Natalia rolls her eyes. “Nothing like that. It’s the library.” She opens the door to reveal a room even more opulent than the rest of the house. Onyx marble shines at my feet, flowing to countless bookshelves stretched to the ceiling. Despite the size of the space, cozy reading nooks abound.
“Andrei had it renovated recently. Designed it himself. What do you think?”
I’m literally too stunned to speak.
Original fine art covers the walls. Bold abstract pieces beside classical paintings, and a few pop art pieces thrown in for whimsy. The walls are an art historian’s dream and I should know. Art is my obsession. It was what I wanted to study—what I wanted to be—before life got in the way.
As Natalia draws me farther into the room, I can smellhisscent, faint wood smoke and sandalwood. My body reacts on its own accord, heat surging through my core.
“Are you all right?” Natalia lays a hand on my shoulder.
“Yes, all good.” I flash her a smile. “This room is incredible. I’m a big fan of libraries… and art.”
She nods. “So is Andrei. Feel free to borrow any books of interest. It’s stocked as well as the New York Public Library.”
While I would love nothing more than to take her up on her offer, I can’t let myself get seduced by my surroundings. Natalia might be gracious, but I’m still a prisoner here and I should be actively trying to escape—starting with figuring out where we are. I make my way over to the picture window near the far side of the room, but the view doesn’t tell me much more than we are somewhere secluded.
“Are we still in New York State?” I ask point blank.
“So many questions,” she clucks. “All you need to know is that you are safe here.”
“Safe!” I wonder for a moment if she’s a bit off her rocker. “We must have very different definitions of the word safe.” Being locked up in the home of a menacing mob boss iswayoutside of my definition. “Don’t you think it’s messed up that I’m being kept here against my will?”
“My job is not to question,” she says, her voice tinged with steel. “If Andrei wants you here, there’s a reason.”
“If you say so.” I roll my eyes. She’s drunk on the Kozlov Kool-Aid.
She looks down at the phone in her hand. “Andrei just messaged. He’s on his way back to the estate and he wants to see you. He’ll meet you here.”
My body flushes cold and hot, unable to settle on a reaction—nerves and excitement warring inside me. I seem to have developed a warped fascination with his smell, magnetic smile, and golden eyes.
This is not good.
As she leaves the room, I swallow to get rid of the sudden dryness in my throat.
I knew what Oleg wanted from me, but Andrei is a different beast. His dark pull is all-encompassing and I can already feel myself drowning.
Chapter6
ANDREI
I spend the next day in tense meetings with my men evaluating the fall-out from the Antonov attack. Oleg has gone underground for now—licking his wounds and planning a counter-attack—but we need to be ready when he emerges. We only have a few weeks at most before shit hits the fan. We are on the verge of a mafia war, and that’s always bad for business.
After I give everyone their marching orders, my men file out of the office, everyone except for Daniil and Leo. Leo takes the chair across from me, while Daniil stays planted on the couch against the wall, resting his ankle casually across his opposite knee like a spoiled prince, a retractable pen between his fingers that he’s mindlessly clicking. If it was anyone else, I would have shot him by now.
“Would you cut that out?” I lean my elbows on the table and rub my pounding temples.
“What? I’m thinking. This is how I think,” he says, all fake innocence. Daniil is the middle brother and he fucking acts like it, always vying for attention. Unlike Leonid, the youngest of us brothers. He’s the low-key one, keeping his cards close to his chest until he’s ready to throw down.
I grit my teeth and flick my gaze towards Daniil. “By being annoying as hell?”
He stops for a second and looks up at me. “I’d ask what crawled up your ass, but I know the answer to that.”
I lift my eyebrows. “Care to explain?”
He makes a humming noise. “Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary.”
Georgia. The woman that haunted my dreams last night.