Chapter 10 - Dani
Regardless of how I try to rationalize things in my head, I don’t recognize my life anymore.
A few days ago, I was sitting in a hospital, waiting for my dad to come out of surgery, only to receive the worst news imaginable.
Now I’m standing in a stranger’s house. Beyond that, he’s a liar, a criminal, and a man who just admitted he’s part of something I’ve only ever heard about in movies and crime documentaries. Something that sounded entirely fictional until this very moment.
And somehow, I’m stuck here against my will.
Letting out a slow, shaky breath, I drag my fingers through my hair as I pace the living room, still hearing the echo of his words.
Bratva. Organized crime. Nikolai.
Every piece of it feels like a new betrayal, and even thinking about it makes me feel like I’ve been an idiot for even thinking he was being honest with me.
As that registers in my mind, I stop pacing abruptly.
No…I wasn’t an idiot.
I was grieving and desperate even before he told me what was happening. He took advantage of that to make me more compliant and to keep me from lashing out at him. He has known far more than he let on, and that alone digs under my skin.
My jaw tightens as anger rises again, immediate and burning.
“I can’t believe you,” I mutter, facing him again while I try to get a grip on the situation, but it’s more like water slipping through my fingers. “You acted like you wanted to help me, but you’re only making this worse.”
Nikolai hasn’t moved much. Instead, he’s standing where his brother had been, posture straight and expression unreadable in that infuriating way of his.
“I did want to help you…I do,” he returns with zero hesitation. “I just need you to work with me.”
“I was starting to trust you,” I snap, my voice shaking despite the force behind it, not recognizing it in my own ears. “Do you understand that? I was actually starting to think maybe you were better than them.”
Better feels like a low bar, but even then, he ended up being too similar for my liking.
With his reassurance, I thought he was someone I could rely on to fix the mess those doctors made, but now, all of that feels stupid.
“I know you were,” he says, almost solemnly now.
But that’s all he gives me, and it only makes the bristling panic in me rise faster.
“I don’t want to be here anymore,” I say, more quietly now but still just as firm as I lift my chin. “I want to leave.”
His expression doesn’t change, and he doesn’t move. “No.”
Pushing the fear aside, my anger spikes instantly, and I give him an incredulous look. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not leaving,” Nikolai says, refusing to budge. “Not yet.”
“Not yet?” I repeat, unable to believe how he thinks he has any right to dictate where I am. “You don’t get to decide that! I never consented to being here in the first place, and now you want to keep me like a prisoner?”
“You agreed to stay.”
“I agreed because you made it sound like I had a choice, and because of whoever was behind the clinic,” I fire back. “That’s not the same thing!”
His jaw tightens slightly, but he maintains his stony calm. “They are the reason you’re not safe out there.”
“Right…because I’m any safer here with you. You really think they’d just track me down the moment I set foot out there?”
“They could,” he says, cold in the way he utters those words. “Easier than you’d think.”
I don’t say anything to that, since I don’t know anything about these people, and if they can organize a medical fraud scheme, then I have reason to believe they possess the means to find me all over again. Still, that doesn’t make Nikolai any better.
He takes a breath and moves a step closer with his hands in his pockets. “Look, you don’t have to trust me, but you do have to stay. Let me take them down.”
I already know what he’s doing. He’s trying to soften me up and to make me see eye-to-eye with him despite receiving the short end of the stick.
In all honesty, I don’t even know what keeping me here does to benefit him.
It doesn’t make any sense, and everything leaves me with a sense of frustrated dread.
“No,” I say, shaking my head as I take a step toward the hallway. “I don’t have to do any of this. I’m done…I’m done letting you tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“Danielle—”
“Don’t say my name like you even remotely know me!”
We both pause then, trying to gauge the other’s next move. His eyes on me are sharp and assessing, but he still waits.
Forcing my way towards the door, I make it three steps before he’s in front of me, blocking the front entrance.
I stop short and pull in a harsh breath. “Move.”
“No.”
“Move, Nikolai,” I repeat, louder now.
“That’s not happening.”
The rage bubbles up inside me like it never has before, and I grit my teeth. “Are you serious right now? You’re just going to stand there and physically stop me from leaving?”
“If that’s what it takes,” he says coolly, looking down at me like he knows full well I don’t have the advantage here. The calm way he says it twists my stomach.
“You don’t get to do this!” I shout, stepping forward as I try to push past him.
I barely make contact before his hand closes around my wrist, firm enough to be a warning, but not unbearable. Still, it’s unyielding, like he’d rather stand here for days like this than let me leave.
My pulse spikes instantly, and my breath catches as I look down at where he’s holding me, then back up at his face. My voice drops as I mutter, “Let go.”
“Not if you’re going to run.”
“I’m not running, I’m leaving!”
I try to pull my wrist free, but he doesn’t budge. Not even a little.
The difference in strength hits me all at once as I feel it in the way my arm barely moves under his grip. In the way he’s standing there like a solid, immovable wall. To him, I’m not even a challenge.
Something cold slides through me immediately, and the real fear attempts to close around my neck.
“Let me go,” I repeat, trying to ignore how my voice wavers.
