Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Sasha
I’m pulled through a double set of doors, the two guards flanking me on either side. Both tower over me, both holding one of my arms.
It’s a show of force that is both dramatic and excessive. It’s working. I can feel myself begin to tremble as I silently allow them to escort me down a narrow hallway, devoid of all the frills of the casino floor.
We pass a row of standard office doors, most of them dark, as we walk all the way down to the end of the hall.
The further from the crowds we get, the more my heart rate ticks up, til my chest is so tight, I start to worry my heart is going to explode.
I can feel my breath coming in short gasps, my feet tripping in my flats so that the guards have to hold me up to keep me from falling.
But they don’t stop. They keep dragging me closer to the door at the end of the hall. The one I know is his…
First because it’s his name emblazoned on the frosted glass.
But second…the door itself is nicer than the others. It’s the wood grain, the quality of the glass, even the knob is a polished brass.
I start to resist then, attempting to pull out of my guards’ grip.
They both tighten their hands. There is a saying that people sometimes toss around, ‘Never fuck with a Russian.’ No one messes with my brother Dimitri. And Katarina, she’d gouge your eye out while she smiled in your face. But me?
Sure, I can sneak past a complicated security system. And yeah, I can count cards to steal from a casino. But real violence, I don’t have it in me. I never have. In fact…I’m a bit of a scaredy cat that way.
It’s how my father has always been able to easily control me.
The guy on my right reaches out and opens the door, as they shift sideways so that we can all fit through the doorway while they keep their grip on me. They’re barely even trying despite my struggles.
The second guy through the door closes it behind us as I attempt to remove myself from their grip once again. “Let me go.”
“Not a chance,” the front one mutters.
“Where am I going to go?” I huff back, desperate for a bit of space, some room to think and plan. “You just closed me in.”
He gives me a side eye as they lead me to a set of chairs in front of a massive mahogany desk.
Then, the one on my left puts a hand on my shoulder, forcing me to sit. I hardly notice, because my mind is spinning.
I snuck out of my jail. Tried to steal my way to freedom. What is my brother, my new jailer, going to think if he finds out?
But at least, when my butt hits the cushioned seat, they take their hands off my biceps, only one of them keeping his hand on my shoulder to make sure I don’t go anywhere.
The other guy disappears through a side door.
It’s the silence that kills me. From here, I can’t hear the casino floor at all, and I feel so alone.
Anything could happen to me, and no one would come to my rescue.
No one from my family even knows I’m here.
My breath hitches. Ryker Smith could kill me here and my sister would just marry him, none the wiser.
My head spins as nausea rises up in my throat.
I close my eyes as one thought drives me forward. I wanted out. Life with my father was no life at all.
Life with my brother, only the slightest bit better.
And I suppose, death, in its own way, is out.
That thought calms me enough that I don’t throw up over the plush burgundy carpet under my feet.
But I find myself rhythmically tapping my knee as I close my eyes. I won’t beg. But I will ask for a bit of grace.
I draw in a deep ragged breath as I try to calm my racing thoughts.
I feel another person enter my space. It’s the way the air shifts and heats. “What are you doing?” a rough voice asks, the low timber making me shiver.
My hands stop and I ball them into fists to keep from tapping. “Waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
I force myself to open my eyes, which is a mistake. I am eye level with trim Italian dress slacks that hug a pair of masculine hips and powerful thighs. But it’s the bulge in the crotch that has my chin snapping up.
My eyes clash with the dark, bottomless gaze of Ryker Smith. I gasp in a breath, pressing back in my chair as my hands cross over my chest, clasping together.
He’s not classically handsome. His features are harder, craggier, with a crook in his nose, slashing brows, and hard, prominent cheekbones. But somehow, all his features come together to make him so appealing in this completely dominant male way. He scares the shit out of me.
His arms cross over his chest too. But his is a power move where I for sure look like a frightened child.
“Answer?” His deep voice makes me jump.
“Answer what?” I stutter out, swallowing down a lump.
The cut between his brows deepens. “What are you waiting for?”
“You.” I gasp out not understanding what we’re even talking about.
His eyes narrow into slits as he continues to stare at me like he’s learning my soul. “Are you attempting to be fresh with me?”
I don’t understand the reference. I’ve spoken English all my life and I’ve watched a lot of American television, so I know plenty of cultural slang but in this moment, what the word fresh means escapes me. “Like fruit?”
