Chapter 6 - Katya #2
“You’re sick,” I snap at him, shoving against his chest with my free hand hard enough to make him pull back only slightly. To my surprise, he loosens his grip on my wrist. “You’ve been planting yourself in my life on purpose. You’ve been watching me…waiting. What kind of freak does that?”
“One who gets what he wants,” Sergey says, letting his grin sharpen with a knowing glint in his eyes. “And where I’m from, you don’t get anywhere from not taking what you want.”
My heart nearly stops at that, not liking what he’s insinuating. It kicks my internal panic all over again, and before I can stop myself, I swing my leg.
The gun pulls away the moment my shin collides with his crotch, making Sergey’s eyes widen while he stumbles back.
“Son of a bitch—”
I twist to get out of his grasp completely, pulling away in a sprint to reach my bedroom.
If I can get there, then I can close the door and grab my bat—
But Sergey’s on me before I get enough distance between us, causing us to struggle before toppling over.
The breath is knocked out of me the moment I hit the floor, feeling his tight grip on my thigh to keep me in place while I attempt to crawl away.
“Stop it,” he growls out, moving faster than I can, pinning me to the floor.
I have half the mind to scream as the fear holds me even tighter than he does, blood pressure spiking at the feeling of him behind me.
But before I can, Sergey turns me over, holding both my wrists against the floor while he stares down at me, brows furrowed. The gun is somewhere else now, lost out of my sight.
It isn’t ideal, but at least it isn’t pointed at me.
There’s a flicker of surprise in his eyes, almost like none of this has gone according to plan. But even if it’s dangerous to assume anything, he seems more annoyed by my fear than my resistance.
That can’t be right.
I squirm still, not making it any easier for him.
“Enough, Kat,” Sergey mutters, tightening his grip on my wrists as emphasis.
“Whatever sick ideas you are thinking right now, forget it,” I return, refusing to be small, even if he has the advantage in every way.
He huffs out a breath, not letting go, but also not attacking me either. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then let me go!”
“Not a chance.”
Faster than I can fully register it, he maneuvers my wrists, pinning them with one hand while the other comes down to my jaw, angling my face up to meet his gaze.
Looking at him is the last thing I want right now, but I can’t ignore the way that eye contact makes my stomach squirm. The danger and fire in the way he looks at me sends a shiver down my spine.
“Listen to me very carefully,” he begins, voice threateningly quiet.
“I may not be here to hurt you, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t an integral part of this whole thing.
You are leverage. Insurance. Whatever you want to call it…
I’ve been trailing you because I needed to figure out who you are and how deeply you’re involved. ”
My pulse races in my ears. “I’m not involved. You should know that.”
“I do now,” Sergey hums, eyes taking in every inch of my face. “I know you’ve been doing everything in your power to avoid your brother, but that doesn’t matter. You’re coming with me regardless.”
I see red immediately. “Like hell.”
He sighs, not appreciating that response, while he dips his face a touch closer until our noses nearly brush, and I curse at my body for reacting.
“If you don’t come with me willingly, I have guards waiting downstairs right now, and they’ll be up here in a moment’s notice. They’ll drag you out of here screaming if need be.”
I swallow hard, trying to find his bluff. “And the cameras? The desk clerk?”
Sergey chuckles, but there’s nothing humorous about it. “Both easy solutions for someone like me.”
Part of me wants to think he doesn’t mean it, but given everything that has happened so far, I don’t have any reason to doubt him.
“And if Yuri so much as breathes wrong while you’re in our care, we’ll put him in the ground next to Father Dearest. Got it?”
As much as I want to be brave and unshakeable, his words steal my breath even harder than the fall had.
I swallow hard, fighting back the true fear that bubbles up from beneath the surface and makes my eyes burn. “I don’t want this. I never have. I don’t want anything to do with your family or whatever bullshit Yuri has planned.”
“Too bad,” Sergey murmurs, letting the smooth leather of his gloved thumb slide across my jaw, feigning a look of pity. “I hate to break it to you, but this isn’t about what you want. This situation is bigger than both of us, sweetheart.”
In a different situation, that touch might’ve softened me slightly, but it only makes me recoil.
No part of me wants to cooperate, but in every sense, Sergey has me completely cornered.
***
I hate him.
And I show him exactly how much every step of the way. Down the elevator, across the parking garage, and into the black SUV waiting for us.
Even with my squirming and refusal to hand myself over on a silver platter, Sergey’s grip doesn’t loosen.
It infuriates me how he doesn’t even seem to strain, almost like handling me is effortless.
I despise the way he looks at me like he’s already won. Like he has far bigger plans that I don’t know about yet.
And by the time we reach an office building across the city, that gut feeling has been confirmed.
My attempts at struggling lessened the moment the exhaustion caught up with me, and now, I can only follow.
Not because I’ve given up, but because I’m thinking and trying to find a way out. I’m waiting for my chance.
Sergey guides me into a dimly lit office where a man waits behind a glass desk wearing a tailored suit, where a gold chain just barely peeks out from beneath his shirt. Everything about him screams money, and I have every reason to believe it isn’t the clean type.
“Sit,” Sergey orders me while his hand brushes against the small of my back as he pushes me toward the chair.
Regardless of how tired I am, I glare at him, not moving. “You’re out of your mind if you think you can bully me into agreeing to anything. I’m not your little hostage.”
“You don’t need to like it,” he mumbles, moving a touch closer to steal my air, letting his cologne surround me in the intimate space between us. “I just need you to cooperate and do as I tell you.”
“Or what?”
“Or Yuri dies on Lukov turf, and I’ll be sure to treat you with significantly less care,” Sergey whispers, words brushing against my cheek.
“Care?” I return, riddled with disbelief.
But he sighs and tips my chin up again, keeping his voice down. His lips pull slightly, almost like a part of him is enjoying this. “Be smart, Kat. If you care about your brother or the life you’ve curated for yourself, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
My stomach twists at the mention of Yuri again.
Yuri and I have a complicated history, given everything we’ve endured, and the different paths we have taken, but he’s still my brother. We were both little once. Innocent.
I may not know where we stand, but that doesn’t mean I want anything to happen to him. Even if that means giving this bastard what he wants.
“Fine,” I hiss out. “But don’t assume I’m being agreeable.”
Sergey smiles slowly and dangerously. His voice sends prickles down my back. “You will be.”
I hate how sure he sounds. And I hate how something foreign stirs beneath the surface of my resolve in response.
To make matters worse, as the impromptu meeting unfolds, each glance from the apparent lawyer and every word he utters causes the dread in my gut to thicken.
Then I see it. The papers on the desk.
A marriage license.