Page 46 of Twisted Cage

Preferably a punch right where the bruise has just begun forming from the first one.

I jump across the threshold, all dramatic movements, and spin back toward him, then jut out my hip. “Happy?”

“Little shit,” he mutters.

“What? I didn’t hear you,” I say, turning my head and cupping the ear closest to him.

He opens his mouth, but whatever he planned to say dies in his throat, the sound of squealing tires cutting off his words.

Men all move at once, shifting formation in an instinctual way until two form a blockade in front of the elevator and the other four surround the SUV.

Faith gasps next to me. I squeeze her hand and find a small gap between the men where I can just barely see what is happening.

Konstantin yanks the second car seat free. For such a big guy, he moves in a flash, bringing the babies before him side by side, where he curls over their tiny little bodies, shielding them with his.

A red sports car filled with rowdy teens careens around the corner, their hands waving out the window as they scream their way through the parking garage.

No one moves until they are out of sight. Konstantin last, and only when Grigori reassures him they aere clear.

With the men forming a corridor once again, Konstantin sweeps between them, a car seat in each hand, only handing them to us once he joins us in the elevator and the doors have closed completely.

A side panel slides open then, leading to a long, straight passageway. “We’re not staying here?”

“No. It’s just another entry point.”

“So Nikolaj has tunnels above and below the city now?”

“Technically no, we’re still under the city,” he says with a hint of laughter in his voice.

The fucker.

“You shielded them like you’ve done it a hundred times before,” Faith says as she brushes her finger over Alex’s cheek.

“I have.” His deep voice echoes with his answer.

“But for who?”

Glancing over his shoulder, his dark stare holding mine, the heavy silence serves as his only answer as Faith glances back and forth between us.

“Oh,” she says quietly.

The minute he turns around, I let out the breath I’ve been holding and turn to Faith who mouths the word “sorry” to me.

Was any of it real? At least in my infancy? A memory of my mother throwing her head back and laughing flashes through my head and I have to swallow down the bile rising in my throat.

He tainted my memories of her too. Now I agonize over whether she ever felt the same for him, if they kissed, if they did more than that… my mother, the idea of her, her ghost, turns into some sort of twisted rival.

He stripped me of every bit of happiness I’d had to cling to and here he is, just leading us to who knows where, where he’ll have complete access to me whenever he wants. Oh, how fucking satisfied he must be with himself right now. His victory will be temporary. I’ll make sure of it.

We had to have walked at least half a mile, Konstantin offering multiple times to carry Alex and Lexi, before arriving at a nondescript gray hallway with a private elevator at the end. Konstantin presses his thumb to a screen, then his right pinky, left middle finger, his right index and ring finger at the same time and finally his left thumb.

Okay, so no one is getting in. Good to know.

The door slides open with barely a sound, everything about it screaming high-tech security and designed to draw as little attention as possible. If anyone even manages to find it.

Konstantin presses the one and only button with no designation, setting us smoothly rising. In just seconds we come to a stop, the doors sliding open to a hallway almost identical to the one we’ve just come from.

Another panel, a different pattern of fingerprints later, and we are in.

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