“Why didn’t he just…take me?” I whisper.
“He said you had demons guarding you.”
Ivan raises his eyebrow. Of the names he’s been called, demon wouldn’t be the worst one. And he was guarding me. By sending his men to shadow me, he made sure I was safe. Watched over. Even when I ran away, he found me.
Does that make it okay, then, that he doesn’t let me leave?
Sarah Elizabeth presses her face almost into the pillow, as if ashamed. “He said he was going to draw her out. He would call her home. And I—I’m so sorry. I wanted him to. I thought when he got you back, he would want you enough that he would leave me alone. I’m sorry.”
“Who did he send?” Ivan asks.
“My brother. My brother, Alex. He’s never been… never been quite right. Something was always off about him. It was some kind of test Leader Allen sent him on, but the last time he left, he didn’t come back.”
She’s crying by the end of it, sobbing into the pillow. She looks so small curled up on the bed, her wrists and ankles still bound, helpless. Of course she would want him to leave her alone.
“Thank you,” Ivan says gently. Then he turns to Luca, “She’s all yours.”
I follow him into the spacious living area of the suite. “What does that mean? She’s all yours?”
Ivan pours himself a drink. “It means exactly what it sounds like. He can decide what to do with her. She shot him.”
My mouth is open because I can’t quite comprehend this. Even as harshly as he’s treated me, the way he’s dragged me back, the truth is that I always wanted it. This is different. Sarah Elizabeth doesn’t want anything Luca would do to her. And she only shot him because she was afraid. “You have to let her go now. She told you what you wanted to know.”
He takes a sip from the crystal-cut glass. “I never said I’d release her.”
It enrages me, the way he moves people around like we’re dolls in cardboard houses. He has no respect for her—and none for me. In one fast motion, I knock the cup out of his hand. Amber liquid flies through the air and splashes against the cotton-white rug. The crystal glass lands noiselessly on top of it, then rolls onto the marble floor.
Ivan looks at the spilled alcohol, as remote as ever. He takes a step toward me, and I can’t help but shrink back. Of course he catches me. He catches me by the chin, his thumb and forefinger holding me still with that single point of contact.
His eyes are frigid as he stares at me. “He wants her. I’m sure you could tell. You always did know how to read men. Allen taught you that much at least.”
I flinch. “It’s not right,” I whisper.
He places a tender kiss on my forehead. “I reward loyalty, little one. You would do well to remember that. Now go stand in the corner until I feel like spanking your pretty ass for spilling my drink.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The last times I tried to run, the odds were against me. A lesser man might not have been able to find me at all—and definitely not as quickly as Ivan. He has a web that includes dirty cops, kingpins, and good old-fashioned paid informants.
Of course, that was in Tanglewood.
We aren’t there right now. Ivan still has money and weapons. Not to mention that intimidating, persuasive charm. He will be able to track me better than most men, but not like he could back home. No one in this city even knows who I am. They definitely aren’t going to call him in a twisted version of bros before hos. There will be no GPS to track, not on a random cab that he’ll never be able to find.
Ivan owns every piece of hay in the haystack that is Tanglewood, so finding this needle was easy for him. But here…God, here. We can get lost here. Never to be found.
Food arrives under silver-domed lids on a wheeled cart. The bellhop takes one look at Ivan and Luca and starts sweating. He’s gone the second the tip hits his palm.
The dining table seats exactly four people: Ivan. Luca. Myself. And an angry Sarah Elizabeth with her wrists rubbed red. At least Luca untied her for dinner. I’m not sure I could have even gone along with the false decorum if she had been tied up, hands behind her back while Luca fed her.
As it is, I’m the picture of a flirty hostess. I bring each plate to the table and open it with a flourish. “What would you like to drink?” I ask Ivan.
The look he gives me isn’t fooled for a second. I have years of experience fooling men. Ooh, that’s so interesting. I’d love to hear more. You’re my favorite client. They eat that shit up. Ivan just gives me a measured look. The same look all his enemies get, because that’s all I am. Not a beloved wife or even a cherished lover. I’m someone to bend to his will. All he’s doing now is waiting for me to reveal a weakness.
I smile. “A gin and tonic?”
“A bottle of the wine for the table,” he says, and he’s definitely suspicious. He would prefer a gin and tonic over merlot any day. He stands and retrieves a bottle from the bar, along with a bottle opener. I sit down, as serene as ever.
He will never see me sweat. Never see me hesitate. He taught me too well for that. Ivan’s lessons were very different than Leader Allen’s, but they were lessons nonetheless. Leader Allen wanted me to be a subservient, eager follower. Ivan wants me to be a brat, someone he can correct. In the end, what both of them taught me was how to mold myself into whatever a man wants. I do it so well that I think there’s nothing left of me. I don’t know what I’d be like without a man to please, without someone’s command to fight or obey.
It’s the woman Ivan wants who sits at the table, submissive except for the private moments where he wants a reason to punish me. He knows me well enough to know it’s a game. That knowledge won’t help him, though. Not tonight.
Sarah Elizabeth barely touches her food, but I eat everything on my plate. We’ll stop for food only when it’s convenient, not when we’re hungry. I can’t tell her that. So we eat in relative silence. The only breaks are when Ivan and Luca murmur over their plans, a limo ride we’ll never take and a plane we’ll never catch.
Luca doesn’t eat at all. He looks fatigued, the lines of his face drawn tight with pain. He won’t take any pain medication because that would make him fall asleep. That’s fine by me. Now I don’t have to worry that I’ll overdose him.
My chance comes right after dinner.
“I think I’ll have that gin and tonic,” Ivan says to me.
“Of course.” His wineglass is only half empty. I stand with a demure smile. “Luca?”
His dark gaze flicks to Sarah Elizabeth and then away. “Sure, why not.” Then under his breath, “What else would a lowlife thug do but drink.”
I can’t help but smile at that. It sounds like Sarah Elizabeth has been giving as good as she’s getting.
Mixing the drinks only takes a few minutes.
Slipping it in the drinks takes a half second—and a flick of my wrist.
Waiting for the drugs to work…now, that does test my patience. Partly because I know Ivan will understand what I’ve done in the seconds before he passes out. Of course he would figure it out when he woke up to find me gone anyway, but somehow it’s those first seconds before that worry me most. It will be a true betrayal, in the way that running away never was.
The vial had been gone from the nightstand, stowed safely in Ivan’s trousers. So I did what I’ve done for years. I traded my body for what I needed. I let him spank me and fuck me. I gave him a good show, and when he was too sated with climax to notice, when he’d let his guard down the way he could only do for me, I stole the little bottle.
I see the moment recognition passes over his face, cutting through the chemical-induced exhaustion. His gaze flits to mine. There’s a slight incline of his head that might be an acknowledgment of what I’ve done. Or it might be goodbye.
Or it might just be the drugs taking effect, dragging him into unconsciousness. His large body slumps to the floor with a sickening thud.