Page 55 of Cruel Promise

“You don’t believe me.”

“Can you blame me?”

He turns to face me fully. “I will find out what happened to your mother, Ava. That, I can do.”

I have to look away from his intense stare. “Why are you helping me? You’ve only hurt me before and now you’re helping.” A thought enters my mind and makes me shiver. “Are you rewarding me for what we did in the bathroom?”

“I’m not rewarding you.” He doesn’t explain further, and I don’t ask for more.

“Who could have taken her body?” The minute I ask, I know. “My father. He had to have taken her. He’s the only one who knew what happened to her.”

“I’ll ask him. But, Ava, we should leave. A murder was committed here, no matter what happened to your mother’s body. I’ll send someone to clean up the blood. But we can’t be found here.”

“Are you worried about getting into trouble? I feel like you’re someone who the police wouldn’t even touch.”

A subtle smirk crosses his lips before he returns to usual stoic expression. “You’re right. But I’m not invincible. We need to leave. Now.”

I plant my feet into the ground. “No. I need to talk to my father.”

“Iwill talk to him.”

“No. He needs to hear it from me. He did this to me. He should see my face as I question him about my mom.”

Nikolai sighs deeply and runs a hand down his face. “Ava, you’re not thinking straight. You’re not going to see your father. He cannot be trusted.”

“Why? Because he sold me to you?”

“Exactly.”

That pulls me up short. “Did you really buy me from him because you wanted to keep me safe from anyone else he might have sold me to?” A part of me desperately hopes this is true.

And then Nikolai speaks. “You can pretend I’m a good man, but I’m not. Now, we need to leave.”

His words send a dagger straight into my heart. Nikolai has proven time and again that I cannot trust him. So, why do I keep holding out hope?

“I’m staying,” I say. “You’ll need to drag me out of here if you expect me to leave.”

“That can be arranged.”

I swallow hard. He’s standing so close to me, and I can smell his warm scent, and all I can think about is what we did in the bathroom. How I touched myself and how he looked at me as I did it.

I cannot lose my nerve with him. If I’m not careful, Nikolai will consume all of me, and I need to stay focused and find my mom.

“I’m not leaving,” I repeat.

“Fine.” He grabs me around the waist and hoists me over his shoulder. Suddenly, my world is upside down.

“What are you going?” I gasp.

“Getting you out of here since you refuse to do as I say.” Then he carries me out of the room, and I only get one last glimpse at the blood stain on the ground before we’re gone.

“Nikolai, please. I need to find my mom. Give me this, at least.”

His arm is over my lower back, so close to my lower body. If he just moved his arm down … I don’t go there. I’m very aware of the fact my dress has ridden up and exposed more of my legs and that Nikolai has to see it. He just has to.

And then he’s setting me down beside the car. Without a look at me, he gets in and orders me to do the same.

With one last look at the apartment, I do as he says. The truth is—my father lives in New York, not New Haven. I need to get back to New York to talk to him.

---