“What are you talking about?” I demand, hating how my voice trembles.
He doesn’t answer. He only smiles, that same empty look in his eyes, then lets the legs of my chair drop back down to the floor. The impact rattles through me, jostling me forward, only to be tugged back by the restraints.
Behind him, the door opens. I look past his figure, and my breath catches. I know these men. I recognize their faces immediately from the estate. They’re Maksim’s men. Men I’ve seen wandering the halls, always in the background, loyal and unflinching.
Only now, they’re not looking at me, seeing that I’ve been taken, and now are ready to fight and return me back to their boss. They’re not even looking at Anton with suspicion as he hovers over me, looking down at me like I’m his next meal.
They’re looking at him like he’s in charge.
And that’s when it finally starts to click, piece by jagged piece. This isn’t just a kidnapping. This isn’t random.
They’re staging a coup.
And somehow, I’m part of it.
Oh… my God.
I shove the chair back, the metal legs screeching against the floor. “No. Wait. I don’t… I don’t want any part of this. I’m not involved in any of this! Whatever you have planned, leave me the hell out of it.”
It’s useless, I know it is, but the panic forces the words out of me anyway. I can’t just sit here like some obedient doll and take whatever the hell they’re planning without a fight. I can’t just wait for them to decide my fate right here in front of me.
The blow comes before I even see it. Anton’s fist slams into my face with a crack that ricochets through my skull. White light bursts behind my eyes. A sharp gasp claws its way from my throat as I turn my head, trying to block another blow. But it’s pointless. He’s already following through again with the other hand.
Another strike, harder this time, splits my lip. My head snaps sideways, a hot bloom of agony spreading across my face. Blood floods my mouth, sharp and metallic, as I cough around it.
The room tilts violently, warping in on itself while I try to blink through the spots in my vision, only to make it double while my head lolls to the side.
“Oh, Ivy. You’re making this harder than it needs to be,” Anton says, voice maddeningly calm, amused. He sounds like he’s teaching a harsh lesson to a stubborn child.
I choke back tears. “Maksim…”
“He won’t be coming to save you,” Anton says and then turns back to the men standing behind him. “If she misbehaves, cut off her finger. We will send it toPakhanas a gift.”
I want to scream, want to beg, but the darkness around me rushes in too fast, swallowing me before I get the chance to.
21
MAKSIM
The safe house is a nondescript apartment above a rundown print shop—one of those places you’d never look twice at from the street while passing by.
Perfectly forgettable, which is exactly the point.
Inside, the air is stale with dust, the cracked blinds letting in thin strips of jaundiced light that cut strange shadows over everyone. Lev, Roman, and Katya are already there, Matvey’s voice cutting in from the battered speakerphone balanced on the table as he rattles off information to them about his findings.
But I barely register any of it. My mind is too focused on something else. Not just the pain in my freshly wrapped shoulder, but the one in my heart too.
Ivy.
I can’t shake the image of her face, wide-eyed and terrified, as rough hands clamped around her and dragged her into that van. My hands curl into fists so tight my knuckles ache, sending a shooting pain up to my wound. The phantom memory of herscreams slipping away from me replays in my mind again and again.
Roman’s agitated voice breaks through my thoughts. “Those fuckers… It took them fifteen seconds to pull up and grab her. You’re sure the facial recognition came back as some of Anton’s men?”
Matvey’s voice crackles from the speaker. “I’m positive.”
He swore under his breath. “His men were on you two within three minutes of that ambush, Maksim. He had this shit planned.”
Of course he did. He isn’t stupid. Nor is he the type of man to do things half-assed. My jaw tics, rage building inside my chest like a live wire sparking to life all over again. It’s hard to think straight while I’m this angry, my energy focused on the one thing I can’t do right now—go out, find him, and kill him.
