"I can." I cup her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me. "You're mine now. Not his. Not a bargaining chip or a transaction or a tool in his games. Mine. And I'm going to keep you here until this is over—and maybe longer. UntilIdecide I want to let you go."
Her eyes have gone round in her face, her lips parting in shock. "This is insane."
"This is war."
"I'm not yours?—"
"Yes you are." I press my thumb to her lower lip. "You've been mine since you came to my room and helped me clean up, and let me fuck you afterward. Since you got on your knees in my office and took my cock in your mouth. You're mine, Liesl. And I'm not letting you go."
"You're going to start a war over me?"
"I'm going to finish a war your father started. And you're going to stay right here where I can?—"
A knock on the door interrupts me.
I pull back, irritated. "What?"
The door opens, and Viktor steps inside. His expression is carefully neutral, but I can see the tension in his shoulders. "We have a problem," he says.
"Another one?"
"The men." He glances at Liesl, then back to me. "They're talking. About her. About the situation."
I feel Liesl tense. "What are they saying?"
Viktor hesitates. "Maybe we should discuss this privately?—"
"Say it." Maybe Liesl needs to hear this. She still seems to believe in some kind of inherent goodness, even in me, since she can’t keep herself away from me. She believes that everything will be alright, and maybe she needs to understand just how easily it can go the other way.
He takes a breath. "Someone overheard what happened between you two in the library, yesterday. Word spread. Now the men are questioning why the ransom hasn't been paid. Why we're keeping her when it's causing complications. Some of them—" He pauses. "Some of them think we should kill her. Eliminate the problem before it gets worse."
The rage that floods through me is instant and overwhelming. "Who?"
"Does it matter? It's not just one or two. It's a sentiment that's spreading. The men see you're distracted. They see thatthis war with Volkov and Baumann is escalating. Yuri is dead. Other men are dead. They're connecting it to her, thinking if she was gone, things would be simpler."
"Things would not be simpler." My jaw tightens. “It won’t stop now. If she’s dead, her father will use that as an excuse to keep fighting. Whether she’s alive or dead doesn’t matter to him now.” I feel Liesl’s gasp next to me as much as I hear it, but I keep going. “It’s past that.”
"I know that. You know that. But they don't." Viktor's voice is careful. "They see a pakhan who's fighting a war over a captive woman. They see complications that they think wouldn't exist if we'd just ransomed her or killed her at the start. And they think your attraction to her is clouding your judgement."
I can feel Liesl's eyes on me. Can sense her fear over the fact that her life is being debated like a strategic problem to be solved.
"Call a meeting," I say. "All the men. Main room. One hour."
"Andrei—"
"One hour, Viktor. Make sure everyone is there."
He nods and leaves.
I turn back to Liesl. She's pale, shaking, looking at me like she's seeing everything clearly for the first time.
"They want to kill me," she says quietly.
"They won't."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because I won't let them." I cup her jaw in my hand, my thumb pressing to her lip again. "You're mine, Liesl. Mine to keep. Mine to do with as I please. And anyone who touches you answers to me."
