Page 43 of Maddening Fixation

Let them feel the terror I’d carried every single day inside Ravencliff.

Medved slowly rose to his feet.

His hands were drenched in Sergei’s blood.

His face had twisted into something almost animal.

Without warning, he lunged across the table.

Before anyone could react, he seized Yarina by the arm and yanked her violently from her chair.

She cried out in surprise.

A silver dinner knife flashed into his hand.

He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and pressed the blade tightly against her throat.

“Nobody move!”

The room froze.

Yarina stiffened but refused to scream.

Her breathing quickened, yet her chin remained lifted.

Those dark Russian eyes found mine across the table.

Medved’s grip tightened around Yarina.

The knife pressed deeper against the delicate skin of her throat.

A thin crimson line bloomed beneath the blade.

Then a single drop of blood escaped, tracing a slow path down the graceful curve of her neck.

Something inside me splintered.

My heartbeat became a deafening roar, pounding so violently in my ears that every other sound faded into nothingness.

Of course he knew.

I had never been able to hide what Yarina meant to me.

Not from my family.

Not from men who had spent years studying every weakness they could exploit.

Even after a decade...

They knew exactly where to sink the knife.

And this time, they hadn’t aimed for my body.

They had aimed for my heart.

Medved laughed bitterly.

“So...”