Page 132 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

I feel a chill ripple over my skin.

“Now?”

“Now.”

He clamps my suitcase shut and glances unfeelingly at the towel around my chest. Not an ounce of the warmth or passion that was burning up there just a few short minutes ago.

“Put on some clothes and meet me downstairs. I’ll send someone to collect the suitcases.”

Reeling from the mental and emotional whiplash, I grab his arm as he passes by me.

“Artem, what the hell is going on?”

He stares down at me. I see a blip of emotion flash across his eyes.

A second later, they’re dead again.

“Just get dressed,” he repeats.

He rips his arm from mine and leaves the room.

What changed so fast?

My hands fly to my stomach as I try to process Artem’s sudden personality change. The man puts Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to shame. “Hot and cold” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

It’s like we went from the core of the sun to the depths of Antarctica in the blink of an eye.

As numbness slips into my bones, I dress in a daze and walk downstairs to find Artem on the phone.

He’s talking in low, guttural Russian that has my hair standing on end.

Bratva business—it has to be.

I stand rooted in place and watch him for a moment. He hasn’t seen me yet.

But I see him.

I see the man he thinks he wants to be.

The man he thinks hehasto be.

This is the Artem who stormed the Moreno compound, killed my father, and abducted me.

The gentle man who held me through my night terrors, who made love to me on the beach this very morning…?

That man is gone.

It’s the loneliest feeling in the world.

I choke back a sob, but Artem hears it anyway. He mutters something quickly in Russian before hanging up and turning to me.

“Come on,” he orders. “We don’t have time to waste.”

He doesn’t wait to make sure I’m following him. He charges ahead, leaving me to trail along in his wake.

We get into the waiting car and drive to the ferry. From there, we head to the airport, where the Bratva’s private jet is waiting. Men stand outside the plane in black suits like funeral ushers.

It feels like I’m being pulled back into the same sunken nightmare world I just left.

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