Chapter 14 #2
My heart pounds as he steps close to the side of the bed, looming over me. Despite it being his bed, I’m reluctant to leave it when it feels so damn comfortable.
Gavriil leans closer and says, “I’ll be the first to tell him when you climb into my bed all on your own.” With that pronouncement, he scoops his arms under my legs and back, pulling me closer to the edge of the mattress. “I need to remove the IV before Dominik sees it.”
“I can do it,” I reply, keeping my eyes lowered when he picks me up off the bed like I weigh as much as a piece of paper. Given how little I’ve eaten lately, I weigh significantly less than usual.
With a faint grimace, I ease the needle out of the top of my hand, letting the tube drop and hang from the bag attached to…a coat hanger?
As Gavriil carries me to the cage, I curl my arms against my chest, resisting the natural urge to wrap my arms around his neck to hold on.
That feels too…intimate. Even if I was just lying on his bare chest.
Gavriil sets me down in the middle of the cage, lingering close to me as my legs shake for a moment. His arm is my anchor, wrapped around my waist. “Can you stand on your own?”
My hand finds his shoulder as I fight against how heavy my body feels and how weak my legs are. I refuse to collapse in front of him. “I’m fine.”
Gavriil doesn’t look convinced, but he steps away once I straighten up.
My skin feels clammy from the small exertion, but I breathe through the simple exhaustion, my gaze locking with his.
“Don’t tell him about…last night,” I say, meaning how sick I let myself get.
The side of Gavriil’s mouth curls up ever so slightly before he strides out of the cage and locks the door without responding either way. He then grabs the IV pole-slash-coat hanger and shoves it into the bathroom, out of sight.
Good.
Dominik feels bad enough about everything without him worrying about me being on the brink of death.
I glance down at myself once I’m alone, frowning at the oversized men’s t-shirt with no panties underneath. Gavriil’s expensive scent lingers on the white fabric as it reaches all the way down to my thighs.
Anyone looking at me would think I chose this attire, that we did more than sleep together. That’s exactly what he wants Dominik to think.
I don’t bother asking for pants because that’ll just open the door for another deal so that the devil can get something else from me.
The bedroom door swings open, and my legs nearly give out at the sight of Dominik when one of the guards, Valentin, shoves him inside. Dark circles hang under his eyes, and chained handcuffs grasp his wrists. He looks awful, but he doesn’t shuffle inside like a hopeless prisoner.
“Alina,” he breathes out, a spark of light filling his stormy gray eyes as he gazes at me from across the room.
A lump swells in my throat as I watch Valentin grab his arm and jerk him toward the cage. The last time I was with Dominik, he was apologizing to me for pulling the trigger on Archer.
He says something in Russian but it’s the sound of his knees hitting the floor that echoes in my chest.
“Alina. God, I’ve missed you.”
The truth in his words make my eyes sting and burn, and my throat ache. I glance over at Gavriil, seeing a glint in his eyes. Like he’s waiting on…something.
“I’m so sorry, dikaya koshka. I didn’t want to kill Archer. I didn’t want to hurt you like that. I know you loved him, but…I had to protect you,” Dominik tells me, his voice strained.
“You can’t protect anyone, Bratishka,” Gavriil chides him.
Is this what this visit is about? Not to please me but to shame Dominik for his failures? I should’ve known Gavriil had an ulterior motive.
He always does.
“Please stop starving yourself. Stop hurting yourself,” Dominik begs me as he reaches out to grab the bars in front of him, pain filling his face. “Please, Alina.”
I had the shooting built up in my mind, making Dominik out to be the villain. But I don’t see a monster in front of me right now. I see a man who felt like he didn’t have any other choice.
Dominik can’t bring Archer back. He can’t undo pulling the trigger.
If he could, he probably would because this is a man who loves me above everything else. A man who took a bullet to protect me.
It would’ve destroyed Dom if I had died last night. He’d never forgive himself.
The stone wall around my heart begins to crumble to dust. But the fracture is still sharp enough to cut me on the way down.
