I kept watching him anyway.
He crossed the auction room without hurry, which made every step worse.
Dark hair. Broad shoulders. Cold eyes fixed on Gennady. A charcoal overcoat hung open over his suit, and one black leather glove was clenched in his left hand like he’d taken it off on the way in and forgotten he held it.
Chairs stopped scraping. The men nearest the aisle looked down at their drinks. Security shifted, then stopped. The auctioneer went pale.
Gennady turned from the stage. “This has nothing to do with you.”
The man stopped in front of him. “Move away from her.”
His voice was calm. That was the frightening part. He didn’t shout. He didn’t rush. He spoke like the room had already obeyed and simply needed to catch up.
Gennady’s smile came back in pieces. “The sale is finished.”
“Not for you.”
“You can’t walk in after the hammer and take what I bought.”
“She isn’t leaving with you.”
The auctioneer stepped from behind the podium, hands raised slightly. “Gentlemen, there are procedures—”
One of the men who had entered behind the stranger moved fast.
The auctioneer hit the podium hard enough to rattle the microphone.
“Stay quiet,” the man said.
The auctioneer stayed quiet.
Gennady took one step toward the stage.
The stranger caught him by the front of his jacket and drove him back against the stage edge.
Gennady’s expensive shoes slipped on the polished floor. His hands grabbed at the man’s wrist, and his face went red with shock.
A sound tore out of me before I could stop it.
The stranger looked up.
His eyes found mine.
The room dropped away for one breath.
He was terrifying. He was beautiful in the way a locked door was beautiful when something worse was behind you. His face was hard, cut in sharp lines, with cold gray eyes and a mouth that looked like it had never begged anyone for anything.
He saw my bare feet. He saw Gennady’s hand on the stage edge below me. His jaw tightened, and his grip on Gennady’s jacket went white at the knuckles.
I stepped back.
Then Gennady laughed, ugly and sharp. “Look at her. She knows. Same sale, different man.”
I understood enough.
Gennady wanted me to think this man had come to collect me too.
The stranger’s fist hit Gennady’s mouth.
