“Don’t talk about our sister like th—” Mila starts to say, but I cut her off.

“I agree. Vik can be so hard to handle. She’s a lot. There have been times I’ve secretly called her a bitch behind her back.” Unfortunately, that’s true. Vik has gotten under my nerves so many times; I haven’t always thought of her in the most pleasant way. But she’s still my sister, and I love her, and I’ll be damned if these men talk about her like this.

I just have to play along long enough to get Mila through this.

Mila stares at me with her mouth gaping open. I stare back, hoping she understands what I’m trying to do.

Slowly, realization dawns in her eyes.

Andrei laughs at my words. “You know, Sofiya, you have more of a backbone than I thought. More sass. I like that. I like making a woman who isn’t naturally submissive submit to me. Is that what Mikhail has done to you?”

“My husband has … done horrible things to me.” It pains me to say this, but I have to. “I hate him for what he’s done.”

“Then, good thing I’m rescuing you.”

“Good thing,” I whisper.

“This is going to be fun,” Andrei says, turning back in his seat. At least I can breathe again without him looking at me through his dark sunglasses.

“I agree.” Boris touches Mila’s knee. I can see her trying to resist the urge to jerk away. Stay strong, I want to tell her. Stay strong.

The car soon stops in front of a plain, tan-colored house. It blends in with all the other houses on the street.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“At your new home,” Andrei tells me. “Where Mikhail will never find us, and we can be together.”

Boris opens the back door and jumps out, motioning at the two of us to follow with his gun. I nudge Mila forward, and with a whimper, she gets out. I want to run again, but Mila and I are outnumbered. Playing along and feeding into the men’s egos is our best bet. I just need to wait it out until Mikhail finds me.

The driver remains in the car and takes off, so we don’t even have a car as a means to escape.

Boris walks us inside the house with Andrei bringing up the rear. It’s plain inside—gray furnishings, gray walls. No personality anywhere. If this is to really be my forever, it’s a depressing one for sure.

“Now, sit down,” Boris instructs, pointing at the couch. “I need to make sure everything is in order for us to leave later tonight.”

“To go back to New York?” I ask.

“Just Mila and me. You’re staying here with Andrei.” He heads into the kitchen, leaving us alone with Andrei, who looks at me through his sunglasses. I want to rip them off his face and hurt him with them.

“What are we going to do?” Mila whispers to me.

“Shh.” Andrei is only a few feet from us. I know he can hear everything we say.

He stands before us, staring down, hands in his pockets. The way he’s standing so casually scares me more than if he were attacking me right now. It’s a stance of confidence. He doesn’t believe Mikhail will find us.

Which makes me wonder—will Mikhail be able to find us?

I can only hope the man I married will protect me again.

MIKHAIL

When I step through the front door, I know something is wrong. For one, the security guard in the lobby was dead. Two, Fedor isn’t standing guard in the hallway.

And three, I know in my gut when something is wrong. I experienced it when I lost Alexei and Natasha. I’m experiencing it again.

My eyes land on two dead bodies in the living room. My first thought is it’s Sofiya, but upon closer inspection, I see it’s Mary and Fedor.

A scream comes from the side of me, and the next thing I see, Viktoriya is coming toward me with a knife. She stops suddenly. “It’s you,” she breathes out.

“What’s going on?”

“Boris kidnapped Sofiya and Mila. I don’t know where he took them.”

“Why didn’t he take you, too?”

“He wanted to kill me, but Sofiya agreed to leave with him if it meant sparing my life.”

At this moment, I fucking hate Viktoriya. Maybe if Boris had just killed her, Sofiya would still be here.

Taking a deep breath in, I remind myself—no. This is not Viktoriya’s fault. Sofiya would do anything to protect her sisters. This is on Boris.

“How the hell did he even get in here?” I ask.

“He came during the party, and he didn’t leave. That’s what he told us.” She clutches my arm. It’s the first time Viktoriya has ever touched me. The desperation in her eyes is apparent, and it churns my stomach. “You have to save them. You have to get them back.”

“Do you have any idea where they went?”

“No. I looked out the window and saw the van they were put into. I watched it drive away. But that was it. Nothing else.”

“Did you see who was driving this van?”

“No.”

“Ok.” I run my hand down my face, thinking hard. “Ok. You stay here. I have work to do.”

“I want to help.”

“There’s nothing you can do, Viktoriya. I will save your sisters.”

“You promise?” There’s a hard edge in her voice.

I want to snap at her and say that, of course, I’ll save Sofiya and Mila. But she’s just as worried as I am.

So, all I say is, “I promise.”

Then I walk into my office and call my inside man at the police department to get video footage of the outside of my house. Within minutes, he sends me something.

And what I see makes my teeth grind together.