“Irina brought clothes. They’re in the dressing room.”
“Did she pick them, or did you?”
“I told her warm. Soft. Nothing that made you feel staged.”
My throat tightened before I could stop it. “That’s very specific.”
“The auction house dressed you for men to look at.” His voice lowered. “That will not happen under my roof.”
Under my roof.
The words should have grated.
They didn’t.
I stood, holding the robe closed. “And what happens under your roof?”
“Today?”
“Start there.”
“You eat. You speak to your brother again when it is safe. You tell me what you need. I keep Kask away from you while I end this.”
“End this how?”
His eyes went cold. “Permanently enough that he does not reach for you again.”
A chill moved over my arms.
I had asked. He had answered. I could not pretend I didn’t understand the shape of it.
“Do I get a say?”
“In what?”
“In what you do because of me.”
Vadim’s jaw moved once. “Because of you, I would burn men out of my city until the smoke taught the rest manners.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No. It is what I want to do. The answer is that you get the truth from me before I act where it affects you.”
“Before?”
“When time allows.”
I stared at him.
His mouth tightened. “I will not lie to make that sound softer.”
“Good. I’m tired of soft lies.”
He moved closer by one slow step. “Nadia.”
There was no command in it. No rough little order. Just my name, spoken like a hand held out.
I looked at his hand.