“Not until you calm down.”
“I am calm!”
“You’re not.”
I yank my arm back again, but this time, he moves faster than I expected.
Before I can react, he shifts, turning me just enough that my back hits the wall behind me. His other hand comes up to brace beside my shoulder, boxing me in without actually pinning me down, but it might as well be the same thing.
The sudden movement forces the air from my lungs regardless of the gentle impact, and my eyes widen.
He’s close now. Way too close.
The heat of him and his solid presence seeps into me as I strain to put as much distance between us as I can, but it’s useless. His body blocks out everything else, all the while my heart races in response to his proximity.
“Stop, Dani,” he says, his voice lower now with an unmistakable firmness. “You’re not thinking clearly.”
“I’m thinking perfectly clearly,” I mutter, regardless of how my skin prickles at the feeling of his words brushing against my skin. “You’re a criminal who kidnapped me, and now you won’t let me leave. What part of that is unclear?”
“I didn’t kidnap you.”
“‘Relocating me’ isn’t the defense you think it is.”
His jaw tightens, and it’s the only real indication that I’m getting on his nerves. “You were going to die. You would’ve if I hadn’t been there.”
“I wouldn’t know. I was unconscious while people were manhandling me,” I fire back, implication clear.
At that, Nikolai pauses like he’s registering it, then he huffs a quiet breath and refocuses. “I made sure nobody touched you.”
“Then how was I dressed out of the gown?”
“The nurses did it before you were brought here,” he admits, sounding entirely truthful. “Nobody else was allowed in the room. That was my condition.”
I hesitate as I digest his answer, unable to find even a flicker of dishonesty in it, but that doesn’t mean I want to concede. His being a decent person is the bare minimum.
“And now I’m trapped,” I mutter. “Who’s going to protect me from you?”
Nikolai’s eyes narrow at that, taking genuine offense. “Nobody needs to. I told you, you’re safe with me, regardless of how you see this. I got you out of there alive. I’m not going to hurt you now.”
“At what cost?”
The words hang between us, and for a second, neither of us moves.
His grip remains firm around my wrist, not hurting, but not letting go either. I can feel how easily he could keep me here if he wanted to, and I wouldn’t be strong enough to do anything about it.
That should terrify me, and it does, but there’s another layer to it. One I don’t want to acknowledge.
Despite the lies, the anger, and the fear, Nikolai hasn’t actually hurt me. Not once, and not when he had every chance to. Even now, with me fighting him, pushing and yelling like I’ve lost my mind, he’s careful. Regardless of his obvious strength, I can tell he’s holding back.
After a moment, he takes a breath and says, “You need to stay for your own safety. Nothing more.”
“I don’t care,” I whisper, though my voice betrays everything this moment is doing to me.
“I don’t care about safety right now. I just want to grieve.
” My throat threatens to close around my words again, but I force them out anyway.
“I want to be alone, and to process what happened without all of this…”
Nikolai’s expression shifts slightly, and I catch a flicker of what looks like empathy there, but it’s gone almost as quickly as it appears.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t,” I shake my head, blinking back tears. “You don’t get to say that and expect me to be okay with this.”
He hesitates, not maintaining the same grip anymore. “Maybe not, but it’s the best I can do for now.”
That catches me off guard, but it doesn’t change anything. “Then let me go.”
“I can’t.”
We’re only going in circles, and it makes my anger flare again, but it’s more frayed at the edges by everything else wearing me down.
“Fine,” I mutter, my shoulders sagging slightly as I give up the fight, regardless of everything inside me screaming not to. “Then what? I just stay here and do whatever you say while pretending this is normal?”
“No,” he says. “You stay here until I can make sure it’s safe for you to leave, then we’ll go from there.”
“And when is that?”
“I don’t know yet,” he admits, but doesn’t even try to sugarcoat it.
Letting out a shaky breath, I close my eyes for a second and try to think of where to go from here.
I can’t fight him like this. Not physically, anyway. It’s his place, and it’s completely locked down and under his control. Even attempting to escape when he isn’t looking would be pointless.
“Let go,” I say again, quieter this time, while the energy to keep this up drains from me. “I’m not going anywhere for now.”
Nikolai studies me closely, like he’s trying to decide if I’m telling the truth, and regardless of how my breath falters from being this close to him, I hold his gaze steady.
His eyes track over my features, expression unreadable, then he sighs and releases my wrist.
The absence of his grip is immediate, and I notice the lack of warmth immediately, irritated all over again at the fact.
Stepping away from him quickly, I put distance between us while my heart refuses to slow again.
“Happy?”
“No,” he utters, not elaborating.
Refusing to respond while I try to get a grip of myself, I turn and walk down the hallway, back toward the guest room. Every step is tight with frustration, anger, and something I don’t have the mental capacity to decipher right now.
When I reach the door, I push it open harder than necessary and pause briefly once I’m inside.
I can still feel him. The closeness, the heat, and the way my body reacted despite everything in my head screaming at me to get away, and to remember how dangerous this man really is.
It makes me feel sick and almost angrier somehow, but I shove the feeling down and close the door behind me with a sharp click.
This time, I don’t come back out.