Smoothing my hand over my blazer, I head toward the office.
“You’re back,” Jimmy says, grinning from behind the desk.
Just like Henry, Jimmy’s one of those guys on the dock who I was close to. He’s about sixty, with ginger hair and one of the most contagious smiles around here.
I smile back at him, maybe even wider than I should, because I’m not just happy to see him. I’m so excited to havesome of my old life back that it takes a good amount of discipline for me to not be jumping all over the place.
“Miss me?”
He curves his thumb and index fingers until they’re almost touching. “Only a little.”
We both laugh before I move toward the inventory station. The routine I’m used to comes back quickly. I check manifests, confirm arrivals, review charter schedules, and answer emails.
Three hours fly by quickly, and I barely even notice because I completely lose myself in the work, grateful for something ordinary in the middle of all the extraordinary going on.
Around noon, I leave the office to verify inventory on one of the incoming yachts.
The marina is busier than I remember. Tourists drift down the docks, crew members haul supplies, and delivery trucks come and go through the service entrance near the fuel station.
Nobody pays much attention to the trucks, and I can’t believe that in all the months I worked here before, I never noticed them.
My gaze lingers on one truck as it disappears beyond the gates.
For the first time since arriving this morning, I find myself wondering how difficult it would be to leave not just the marina, but Leonid as well.
I could sneak right into one of the delivery trucks and let it drive me straight out to freedom, but the thought lasts only a second before his warning echoes through my head.
Don’t try to run, or I can’t promise your parents or best friend will be safe.
My stomach knots and a wave of nausea climbs up my throat.
Damn him.
There’s a chance he was bluffing, but knowing the kind of man he is and how terrifying he can be, I know the chances are very, very slim that he won’t keep his promise.
I think of Audrey and my parents, dead with blood dripping from gunshot wounds while Leonid glares down at their lifeless bodies, and my blood curdles.
No.
I’m not willing to risk their lives for my freedom, at least not until I find a way to get us all away from him safely.
Or maybe I’m making excuses because I truly don’t want to escape him.
I force my attention back to work and continue toward the yacht until Leonid appears with Artem and one other guy by his side.
I steal a glance at myhusband. He’s wearing another tailored black suit with a white dress shirt. His face is blank, his steel gray eyes cold with that murderous glare I’ve seen him use with everyone but me.
He’s sinfully handsome, with a strong jaw that’s sharp enough to cut stone. Under different circumstances, I’m sure I would’ve fallen in love with him at first sight—instead I tripped over that love and only got insanely attracted to a psychopathic man who thinks I’m his property.
I think I’m even more of a psychopath than he is, because for some reason, butterflies spread their wings in my stomach whenever I think about how possessive he was during our wedding.
It’s like a stupid teenage fantasy.
The hot villain every girl wants is possessive of me, and I’m the luckiest girl alive—at least that’s what I used to find hotin superhero movies. I always hated how the heroes got the girls when the villains were way hotter.
Now that’s become my real life, and I’m not sure if it’s a pretty experience.
His head moves and I quickly look away, pretending I’m drowned in work, like I haven’t spent the last couple of minutes ogling him and wondering what he looks like beneath that suit.
