Chapter 5
Cara
I should’ve drunk the wine.
Or left town when I had the chance.
Now, I’m awaiting Dmitri’s verdict.
I still can’t believe he zip tied me to the bed. No telling what else he plans to do to me for this betrayal.
Cold fear seeps into my bones as I struggle against the tie. The hard plastic digs into my skin, making me wince as I try to slip my hand free.
Nothing of use is within my reach, and Dmitri has been gone for what feels like hours.
What the hell is he doing? When will he return? And what in the world will he do to me when he gets back?
He baited me and I ran straight into it.
I dug my own grave because I couldn’t see any way out of this other than living in a whorehouse or ending up in a body bag.
The penthouse front door suddenly bursts open before slamming shut, making me curl up involuntarily, my arms wrap around my knees as I stare at the bedroom door.
Heavy footsteps thunder down the hallway before the door flies open.
Dmitri storms inside with various expressions flashing across his face.
He isn’t just angry. He’s shattered.
“Dmitri…” I start.
“Shut your goddamn mouth,” he grits out as he approaches the bed, the fingers of his right hand curling and uncurling. His knuckles are busted again. He’s been hitting something or someone.
Will he lay his bloody hands on me? Hit me? Strangle me? End up with my blood on his hands?
“You’re Sean O’Malley’s daughter? His fucking daughter!” Dmitri yells at me, his voice filling the room.
Shit.
I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so small and exposed. My throat threatens to close up as I stare at him, unsure of what to say now that he knows the truth. I thought I would be halfway across the world by the time he figured everything out. Or dead on my kitchen floor.
But I got too attached.
Now, I have to face the consequences.
“Answer me!” he shouts.
“Yes,” I say quietly.
Dmitri clenches his jaw and shakes his head. “I can’t fucking believe you! I talked about your father in front of you, and you didn’t even bat a damn eye. You played your part well. I’m sure he’s so fucking proud of you.”
I scoff. “He doesn’t even claim me.”
Dmitri’s expression wavers for a second. Maybe even half a second. “He picked you to fuck me over, and you carried out his orders. You spied on me. You lied to me. You fucking ruined me, Cara!”
The sound of utter betrayal in his voice makes my heart ache.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him, meaning the words with my entire being as my eyes start to sting.
Dmitri lets out a cold laugh. “You’re sorry? Bullshit! You did exactly what you came to do, didn’t you? I fed you so much information and let you toy with me, with my decisions, like I was your goddamn puppet!”
“I thought if I succeeded, he’d finally look at me like I mattered,” I say as I draw my body away from the headboard, taking a risk by gravitating closer to him. “But I don’t care about that anymore. Not after I got to know you.”
“But I never knew a fucking thing about you,” Dmitri grits out. “All those stories about your family and your life were lies.”
“Not everything was a lie,” I tell him, fighting the growing lump in my throat. “Feeling like a disappointment was true. Wanting to finally make my own decisions was true. Caring about you was true.”
“Stop saying you care about me!” Dmitri snaps, making me flinch. “If you gave a shit about me, you would’ve come clean or stopped putting me at risk by reporting every fucking thing to your father!”
“I didn’t report everything to him. And it’s not that simple,” I say, wishing I could make him understand. “I-I had to do this, and I had to lie to cover myself.”
“What else did you lie about?” Dmitri questions me as he moves along the edge of the bed, getting closer to me.
I shy away from that side, my stomach flipping nervously as I see the rage in his eyes. “I didn’t want to lie to you. But things snowballed.”
Dmitri stops next to the bed, his sharp eyes searching my face. “Is your ex-boyfriend in prison? Did you lie about that too?”
My heart drops. Now, it’s about to make him hate me even more.
Dmitri shakes his head as he turns away from me. “I can’t believe you. I fucking felt bad for you!”
Things keep spiraling more and more out of control, and I can’t even blame him for being angry because he’s right. I lied. I played him. I stomped on the trust that he had put in me. I destroyed him.
But I’m not his enemy. Not like how he’s seeing me right now.
“Dmitri, please,” I say, my voice coming out weak. “You don’t understand what he does to people who disobey him.”
