Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Just gray.
I fall limp in his arms when he pulls me toward him and begins to undress me. With the prospect of more bad weather ahead, the fight has gone out of me. Something bad is coming. I can feel it.
Nikolai drapes the beige fabric over my head and zips it in the back. But it does little to conform to the shape of my body. It’s merely a loose, shapeless sack he’s dressed me in. Ugly and unflattering, the way he must see me.
“Shoes.”
The shoes dangling from his fingers are flats. Cheap and plain to match the dress. And just as before, he is the one to put them on. Kneeling before me, he shoves each foot into the uncomfortable canvas.
He resurrects himself, and his eyes stare through me. “Now we go downstairs.”
“Please don’t make me, Nikolai. Not like this.”
I don’t have a scrap of makeup on. My hair isn’t even brushed. Shame is welling up inside me, and I am horrified that he would want to present me to anybody in this state. But his only response is to wrench me by the arm and drag me from the room.
My resistance has returned, and I battle him every step of the way, desperate to avoid whatever’s coming. Halfway down the stairs, he pauses, arresting my face with uncompromising fingers.
“Understand this, Nakya. If you step out of bounds tonight, you will only have yourself to blame for what happens next. Should the pakhan decide you are better off passed around as amusement for the brothers, there won’t be a thing I can do to save you.”
Fear paralyzes my throat, and I can’t breathe. I can’t even move. Because this time, he is not a liar. The leader of his mafiya is coming here tonight. The man who Nikolai answers to. The man who might, in fact, decide my fate.
I wanted to believe I was safe here. I even foolishly fell for the notion that I might be able to trust this man. But that trust was misplaced. As powerful as Nikolai might be, he is not in control. Yet he is the only hope I have. I must do what he tells me, and I must believe that there is still humanity inside him. He won’t let those animals take me. He will fight on my behalf to keep me alive.
Once he sees the acceptance on my face, he lurches me forward again. Already, I can hear the voices of our guests. But before we reach them, we are met by another man at the bottom of the stairs. He is young, perhaps younger than me. And even though he bears the Vory tattoos, his features are not as harsh as my captor’s.
“Nakya, this is Mischa,” Nikolai introduces us. “You will go with him and do whatever he says.”
I’m passed off without a second thought, and Nikolai abandons me to the stranger as he walks down the hall.
“Come with me,” Mischa says. “We’ll go into the sitting room.”
I follow him on wooden legs. It doesn’t feel right. I think I might be sick, but then it occurs to me I haven’t eaten lunch today. That alone should have alerted me to the dangers lurking ahead this evening. Since the removal of the tube, Nikolai has been regimental about my meals. Every day without fail, they are delivered at the same time, and I’m not permitted to do anything else until my meal is finished.
But today he forgot. Just as he has forgotten about me.
A thought that’s only compounded when he parades another woman into the main room. Only woman isn’t really accurate. She is still a girl. Barely out of her teens, judging by her baby-faced features. Regardless of her age, there’s no mistaking her superiority. Nikolai refuses to divert his attention from her or the man at his side for even a second. Intuition dictates that this is the pakhan.
The men speak in their mother tongue, and the girl takes too much liberty allowing her starry eyes to roam Nikolai’s face. Her cheeks are pale and pink, her face hopeful and naïve as she hangs on every word. Nikolai says something that makes her laugh, and he smiles at her. I can’t recall him ever smiling at me. I can’t look away from the horror show, even though I know I should. She is too innocent to hate, but I do. I hate her almost as much as I hate him.
“His fiancée,” Mischa says. “Anastaysia.”
Acid burns the back of my throat, and another wave of nausea rolls over me. It can’t be true.
“They are engaged?”
Mischa nods. “Soon, it will be official. Nika is lucky, it’s an honor many men would kill for. She’s a beautiful girl, isn’t she?”
I can’t say a word in her favor. I’m sure she is beautiful, but all I see is the vile creature stealing what doesn’t belong to her. It doesn’t make sense for me to feel this way. Not when he continues to throw me away at every opportunity.