“I needed to talk to my sisters.”

She glares at me as she reaches into a cabinet and pulls out a ruler. “Hold you your arm.”

I draw my arm closer to me. “What?”

“Your arm.”

I don’t move.

Mary makes a disapproving sound in the back of her throat as she grabs my arm and uses the ruler to hit me. A hot, intense pain ripples up my arm. She leaves behind a red welt on my skin.

And then she does it again.

“Stop!” I scream, trying to pull away from her, but Mary is stronger than she looks. She keeps swatting my arm with the ruler. “Stop!”

“What’s going on in here?” Mikhail’s thunderous voice fills the room.

Mary backs up and thankfully stops hitting me. “She used the phone without permission. I was punishing her.”

“Is this true, Sofiya?” I hate how he sets his eyes on me. I can never think straight when he does that.

“Mary told me I couldn’t, but I needed to talk to my sisters. You have to understand.”

“I do. And if you had come to me, I would have told you that you could gladly use the phone. But you didn’t, and now, you’ve disobeyed Mary’s orders.”

“I thought I was just supposed to follow your orders?”

Mikhail’s eyes soften as he walks toward me, placing his hands on my arms. “I’ll give you a free pass just this once. You’re still learning. You either have to listen to me or Mary. She helps keep this house thriving. If you have a problem with what Mary does, then come to me. Don’t go behind either of our backs. Understood?”

I want to object, but I know it’s pointless. And I really don’t want to be whacked with a ruler again.

“Understood.” I hold my arm out. It’s covered in red welts. “It hurts.”

“Let me take care of that for you.” He turns to Mary. “Don’t be so hard on her.”

“Yes, Mr. Ivanov.” Even though Mary’s words say she agrees, her expression says otherwise.

Mikhail walks with me upstairs and into the bathroom, where he grabs a salve and rubs it onto my arm. “This will help with the pain.”

“Thank you. Mikhail, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Mmm?” He keeps his gaze on my arm as he continues to rub the salve into my skin.

“Boris is trying to marry Mila.”

Mikhail doesn’t react.

“That’s a problem,” I say.

“Is it?”

I huff. “Yes. Mila is the kindest out of us. She doesn’t deserve to marry a man like Boris.”

“Then maybe I should have married her.”

I flinch. “What?”

He glances up with a small smile on his lips, and it’s only then I realize he’s joking. “I can see your sisters mean a lot to you.”

“They do.” I inhale slowly. “So, I would like to invite them to stay with us. Here.”

When Mikhail lets my arm go, I feel instantly colder. “I’m not sure.”

“Please. This might be the only safe place for them. Please.”

Mikhail holds my gaze as he nods. “All right. I’ll agree to it. But”—he holds up his finger— “on one condition.”

“What condition?”

“You submit to me fully. You join me tonight. You will agree to become my sub through and through. You will not ask me what I’m going to do to you tonight. You just have to trust me. I’ll tell you if you decide to show up tonight. I’ll be waiting. If you agree to do this, then I’ll let your sisters visit. If not, Boris can have them.”

It’s only at this moment I see Mikhail for who he is—a Bratva man. One who knows how to show me kindness but also knows how to take it away.

I’m completely at his mercy.

Chapter

Seven

SOFIYA

Ithink about Mikhail’s proposal long after he leaves. The only way to get my sisters here is to submit to Mikhail fully. I’m scared of what that entails. Mikhail has promised he wouldn’t whip me like he did Irina, but how can I know for sure? He could be lying.

Granted, he hasn’t lied to me yet. But he’s still a stranger to me. I know nothing of his past. There aren’t any family photos hanging up in the house. I don’t even know his middle name.

How can I give myself over to a man I don’t really know?

What I do know, though, is how my body responds to him. It’s like he’s calling my body forward, and I’m powerless to stop it. I know that for a fact. But is physical attraction enough?

I sit on the bed, staring down at the welts on my arm. They don’t sting as much after the salve, but they remind me I can’t trust anybody in this house. Mary has shown she’s not an ally. Andrei makes me uncomfortable. Irina is my competition.

That only leaves Mikhail to trust, and he’s put me in a tough position. Fully choose him to save my sisters or let Boris have them. None of this is fair.

I need answers. I need to know what kind of man Mikhail is before I can even think about submitting to him.

I find Mary in the kitchen. She hates me, and I hate her, but she might know more about who Mikhail is as a person, and I’m desperate.

“What?” she snaps as I lean against the counter. “You already ate lunch. Dinner isn’t for another few hours. Leave me to my work.”