Chapter 33
CHAPTER 33
ARTEM
"D id you really think I wouldn't notice?" I kept my voice low, calm, even.
Holding back the storm raging inside of me as I tapped the screen and turned it to face Viktoria.
She sat in a leather chair in front of the desk in the office Gregor had set up for me.
The video I played was of Viktoria snooping in the back room.
I may not have gotten a full cleaning crew in there and had everything locked down. That didn't mean I left any part of this house unsecured. If I was going to do that, I might as well have left her in that apartment with the security that had already failed her.
She met my gaze, not even bothering to watch the video showing her pressing against the hidden back wall of the closet and blindly walking into the dark tunnel.
"I knew you would notice. I just didn't care," she said with a casual shrug of her shoulder, her intense eyes meeting mine.
Her blatant disregard for her own safety was insufferably frustrating.
"Why do you insist on acting like a spoiled child?" I bit out.
"Probably because you insist on treating me like a child."
"Excuse me?" A sudden, sharp pain stabbed through my temples, and my fingers tightened into fists under the desk before flexing wide and pressing against my thighs.
I had beaten people for far less, and I wanted to take her over my knee now, but she had already proven that wasn't going to work. "I am not treating you like a child."
She let out a dark, bitter laugh.
"First, you moved me to the middle of nowhere, without even asking. You pulled me from my classes." She counted the perceived slights on her fingers. "You think you can control who I spend my time with, what I eat, and you have me under constant surveillance. Not to mention you hired a nanny to watch me."
She stared at me in defiance as she listed off the ways I tried to protect her as if they were marks against me. My jaw clenched and the skin at the back of my neck heated.
I was always in control of everything, the least of which were my emotions, but this girl just cut through my control like it consisted of tissue paper instead of carefully tempered iron.
"I did that to?—"
"You know, if this is some kink for you, I will tell you right now. I will never call you Daddy."
Another deep breath in as my control over my rage frayed even further. A muffled laugh came from the other room, a reminder we were not really alone.
"Do you know what almost happened to you today?" I asked, ignoring her earlier statement. We could go over the things she could call me when riding my cock later, when we were alone.
"I almost got free of your control? I almost tasted fresh air?" Her unbothered attitude was the single most infuriating thing I had ever encountered, and I grew up with Pavel and Kostya.
"You almost got caught," I said, clenching my teeth.
"No, I did get caught. One of your thugs grabbed me in the woods and dragged me here to you." Viktoria crossed her arms in front of her chest and tilted her head, daring me to do something she was going to regret.
I sucked in a long, deep breath through my nose and thought about what Marina had told Kostya.
Viktoria didn't understand why I was protecting her. She thought it was about control, not about keeping her safe.
Telling Viktoria that she was in danger wasn't enough.
She simply didn't believe me.
Why should she?
Almost every other man in her life had used her, beaten her, and lied to her.
Hell, her professor had been in the middle of manipulating her into a situation where he could coerce her into fucking him.
Why would she believe anything I told her?
I had handed her tuition with strings attached and just assumed that I had bought her trust.
Normally my reputation preceded me and delivered the trust, respect, or fear I needed someone to feel. I had no idea what aspects of my reputation she was familiar with.
"I have told you I have been protecting you. Yet you simply don't believe me. Let me prove it." I tilted the monitor back toward me and sent a few videos to the bank of screens behind me.
We were in a second temporary, makeshift office I had in a little cabin that was used strictly for security. Gregor knew that some of the work that I needed to handle would require sensitive conversations, and some possible bloodshed.
I wasn't sure if he knew I wanted to keep Viktoria separate from that, the same way he kept Samara separate from it. Or if he was worried about me getting blood on the hardwood floors in the lake house. Either way, it was convenient.
I started with the video of her creeping through the tunnels. Of course, we knew about the tunnels. We left them as emergency escape routes, which meant they were constantly monitored in case they became a point of vulnerability.
"I still don't see how I was in danger. From a spider bite, maybe?”
I was so done with her flippant tone and attitude.
Ignoring her, I fast forwarded to the point where she breached the end of the tunnel which let out between two large boulders. It really was a very impressive hiding spot. It looked completely natural in the woods, already part of a larger rock formation, and no one would want to get too close because who knew what kinds of snakes or spiders called that crevice home?
The video cut to another feed in the forest. Gregor had several cameras mounted about seven feet high in the trees, hidden by foliage but with completely clear views. I believed hunters often used them and they ran on motion sensors.
Usually, that meant that his men were scouring hours of footage of scurrying chipmunks and the occasional fox or bunny hopping through the undergrowth.
Today, it caught Viktoria sneaking around, as well as two of Solovyov's men.
"There." I stopped the video, and it showed her ducking behind a tree as two men came lumbering by. Talking more to each other than paying attention to their surroundings. "Those are not my men. They don't work for my cousin either. They work for our enemy. Do you understand what could have happened to you if they caught you?"
"I don't believe you." She had no idea how close she had come to dying.
I played more of the video, showing her almost being caught by two more groups.
I had already watched the footage several times, and it didn't matter. Every single time I saw it, my heart froze. For only a beat, then it ached, and I had to suppress the urge to rub at my chest. If she had been caught by one of them, there was no telling what would have happened.
Solovyov had a reputation, and he ensured that the men he hired rose to that reputation, reinforced it, even. If they had caught her, they wouldn't have killed her.
