Page 170 of Ivory Ashes

“I’m not mad he took my car, you idiot. I’m—” Anatoly twists around, looking on either side of the bed. Whatever he’s doing, I know his nurse wouldn’t like it. “Where the fuck is my phone?”

I spot it, grab it off the desk behind me, and hand it to him.

“I’m not mad he took my car,” Anatoly repeats. He turns his phone around to show me a little flashing dot in the center of the screen. “I’m thrilled. Because the asshole doesn’t know about the tracker I keep in the glove compartment.” Anatoly is tapping away. “I’ll send the live location to you and Raoul now.”

My phone buzzes a second later.

“And Mikhail?” Anatoly calls as I’m already halfway out the door. “Before you kill him, tell Pyotr I sent you.”

I nod. “I’ll make sure he hurts, Nat. I’ll make sure he knows why.”

63

VIVIANA

It only takes a second after the door opens for all of my naive hopes to die.

“Fuck off, Lukyan,” Iakov Novikov barks. “Leave the woman alone. She’s been through enough.”

The guard—Lukyan, apparently; I won’t forget that name—gives me one last look before he slouches out of the room like a puppy who just got a good swat on the nose.

Iakov saved me from whatever vile things Lukyan had planned. The trouble is, whatever Iakov has in store might be worse. Actually, I’m positive it is.

I scoot away from him until my back is against the farthest wall. He watches me with dark eyes, his face unreadable. “This cell is horrendous,” he remarks after a long, pained silence.

I blink at him, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for him to grin and tell me he’s thrilled I’m finally in hell where I belong.

Iakov Novikov leans through the door to my cell and looks in each corner like he’s physically repulsed. “Honestly, this is deplorable. Inhumane.”

I know better than to get my hopes up at this point, but it’s hard to keep the human spirit down. I can’t stop myself from asking, “Are you going to let me go?”

He laughs. “Of course not. You’re a murderer. But that doesn’t mean we should treat you like an animal.” He angles around to talk to someone in the hallway. “Get her a mattress or something. She’ll be here for a while; we might as well make her comfortable.”

“How long will I be here?” I blurt. “What are you planning to do with me?”

“That is the question, isn’t it?” he muses as he turns back, drumming his fingers together in thought. “If you’d stayed in the mansion, Mikhail probably would have overseen the whole thing. He wouldn’t have let me have too much fun. He would’ve forced me to make it quick. But now…” He grins and I’m forced, for the first time, to see how much Iakov looks like Anatoly. They have the exact same smile. My heart breaks for my friend. “Now, I get to do with you as I please. I plan to take my time making sure your punishment is just right.”

I force down a shiver. I don’t want him to see one single shred of my fear. “Did you even care about Trofim? You don’t seem to care about Mikhail. You don’t seem broken up about the fact that Pyotr killed Anatoly while kidnapping me.” I shrug. “I don’t understand how you could look at your three children and decide Trofim is the one to fight for.”

“Trofim was my true heir!” he roars, launching himself into my room.

I fly back against the wall so hard I see stars.

Iakov blows out a breath and seems to steady himself, stopping a few feet short of me. “Mikhail is a strong leader, but he has never been able to manage that soft heart of his. He isn’t a monster the way his brother was.”

“You want your son to be a monster?”

“I want my family to survive in this world,” he corrects testily. “I want my children to build empires and rule them. If they have to be monsters to do that, then so be it. Heroes get themselves killed. Heroes bleed out on a garage floor because they tried to help their brother’s killer escape. Heroes are useless to me.”

“Anatoly was a better man than you’ll ever be!”

“Perhaps.” He shrugs. “That doesn’t count for much now, does it? He’s dead and I’m still here.”

Without thinking, I lunge at him. I throw all of my energy into reaching for his neck so I can squeeze the life out of his fat throat the way he deserves.

But, once again, the chains jerk me back.

Iakov looks startled, at least, as he backs towards the door. “Careful, Viviana. You’d hate to scare the boy.”

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