8. Wren
WREN
Isat on the edge of the bed like it was a trap.
“This will be your room for the duration of your stay,” Lurch said without a hint of emotion. He hadn’t shown any emotion since releasing me from the basement of what was apparently a mansion and then bringing me to this enormous bedroom suite, where he gestured for me to sit.
“Stay?” I blinked at him.
“Your stay,” Viktor said, striding into the room. Shirtless and looking like he’d just finished working out, he wiped a towel at his sweaty face.
I fought not to stare. To look. To linger and take in the details of his chiseled chest. All those muscles ranging from his pecs to the six-pack and then that tantalizing V that pointed my attention further down to—
Fuck.
I jerked my head up.
“My stay?” I shook my head and shot to my feet.
He was close enough to put his hand on my shoulder and push me to sit again.
The temptation to fight him, to smack his hand away, then kick him in his groin so I could escape mocked me. I knew I should do exactly like that.
With him looming over me like this, I could only find the mental energy to refrain from inspecting his shirtless torso.
“Stay,” he repeated.
“I’m not a dog.” I stood again.
He put his hand on my shoulder again and pushed. “I think the appropriate command for this moment would be sit, then.”
I dropped down and huffed an errant strand of my hair from my face.
“I’m not sitting—”
“You are, actually,” he cut in as I tried to rise again.
He was faster, locking his hands around my wrists and pinning them to the mattress, right next to my thighs.
Leaning over like this, he brought his face inches from mine.
The glittering spark of interest blazed in his eyes and I scowled at the fact that he was having fun with this. With my being under his control.
“I’m not staying here,” I bit out.
He raised his brows and lowered his gaze to my lips. “Looks to me that you are.”
I shook my head. “No. You have no grounds to keep me. I don’t know anything. I won’t be able to tell you anything. I’m useless to you and there is no reason for you to keep me locked up and captive against my will. You’ve got bigger fish to fry, Viktor.”
“Ooh.” He turned slightly, not releasing me. “She does know my name.”
The butler rolled his eyes and reached for his wallet to extract bills. “The bet was that she wouldn’t use it.”
I gawked at his butler-assistant-Lurch sticking bills into Viktor’s pocket as he left the room. “If you need anything I can do, let me know.”
“Thanks, Paul. I’m not sure anyone can do anything about Red’s inability to follow the program, though.” He turned his head so he faced me again.
“Viktor.” I pushed my lips closed, frantically searching for words.
He was so close, I couldn’t breathe. Attraction—stupid, inappropriate, and unwelcome—snapped and sparked between us like a live current in the air.
I was aware of him, too tuned in to all the details.
His scent. His strong grip. His sheer size making me feel so small.
He watched me with a silent expectation that I’d continue.
“You can’t keep me here.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I can. And I will.”
“Why?” I sighed and let my head tilt to the side. This was getting old. “I don’t know anything about anyone wanting to kill Adrik. Maybe you can revisit your organization’s mission statement. Or think about how many enemies you’ve accrued over the years on your own.”
“My brothers and cousins seem impatient to remind me that you are one of those enemies.”
I wanted to growl. “Not me, personally. I don’t know anything. What, am I a hostage? You’re going to hang on to me and keep me locked up until someone at the agency pays a ransom for my release?”
“It’s kind of cute that you are sticking with a rosy best-case scenario.”
I glowered at him. “You’ve already dismissed my worst-case scenario. You haven’t killed me.”
“Yet.”
Hearing that from an actual killer and Mafia man was scary. But it was true.
“If you haven’t killed me yet, or even tried to hurt me, you must value me alive rather than dead.”
He nodded once. “How observant of you.”
“You must want something from me.”
A slow, sinister smile lifted his lips.
Oh, fuck.
Damn, that’s lethal.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
I furrowed my brow. “What? What do you want from me?” Before he could sear me with any more of that smoldering look, I kept at it. “What answers do you want from me that I haven’t given you already?”
“Not sure.”
I hung my head and groaned. “You can’t keep me like this.”
“Then how about this?” Moving so swiftly that I wasn’t prepared for it, he lifted my arms and thrust them back. He hovered over me, one knee between my legs, as he pinned my hands above my head.
I panted, caught off guard.
Assess.
He pushed his thigh against my pussy.
Oh, fuck.
I could assess that clue, all right.
Ascertain…
Swallowing hard, I turned my head to the side just so I wouldn’t be tempted to face him and see the lethal lust in his eyes anymore.
This is it. That’s what I can goddamn ascertain. This is the moment when I’ll be reduced to a victim of… of…
Could it be rape if I was already raging for him and so turned on, it took every ounce of my sanity not to grind against his thigh?
“You can’t keep me in any way, Viktor Volkov.”
“Oh, last name now, too. Are you under the illusion that you can reprimand me?”
I rolled my head to glare at him.
“Should I stop calling you Red now? Keep it formal?”