She didn't understand that, and she needed to.
So I played the video that showed Gregor's men striking back.
Earlier, Gregor and I were having a tense meeting when we were notified that some of Solovyov's men stepped onto Gregor's property.
We had a plan in place in seconds.
We would lure them away from the compound. Pavel and Damien were off to create a distraction to draw them away. Once they were far enough from the property, there would be no chance of the violence getting anywhere close to the families, or of Solovyov tracking their cell phones to that part of the massive forest. Then they would be dealt with swiftly.
The pieces would be sent back to Solovyov along with a little treat.
Some type of explosive, probably. It wouldn't have killed Solovyov, but it would have struck fear into the hearts of his men. It would have also sent a message to the world. A nice little postscript to the piles of burning corpses we left on the docks.
P.S. You come after us, we will retaliate in blood and fire.
The plan was set and then it all went to shit when another camera alarm went off, and Gregor pulled up the feed of Viktoria attempting another break for it.
Seconds later, I got a message from the housekeeper Mikhail swore would keep Viktoria in line.
Ms. Gorsky: The young lady is rude, and does not follow directions. She insists on going through the desk in the west wing. I tried to make her leave, and she dismissed me. She is a very rude child.
Artem: Your services are no longer required. I'm sure Gregor has another job for you.
Jesus fuck, this girl was going to kill me.
Gregor had already told his men to form a party to go get the girl and bring her back. She was running through the tunnels. Following her from the house into the tunnels wasn't an option. They wouldn't have been able to get to her fast enough. They needed to grab her before Solovyov's men did.
Viktoria gasped as she watched two of Gregor's men ambush one of Solovyov's men, stabbing him in the throat before he could make a noise.
Her hands clasped over her mouth as I turned off the video. I leaned forward on the desk, resting my weight on my elbows and leveling my gaze at her.
Viktoria's eyes were still wide as they stared at the screen.
"Do you believe me now?"
She said nothing, unblinking eyes not wavering from the black screen.
"Those men were not mine. They were not Gregor's, they were the enemy. Had they had captured you, I can tell you exactly what would have happened. If they knew who you were, if they knew how much I—" I caught myself just in time before I said the word love. "Cared for you. They would have tortured you and used you to get to me."
Still, she said nothing, remaining riveted to that screen.
"If they assumed you were a maid or some distant cousin or something staying in the compound, then they would have tortured you to find the entrance to that tunnel. They would have raped you and left you for dead in the forest."
Those possibilities occurred to me the second I saw she had nearly been spotted by them. Still, my stomach twisted in a way that I didn't know was possible just from saying it out loud.
This woman had me feeling things I never felt before.
I was genuinely terrified for her life.
Was this what love was?
When we spent time together, even when we were fighting, it brought a measure of peace to me that was unfamiliar. Something felt settled, because she was there. She was in front of me and I could see her and touch her. Even if she was fighting me, she was alive, and she was breathing, and she was safe.
Seeing her so vulnerable triggered me into wanting to burn the entire world to the ground.
Damien had whispered something to Kostya as we watched her being picked up, and he snickered. I had wanted to stab both men. The only thing that stayed my hand was Gregor putting his hand on my shoulder and shaking his head, telling me to ignore it.
He saw what I saw. He saw the threat, as clear as if it was against Samara instead of Viktoria.
"They are just jealous, cousin. They had to chase their women much further than you did."
"So did you," Damien scoffed.
"It doesn't matter how we get our women, what matters is that we protect them and we keep them safe."
The rest of them shut their mouths and we watched Gregor's men grab Viktoria from behind, one of them with his hand securely over her mouth as she thrashed.
"She is a fighter," Gregor said with a note of appreciation.
"You have no idea," I deadpanned, and our brothers started laughing again.
I had no idea what they found so funny.
Yelena had hit Damien with a fucking brick, and Marina had gotten Kostya arrested.
"Go easy on her, cousin." Gregor slapped me on the back. "But make sure she understands the risks involved."
That was what I was doing now, sitting in front of Viktoria as she still stared at that empty screen.
"This is your fault," she gasped, pulling me from my thoughts.
"How is this my fault?"
"I would never have been in danger if you didn't decide to make me your pet project."
"You are far more than my pet project, moya ptashka ."
She finally looked back at me and scoffed.
"No, that is all I am to you. You cut me off from the rest of the world. You canceled my classes, then you sent those girls to try to convince me you actually care about me?"
"I do care about you," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose, not sure how this became a conversation about us.
"Then you show me this horrible snuff film to prove that men are after me? You're saying that my father owed these men money and so they're coming to find me?"
"No, these men aren't looking for you, but you're putting yourself in danger and?—"
"No, if they're not looking for me, then they're looking for you. So you're putting me in danger by having me so close to you. You say that you care about me, but all you're doing is controlling me. That isn't caring about someone."
"I'm trying to keep you safe," I yelled as I got to my feet.
She stood just as quickly to face me.
I moved around the desk, trying to calm myself down so I could have a rational conversation with her.
"Then let me go. If you care about me at all, you will let me go. You are the thing that I need protection from."
Just like that, my control snapped.
"Never," I growled as I grabbed her by the side of her neck and pulled her body toward mine, slamming my lips down on hers. If she wouldn't believe me when I told her how I felt about her, then I would just have to show her.