Page 84 of Prince of Control
The fact that I do makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs.
If I go with Brash now, he can get me out of here. I need space to figure out what I want to do.
Against my will, I look back over my shoulder at Baron standing on the grass in front of Baranov House, surrounded by gunmen pointing their weapons at him.
He’s looking straight at me, and I know I’m right because he’s no longer jealous or controlling. He looks gutted. His hands aren’t in the air, but there’s a look of shock in his frozen form. He knows he’s wrong.
He knows he’s lost me.
And that’s the moment my heart splits open and falls in two pieces on the sidewalk. One half still wants Baron to pick it up and make things right. The other half never wants to speak to him again.
I pull the ring off my finger and fling it in his direction then climb into the front seat of the car and slam the door. As Brash peels out, a sick panic spreads through my body over the piece of my heart I left convulsing on the sidewalk.
I squeeze my eyes closed and will it to die along with all my memories of my time with Baron.
It’s over. It never should have been.
I’m done with Benjamin Baranov.
Baron
I stand rooted to the lawn, staring after Brash’s car.
I could not have fucked this up more.
My one job was to keep my wife out of Brash Rostov’s clutches, and I failed.
She ran away from me and straight into his car. The image of her flushed face, eyes bright with tears, makes me want to drop to my knees. Her sense of betrayal couldn’t have been more clear.
I don’t get to complete my self-flagellation because someone knocks me to the ground with what must be the butt of an AK-47 aimed at the back of my head. I land on my hands and knees, my head ringing. The men descend on me. One of them kicks me in the ribs, and another catches me in the face with his steel-toed boot.
I don’t try to fight back–I’m unarmed. I wouldn’t survive. All I can do is curl up in a ball and protect my head with my arms. The bruising blows keep landing, and I can’t help feeling like I deserve them.
This is what I get for hurting Lara.
Except she still needs me.
She may have run from me and willingly climbed in Rostov’s car, but she’s not safe with him. Not in the slightest bit. I need to get out of this, so I can get to her.
The blows keep falling, and my ears start to ring.
No, that’s our fire alarm going off.
One of my friends must have turned it on. Probably Phoenix.
I chuckle through bloodied lips because the maneuver works. After a few more kicks, the men abandon beating me and jump in their cars, speeding off in the direction Brash drove.
I try to stagger to my feet, but instead, the grass comes rushing up to meet my face, and then everything goes black.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lara
I barely see the direction we’re driving because tears blur my eyes. I can’t stop the sense that I’m driving away from my very existence.
But Baron tricked me. He was in on some game with my dad, and I can’t forgive him for that.
Brash is talking, but I’m not listening. I just keep replaying that look on Baron’s face. The guilty knowledge. The regret.