His mouth opens and then closes and then his face gets even harder. “My men think you were counting cards.”
I stare at him, wishing I’d rehearsed some version of denial before I ended up in his office. I do so much better when I practice. “That’s illegal.”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
Ryker is a tall man, he towers over me even when I’m standing. But sitting like this, I feel so vulnerable. “And besides. We’re about to be family.”
“Yes. Yes, we are.”
Since he hasn’t directly asked if I was or I wasn’t stealing, I don’t directly answer. Is this a technicality? Yes. Yes, it is. But I’m not very good at lying either so I’m avoiding it. Not that he looks like he believes anything I’m saying. “Did you know this was my casino?”
His change in tactic has my head spinning again. “No,” I answer softly, the truth ringing through before I’ve had the chance to think about whether I should have admitted that or not. Shit.
“Did you think it was still your brother’s casino?”
I actually feel the blood drain from my face. This had been Dimitri’s casino? This is so bad.
“And how did you manage to be out alone this evening?”
I nip at my lip. He knows I should be locked in my luxury apartment. A prisoner. He helped put me there. “Oh…you know…”
“No. I don’t. Why don’t you tell me.” And then he leans against his desk, which somehow does nothing to diminish the masculine lines of his body. If anything… I look away.
I’m so screwed, it’s almost comical, if I wasn’t bordering on hysterical. “Are you going to let me keep my earnings?”
“No.”
I gasp, pushing up from my chair, my chin notching. I’d put everything I’d saved into this casino. If he doesn’t give any of it back, I’ll have nothing. “But my money!”
“You should have thought of that before you tried to steal from me,” he answers, his jaw hard enough to cut glass.
“I didn’t…” My voice tapers off.
“Now…” he rumbles, standing again, so that he’s almost touching me. I don’t mean to, but I stumble back. “You’re going home—”
That starts me trembling again. If Dimitri finds out what I’ve done, what will he do to me? How fast will he marry me off?
“Please.”
“Begging isn’t going to help you.”
“You can’t take my money. I need it.” I feel the panic rising again, and I can’t keep the tremor from my voice.
“For what?” his dark eyes search mine, giving away nothing. He’s like a snake.
I can’t tell him that I plan to run away, that I’m trying to escape the very fate he’s designed for my sister. “Without money, I’m completely trapped,” I whisper.
His mouth presses into a firm line. “You’re trapped either way, little bird.”
I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes. That’s another thing that irritates me about myself. I can’t hold back my emotions even when I try. And the truth of his words has hit a nerve. “You could help—”
“If you think I’m the hero that comes in and saves you after you tried to take…” He looks behind me at one of the guards.
“She’d won over fifty grand when we pulled her from the table.”
“You tried to take fifty thousand dollars from me and now you want to ask me for help?” he makes a tutting noise with his tongue that jangles across my nerves.
My eyes close again. I was already trapped between my father and my brother. But now…my situation has gotten a whole lot worse. “Please.”
“If this is your cry for aid, denied. If this is your request for mercy. Also denied.” His voice grows harder with each word.
I sit back in the chair, the air stuttering out of my lungs. “Grace then?”
“How’s that?” For the first time, something flickers in his eyes.
“If you’re going to kill me, would you do it quickly?” Surprise makes his gaze lighter, brighter, and for the first time I notice the warm brown specs in his near black gaze.
“I’m not killing you,” he answers, the light disappearing. “But you will have to pay.”
“What…what do you mean?” I gasp, gripping the arms of the chair.
“You’ll find out soon enough. First. The wedding. Then, we’ll talk about what you can do to thank me for not calling the police and sending you to prison.”
“Prison?” Why had that not occurred to me? My whole goal in some shape or form is freedom. But the trap just keeps getting tighter. “I’d rather you just killed me.”
“Noted.” And then holds out his hand. “And what about your brother? What is he going to think about your little adventure tonight?”
Dimitri? Would he marry me off? Return me to my father? Keep me locked away forever? I have no idea what he is capable of, what he has planned. “He can’t find out.”
“Good. Then your attempted theft is going to be our little secret.”
I’m Russian. Which means I know what he really means. He’s blackmailing me.
He reaches out his hand, like I’m supposed to touch him. I ignore his offer of help, pushing up from my chair, my back stiff and straight. Because I’m trying to show I’m strong, even when I know the truth.
My future brother-in-law has me completely under his heel. And I am about to be crushed.