Page 220 of Wicked Proposal
Now, it sounds like nothing.
“What did he do to you?” My fury mounts, the dread in my gut burned to ashes by the sheer need to make someonepay.“Where the fuck is thatmudak?”
“Brad is sleeping.” It’s a lie. Mia’s never been good at lying. Even their whole charade only worked because she cared. Because, deep down, she hadn’t needed to fake the love at all. “He had a big day.”
“Kidnapping children from their beds? Yeah, I bet it’s busy fucking work.”
I stride past her and into the house. Whatever’s up with Mia, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that Brad is behind it.
She’s scared—I can tell. I’ve learned what fear looks like on Mia’s face. Burned it into my fucking retinas.
Whatever he did to her, it’s nothing compared to what I’ll do to him.
“Yulian, stop.” She cuts me off in the hallway. “I’m serious. You can’t be here.”
“Where’s Eli?”
“Sleeping,” she says. “Like we all should be.”
I push past her again. There’s something she doesn’t want me to see over there—something she’s desperately trying to keep hidden. “He’s in that room, isn’t he?”
“Who,Yulian?”
“Eli.”
I spy a glass wall behind the corner. Transparent—perfect for prisoners.
But before I can turn it, Mia’s hand closes around mine.
The contact is electric. It forces me to look back, chase it to the source, turn my back to the mysterious glass room. “Please, Yulian,” she whispers. “Just… stop.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific than that.”
“Pretending that you care.” She draws herself up, shoulders tight, expression unreadable. “I know everything.”
“Know—?”
“About your plans.”
Of course you do. I told you about them. Bared my fucking heart to you—every cut, every scar.
I clench my fists. Now isn’t the time to demand forgiveness. Not yet, not in the enemy’s lair. “We can talk about that later. Now, we need to get you to safety.”
“There’s nothing left to talk about.”
“Whatever Brad told you, Mia?—”
“I’m back with him.”
It takes eternity for those words to sink in. “Excuse me?”
“I’m back with Brad,” she repeats, voice cracking around every vowel. “For good this time.”
My first instinct isneverto laugh. I rarely use those muscles at all. But tonight, I have to fight the urge to curl my lips and lift my eyebrows to the ceiling.
Because there’s no way that’s true, is there?
But Mia’s face is dead serious. “We’re going to be a family, Yulian. Like it was always supposed to be.”
