"Still. Quiet."
The footsteps move away, but not before I catch one more fragment: "...Volkov won't wait much longer..."
I sit very still, my heart pounding.
He's not ready for this kind of pressure.
They're talking about Andrei, about whatever crisis is brewing just beneath the surface of this compound. And they're worried.
I slip out of bed and look outside, at the guards milling around. This morning, the time is up. Surely someone is going to come and get me soon, to take me to wherever the handoff is. Soon, I’m going to go home.
It doesn’t matter what’s happening in Andrei’s world. I won’t ever have anything to do with him again, in just a few short hours.
—
Just after I finish breakfast,Andrei comes into the room without knocking.
I glare at him, pushing my chair away from the desk. “I could have been naked,” I say flatly, and his pale blue eyes darken for just a moment, his jaw tightening.
“Then it’s a good thing you’re dressed.” His voice is even, giving nothing away, but I swear his eyes flick over me for a brief second, taking me in.Does he think I’m…
Oh for fuck’s sake, Liesl, shut the fuck up.
I’m about to find out if I’m being ransomed or not. I shouldn’t be thinking about whether or not the mob boss keeping me captive thinks I’m hot.
I lick my dry lips without meaning to, and his gaze flicks to my mouth. It takes everything in me not to glance down and see if he’s had some reaction to me. My skin feels like it’s buzzing, and has since he stepped into the room. My heart is beating too fast. But that’s because of nerves… right?
Not because I can see his shoulder and arm muscles straining against the tight material of his button-down, or because his suit trousers fit his thighs perfectly… oh God.
There’s a bulge at the front of his trousers, against the fly. He’s not totally hard, but I can see it… the sign of his arousal, pressing there against the fabric. And if that’s him only just starting to swell…
I swallow hard, dragging my eyes back to his face. His jaw is clenched, as if he couldn’t smile even if it killed him.
“Your father has asked for two more days,” he says finally.
My heart almost stops in my chest. All thoughts of how attractive my jailor might be flee from my head. “He—” I swallow hard. “Does that mean you’re going to kill me?”
He stares at me for a long moment, his jaw working. “No,” he finally says. “I agreed to let him have two more days.”
The relief washes through me so fast that I don’t even wonder, at first, why my father might have needed two more days. “Oh,” I whisper, sagging back into my chair. “Um… thank you? But…” I think of the conversations I’ve heard outside my door. “Won’t your men be pissed? That you didn’t follow through on your word?”
Andrei stares at me for a beat, and then another. His eyes widen slightly, as if he’s trying to figure me out, and can’t. There’s the smallest twitch at the corner of his mouth, like a laugh is trying to come up from somewhere inside him, and fails. “Are you asking me to kill you?”
“No!” I exclaim. Fear jolts through me again. “No… no… of course not. I just, I heard…”
His eyes narrow. “What did you hear?”
Shit. I’m not good at this. I have no business being a mob boss’s captive. I can’t keep my fucking mouth shut. If he thinks I know things I shouldn’t, he’ll change my mind and kill me.“Nothing,” I say quickly. “I just… I can tell things aren’t going well around here.”
Both of his eyebrows rise simultaneously. “Can you.” It’s not a question. His voice is thoroughly deadpan, and I have a feeling I’ve taken a wrong turn in this conversation, but I can’t scramble back from it.
“You just… look tired.” I blurt it out, hoping to get back on a track that won’t end withmebleeding out in the courtyard. Just the thought makes me feel like my breakfast might come back up, but I don’t think puking on his expensive rug in front of him will make him much more personable toward me.
“I look tired.”
“Yes.” I nod vigorously. “Your shirt is wrinkled. And you look like you didn’t sleep well.”
“I didn’t know you cared.” His voice is dry as the desert.
