Page 35 of Scorch

We walk out of the shop with a few bags. She sits in the passenger seat beside me, doing some kind of magic to her mane of hair and applying lip gloss she found at the checkout.

“What’s happened with your brothers?” she asks.

I don’t want to take her to where I’m about to go.

But she needs to see. She needs to know.

“There’s a secluded warehouse that’s one of our secure locations. Only family’s allowed there. We need it quiet and off the grid.”

Nodding, she looks out the window.

“And why am I coming with you?”

“Because I can’t trust you at home.”

The cars zoom past us as we take the exit that leads us to the warehouse. “So I accompany you everywhere you go, then? That’s your big plan?”

“Until I can teach you to behave yourself.” The truth is, once we’re married, she’ll be a lot more secure than she is now. The Ledyanoye Bratstvo will have less of a claim on her, and even our rivals would know she’s off-limits.

“Indefinitely?”

“Yeah, Lydia. Indefinitely.”

She drums her long fingernails on the dash. “I need a phone, Viktor.”

“I know. I’m on it.”

We drive in silence. We’re only a few minutes out.

“What if I promise you I won’t try to escape again?”

I shake my head. “Talk is cheap. I don’t give a shit what you tell me. I won’t let up until I know you’re not going anywhere.”

She frowns, shaking her head, and curses under her breath.

“You’re a fucking liar,” she finally says. “You know that, don’t you?”

I’m not a liar. I tell the truth even when it hurts. She’s baiting me, trying to get some measure of control back—a last-ditch effort to rattle me.

I won’t be baited.

“I don’t. So why don’t you fill me in on why you think I’m a liar?”

Her eyes flicker with surprise, momentarily thrown off. She shifts, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. The air between us is thick with tension, unspoken words, and unresolved anger.

“You keep telling me you won’t hurt me. You keep hinting at the fact that you know me. But if you really knew me, you’d know that the number one way of hurting someone like me is trying to control them.”

Ah. Well played. But she’s still missing a piece of the puzzle.

“Mmm. When someone makes choices that could endanger them, sometimes the only option is to ensure their safety by exerting control. You ought to know that.” I give her a sidelong glance as I exit the highway and make a quick turn toward the warehouse. “Your parents sent you to boarding school for that reason, didn’t they?”

They sent her to boarding school because she was a danger to herself and her peers. They sent her to a place with strict rules and an authoritarian structure in an effort to give her the guidance and supervision she needed. Like most attempts at controlling defiance, it didn’t work well.

“You don’t know the first thing about me,” she seethes.

“Settle down. We’ll pick this conversation up later. For now, we have a job to do.”

The secluded warehouse is grim and shadowy. There’s only one other car here—Mikhail’s. I know Nikko, Mikhail, and Lev are all waiting inside for us.

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