In two, Checkmate.
I met his eye, trying to ignore Faye’s muffled argument with Pavel. That was her battle, and it was one she needed to fight on her own. I could not, and should not, help her after what she’d done. Even though it pained me.
Dima huffed a laugh, leaning over the board and studying it intently to search for options.
There were none.
“I’m impressed,” Dima said finally, moving his pawn with a casualness that spoke of just how little it mattered. He knew he’d already lost.
“Check,” I said, ignoring the way he never took his eyes off me. He moved another piece. Another distraction from the main game that would only buy him a single move of reprieve, and then I delivered the crushing blow, and what I had thought would wound his pride. “Checkmate.”
Instead of growing angry, he smiled at me and shook his head from side to side. “You are quite the little mystery, aren’t you, Kitten?”
“Not really.” I shrugged, leaning toward the table. His eyes slid down to the line of cleavage the position revealed, his jaw clenching as he realized he would either need to break his word and set the precedent for our future encounters where I would never make a bargain with him again, or sacrifice his first night with me within his grasp. “I’m actually very simple to understand.”
“And what is the key to this understanding,” Dima asked, leaning forward to hover with his face only inches from mine.
“I will not break,” I said, smiling at him sweetly. “Once you come to understand that? Then you’ll understand me.”
“Every woman has a breaking point,” he said.
“I believe that. Unfortunately for you, a greater man than you has tried and failed.” Dima began to respond, anger finally clouding his gaze.
“Alright, I’ll permit you to leave. I need you to find my diamonds, after all,” Pavel said. Silence filled the room, the shock of his concession striking me in the chest. Something was wrong, and the worry building in Faye’s face told me that she saw it too.
I pushed out my chair, moving to stand before I even realized what I’d done. Dima followed quickly, catching me in his arms when I took my first few steps to where they stood at the opposite end of the library. “Don’t get in the way,” he murmured, restraining me with arms wrapped around my torso and his low voice echoing in my ear.
Faye hurried back to Sacha. She rushed him to his feet and they made their way to the library doors. I hoped they’d be able to find their way to the closest city, but Pavel stood behind his desk as they approached the doors.
“Faye?” Pavel asked. Faye and Sacha froze, and Faye turned slowly to look back at him. “I never did understand why you needed a partner.”
“He handles the technology,” Faye said, her voice a quiet whisper as her dread rose to match mine. Her eyes turned pleading, and I watched with increasing horror as Pavel opened a drawer in his desk.
“Dimitry will handle that element of your operations from now on,” Pavel said, gesturing to the man on the other side of the desk who blinked in surprise.
“I don’t work for you. I need someone who I can trust to be impartial,” Faye said, turning to usher her brother forward in a hurry.
“You do now,” Pavel said. The gun went off, the sound so similar to the backfiring of my mother’s Toyota that I felt my heart stall in my chest with a pang from the memory. My ears rang, the room going still as time seemed to stop.
Blood splattered across the side of Faye’s face, the thump of the bullet embedding itself within Sacha’s neck seeming simultaneous to the streaks of red in the air.
He fell, dropping to his knees as his hand raised to cup his throat. Blood coated it, his hand disappearing in the endless torrent of red that poured from his wound.
“No!” Faye screamed, dropping to her knees on the bloodstained carpet at his side. She covered his hand with hers, frantically trying to stop the steady stream of blood. The back of her body obscured most of Sacha from my view, the sounds of her whimpered pleading as she tried to hold the blood in his body.
His hand fell away from his throat, hers pressing more tightly to the wound as his raised to touch her cheek so gently that my heart throbbed with pain watching it. He swayed to the side, and Faye fought to hold him upright, to keep him on his knees as he toppled to the side. She leaned over him, tears covering her entire face as her lips kept moving.
It took me a few more seconds to realize she wasn’t whispering to him, but singing softly as his eyes drifted closed and her lips trembled. Mine trembled in tune with hers, her hands shaking as she stood and stumbled.
She turned her tear-streaked face to Pavel, the glare in her light eyes haunting. They watched one another silently for a moment, her jaw clenching as she steeled her resolve.
She lunged, darting across the room with speed I hadn’t expected. Dimitry pushed to his feet quickly, grasping her around the waist and fighting to restrain her through the screaming rage. She kicked, elbowed, and punched him in rapid succession that compared only to what I’d seen from Rafael and Joaquin when they sparred. Dimitry met her for every strike, blocking and only trying to restrain her.
When she finally exhausted herself, he smoothed the hair back from her face and murmured to her gently despite his position as Pavel’s right-hand man. Something about the way he soothed her seemed odd, like most men who associated with a human trafficker wouldn’t have bothered. I watched the interaction in fascination, trying to keep my eyes off the still bleeding body of her dead brother next to their feet.
Maybe it was the knowledge that he would be responsible for managing Faye in the future that made him show her kindness where most men would not.
Maybe that made him even more twisted than the rest.