Chapter Fourteen
LYLA VOZNESENSKY
“Did you say, ‘Voznesensky’?” The change in him was instantaneous. Lukyan’s body went still as stone, his voice cold, calculating. Not a hint of that boyish, playful charm I’d come to love about him.
I knew it was going to happen. Expected it. Prepared for it, even. And yet, it didn’t make it any easier, knowing we’d probably just taken a step back in our relationship.
I held my head up high, though, refusing to let it break me. “Yes. My father orchestrated the attack against your family ten years ago.”
“Your father killed my mother,” he snarled, eyes burning with hatred.
“And your father killed my entire family. I think that makes us even, wouldn’t you say?”
“Far from it,” he hissed. “My mother was beaten, tortured, raped, and left naked in a dirty, rotten building to die all on her own.”
A sliver of guilt cut through me at the sadness tainting his voice.
It was irrational for me to feel. I wasn’t responsible for the sins of my father, but I still felt bad.
Lukyan would have been twelve or thirteen when he lost his mother.
I couldn’t help but picture that little boy…
How sad he must have been when he realized what had happened.
“And your father crept into my house in the middle of the night, murdered my mother, my father, my uncle, and then dumped me and my brother off in some orphanage like we were trash,” I countered.
“Is that why you’ve kidnapped me? Why I’m here? To enact some kind of revenge on my family?”
I scoffed. “No.” I wasn’t as upset about that as I ought to be.
The truth of it was, my family were assholes.
My father liked to beat me when I wouldn’t follow his rules, and my mother was always too drunk or too high to notice.
Or maybe she did notice, and just didn’t give a shit.
That tracked. Either way, neither of them were winning Parent of the Year awards.
If I was being honest, the Bratva Butcher had done me a favor when he killed them. I hated my parents.
Lev, on the other hand, adored them. But he had a different experience with them than I did.
He was the firstborn son, after all. The legacy.
He got all the love, and I got all the hate.
Lev wasn’t blind to it. He’d witnessed the beatings I’d endured over the years, all because I said or did something our father didn’t like.
And although he loved me, my brother never once tried to intervene.
Never tried to save me from our father’s wrath.
He would just come to me afterwards and help clean up the blood.
So, no. I didn’t give a shit that Dimitri had killed them.
A sad, disappointed sigh left my lips at the look on Lukyan’s face. The anger. The disgust. The hatred. He hated me, and it broke my heart. “Maybe we should call it a night. It’s been a long twenty-four hours. I’m sure you could use some rest.”
He said nothing. I much preferred his anger over his indifference. Although I wasn’t responsible for my father’s actions, I was still to blame in Lukyan’s eyes.
I got to my feet and wiped my hands down the front of my dress. “Cedric.” He walked in from the foyer and stopped behind Lukayn’s chair, hands behind his back. “Take Lukyan to his room, please. See that he has everything he needs.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He placed a hand on Lukyan’s shoulder. “Are you going to give me any trouble?”
His head rolled along his shoulders, and he glanced up at Cedric, cool, calm, and collected. “Nope,” he said, popping the p.
I’d watched Lukyan for long enough to know he was talking out of his ass. He had every intention of causing trouble. He wouldn’t be Lukyan without it.
But I was curious, so I let it play out.
Cedric pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and dropped to one knee. He unlocked the cuffs around Lukyan’s ankles first, then stood back up and unlocked the ones around his wrists. First the left, then the right—
Lukyan sprang up, lithe and agile like a cat, one hand on the armrest as he swung his leg up and around to kick Cedric in the side of the head.
My eyebrows rose. Impressive.
Cedric went down, and Lukyan bolted out of the room without a glance back.
I blew out a sigh and took my seat back at the head of the table. I picked up my glass of wine and leaned back, taking small sips, letting the alcohol swirl around in my mouth before swallowing it.
Hmm. The sweetness becomes a bit much. Should have gone with the red.
Not even five seconds later, Lukyan came running back into the room. He locked eyes with me for the briefest moment before bolting to the window on my right. It was covered with beautiful sheer curtains. He flung them open and cursed.
Behind the glass was the same thing he would have seen over the front door.
A steel roller.
They were over every inch of the house, effectively turning it into a prison. The only way to retract them was with a twenty-four-digit code only I knew.
I popped a potato into my mouth as I watched him run from room to room, checking every window, every door, looking for some way to escape. I stayed exactly where I was, continuing to eat, completely unperturbed.
I’d spared no expense in turning this house into exactly what I needed to ensure not only Lukyan’s safety, but that he would be mine forever. There would never be any escape.
Lukyan burst back into the room, slightly out of breath. Blue eyes burning with fire snapped to me. “Let me the fuck out of here,” he thundered.
“You know I can’t do that, my love,” I said calmly, using my knife and fork to cut a piece of meat into smaller pieces.
“Now, I know you’re upset. Like I said, it’s been a stressful twenty-four hours for you.
You’ve been through a lot. Had a lot of information thrown at you in such a short amount of time.
Why don’t you just go upstairs and get some rest—”
With a swipe of his arm, he threw half the contents on the table onto the floor. “I don’t want to rest! Let me out of here right fucking now, or I swear to God, I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“Kill me and you’ll never get out of here. A twenty-four-digit code is required to lift the lockdown, and only I know it. That’s over sixteen million possible combinations. You’ll die of starvation and dehydration long before you can guess the right one.”
He thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “Fine.” He picked up one of the knives from the floor. “Then I’ll cut it out of you.”
