Chapter 32
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Sage
Victor stares expectantly down at me and Alexei as several of his other men surround him. Apprehension swirls inside of me as Alexei's hand slips from the vice grip it had on my elbow.
That was really strange, but I shrug it off and I take the steps up to greet Victor. My feet clicking against the stone amplifies in the silence. When I reach Victor, he steps aside and sweeps his arm wide to gesture for me to enter his home.
The inside is even more beautiful than the outside. The theme of a wooden lodge continues, with all the ostentatiousness of luxury furnishings and modern black trimmings.
Victor says nothing more as he moves throughout his home, and I follow eagerly behind him.
We end up somewhere around the back of the house, in a sunken living room with large windows that overlook the glowing lake.
Drawn to the sight, I rush forward, pressing a hand against the glass as I admire the beauty of the water.
What a beautiful place to get to exist.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Victor says. I turn to find him settling into a chair and buttoning his suit jacket. More of Victor's men fill the space too, spreading about at various points of the room. Alexei takes up a quiet corner in the back, his brow furrowed.
"I had to let you know it wasn't my decision to call off the marriage agreement," I say, frowning as I take in the space again. The way his men place around the room, in front of every exit, is making my skin tingle.
"They went behind your back," he says. "I know. They weren't shy about telling me." Victor smiles, but the warmth that was once there is gone.
"Well I -" I stutter, suddenly feeling under confident with my decision to come here. Alexei didn't want me to come inside. Why? "I came here to talk," I say.
The side of Victor's lip twitches, and he gestures for me to take the seat across from him. I perch just on the edge of the armchair opposite his, all too aware of the company.
"So talk," Victor says. "But I will say I'm surprised. I thought the situation was clear."
"The situation?"
"Your interests seem to have strayed elsewhere."
He gives me a hard look and despite myself I look to the back of the room where Alexei has dropped his head. It's to my horror that I realize he must have been talking about Nicholas and not his fucking brother.
"I didn't ask for them to call it off," I say. "I was hoping you'd take me at my word. And, you know, not start a mafia war."
Victor bites his lip, leaning forward until our faces are only inches away. A thick finger trails down my cheek and he whispers, "You want me to help you. Defy your family? Marry me?"
The twisted whisper of his voice makes ice curl in my veins and my heart stop to a standstill. Victor pulls away with a smirk and I finally get a good look in his eyes. A good, close up, look.
For the very first time, I see the storm in his eyes that I see in his brother's. Victor's though, is evil.
Alexei steps forward carefully from the shadows. Victor doesn't even acknowledge his brother when he places a hand on his shoulder. "Brother," Alexei says. "Let me get rid of her for you."
My eyes snap away from the sinister depths of Victor's and into Alexei's. He looks... worried.
Fuck.
The world comes crashing in around me and realizing my mistake feels like being hit by a bus.
"Unnecessary," Victor says, shrugging his brother's hand away even as his gaze remains glued to me. "I think Miss DeMarco is right where she needs to be."
Oh, God. All the air evaporates from the room and I'm seconds away from hyperventilating. I don't do well in crowds. Or life and death situations, apparently. Now I'm here, in the home of my enemy, with no backup. Didn't I call Victor a fucking idiot for doing something similar not long ago?
Should've listened to my own advice.
I gulp, forcing my breath to steady as I focus on the now. As I focus on becoming the person that I set out to be so long ago. Someone who wasn't scared or weak. Someone strong, with the wit and power to out manipulate a man at his own game.
"Tell me something," I say, hearing the breathlessness in my voice that I hope doesn't translate to them.
Victor grins, and I feel it all the way down to my bones.
"Did you ever thank me?" I ask. Victor's smile drops minutely and I continue on. "After all, you wouldn't have been able to get through the gates and onto the property to kill my father, unless I'd opened them for you."
Alexei's mouth drops open and he glares at his brother. Victor raises a single brow and then lets out a menacing laugh. This one all too like the charm he exuded when he was trying to woo me.
I came here to negotiate for my family's lives. To marry Victor so that there would be no war. Now I see the truth. Victor never needed to marry me. He just needed me here, right where I am now.
Question is, why?
"Well," Victor laughs, clapping his hands together. "Here I thought I was so discreet. Tell me, how did you know it was me?"
I smirk. "I didn't. Until right now."
Victor's laugh ceases abruptly and his teeth clench as his gaze bores into mine, regarding me warily.
