Page 70 of Refrain

The one that threatens to kill me again.

My hand shakes, fighting to keep the gun trained on him as I will myself to pull the trigger. Kill him.Run!I hold my breath, but my nostrils flare to breathe him in anyway. Wolf Blood. My blood. God, he smells the same.

“It’s been a long time,” he says, his accent catching over the syllables in every word. It’s the gentle tone he rarely used, only when at his most content to lull me into a dangerous sense of security. “You still look so beautiful.”

He should look dead. My finger twitches, but for some reason, it won’t bear down. Yet. My heart beats with more conviction, straining against my rib cage. Pounding. It hurts. It’s greedy. Only with him so close can it ignore the shackles my brain has strapped around it for all these damn years.Moya lyubov.

“I knew it would be like this,” Piotr says, his tongue lingering over each twisted syllable. “When I saw you again. I thought maybe…” He shakes his head sadly. “I was wrong. This moment.Thismakes it all worth it.”

He folds his hands and pushes back from the table. I flinch when he stands. He’s just as tall, wearing the same brand of black suit he always did. Everything is tailored, down to the black loafers on his feet. He takes a step toward me.

I finally squeeze the trigger. The deafening roar of the gunshot slams into my eardrums, but Piotr doesn’t collapse in pain like he should, and something made of glass shatters overhis shoulder. He doesn’t even blink. He merely sighs. My protector, my lover, my tormentor.

“Put the gun down, Ksei.”

“No.” I grip it tighter. My hand trembles. I can’t keep it steady. I can’t pull on the trigger again, either.

I can’t obey him.

I can’t resist.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he says. “I just want to talk.”

I want to laugh. I try to, but the only sound that trickles out is weak. A moan. A gasp. “Talk. You want to talk.”

“And you want to hear.” He pauses as if waiting for me to argue. When I don’t, he smiles. That cold, icy smile that used to serve as a focal point of my nightmares. And the highlight of my day. “You came to me for a reason.”

“A good one,” I echo. “I…I came to kill you.”

“Did you?”

My grip on the pistol slips in my sweaty palms. I have to grip it tighter. “Iwillkill you.”

“Have a seat, Ksenia, and I will tell you the real reason why you came to me.”

I laugh again. The sound echoes off the walls, violent and unsteady. I sound like Arno right before he put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.Pow.Maybe he had the right idea all along.

“You didn’t give me much of a choice.”

“You’ve always had a choice.” Something in his voice warns me to back away from him. He steps forward.

I scramble back another step. My shoulders strike the wall—there’s nowhere farther to go.

“Put the gun down, Ksei.”

“No.”

He reaches out and I will my finger to pull the trigger. I scream the command inside my head.Kill him!

His palm settles over my hand, the touch electrifying my skin.He gently lowers the weapon until I’m aiming it at the floor. There’s no ounce of fear in him. Just a look I know well—possession. He exudes it in everything he does, from the way he appraises me to how he breathes me in, leaning close so that I can hear each ragged intake of air.

“You fixed your hair for me.” He fingers a tangled lock of it.

I see it happen from the corner of my eye. He still wears the thick, silver ring on the thumb of that hand. I have scars from how deeply the insignia bit into my skin whenever he struck me with it.

“I didn’t even have to ask—”

“Get away from me.”

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