Dima came up behind me, settling his hands on my shoulders and pressing me forward with his chest at my spine. He guided my steps further into the room, until a few more paces would put me next to the wheelchair.
Dread filled my body, claiming it for itself. “Would you like to know what I hoped would become of Odina that day?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head and turning to the side as if I could escape what was coming. The answers I’d wanted since Rafe told me the truth felt like they were finally within my grasp, but I realized I didn’t need to understand the motivations of a cruel man. All I needed to know was that he enjoyed the suffering of others.
“I hoped she would become like Oleg,” he said, grasping the back of my neck and pushing me forward slowly. The side of the man’s face came into view as we made our way to the window and then turned to face him. He was an exact replica of Dima, an identical twin down to the most minute of facial features, except there was no life behind his eyes. No menace or darkness.
They were just...blank.
“This is what Odina was meant to be, because you and I are one and the same. I shoved Oleg beneath the water. I held him below the surface and watched his body thrash. I drowned him, just like you did Odina.”
“We are not the same,” I argued, spinning to glare at him. “I did not drown Odina.”
“Didn’t you? It was your choice that put her in that river. Just because you didn’t hold her down doesn’t make you any less culpable for what happened,” he said, raising an eyebrow and reaching up to stroke my jaw. “You have always been bloodthirsty, ??? ?????.”
“It was an accident. I didn’t mean for any of it to happen. You deliberately drowned your own brother! Why?” I asked, shaking my head from side to side. He stepped forward, backing me into the window at my spine until the cool glass pressed against every inch of revealed skin.
He leaned into me, folding his body over mine until his lips hovered just beside my ear. “He touched my favorite toy.”
“Your favorite...toy? How old were you?” I asked, turning my neck to meet his icy gaze.
“We were five,” he murmured, his full lips tipping into a smile as the breath stalled in my lungs. “So you see, my love, we were meant for one another. Even you must see it now.Youare the feminine version of me.”
“I’m not,” I gasped, shrinking back into the glass as his hand came to rest on my belly.
“You are, and when you’re ready to accept it, I’ll protect you from my father’s wrath. I’ll dispose of Karine, and if you behave for me, I’ll even let you keep that spawn for yourself,” he said, guiding his hand higher until his open palm cupped my breast in his grip. I grabbed his wrist, moving to tug it away, but he was too strong and the hand didn’t budge. “I may have been raised by Pavel, but I spent a great deal of time watching Miguel get everything he ever wanted from the women he took by using their children against them. We both know you will give meeverythingI ask for if I’m only patient enough. Once you realize that Rafael cannot save you, then you’ll give yourself to me.”
“Don’t touch me,” I snarled, earning a pinch to my nipple in response. He spun me to face the glass, my battered cheekbone colliding with the unforgiving surface and drawing a pained wince from me. He lifted the hem of my dress up while I struggled to slap his hands away, baring my underwear to Oleg’s gaze.
“Do you think he knows what sex is? Do you think he sits trapped inside his body and wishes he could feel your tight little cunt wrapped around his cock?”
“Stop it!” I yelled, wincing when he cracked his hand against my ass in warning. When Dima pressed his body tighter into mine, I did the only thing I could do to buy myself some time.
Time for a plan. Time for Rafael to come.
I whipped my head backward, cracking the back of my skull against his nose and finding pleasure in the sound of his pained grunt. He released me, stepping back as liquid splashed against the wood floors in small puddles. When I spun, he held his broken nose in his blood-covered hand. “Do. Not. Touch. Me,” I warned. “I swear to God I will cut every appendage from your body before I gut you.”
He took a step toward me, his face twisted in fury as he released his nose. His mouth was a bloody mess, his teeth stained with red.
Only the sound of the beeping control panel froze him in place, and then the sight of his father stepping into the room with a disgruntled sigh. “Your husband is demanding to see you,” he said, looking as if he was genuinely amused that I’d managed to harm his only remaining son.
I didn’t suppose I posed much of a threat.
“How?” I asked, panic flooding me. If they’d somehow captured him, I would never survive that loss.
“Come, girl.”