I follow her, though she's moving faster now and her breathing is coming in short gasps. When she reaches for the door handle, I'm already there blocking her path. She tries to go around me, but I catch her wrist and her other hand comes up to slap my face.
The crack echoes through the restaurant, but the musicians continue playing as if they've heard nothing. My cheek stings and I taste copper where my teeth cut the inside of my mouth. Danica is breathing hard and her eyes are wide with shock at what she just did.
I don't react to the pain, but I do grab her wrist and grit my teeth. The urge to slap her back is so strong, but leaving bruises means leaving evidence. Not a smart thing for a man in my position.
"Let me go," she says angrily.
"No." I tighten my grip on her wrist. "Not until you understand what's happening here."
"I understand perfectly." Tears are streaming down her face now. "You lied to me and now you're threatening me. And I won't be manipulated by anyone. You're a liar."
"I didn't lie." I lean closer until my mouth is next to her ear. "I told you exactly what you wanted to hear."
"After you made me trust you." Her whole body is shaking. "You made me think you wanted me."
"I do want you." My grip loosens slightly. "Just not the way you thought."
She tries to pull away again, and this time, my hand shoots to her throat. At first, I squeeze hard—a man's only human. She's not exactly complying with me. But a dead body isn't what I hopedfor tonight. So I loosen the grip when her cheeks start to go pink again, and I let her take a breath.
"What are you doing?" she whispers.
"Making sure you understand." My thumb finds her pulse point and strums it gently. "I'm here to do a job that requires me to find someone and deal with them permanently. Someone who is very dangerous, maybe more so than me. And I require your help."
"This isn't fair," she whispers hoarsely.
"No." I agree. "It's not."
My thumb continues its slow path across her pulse point. "But your safety depends on your following my orders now. You know too much to go free, Danica."
6
DANICA
Vadim's hand is wrapped around my throat, and I can feel my pulse hammering against his palm. The pressure isn't enough to hurt, but it's enough to remind me that he could crush my windpipe if he wanted to. His thumb strokes across my skin slowly, and I hate that my body responds with fear instead of fury.
"You understand now," Vadim says quietly.
I understand that I was an idiot to think someone who looked at me the way he did actually wanted me. The elaborate dinner and the dancing and the roses were all part of a plan I never saw coming. Now I'm trapped with a man who's worse than Petr could ever be.
"I understand," I whisper, and it hurts to swallow, but I don't dare look away from him.
Vadim's grip loosens and his hand slides away from my throat. I suck in air and my lungs burn from breathing too shallowly for too long. Vadim steps back and gives me space, but he's still blocking the door.
"Now that you know what I'm about, you can't walk away cleanly," Vadim says. "But I'll cut you in on some of my profit and you can get out of that shitty house you're renting."
Heat floods my face at his choice of words. My home is small and maybe it's falling apart a little. And yes, it's awful, but it's mine. I pay my rent on time and I keep it clean, and hearing Vadim dismiss it so casually makes me so angry with him. But he's not wrong, though, and that makes it worse.
"My home is fine," I say even though we both know it isn't.
"The door sticks and the radiator doesn't work and you have water stains on your ceiling." Vadim pulls a cigarette from his pocket but doesn't light it. "It's probably infested with rodents…" He chuckles darkly as he takes a lighter from his pocket while offering me a cigarette too.
The fact that he noticed those details when he was in my apartment makes my skin crawl. I invited him in for coffee and he was studying me, mentally calculating exactly how desperate I am so he could use it against me.
I can't believe this is happening. I grimace at his cigarette pack and push it away. "Forcing me to marry you so you can stay here in Serbia and murder someone?" I ask incredulously.
"Yes." Vadim says it so simply that I know he's a madman. No one in his right mind would be so calm and rational about something so evil.
