Page 58 of Dancing With Delusion

“Clearly not because it’s been what . . . three days?” I have no idea how long I’ve been down here, but I think I’ve counted four or five dark nights.

“Six days,” she yells, stamping her foot. “And all he cares about is seeing you.”

“Yah know, you can let me go. Dmitry and I are over anyway.”

She stops pacing and stares at me. “I’m here because of him, and quite honestly, I’m done.” The words hurt me as I spit them, but it’s true. Since we met, it’s been nothing but chaos, and he’s spent months with this bitch in his ear, believing I’m the one losing my mind. In fact, he believed everyone but me and allowed them to cart me off to a hospital without even checking, despite my warnings. Being alone with my thoughts has clarified everything. We’re done. I have his baby to think about now.

“You can’t stay away from each other,” she accuses. “And he’ll never let you walk away with his child.”

“He doesn’t know,” I tell her. “You could just let me go, Vivian. I’ll go far away, and he’ll never find me. You can pick up the pieces, and I’ll be free.” She looks pensive, like she’s considering my words, and hope builds in my chest. Of course, if she frees me, I’ll be marching right into the manor to tell Dmitry exactly where I’ve spent the last few nights and who put me here.

The door opens and Nik saunters in. My eyes widen. I knew he hated me, but seriously, he’s in on this too?

“What the fuck?” I spit.

He grins. “How’s your stay?”

“Cold, damp, and you’ll be lucky to get a one-star on Tripadvisor,” I snap.

“Where’s Vladimir?” asks Vivian.

Nik shrugs. “I’m not his keeper.”

“I don’t understand why we’re keeping her alive,” she snaps. “Why can’t he just make a decision?”

Nik sits on the chair I was tied to. “He will.”

“The longer she’s alive, the more risk there is of Dmitry finding her.”

I calm my breathing to stop the panic. Knowing Nik is involved has narrowed my chances of Marshall ever finding me. My blood runs cold. What if Marshall is involved? I frown, dropping to my knees again. He talked me into coming here quietly. The urge to vomit is strong, and I lean forward, resting my hands on the cool floor.

Maybe everything he’s done so far was to make me trust him. I begin to spiral, the reality of everything that’s happening hitting me hard.

“Yah know, we could just do it,” Nik suggests, and I glance frantically between the pair as they stare at one another.

“Vladimir will lose his mind if we go against him,” she replies.

“It’ll be too late by then. You said yourself, the longer we keep her alive, the more chance Dmitry has of finding out the truth.”

“I don’t know,” she murmurs.

“Look, this was always the plan, no? She should’ve been dead and buried by now. What else can he do with her now that she knows the truth?”

“We should speak to him, make him see sense.”

I hold my breath when Vladimir enters. He stops in his tracks, his eyes running over the pair before landing on me. “What?” he asks.

“Can we talk?” Vivian asks, pointing to the doorway.

They all step out, and I release the breath, feeling the panic take over. Fuck. I’m running out of time, and Nik is right—Vladimir won’t keep me alive and risk me telling Dmitry everything.

Vladimir yells in Russian, and a second later, he comes back into the room alone. He sits on the chair and stares at me. After an uncomfortable minute, I cross my legs and sigh. “So, are you here to pull the trigger, or do you pay someone for that?”

“It’s all gotten way out of hand,” he admits. “But now, I have no other choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

“If you’d have just stayed away,” he says sadly. “He was on the right path. Things were going well.”

---