Chapter 2
Alina
This is going to be the longest month of my life.
A dull ache grips my chest as I pace the small space, trying to make sense of my new reality.
My brother is dead.
I’m living in a cage.
One man holds my heart hostage.
And a psychopath holds the key to my freedom.
It’s a nightmare I volunteered to step into to try and save Archer.
And there’s no waking up from it now.
Only seconds pass after Gavriil leaves before two guards take his place, flanking the interior doorway. They don’t speak. They just watch.
I stare back until my eyes burn.
I should’ve expected a lack of privacy, but the sight of them watching me unnerves me even more than I already feel.
I turn my back to them, feeling like I’m moving in slow motion as I walk toward the cot.
It’s just a thin mattress with no pillows and only one blanket that doesn’t look like it provides much warmth. Not that I expected luxury.
Gavriil’s mansion, on the other hand, is far nicer than any motel Archer and I hid in while we were running.
The thought of him steals the air from my lungs again. I swallow hard, a numb sensation spreading through my entire body as I lower myself to the mattress. Standing feels impossible now. Everything does.
I should be searching the cage for weaknesses. Watching the guards. Planning an escape. But grief crushes every coherent thought before it can barely form.
How can I think about strategy when my brother is dead? When Dom is trapped in a cell somewhere?
My eyes begin to burn, but I clench my jaw to keep my tears at bay. I won’t cry again, especially not in front of Gavriil or his men, who I’m sure report everything I do to him. The moment he smells weakness, he’ll pounce, and I refuse to give him any more satisfaction than I already have.
He backed his own brother into a corner so tight that Dominik had no choice left.
The man I was falling in love with took my brother away from me. Even after everything he put me through, I never wanted Archer to die!
I wanted him to have another chance at life. Maybe he could’ve changed. Maybe he could’ve truly started over if Gavriil was the least bit merciful.
But he’ll never get that chance.
A mixture of grief and betrayal churns in my stomach, my mind splitting in half between wanting to forgive Dominik and being unsure if I truly can. He’ll always have my brother’s blood on his hands, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to unsee that.
Yet, even now, a part of me still yearns to be wrapped up in his arms, shielded from Gavriil’s twisted games.
Why didn’t Dominik call Gavriil’s bluff and refuse to follow his demands for once in his life?
Repeating dark what-if thoughts in the silent room causes time to dissolve into something shapeless.
For hours, maybe more, I sit here, my hope dwindling with each second.
Has it been two hours? Six? Even if I do make it through this next month, I know that nothing will ever be the same.
My release isn’t even guaranteed. How can I trust a manipulative bastard like Gavriil to keep his word?
That’s why I didn’t accept his offer to write to Dom.
He’s not going to free his brother anytime soon after his betrayal, and there’s nothing I can do to help him.
The bedroom door suddenly opens, making my eyes dart in that direction to see Gavriil and another guard enter the room holding a tray in his hands. My fingers curl to dig my nails into the side of the mattress as they both move closer to the cage, my mouth remaining shut.
Gavriil doesn’t deserve to hear my voice.
“Drink. Eat,” Gavriil tells me as he unlocks the cage door so that the guard can set the tray with a glass of water and some sort of sandwich down on the floor.
I don’t budge from my spot despite how dry my mouth feels and how my stomach aches from hunger. I haven’t eaten or drunk anything in hours. I won’t give Gavriil even the smallest satisfaction.
Besides, I don’t deserve any type of comfort.
Gavriil flexes his right hand as he stares at me. He doesn’t have to say anything for me to know that he’s not pleased with my lack of cooperation. “You must be hungry. I doubt Dominik fed you a full course meal before thinking he could run off with you into the sunset.”
His guard says something to him in Russian as he waves his hand at me dismissively.
Gavriil doesn’t speak a word, but he does stare down the guard until he backs away like a scared animal.
Maybe it’s because I feel like shit right now, but I almost laugh at that. He doesn’t even have to say a word to terrify his own men. That’s who has my life and Dominik’s in the palm of his hand. A man who incites crippling fear into the hearts of full-grown men.
“It’s impolite to refuse the offerings of your host,” Gavriil comments as he lifts his arm to rest it on the bars over his head. His other hand rests in the pocket of his expensive black trousers.
He can afford for me to waste a sandwich.
I look away from him and draw my knees up to my chest, wetting the corners of my dry lips with my tongue. Water does sound nice right now, but I’d rather drink from a dirty puddle than accept the glass only a few feet away from me.
“Dominik and his men are settled in their cells,” Gavriil reminds me. “You won’t have to worry about my brother doing anything foolish like try to rescue you.”
