Chapter 3
WILLOW
I stare at the three brothers in shock, tears still in my eyes.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, and my voice comes out raspy and pained.
The three of them are a flurry of movement. Vic shuts the window as Malice nods to Ransom, who nods back, heading into my room.
“We’re getting you out of here,” Malice says grimly. “We won’t let you do this. We can get you away, help you escape this.”
“I—”
Before I can get the words out, Ransom is calling from the bedroom, “I’m leaving the fancy clothes here. I know they’re nice, but I don’t think you want anything that bitch bought, right?”
“Traveling lighter is a good idea,” Victor chimes in, heading for the bathroom. “Only grab the essentials.”
“Wait,” I stammer. “You can’t do this.”
“Solnyshka, I know you think you need to protect us, but—”
“Stop!” I practically shout. My voice echoes around us, and Malice and Victor both blink at me in surprise. “I can’t go anywhere. I can’t leave.”
Malice’s face hardens, anger shining in his dark gray eyes. Vic looks pissed too, and Ransom comes out of the bedroom, running a hand through his messy brown hair.
“We don’t really have time to argue about this right now,” he says, his eyebrow ring catching the light as he shakes his head. “We can do it once we get you out of here, okay?”
“You don’t understand,” I tell him, stepping away from the door. “You have to go. Now.”
That seems to set Malice off even more. He gets right up in my face, the way he used to when he was pissed off at the way our lives had collided and had no idea how to handle it.
“No, you don’t understand,” he snaps. “You need to come with us. I know you’re trying to be noble or whatever the fuck, but we’re not letting you marry this asshole just to keep us safe. We’re not letting you sacrifice yourself for us!”
“Listen to him, butterfly,” Vic murmurs quietly. “Please. None of us want to see this happen to you.”
“I don’t want it either,” I say desperately. “But I don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, you fucking do!” Malice explodes. He backs me up, pressing me into a corner of the room until my back hits the wall.
“You don’t get to make this call, Solnyshka.
” His voice is a low growl, anger and frustration taking over.
“There’s no goddamn way we’re letting you do this.
I’ll kill any other man who tries to fucking touch you. ”
I shake my head, trying to get my thoughts together. Everything is a confusing scramble in my head, all the emotions about what I learned from Olivia warring against the fact that I really do wish I could just run away with the brothers.
Malice takes advantage of my daze, reaching out to grab my arm and hauling me away from the corner.
“Get the bag,” he snaps to Ransom, and then he starts towing me toward the door.
That jerks me back to my senses, and I struggle against him, trying to yank my arm away. He’s stronger than I am, but I dig my heels into the plush carpet on the floor, hitting his hand where it holds me.
I claw at his arm, doing everything I can to stop him from taking me from the apartment, my breathing coming in harsh, short pants.
“No,” I rasp. “No. No!”
Malice finally stops, turning to stare at me.
I must look wild and terrified, but that’s how I feel.
Hysteria is bubbling up in me, making the room spin a little as I fight to get air in my lungs.
Each breath feels like it’s too shallow, not giving me enough oxygen to keep going, and the stress of the day is slamming into me like a ton of bricks.
Concern flickers across Malice’s face, a small line appearing between his dark brows as he drops his head to meet my gaze.
“Solnyshka, what—”
His grip on me loosened a little when he stopped, and I take advantage of that fact to rip my arm free, stumbling backward and away from him.
“Stop! Please just stop. I can’t go with you. I can’t… You don’t understand, I—”
It comes out sounding like broken gibberish, and I realize there are tears streaking down my face. My chest hurts from breathing so hard, and I’m shaking from head to toe as if I’m freezing.
I wrap my arms around myself, trying to hold myself together even though I feel like I’m splintering apart.
The brothers exchange glances, something unspoken passing between them, and Malice doesn’t make a move to grab me again.
“Willow,” Ransom says gently, taking a few cautious steps toward me. “What happened? What did she do to you?”
I shake my head, and it takes me a few tries to get any sound to come out of my mouth. It’s hard to speak, the words sticking in my throat like shards of glass, but I have to tell them so they don’t make this worse than it already is.
“There’s a guard outside,” I manage first. “He… he dropped me off here and he’s still out there in his car.”
Malice whirls to face the closest window, glaring down at the street below.