Forgiving him will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I don’t like seeing him in pain.
I sink down to my knees in front of him on the other side of the bars, tears welling up in my eyes that I refuse to let fall. Not now. Not in front of Gavriil.
“Dom…” I whisper, the tightness in my throat cutting off the rest of my words.
How much I miss him. How lonely I’ve been without him. How I can’t stand the thought of him being locked up in a cell because of me and my bad decisions.
Dominik gives me a small smile, hope gleaming in his tired eyes. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
I slip my arms through the bars and wrap them around his neck, pulling him as close to me as possible, needing his warmth to get me through all this.
As awful as it’s been in the cage, I have no idea what Dom and his men have been through in the prison.
I glance down to his ribs. “How is your wound? Has it healed?”
He makes a sound that’s a nonresponse just as a blurry image resurfaces in my mind. It couldn’t have been real. “I had the strangest dream that you…that you shot Petrov.”
Dominik places his hands on my arms, leaning close until his forehead touches the bars separating our bodies. “That wasn’t a dream.”
“It wasn’t?” Gavriil must have forced his hand. Did he tell Dom that Petrov was working for Gavriil? Before I can ask, Dominik says, “Try not to worry about him. You need to take care of yourself, dikaya koshka. I can’t stand being away from you, not knowing if you’re okay.”
Gavriil must’ve told him that I was refusing to eat and drink. But why? To torment him even more?
“I’m okay,” I assure him as I draw back to get a better look at him. “I—”
My voice cuts off when I see a healing bruise on the left side of his jaw, a spark of fury igniting within me. My head snaps to the side, my glare finding Gavriil. “We had a deal. You agreed to not hurt him or his men if I went with you!”
Gavriil’s jaw tightens, while Dominik visibly stiffens at my outburst.
“Watch your tone when you’re speaking to me,” Gavriil states but there’s a glint in his cold eyes. Dammit. I gave in and did exactly what he wanted me to do, to stand up to him. “You should behave unless you want to face the consequences after Dominik leaves us.”
“Don’t,” Dominik warns him, hands clenching like he’s ready to swing.
Anger burns through the intimidation that he wants me to feel, but I don’t react. I don’t give him more of what I know he craves—my defiance.
Gavriil’s eyes dart between Dominik and me before narrowing. “Get him out of here.”
“What? No!” I protest as I dig my fingers into Dominik’s shirt, trying to hold on to him as Valentin steps closer to drag him away.
Dominik snaps at Valentin and Gavriil in Russian, thrashing around to try to break Valentin’s grip. I can’t understand a single word that he’s saying, but I doubt any of them are kind. Especially when Dom sees the canvas of me on his brother’s bedroom wall.
“I warned you that you couldn’t trust her,” Gavriil grits out at Dominik before turning to me. “She’s wearing my shirt, sleeping in my bed. She has no loyalty to you. Her words are worthless. She’ll never actually forgive you for killing Archer.”
My jaw drops at his blatant lies. Well, not lies exactly, but not the full truth either. Panic spikes within me because he wants Dominik to believe his version, and he very well might.
I look over at Dominik as Valentin yanks him toward the doorway, wishing I could explain everything to him, but he would only worry more if he knew about last night. And I can’t honestly say if I will forgive him or not. It’s still too fresh.
Fucking Gavriil.
Everything he does is to manipulate and hurt. He brought Dominik up here to hurt him, not appease his concern for me.
Uneasiness twists in my stomach as Valentin pulls Dominik out of the room before I can say another word to him, leaving me alone with Gavriil. He paces near the cage in agitation. I guess things didn’t go exactly the way he wanted either.
“This was a mistake,” Gavriil murmurs under his breath.
I can’t tell if he’s talking to me or to himself.
When he abruptly storms out of the room and lets the door slam shut behind him, I still can’t take a proper breath.
Making Gavriil crack like that should make me feel like I have the upper hand. I like getting under his skin.
But I’m not sure if I’m ready to see his breaking point yet.
Because when Gavriil breaks, I don’t think anyone near him survives it untouched.