Page 139 of Born in Depravity

“You can’t now. Petrov has already seen her. You do that and he’s going to try to figure out why and it’ll bring in more questions. We can’t risk anything. Not with Mikhail …occupied.”

That word seemed to have more meaning than literal.

Damien seemed torn.

Then he let out a small sigh.

“You’re going to be okay,” Damien said to me. It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway. I felt better now that Nikolay was here with Damien.

The only way for me to feel completely secure was if Mikhail was here as well. But he was … occupied.

I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t think I wanted to know.

I felt eyes on me, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up on end. I looked to my left and my eyes connected with familiar brown eyes.

I stumbled back a step and Nikolay steadied me.

“You okay, princess?”

I didn’t answer him. My eyes were focused intently on the man standing in a group of people, all laughing loudly. He wasn’t laughing. He was grinning at me, making my stomach roll.

“That’s Petrov,” Damien said.

But it wasn’t Petrov I was looking at. It was the man standing next to him.

Henry Ramos. It hadn’t been my imagination. He really was here.

The man I was supposed to marry.

I didn’t understand. He’d seemed friendly with Father. So what was he doing here, associating himself with Father’s enemy?

He licked his lips and I quickly looked away from him, moving closer to Nikolay.

A bell chimed.

Damien rolled his eyes. “Come on. It’s time for dinner.” Before I could take a step, Damien got into my line of vision. “Remember what I said. No matter what I ask you to do, you are to do it without question. You’re going to be fine, okay?”

I nodded.

He relaxed marginally. “Good girl.”

“Come on,” Nikolay said. “Let’s get this over with. And hopefully Mikhail is successful and we’ll be able to leave this hellhole soon.”

Damien led the way. I followed closely behind him with Nikolay close behind me. Between two of whom I was beginning to believe were the strongest men in this entire house, I relaxed marginally. That was, until we got to the table.

Damien took one look at the seating arrangement and I felt more than saw his muscles tense. I didn’t know what the look in his eyes meant, but he leaned down closer to me.

“You’re going to sit on the floor by my seat, okay, princess?”

Sit on the floor?

My cheeks burned, but I didn’t fight it when Damien gently pushed me down on the floor.

I closed my eyes, trying to find the good about the humiliation.

At least I wouldn’t have to see Henry.

The chairs started pulling out around me, and I tensed when the other women took seats on the floor.

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