“Fuck. So she’s watching you,” he growls, hands curling into fists at his side.
“And that’s not all.” I hold up my wrist, the one that Olivia had her man put a tracker in. “She’s tracking me too. If I leave a certain area, she’ll know immediately, and she’ll know how to find me.”
Just saying it out loud makes it hurt even more. My wrist throbs where the skin was broken to put the tracker in, and the tears fall faster down my face. I can’t even be bothered to wipe them away, just sniffling, trying to keep it together.
“She has a whole plan,” I explain. “For how the engagement to that… that asshole is going to go. How we’re going to get married.” I swallow again.
“That fucking bitch,” Malice explodes. He pivots away from the window, his fist lashing out to punch the wall with a heavy thud. “She can’t do this.”
“She can,” I whisper. “She’s already doing it. She said if we try to escape, she’d come after us. And she could do it. Her estate may not be what it once was, but I know she has the resources, and she’d be so angry that…”
I shake my head, a sob bubbling out of my throat before I can finish that sentence.
But I don’t need to.
Everyone in this room knows what Olivia Stanton is capable of now, and she’s made her threats well.
“That doesn’t change anything,” Malice says, turning back to face me. “We still have to get you out of here. If she thinks she can make you marry someone just to save her fucking empire, she’s in for a rude awakening.”
“He’s right.” Vic nods, his face serious. “We can outrun her.”
The tears fall harder and faster. I stare at the three of them as they look back at me—still so determined to get me out of here, and still so wrong about everything.
“No, we can’t,” I whisper. “You don’t understand. She already tried to kill you once. She’d kill me if she decided I wasn’t useful.”
“No way. She needs you too much,” Ransom objects. “You’re her family.”
“She doesn’t give a shit about family.” It comes out harsh, edged with anger and hurt and the rasp of my tears. “She told me so herself. She told me that she killed my mom.”
“What?” Vic asks, his eyes narrowing sharply.
“My real mom,” I tell him. “Olivia told me… when we first met, she told me that my birth mom was unstable and had mental problems. She said that my mom was the one who set the fire in our house, the one that left me with these scars. But it was Olivia. My mom wasn’t ‘good enough’ for my dad—Olivia’s son—so Olivia got rid of her. ”
I glance down at myself as I finish speaking. Just looking at my body now makes me shudder with revulsion. Olivia killed my mother. She tried to kill me. And I wear the scars of that every day.
“She thought she killed me too, when she set the fire,” I murmur. “I have no idea why I didn’t die. Maybe my mom was able to get me out somehow, or maybe someone found me in the wreckage afterward and kept it secret. And then I ended up in the system, where I was adopted by Misty.”
My heart feels like it’s breaking as I say it out loud, the weight of all of it bearing down on me. I shake my head, clenching my jaw and tightening my arms around myself, steeling myself against every argument I know these men will try to make.
“I can’t let that happen to you,” I say. “I can’t let her get her hands on you. I can’t lose you too. She’s already taken away my family, and I can’t… Please. Please don’t do this.”
My pulse beats a frantic rhythm in my chest, and I stare at the three of them, trying to get them to understand just how important this is.
I know they can be impulsive and reckless, I know they’re used to danger, but this is too important.
If they get hurt, if Olivia kills them or sends them to prison, I don’t know how I’ll survive.
The Voronin brothers all stare at me, their expressions so similar despite the differences in their features. Their eyes are intense, but at least I can tell they’re listening to me. They can hear how serious I am about this.
The silence stretches on for a heavy beat, and then Malice strides forward.
He reaches for me, and I half expect him to start trying to get me to leave again. But instead, he pulls me into a hug, his strong arms going around me, holding me tight.
He enfolds me in a crushing embrace, and that’s so much better than me holding myself together that I immediately melt into it, clinging to him for dear life.
He’s strong and sure, and he smells comfortingly of leather and spice and something smoky, the way he always does.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs gruffly. He smooths a hand down my back and drops a kiss to my head. “It’s okay.”
He only speaks those two little words, but that’s all it takes. I break down, sobbing into his chest, the stress and anger and horror of the day getting the best of me as I cry until my throat is raw.
Ransom and Victor move in to stand close, and Malice just keeps holding me, strong and silent and solid.