Page 13 of Beautiful Beast

We all crowd into the small hallway, and Amanda goes to the back exit, punches in a code, then opens the door. “This way.”

I grab Nadia’s hand. “Ready?”

“Ready.” I can tell she’s trying to be brave, but her voice wavers.

“We got this. There’s no other choice.”

Together, we walk out the back exit.

“Good luck,” Amanda says, shutting the door behind us.

“Is that it?” Nadia asks.

“We’re not free yet. Come on.”

The back exit deposited us in an alleyway, so we run to the main sidewalk. I flag down a taxi.

“Wait!” George’s voice calls out.

Glancing behind me, I see him running in our direction.

“How did he find out?” Nadia asks.

“It doesn’t matter. We need to get in now.” I practically shove her into the back of the taxi and try to get in myself, but George grabs me around the waist.

“Should I drive?” the taxi driver asks.

“No!” Nadia squeaks out, jumping from the taxi.

“Let me go,” I growl, struggling against George’s grasp.

“I’m sorry, Anya,” he says. “But your father would have my head if I let you go. He wants you to get married, and I’m going to see that through.” He clamps his hand on my arm, making it so I can’t leave. Nadia stands beside the taxi uncertainly. After a moment, the taxi drives away.

“You should have kept going,” I tell her. “You had a chance to escape.”

“Not without you.”

I know at this very moment that my future is sealed. Father won’t allow me to leave the house until the wedding.

And Nadia will be dragged into hell right along with me.

Chapter

Three

ANYA

“What the hell were you thinking?” my father hisses the moment George brings Nadia and me back home. “Trying to escape? Seriously?”

He grabs my arm and drags me toward his office. “Don’t hurt her,” Nadia cries out, but he ignores her.

He shoves me into his office and slams the door behind us before grabbing my jaw and forcing me to look at him. “You are going to marry Erik, and you are going to smile when it happens. I have worked too hard to get where I am in life just to see you fuck me over.” He shakes my face.

“I don’t want to marry him,” I say, even though it’s hard to speak around his hand on my jaw.

“You seem to think you have a choice in the matter. You don’t. I don’t care if Erik is the fucking devil himself. You are marrying him. And you will be happy about it. And you willmake me proud. Or I will force your sister down that aisle instead.”

“She’s only seventeen.”

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