“I did visit you.”
My head snaps in his direction. “You did? When?”
“It was the middle of the night. While you were sleeping.” There’s a moment's silence, then he murmurs, “I had to see for myself that you were okay.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
I hear Misha move, then the panel’s taken down. With a wide smile, he holds his hand out to me. I take hold of it and let him help me out.
When I’m standing in front of him, he says, “You did good today. I’m very proud of you,moy malen'kiy olen'.”
Glancing at the crate, I admit, “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”
“Same time tomorrow.”
Scrunching my nose, I mutter, “Yay me.”
As I walk away from the crate, I feel a sense of achievement. For the first time since I was a toddler, I didn’t lose my shit from being in a small space.
With a bit of luck and a lot of sweat, I might just be able to overcome this fear.
Chapter 26
Misha
I’m not going to lie, I’m fucking worried.
I haven’t heard whether Viktor is willing to talk with me. For all I know, he’s planning my death.
Christ.
I’ve been distracted the past four days, and Aurora’s noticed.
To make matters worse, I’m no longer training her in combat class. Instructor Nikolai feels she’s on par with the other attendees.
Every time I lay eyes on her, she has a new bruise somewhere on her body.
I fucking hate it.
At least I can still spend time with her during the evading and escaping kidnapping lessons.
She’s able to stay in a crate alone for over ten minutes, and there are no words to describe how fucking proud I am of her.
When I walk into the warehouse, and my eyes lock on my woman, it feels like I can breathe easier.
I head over to where she’s standing with the group and say, “Come on, D’Angelo. Time to shove you into a small space.”
She struggles not to smile, and the second we’re out of hearing distance, she says, “You look stressed.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Mr. Petrov!” One of the guards shout. My head snaps in his direction. “You have a call in Director Koslov’s office. It’s important.”
“Abbie,” I call. “Work with Aurora until I’m back.”
Abbie jogs toward me. “You don’t have to ask me twice. What do I do?”
“Just sit with her in a crate.”