Page 3 of The Enemy's Defector
“Yes. And no.” I slung the strap to the bag over my shoulder and faced her. I wasn’t taking much, but that was for the best. No material things here would bring back my father. No trinkets or valuables would serve me well as I looked for Nik and hid from Anton. This was it. A final, clean break. The only things that mattered to me were the pictures I had of my father, all the digital images I’d saved when Anton cleared all photos of him in the house. Those photos were safe on my cloud. The necklace my father gave me on the last birthday of mine that he’d been alive for rested on my chest, secure as ever. I had all I needed and wanted.
“I couldn’t marry another Ivanov,” I told her, the mere thought of it too ridiculous to consider. “And I couldn’t leave to marryanyoneelse. These last few weeks were my only chance to find the evidence that Anton killed Father. He assumed I would be elsewhere, waiting for him to contact me to probably spy for him. It was my only chance to get the evidence.” Once more, scalding hot tears escaped my eyes.
“Oh…” Her expression fell as she pulled me in for a hug. “He killed him, didn’t he?”
I nodded, rubbing my wet face on her shoulder and wishing it weren’t true. Wishing that my father was still alive to this day.
“He did,” I told her. “He didn’t hesitate to kill him.”
As she rubbed my back, giving me the comfort she could, I vowed to myself that this wouldn’t be the last time I’d see her. This couldn’t be the last time that we’d hug and be there for each other. I’d never been allowed to have privacy or a life of my ownunder my uncle’s supervision. I’d never had friends except for the hired help.
I pulled back and wiped my eyes. “I’ll come for you, Joann. Once I find Nik and help him get home to his family, I’ll ask him to help me get you out of here.”
She sighed, frowning like she wasn’t brave enough to tell me not to get my hopes up.
“I will,” I insisted. Since seeing the proof of my father’s death, now knowing Anton had killed him, I was embracing this last chapter. I was closing this period of being a Kozlov for good. I couldn’t tell what I would be in the future or where I could end up, but I had to view this as a way to forge my own path. My own identity.
Disobeying Anton’s orders to be married off and likely end up as a spy for him was the first strike.
Sneaking around and finding the evidence he’d hidden of my father’s death was a second strike.
But defying my devious and manipulative uncle to free Nik, the so-called enemy he had to have imprisoned on a property he owned, that would be the third and final strike.
I was out of here.
I would never come back to these empty halls and loveless residences he inhabited.
And I didn’t feel an ounce of remorse, too high on this fresh anger after seeing the video of Anton shooting my father.
“I have to go now,” I told her, shaking my head at how impossible those words sounded as they left my lips. “I can’t stay here any longer.”
“Be safe. Please, Katerina.” She pulled my head lower so she could kiss my forehead. “Pleasebe safe.”
“I will.”
Within reason.
It took guts to send my maid in my place for a marriage and then hide. It took determination to sneak around and hack into computers and search for that hidden video. And it would take more grit and gumption to seek out the enemy I wasn’t supposed to want to save.
“Maybe you can let Nik’s brothers find him,” Joann argued with a cringe. “Let them handle that while you figure out how to hide and stay away from Anton.”
“No.” I shook my head. If I was defecting and turning against the Kozlov name, it would be to rescue the one man I could never tell myself to stay away from.
I’m coming to find you, Nikolai.
Be patient and wait for me.
Yet, as I turned to go, I had no clear vision in my mind of where I could end up after doing this one last good deed in defiance of my uncle.
2
NIKOLAI
The engine revved, increasing the vibrating rumble that thrummed through me. Lying on my stomach in the back of yet another van, I waited for the nausea to fade. Coming to like this was getting really fucking old. Tossed around and rolling in the back of a vehicle wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Just a little longer.
A month had already passed, and while even a few days in captivity were frustrating as hell, I couldn’t sneak away yet.