Looking him up and down, the little bit of a withering once-over that I could at this close range, I cleared my throat. “You call this formal?”
He smiled again, almost melting me into a puddle.
“I call this welcoming you to your new accommodations for your stay,” he said, slowly rising off me. He stood between my legs, grabbing the towel to wipe his face off. As I sat up and leaned on my elbows so I wouldn’t be facing him so closely, he sighed.
“I can and will keep you here for as long as I fucking want.” He raised his brows. “You will not leave this house unless I order it.”
The frustration bubbled up inside me. It was on the tip of my tongue to demand to know why.
If he wanted to hurt me or kill me, like he likely did to many hostages, he already would have.
If he wanted to fuck me or abuse me, like he probably had to many women before, he would have.
“You will stay here.”
“What about the agency? They’re going to be searching for me.”
He wiped his face again. “They won’t be looking here if they decided to start a search.”
Start?
I’d been missing for almost three days now. Of course, they were looking for me.
Unless they figured I’d be… dead.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
I frowned at him. I wasn’t motivated to lie to him, but telling him that I had a nugget of suspicion that it would make sense if someone at the agency had told me to go to that stakeout so I could be shot instead of Smithson who was supposed to be there…
Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
He’d take that information and use it against me. And I had no proof to back up my speculation.
“You can’t keep me here,” I repeated, stubborn to stick with my request. “Release me. I won’t allow any charges against you for kidnapping.”
He scoffed. “Nah. I like my plan better.” He backed up. “You’re staying right here. With me.”
As he tossed the towel to the floor and reached for the strings to his gym shorts, my mouth fell open.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
I stood, rushing after him. “With you? You mean in here? In this room?”
He turned just in time for me to collide against his bare chest, his hands on the waistband of his shorts. “Here. In my room. With me.”
I backed up, shaking my head. “No. No, that’s not—”
He dropped his shorts and I jerked my head up to look at the ceiling. Dammit. I wasn’t playing this game. I wasn’t doing this. I couldn’t let myself get any more distracted and confused and stuck in desire for a despicable man like him, a criminal who’d kidnapped me!
“What, you want to join me in here too?”
I flinched, lowering my gaze to him.
He smirked, holding his hand out to me.
A tall, toned, completely naked version of him.
Oh.
Fuck.
Me.
I choked on air and spun to avoid looking at… at… any of him.
He chuckled, the sound gritty and low as he strode into the bathroom.
The sound of the shower starting came next, and as I stood there, glaring at the opposite wall, Lurch came back. He held bags and didn’t even raise a brow at me as he set them near the open doorway to the walk-in closet. “For you, Miss Green.”
“That’s Agent Green,” I snapped.
“Very well,” he replied, monotone, as he turned and left.
Nothing was well about this. About the fact that a very naked Viktor Volkov was showering feet away from me. About the idea that he expected me to live in his room with him as a prisoner.
Assess, ascertain, act.
You will survive this.
I opted to act now. I grabbed some clothes and marched out of the room to find another one and shower. Once I did that, I got lost trying to find the kitchen. Lurch wasn’t around. Neither was Viktor. But his cousin was.
“What the hell are you doing?” He raised his brows at me as I walked through the foyer I had come through twice already.
“Looking for food,” I answered bluntly, wondering if all these Volkovs were as… weirdly laidback about an FBI agent in the house.
He pointed to the left.
“Which one are you?” I asked tersely as I headed that way.
He followed. “Shouldn’t you know?”
I held in a growl.
“I was kidnapped on my first day,” I shot back.
He scoffed. “Sounds like you’re a terrible representative of the law,” he mocked.
“She’s ‘new’, Alexei,” Viktor answered as I entered the kitchen.
He stood there, still shirtless, dammit, making something on the stove.
Great.
Gray sweatpants lethally low on his hips. No shirt. And he was cooking.
I rubbed my face.
What alternative universe have I landed in?
He was supposed to look like nothing but a dangerous criminal, with a black heart and ice in his veins.
Not… like this.
“Why the hell is she walking around like she’s a—”
“Kidnapped woman?” I finished for Alexei.
He shook his head. “Like she’s a houseguest.”
“I’m a prisoner,” I reminded them.
“Guest.” Viktor nodded. “Yeah, she’s my guest.” He shot me a smug smile. “Hungry?”
I glowered at him.
“Go on. Run.” He pointed the spatula in his hand at the door as he resumed handling the pan on the burner. “See how far you get.”
“I should.”
He scoffed. “May as well eat first?” He shot me a searing look. “You need to keep up your strength, right?”
“For what?” I wanted to strangle that sarcastic ass. “If I can’t run—”
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Alexei asked.
“I’ll figure it out.” Viktor glanced at me, implying that he intended to figure me out.
If that included convincing me to give up the reason I’d gone into law enforcement at all, he had another thing coming.
No matter how confusing he could be.
No matter how tempting he could be, either.