I’ll be breaking it soon enough.
Pet curls in my lap. I toy with her hair and whisper, “Did you mean to leave me, Pet?”
She shifts, turning her face up toward me though she can’t see through her blindfold. “Yes, I did. It was that or murder you in your sleep.”
I give a humorless laugh. “And now, do you wish you had run?”
“Sometimes.”
I press a kiss to her hair, and trace my fingers lazily up and down her spine. “Me too.”
She should have run. She should have fled as fast as she could, because soon we’re both going to regret that she didn’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ares
Later, when Pet’s soundasleep, I steal out of her room and walk through the house, finding my brother in the surveillance room. He’s going through old footage of my time with Pet in her cell. Pausing, rewinding, and freeze-framing the camera outside, the one positioned by the greenhouse.
“What the fuck is this?” I demand.
“You tell me, Brother.”
“You don’t trust me.” It isn’t a question. I know my twin better than anyone. We shared a womb, and I can read him like a book. The problem with that is he can read me too, just as well.
“You’re too fucking close to her.” He shakes his head, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up. “I should have seen it all along. I should have vetoed this shit the second you suggested it. How many times did you watch her dance before we took her?”
“Enough to know that a pretty little ballerina like her is worth a fuckload at auction. Enough to know we’d finally have a slave worthy of bringing down Vladik.”
He exhales the smoke, filling the space between us with the foul, putrid stench. “Bullshit. Have you forgotten why we do this? Have you thought aboutherat all? Even once?”
“I know what’s at stake.”
“Then I suggest you try to distance yourself from your little Pet, because it’s almost time, and I don’t need to tell you that if this goes south, it won’t just be Vladik that you will be running from.”
“Get the fuck out, and let me do my job,” I say through my teeth.