I was so fucking tired of things changing around me.
*
“Mr. Vasiliev no longer requires your presence today.” Kozlov stood beneath the walkway’s overhang outside the condo. His expression was neutral. I understood that he was just doing his duty and delivering a message, but I still wanted to punch him in his arrogant face.
“What does that mean?” I stuffed my hands into my pockets and stared him down. There was more to this, there always was.
“It means that Mr. Vasiliev was not happy with your behavior and would like you to reflect on your actions, so that you can better represent and serve the family in the future.” Kozlov recited the words, reeling them off as if they were a shopping list for groceries.
“Ah, there it is.” I nodded, not surprised. “So, let me get this straight. I act up at dinner and that gets me out of suit shopping all day? Hell, what a punishment,” I said sarcastically, reaching my hand out to grip the door so I could close it and, in effect, dismiss Kozlov.
“Mr. Vasiliev has asked me to report your response, Nikolai. Is this the attitude you wish me to take back to our King?” For the first time, the large man with the baby round face and rock hard muscles, looked interested in the situation. For all his good soldier boy ways, Kozlov liked a little chaos. Though, he’d never let Eduard Vasiliev see that.
“No, Kozlov. Tell Eduard that I will reflect on my actions and do better in the future,” I sighed, saying what I should rather than what I wanted.
Kozlov’s face had gone blank again. “Very well, Nikolai. I will pass on this response.”
I closed the door as soon as my fellow soldier retreated and I leaned against the cool wood, head tilted forward as I took a few deep breaths. I was a Pitbull on a chain, waiting to be used by people who tossed me scraps. It was funny how I’d always thought I was one of them, one of the fighters betting on the matches instead of one of the animals down in the arenas. But I was no more like them than they were like me. I was a soldier, not a prince. No matter how close Alexander and I had been growing up, no matter how much Eduard and Evelina had doted on me, I was still not the blood of their blood. Not part of the royal line to inherit the throne.
I needed to get used to doing what I was told. And if Katya got a gilded cage, then I’d get a platinum collar, owner’s tags and all to prove what I was.
Sharp knocking on the door broke me from my bitter thoughts and I stood up quickly, moving to check out who it was through the peephole.
The most recent Mr. Moneybags. Fucking prick.
Apparently, the night hadn’t been awful enough to scare him away for good.
“Katya, it’s Viktor. I would like to see you. Your mother and father have given permission for you to spend the day with me rather than shopping.” His voice was as buttery and smooth as I remembered but held a no-nonsense authority to it. Douchebag. “Hello, Katya.” Moneybags knocked again.
I was about to open the door when Katya rushed out of her room and across the suite. “Don’t answer it. Don’t.” She gasped out, eyes wild. “I can’t see him.”
“So, it wasn’t instant love then?” I winked at her and then looked through the peephole again, catching him straightening his tie and then picking at something stuck in his teeth. He used his pinkie fingernail to do it, digging like there was gold to find. I grimaced. “Guy’s a looker with money coming out of the seams. Thought that would be enough for you.”
“God, stop, Nik. Just stop for once, please,” she moaned out, sinking against the wall next to the door and covering her face. She was wearing a sundress now, ruffled straps falling off her beautiful golden shoulders. “I can’t marry him. He’s controlling and awful and he told me to stop eating carbs or I’d get fat.”
“Stop eating carbs?” I looked at Katya, sitting on the floor now and hugging her knees. She was goddamn perfect, and the thought of some dickhead telling her to not eat made my blood boil. “What a fucking asshole.” I sounded mad, and that was good.Because I was.
She looked up at me, her eyes questioning, and her body language defeated.
One night with this bastard and he’d busted up her spirit. What would marriage to him be like?
Viktor knocked again, harder and faster this time. “Katya. Answer the door, now. We’re spending the day together.” He said it like it was an order, like he could already push her around.
The hell he could.
Chapter Eighteen
Katya
“Come on,” Nik said, a smirk on his face.
I looked up at him in surprise. “What?”
“We’ll slip out the back way.” He winked and I swallowed, feeling nervous. My expression must have taken him back though because he frowned. I couldn’t blame him really. I’d given off the persona that I was strong all these years. Stronger than some of the mafia men Nik had worked with. Never fazed by anything. But suddenly I didn’t feel strong. I felt weak. Anxious by everything that was out of my control. It’s easy to be confident and cocky when you were the owner of your own destiny, but suddenly I wasn’t. Suddenly, my future was no longer mine.
Stepping over to me, Nik held out his hand, his expression softening as he peered down at me. “Come on,” he urged. “Since when does Princess Katya let a man walk all over her? Fuck, when do you letanyonewalk all over you or talk shit to you?”
“My father…” I stammered, chewing on the inside of my cheek. “He’s already warned me not to mess this up and embarrass him. He said he’d marry me off to some low life nobody.”