Excitement sizzled down my spine. I put down my knife and fork and unfolded my legs slowly, eloquently, and got to my feet, an eager and wicked smirk on my lips. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
He blinked, momentarily shocked, before he smirked back, fire dancing in his eyes, and then he lunged. I ducked under the swipe of his knife and kicked my leg up as I leaned forward, hitting him in the face. He grunted, stumbling back on his feet, but quickly recovered, charging again.
It was a little unfair. Lukyan was at a slight disadvantage.
I’d spent over a year and a half studying him.
I watched him for hours when he sparred with his siblings, learning how his body moved.
His favorite maneuvers. It made avoiding his strikes not necessarily easy, but it gave me a little bit of an edge.
I twisted and turned, ducked and weaved, evaded and blocked. We moved around the room, him attacking, me evading, like a beautiful dance between two lovers. Slice, duck. Stab, twist. Slash, pivot. Round and round we went.
“How the fuck are you so fast?” he grunted out in annoyance, swinging again.
“I’ve spent my whole life avoiding people. Gotten pretty good at it.”
“Nah, bullshit.” He swiped high in a fast, powerful arc, and I jumped back, narrowly avoiding it. “The way you move. Graceful. Fluid. You a dancer?”
“Maybe.” I gave him my best come hither eyes. “Want me to dance for you?”
The grin on his lips made my whole body shiver.
He didn’t respond, but I knew what the answer would be if he did.
He could try to deny it all he wanted, but I knew him.
Knew he liked that kind of shit. Liked crazy, unpredictable moves.
Liked that I was so deranged he had no idea what the fuck I was going to do.
“You can’t keep me locked up here forever.”
“I don’t need forever. I just need long enough for you to realize you can’t live without me.”
Cedric stirred, groaning. Time to put an end to this. There would be hell to pay when he regained consciousness, and I didn’t want to have to deal with talking him down while also keeping my eyes on Lukyan.
Switching things up surprised Lukyan because I’d primarily been on the defensive.
He wasn’t expecting it, which was exactly what I was anticipating.
With a burst of speed that had him widening his eyes, I darted forward, faked left, went right, twirled around him until I was at his back, and then leaped onto him, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck in a textbook choke hold.
“I’m sorry, my love. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He rasped, struggling to breathe, his body thrashing. His arms came up and gripped my shoulders, and then he threw me over him and slammed me down onto the table.
Fuck. The strength it took to do that. Jesus Christ.
We fought, him trying to pin my arms down, and me trying desperately to keep them out of his grasp.
In the end, his strength won out, and he slammed my arms down, hands clasped tightly around my wrists.
He was between my legs, his body bent over mine, chest heaving.
My heart raced in my chest. He was so close, the adrenaline soaring through my veins making me hyperaware of every place our bodies intersected.
“Tell me the code,” he bit out harshly, staring me down.
“Why? You don’t want to leave as much as I don’t want you to leave.”
“You don’t know shit about me!”
I stretched forward, ignoring the bite of pain in my arms that the movement caused, until our faces were a mere breath away from each other’s.
“I know everything about you, Lukyan,” I murmured softly.
“I know you hide that smart, creative brain behind that idiot persona you like to put on. I know you dumb yourself down so people underestimate you. I know all you want is to prove yourself to your family and have them see you for who you truly are. I know you hide your heart behind a wall of sleazy jokes and inappropriate comments. I know you have a happy personality, but a sad soul. And most importantly of all, I know all you want is for someone to love you for exactly who you are, flaws and all.”
Shock registered across Lukyan’s face. His hold loosened slightly.
I used it to my advantage and wedged my legs between us, planted my feet against his chest, and pushed.
He flew back. I jumped up and ran for him, reaching into my pocket.
I pulled out the pen, ducked under a powerful swing of his arms, darted forward, jammed the pen into his neck, and retreated just as quickly.
“What the fuck?” he hissed, stumbling back. His eyes grew wide. Angry. He took a step forward and swayed. “What—”
“I’m sorry, my love. Sleep. Rest. We’ll talk soon.”
“What did…you…do…” Lukyan’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he dropped, passed out.
I looked down at the tranq pen in my hand.
I didn’t want to use it. I had hoped we could have a calm, rational discussion.
Of course, I should have known that wouldn’t happen.
Still, a girl could dream. Guilt wormed its way deep into my chest at his unconscious form lying on the ground. I had no choice. I knew that.
Didn’t make it any easier, though.
Blowing out a breath, I tossed the tranq pen to the side just as Cedric climbed to his feet, his face a mask of anger and frustration.
He made a move toward Lukyan. “I’m going to fucking kill him—”
I swung my arm out to stop him, his chest running smack into it.
“You’re going to do nothing. His reaction is understandable.
Who wouldn’t try to escape when they’ve been kidnapped?
” I straightened my spine and stretched my arms above my head, a yawn falling from my lips.
“Take him to his room. Make sure he’s comfortable, and leave plenty of food and water for him.
He didn’t eat much, and he’ll be hungry when he wakes. ”
Cedric nodded, however begrudgingly.
I made my way toward the exit but stopped, glancing over my shoulder. “And Cedric?”
He lifted his gaze from Lukyan to me. “You’re not to harm a single hair on his head. You understand me?”
His jaw ticked slightly. “Understood.”
He didn’t like it. That much was obvious. But I had faith that Cedric would do as I ordered and not disobey me.
Ignoring the twinge of guilt in my gut that leaving Lukyan caused, I turned and walked out.