Page 79 of Cruel Promise

I jerk upright. “You’re mine. Forever.”

“Not if you’re dead. Even you can’t control me from your grave.”

I slump back down, my hands above my head preventing me from truly relaxing. I’ve lost all sensation in my fingers at this point, which I know isn’t good.

“Just leave now,” I say. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Her eyes soften slightly. “Do you actually care if I’m hurt or not?”

“Of course. I don’t want to see you die. Get tortured like me. You don’t deserve it.”I don’t deserve you.

“Nikolai,” she says, sighing, “Maxim still wants peace. He’ll let you go if you can promise that.”

I scoff. “He would never offer peace. He wants me dead.”

“He knows that if he does kill you, he’ll have a new host of problems on his hands. It’s easier to make peace than create more war. He’ll let you go, Nikolai. You just have to promise peace.”

“And why would I do that? I wanted The Knights dead. I still do.”

Slowly, she reaches out and touches my face. I flinch, but she doesn’t remove her hand. “They really hurt you,” she says in a quiet voice.

I don’t say a word as I watch her. Her beauty. Her light. God, she’s fucking perfect.

“Just go, Ava. Before they hurt you.”

Determination fills her eyes as she draws her hand back. It’s covered in blood. “Nikolai, just listen to me. Please. Listen to the words I’m saying. Maxim will give you peace if you agree to not attack him. You don’t have to work together. Just make a pact to leave each other alone.”

“And why would he think I would go for that?”

“Because I’m asking.”

I look at Ava more closely. There’s an honesty to her expression. She means what she says, but the question is—does Maxim?

“Why do you even want to help me?” I ask. “You could be long gone by now.”

“I was going to leave. Dimitri told me Maxim had taken you, and my first thought was that this was my chance. So, I went to the train station and was about to get a ticket for New Haven when …”

“When what?”

“When I knew I couldn’t just do nothing. I had to help. You’ve ruined my life. I have no idea why I’m helping you. I just knew I had to help.”

“If I walk out this door, you know what that means, don’t you? That you’ll belong to me forever. That I won’t let you go.”

She inhales deeply and lets it out slowly. “Yes. I do know that. But you’re the devil I know. And I know there’s one thing I can trust you for. You won’t physically hurt me. That’s more than Ican say for a lot of the men in my life. Even if you die, too many people know I’m your wife. They could try to hurt me. You’re the only one truly protecting me.” She pauses. “Even though you’re the one who put me in this position in the first place.”

Ava doesn’t sugarcoat it. She isn’t helping me because she loves me. That’s a laughable idea. Ava will never be able to love me because I’m not a man people love.

She’s helping me because it’s the practical thing to do.

“I’m a little impressed,” I admit. “You really came here on your own to save me?”

“I did.”

“No one has ever done this for me before.”

She looks at the ground for a moment, and I’m desperate to know what’s going on in her head. Then she nods and meets my gaze again. “Nikolai, let me get you out of here. You just have to promise peace with Maxim.”

“That’s not an easy ask.”

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