“I captured one of your Irish soldiers and made him squeal,” Dmitri spits at me as he angrily paces in front of the bed, looking like a snake ready to strike at any second.
Honestly, I’m surprised that he didn’t walk into the room and shoot me on sight.
“Who?” I ask him as my heartbeat somehow races faster. I don’t care about my father’s men, not really. But I don’t want them caught up in this mess, in Dmitri’s fury because of my mistake.
“A mouthy asshole named Brendan,” Dmitri replies with a sneer.
Brendan has never been anything but cruel to me. Still, I don’t want his blood on my hands. Or Dmitri’s. Although that’s probably his blood on Dmitri’s busted knuckles. “Is he still alive?”
“Yes.”
That’s a relief. “What are you going to do to him?”
Dmitri glares at me silently for a long moment before answering. “I think he still has a lot left to tell me, so I’ll keep him alive for as long as he’s useful to me. I’ll do the same with you.”
My stomach flips. After all we’ve been through together and shared, will it really be so easy for him to take my life?
“Please don’t do this,” I whisper, my bottom lip threatening to tremble as tears well up in my eyes. I was so close to escaping my father’s grasp. I thought I had a chance to live my life my own way.
But it looks like I might lose everything to the person I came to trust and care about the most.
Dmitri scowls at me as he stalks closer. His hand clamps around my ankle and yanks me down the mattress.
“No! Stop!” I cry out as I try to grab the headboard with my free hand, a few tears breaking free as I struggle.
Dmitri is far stronger, though. He easily yanks me closer to him, his hand moving to grip the back of my neck. He forces my gaze to meet his, his fingertips digging into my skin. “You have no right to beg me for mercy! You’re just as fucked up as your father.”
I try to shake my head, but he grips me tighter, making me grimace as pain travels down between my shoulder blades. “I am nothing like him!”
Dmitri’s expression darkens. “You say that, but when I look at you, all I see now is O’Malley.”
I grab his wrist with my free hand just to touch him, hoping to coax some sense into him. Does he really think that I’m as awful as Sean? Does he see the same hatred and anger in my eyes?
“He doesn’t see me as his daughter. He hates me!”
“I don’t believe you,” Dmitri hisses as he leans closer to me.
The familiar smell of him rolls over me, making my heart ache because I usually find so much comfort in it.
“I can’t believe a word that comes out of your goddamn mouth.
I thought you were real, that you were genuine.
I thought you gave a shit about me when no one else did. ”
More tears brim my eyes as I hear the hurt in his voice. He might not have meant for it to slip, but I heard it.
“I wasn’t going to hurt you,” I promise him as tears race down my cheeks and tumble off my jaw. “I would never intentionally hurt you, Dmitri. If you’ll just let me explain everything, you’ll understand. Maybe we can help each other.”
He suddenly shoves me away from him, making a gasp burst from me as I fall onto the pillows. “You think I would help you? You’ve probably compromised everything I’ve built! Who knows what else O’Malley had you do to me?”
“I’ll tell you,” I say as I try to reach for him again.
Eyes narrowing, he asks, “Did your father order you to fuck me too? Was it his idea to make me pay to fuck you?”
I shake my head. “Of course not.”
Dmitri steps out of the way and storms over to the door. “I can beat the truth out of Brendan. As for you…I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do with you. All I know is that I can’t trust you. I should’ve never trusted you in the first place.”
“You trusted me because I know the real you,” I tell him in a shaky voice. “And I cared about you. I wanted what was best for you! And you could feel that.”
Dmitri lingers in front of the door with his hand resting on the doorknob. For a second, his expression wavers, looking conflicted. That moment passes quickly, though, and the anger takes back over his features.
“Whatever I felt for you…it’s gone now,” he says before stepping out of the room and slams the door shut behind him.
My lips part to call out to him, but not a single word leaves me. Only a broken sob as I lean my head against the bars of the headboard, pain radiating throughout my chest as everything that I built with him crumbles to pieces.
I wish I had never agreed to do this assignment. I should’ve let my father marry me off, should’ve suffered that fate to protect Dmitri. But it’s too late now.
Everyone knows who I am, and, one way or another, there will be hell to pay.
If he decides I ever leave this room alive.