Page 115 of For a Price

“Roman, I don’t want to think about it.”

“I have to know. I need to know who and what.”

“I don’t think…” she sighs, the glassy effect returning to her eyes. “I don’t think you want to know.”

“Kat, you’re mine no matter what they did. You can tell me. You can trust me. This is between us… except when I make them suffer.”

Another sigh leaves her as she plops down on the edge of the bed and avoids looking directly at me. It’s like the uncertainty is a dark cloud that won’t let up. It hangs over her no matter what I say or how much she may want to tell me.

Seconds pass before it seems she’s able to fight through it.

“I… I was sold for the night, Roman,” she mumbles. “For six thousand dollars.”

My fists clench at my sides, though I remain silent to let her continue. It’s common knowledge what happens to the womensold at marketplaces like the one run by the Midnight Society. The higher the price, the more ironclad the sell becomes.

For six thousand dollars a night, Katerina was sold to someone very wealthy and powerful.

“I had to wear a blindfold,” she admits, her expression tortured. “I was in some kind of bedroom and he made me strip. I… I had to pleasure myself while he watched.”

My breathing’s become ragged. In and out, each breath husks from me like I’m a fuming beast who has run miles. But really I’m struggling to keep from bursting with rage. I’d rather not in front of Katerina. I’d rather not let my temper take over the moment when it should be about her and how she’s feeling.

“But he didn’t think I was doing a good enough job,” she says, wiping at her eyes. “So then… he did it instead. He put his fingers inside me. He… he touched me.”

That another man was putting his hands on my kitty cat all while she probably lay traumatized and upset makes me see red. My vision rattles from the rage that’s threatening to take over. I rub a hand over my face to keep from blacking out into a fit.

Katerina suddenly seems concerned for me. She rises from the foot of the bed and slides her hands up my chest. She’s peering up at me like she expects the rage-fueled reaction I’m blocking out.

It occurs to me it’s because she hasn’t finished telling me the rest of what happened.

Whatever she has to say next will be worst of all.

Somehow, it will be what makes me blow my fuse.

“I never saw who it was,” she mumbles. “B-but he made me come. He told me there would be no pretending and that he would return for me. His voice sounded so familiar, Zver. I… I think his voice… I think it was the pakhan.”

CHAPTER 33

Katerina

I’m notsure what I’m expecting when I tell Roman about my suspicions.

He’s made it clear that what happened to me while in captivity won’t change how he feels about me, but that doesn’t negate how difficult it is to tell the man you have feelings for that another man had his fingers inside you.

That he pleasured you and made you come.

Let alone that man being hisboss.

Even if I wish it wouldn’t, it’ll be a mental imagery implanted in his head.

It’s an experience that’s been replaying in mine ever since.

Truthfully, I don’t even want to be touched by anyone right now… not even Roman.

After being on display the past couple of days, beingsoldlike a product, it’s fucked with my head. I don’t feel like an autonomous being, and I’m not sure how to begin processing any of it.

But that’s been pushed aside for the moment as I await Roman’s reaction.

He could be angry. Livid.

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