"It was you, all this time, that's been after me," I say, shaking my head. Victor looks very proud of himself indeed. That's okay. He won't soon.
"Dimitri was simply in the way, darling Sage," Victor smiles. "It's always been you."
Alexei sinks back into the shadows in horror, and I swear I see him sizing up his own men. I can't make out his features but his chest is heaving. Something tells me this is news to him too.
"I guess they've done me a favor after all, by trying to get rid of me." Victor stands and begins obnoxiously pacing. "Months of trying to get close to you. Months of trying to snatch you up. And now... how interesting that you would walk right up to my door."
Victor smirks, pouring himself a drink before he comes to stand behind me.
He leans over me, stroking a hair off my face in what now feels like a vile touch.
"All of these perfectly laid plans of Dimitri's, to keep you safe.
And then this document shows up and leads me right to you, and thus you right to me. "
Exactly.
"That does seem like a coincidence, doesn't it?" I say, shaking his hand away and doing my best to keep my voice even. "Strange that all those pieces would fall into place to allow me to get close to you."
His hand stills in my hair.
I stand and turn to face him. "That all these turns of events would put me face to face with the person I most want revenge on."
Victor narrows his eyes, pausing mid sip. He watches me with questions and calculations in his eyes. Like he can't quite put his finger on what is off about this situation. I straighten my shoulders and steel my nerve.
But I don't take my eye off Victor.
All the time I spent looking into Alexei, only to realize that someone so reckless would never have the forethought to plan this. While Victor was too perfect, with an answer for everything at every turn.
Nicholas Baker might have given me the final turn in this direction. But all along, I've been the one driving the car.
"You should really see about stopping this nasty habit you have of walking right into my traps, Victor," I say. "Dad didn't send the marriage contract. I did."
"Wha-"
I pull the knife that I got from Isla's bag and launch across the armchair straight for Victor, sending us both tumbling to the floor.
The first stab goes through his shoulder while my weight pins him to the floor. The second slash down of my knife goes through his ear as he dodges to resist the stab to his face.
The room erupts into chaos, men shouting, weapons drawing, as I'm swarmed from all angles.
I rear my arm back to stab again, ready for a kill shot, but I'm halted mid-air when my wrist is grabbed. Alexei hauls me off his brother and pulls me into his arms, holding me steady while I struggle to wrench myself free and go after Victor again.
"Fucking hell!" Victor screams as he gets off the floor clutching his shoulder. "You stabbed me."
He waves off his men and puts pressure on his own wound.
"I wrote the fucking marriage contract. How do you like that, Vic?!" I scream and flail in Alexei's arms, trying to get back to Victor. "I fucking knew it was going to be you."
Alexei's arms grip me roughly, pulling me back as I scream and lurch for his brother. The men surround us, gearing for Alexei, but he just grips me tighter.
"Hand her over brother," Victor says. "We need her alive."
Alexei pulls me back closer to him again. "Why?"
"I'll tell you everything after!" Victor says in exasperation, eyes going wide. "Stop thinking with your fucking cock and hand the girl over!"
"Come and fucking take me Victor! Let me get close enough to slash your thick throat!"
I hear Alexei lick his lips though I don't see it because I'm honed in on Victor like a nuclear weapon and I'm ready to destroy the second that Alexei's grip slips.
"You were the one after her this whole time?" Alexei asks. "Trying to break into their estate to take her? Why?"
Victor snarls and throws his hands in the air, letting the blood from his stab wound seep out onto his probably stupidly expensive suit. "We don't have time for this, Alexei! Hand her over. That's an order."
I feel him hesitate, his hands gripping me tighter instead of letting go. Alexei leans his head into my neck and whispers just for the two of us to hear. "If I let you go, if I hold them off, will you run?"
"Do you want me to lie to you?" I whisper back.
"Please don't do this," he says into my neck.
"I wish I had a choice," I growl.
"God dammit," he says, the puff of his breath teasing my neck.
He sniffs once, straightens and then releases my wrists to push me into the arms of Victor's men.
Alexei stays silent, eyes on the floor, the whole time that I struggle back and forth as the men secure my wrists and wrench me from the room.
"This isn't over Victor!"
I'm shoved through the house and down into the basement where I'm thrown into a dank cell and a metal door is locked behind me.
Fuck.
That could've gone better.