“She’s mostly unharmed,” Pavel said, turning over to study the lines of Isa’s profile as a tear broke free from the welling moisture in her eyes. It trailed down her cheek, breaking a part of my soul as I watched it and was powerless to do nothing to convince her that it was all a ploy.
I loved her with every part of me, with all the pieces I’d thought dead and gone years before I saw her. If I hadn’t yet convinced her of that, at the very least, then I’d failed as her husband long before I’d trusted the wrong people and allowed her to be hurt.
“But as you can see, my son is already quite partial to her. I don’t think he’s in any rush to return his new toy,” Pavel went on to say. “Especially not when he’s only just begun to play with her.”
“Has he touched you?” I asked, the words sounding sharper than I intended. I needed to know, even though I understood it would matter very little in the coming events. All that mattered was Isa’s healing, with the trauma she might have endured. The irony of that coming from me after everything I’d put her through wasn’t lost on me, and a moment of regret threatened to consume me.
When I had her back, things would be different. When I had her back, she wouldknowthat she was the center of my universe.
When I had her back, she would understand her place in my life and that everything I’d done hadn’t been to tear her down. But to show her how strong she was on the other side of everything she’d believed she needed to become.
“He tried,” Isa answered, grasping his hand in her grip and tugging until he removed it from her stomach. “I broke his fucking face.”
Pride welled in me, and the satisfied nod didn’t seem like enough. Even in the face of what had to be terrifying for her, my wife was unbroken.
She hadn’t even bent.
A queen knelt only for the man she chose, for the one who deserved her submission. Thatwould never be Dima Kuznetsov, no matter how he tried to force her hand.
There was beauty in submission that came from a woman who gave it of her own free will in the end. Isa may have been my captive physically, but she’d becomemi reinabecause of her own choices.
“You must know this will not end well,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “What do you want for her safe return?”
Pavel grinned, his mouth twisting in pleasure as he leaned to the side and cut off my view of Isa. “You. That will do just fine.”
The screen went black as he ended the call, and even though it hadn’t been anything less than I expected, I swept the laptop off the desk in my rage. Jakob moved from his place, jumping back when I shoved the heavy antique desk with my foot and sent it tipping over.
“Tell them we’re moving within the hour. I will personally hunt down anyone who isn’t ready when I’m finished with the Kuznetsovs.” He nodded in response to the order, moving to see the message conveyed.
Picking up his desk chair and hurling it into the window on the opposite side of the room, something in me soothed as the glass shattered. Still, I kept going. Destroying every last inch of his office without feeling the slightest bit of guilt.
Considering what his ignorance had caused, I hoped the man died in Russia.