She stares at me. "You threatened them."
"I gave them a choice. Stay and follow orders, or leave. No one left."
"So they're just going to accept this? That you're keeping me here? That you're fighting a war over me?"
"The war was always coming," I say, moving toward her. "Your father made sure of that. I'm just making sure he understands there are consequences for his choices."
"By keeping me prisoner."
I shrug, sliding my hands into my pockets. “As long as you're here, as long as I have you, he has to be careful. Has to consider what I might do to you if he pushes too far."
Her eyes widen. "You wouldn't?—"
"He doesn't know that." I watch her, seeing the emotions flitting across her face. "And that uncertainty is what keeps you alive. My men believe what I told them, and that’s the explanation I gave.”
"I don't belong to you." Her insistence is written all over her face, but I just smile, shrugging again.
“You can think that, Liesl. But one day, you’re going to have to admit you’re wrong. And who knows? Maybe I’ll keep you here until you do, no matter what your father does.”
She opens her mouth to speak, but before she can, I turn and leave. I close the door behind me, my heart pounding in my chest.
She is mine. And whatever happens, whatever the outcome of the war with her father, there’s another war happening right here, between us.
One I intend to win.
13
LIESL
The lock clicks behind Andrei when he leaves, and I'm alone again.
My legs give out. I sink onto the edge of the bed, hands shaking, breath coming too fast. The room feels smaller than it did an hour ago. The walls closer. The air thinner.
His men want me dead.
The thought circles in my mind like a vulture. Some of them—how many? A few? Most of them?—think I'm a complication that needs to be eliminated. That killing me would solve Andrei's problems. That I'm making him weak.
That my father would stop if I were no longer a part of this. I think Andrei might be right when he says that’s not true. But at the same time, the man who is refusing to ransom me and instead looking to profit off of my captivity isn’t the man I believed my father was.
I don’t know what to believe any longer. I press my palms against my eyes, trying to stop the spinning in my head.
This is my fault. All of it. If I hadn't been walking down that street that day, if they'd grabbed the right woman, if myfather had just paid the ransom like a normal person instead of arming Andrei's enemies?—
No. That's not fair. I didn't ask to be kidnapped. I didn't ask for any of this.
But I did ask forhim.
I let him kiss me. Let him touch me. I let him inside my body and my head and every defense I thought I had. I convinced myself there was something human underneath all that violence. Something worth reaching for.
And now men are dead. Now there's a war. Now Andrei's own people are questioning his leadership because he won't kill me.
You're mine,he said. Like it was simple. Like claiming me solved everything. But it doesn't solve anything. It just makes everything worse.
I stand up and pace to the window. I press my forehead against the cool glass and close my eyes.
There has to be a way to fix this. There has to be something I can do that doesn't involve more death, more violence, more of Andrei's men questioning whether I'm worth keeping alive.
My father.If I could just talk to him directly. If I could make him understand that this war isn't necessary, that I’m more important than whatever he’s doing with this other boss, that there's a way out of this that doesn't end in blood?—