If Gavriil hadn’t taken Dominik and his men, I’m sure Dominik would’ve figured out a way to save me, even if I told him not to try. He’s the type of man to put his life on the line for me without hesitation.
Just one more thing that I admire about him, even though I wish I didn’t.
Dominik’s relentless care for me is why Archer is dead right now.
“I have another update for you,” Gavriil says, his words a knowing tease.
My eyes stray back to his as cold dread creeps up the back of my spine.
“Archer’s body has been dumped where no one will ever find him,” Gavriil says. “Dominik won’t have to worry about going to prison for his death.”
A flash of fury sparks in my chest, but the tidal wave of grief that hits me extinguishes it within a second, leaving me yet again on the verge of tears. No one will find my brother’s body. He’ll just…disappear from this world. From people’s memories.
But not mine. Never mine.
I miss my brother, but I’m still so damn angry at him.
My fingers threaten to shake, but I hold my knees instead, my nails piercing the tough material of my jeans. A new feeling churns in my stomach, the nausea catching me off guard as bile rises up the back of my throat.
Guilt.
If I hadn’t told Petrov to contact Gavriil so that I could accept his offer, Archer could’ve had more time to escape. I rushed things. I didn’t think clearly. I didn’t warn Dominik.
And now there’s no way to fix any of it.
“I was thinking to myself earlier that my bedroom could use a little more artwork on the walls,” Gavriil comments as he slowly roams along the front of the cage, his fingertips drifting across the bars. “It’s a beautiful piece of you,” he says. “But I think I’d like something new.”
My stinging eyes lift to the canvas of me on the other wall, heaviness settling on my chest. The day that I took that picture feels like it was years ago, in another lifetime.
The woman staring back at me with tears in her eyes and shame written across her face is a different person than the one who is stuck in this cage right now.
I no longer have a brother for whom to make sacrifices. I’ve done things now that would have terrified that girl.
Somehow, I have to be even stronger now if I’m going to get through this month in one piece, but all I can do is sit here with my guilt, grief, and fury while Gavriil tries his best to get a rise out of me.
Gavriil pauses near the door of the cage. “I think I’d like to see you in something red this time. Maybe bent over for me instead of seated.”
Oh, I’d like to see him covered in something red.
I stare at him through the bars, seeing a glint in his eyes. I can’t tell whether it’s eagerness or amusement, but it’s just another reminder of how he holds all the cards in his hands. Well, almost all of them.
I can choose whether I eat, drink, or speak to him.
Gavriil lets out a noise that borders on a bored sigh before turning and striding out of the room, the guard trailing him like a puppy.
I’m able to breathe a little easier when he’s not in the same room as me. Whenever he enters, the very air seems to gravitate toward him. Like even gravity bends to his demanding presence.
I grimace as I push myself to my feet, my head aching from even just a little bit of movement. My eyes linger on the glass of water for a second, but I tear my gaze away and walk to the sink instead.
Tiny bottles of hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash form a line along the edge of the sink. Unfortunately, if I wanted to hurt myself, there isn’t even enough to effectively drink to make myself sick.
I wish there was a mirror above the sink like there would be in a normal bathroom, but I suspect that Gavriil was concerned about me or his previous prisoners breaking the glass and using it as a weapon against him or ourselves. Unfortunately, he’s not stupid.
Things would be a lot easier if he was, but he’s several steps ahead at all times. That’s easy for him to accomplish when other men are quick to throw themselves out of his way or let him walk all over them.
God, I hate him so much. Every time I even think about him, my entire body burns, starting as a simmering warmth deep in my stomach that spreads everywhere like wildfire.
One of these days, I’m going to make him pay for what he did to me, to Archer, to Dominik.
I wet my hands and press them against my hot cheeks, trying to cool myself down internally and externally.
Water drips onto my dry lips, but I don’t lap it up. I just stand there in front of the sink, leaning my weight against it because I feel like collapsing and not getting back up.
Dominik’s words run through my head, warning me of how much Gavriil would be interested in me if I kept acting bold around him and speaking out when I should’ve kept quiet.
I’m afraid that if I lash out, I’ll crumble to pieces.
That the cracks running through my heart and soul will splinter even more until I fall apart at his feet.
I can’t do that.
I won’t react. I won’t utter a word. I won’t sustain myself the way Dominik would want me to just so that Gavriil can toy with me and get off on the excitement of it.
All I can do is try to breathe through the ache in my chest.
I would have endured anything to save my brother.
Now there’s nothing left worth enduring it for.