“Why is he here?”
“We can’t speak freely.” He runs his hands through his hair. “Fuck, you’re not safe in here. The fucking cameras. And if anyone comes in here, if anyone knows you’re here…”
“Where am I safe?” I whisper.
He crosses the room to me and grabs my arms, pulling me to him. His blue eyes are alight with fire, his voice tight with emotion when he speaks. “With me. The only fucking place you’re safe is with me, because I’ll end anyone who comes near you. I’ll kill anyone who touches you. I’ll murder anyone who harms a hair on your head.” He yanks me to him fiercely and kisses the top of my head before he brings his mouth to my ear and whispers. “Your father is here. Your father was the one who orchestrated your abduction.”
“What?” I whisper. “No.” I had suspicions, but having them confirmed breaks something inside me.
“He owed a debt,” he says. He strokes his thumb along my cheek as if to soothe me. I begin to shake. “He was in league with your boyfriend, the fucking douchebag. It’s why I took you. It’s why we ran. And it’s why we can’t go anywhere freely, because the ties your father has run too deep. He would proclaim me guilty for abducting you, and I’d be killed. And I have to protect you.”
He’s more concerned with his inability to protect me than dying.
I rest my forehead on his chest, inhale deeply, then exhale. “What do we do?”
“We can’t hide anymore,” he says. “I’m done hiding. I want you to myself, Marissa. Everywhere we go, another danger threatens us, but I’m done. I will not spend the rest of my life hiding you.”
A chill washes over me at the tone of his voice.
Before he can speak again, the doorknob between the rooms jiggles. Nicolai has his gun drawn and cocked before it opens.
The door swings open, and I gasp. It’s my father.Chapter 22Nicolai
When I see Myron enter the room, the maniacal fury in his eyes, the need to kill him burns in me so fiercely, my finger trembles on the trigger.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” I warn him. “You come anywhere near her, and I’ll end you.”
“You fucking bastard,” Myron growls, prowling closer to her. I take a step toward him and he freezes, eyeing my gun with hatred and fear. “You stole my daughter.”
“I didn’t steal her,” I say. I remember the cameras in Tomas’s office. They’re trained on us now, and Myron doesn’t know. If I get him to confess everything, I could use this to my advantage. “I did not steal her,” I repeat. “I took her away from being abducted by your men.”
“Bullshit.”
I clench my jaw. I have to get him to say the truth. He takes another step toward us, and Marissa trembles against my chest.
I decide to take a different tactic. “It was brilliant, wasn’t it? You had the man you worked with ask her out. The one in league with you was the very man she told her secrets to. Kissed. Spent time alone with.”
Marissa brings her hand to her mouth.
He actually smiles. “It was brilliant, wasn’t it?”
“Such an effective means of getting the most money for your own daughter,” I state, loud and clear for the cameras to pick up everything. “So I tried to rescue her. I took her away from you so you wouldn’t sell her.”
“But it wasn’t good enough, was it?” Myron says.
He comes closer, and I cock my gun. “Take another step and you lose a knee cap.”
I fucking mean it, and he knows it. He stands still, his gun pointed at Marissa.
“Don’t you dare touch her,” I warn him.
“Like you have a claim on her now?”
“I do.”
“When I tell your precious pakhan what you’ve done, that you stole my daughter from me, he’ll order you killed,” he says with a twisted grin.
“I paid for her,” I say. “Every penny I owned. I bought her fairly. I own her.” And I do. I fucking do. I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and hold his gaze. “I just don’t understand why you sold her.”
He shrugs. “Needed to pay off a debt,” he says. Marissa cries quietly but holds her ground, facing her father.
“So you sold her into slavery and paid off your debt. I bought her fairly. And now you’re after me not because I took her but because you’re afraid I’ll out the truth.”
His fierce look and silence underscore the truth in my words.
“This is what we’re going to do,” I tell him. “We are going back out to where everyone is, and you’ll confess what happened.”
Myron laughs. “I’ll never admit it. I have witnesses that saw you take her.”
“The ones that tried to kill me?”
Myron smiles. “Of course. One came to me and told me you were here.” He shakes his head. “It’s just unfortunate that his lack of following orders meant he had to die. Just like you.”