Page 25 of Tarnished Queen

Then Officer Sweeney takes a breath, turns towards the road, and walks away without another word.

Just like that, he’s gone.

And Nikolai and I are alone.

I spin to face him with a one-word question on my lips. “Why?”

“Why? Because you were going to get yourself thrown in jail.” Nikolai drags a hand down his face. “Honestly, Belle, I’ve never met someone so incapable in my entire fucking life.”

I ignore his barb and shake my head. “Why did you let me leave? I thought you were… well, I don’t know what I thought you were doing. But you were following me.”

“And you had no idea.” He purses his lips in disappointment. “You never even glanced behind you.”

Hot shame floods my cheeks. I was being stupid. The fact that he let me leave was surprising. I should have seen it for what it was: a trap.

“I always planned to let you go,” he explains. “To be frank, I thought you’d try to escape much earlier. That’s why I left you alone in the room for so long.”

“There was no way to escape! You had plywood over the windows.”

“Which you could have easily pulled off with your bare hands,” Nikolai says. “Most of the screws were sheared off. There was also a metal coat hanger in the closet you could have used to pick the lock.”

I searched the room from top to bottom and missed everything. Nikolaiwantedme to escape, and I still couldn’t manage it. “I was… scared.”

“Not too scared to throw yourself at me.”

My shame is molten now. I feel like I’m disintegrating into the pavement. “I was… distracting you.”

He snorts. “I left the door unlocked behind me and the gun visible in my pocket. I purposefully turned away from you twice so you could grab it. I even pulled my shirt over my head, covering my face to give you an opportunity. Instead, you stood there and gawked like a lovestruck schoolgirl.”

Looking back, it did take him a long time to remove his shirt. But I was so busy admiring the contours of his body that I hardly noticed. Even now, the memory of his physique has me feeling feverish.

I shake my head. “Why would you want me to escape? Why bother locking me up at all if you were rigging the room for me to get free?”

“Because I assumed you’d lead me to Xena,” he says. “I wanted you to get out and take me to where the Greeks are hiding. But after a few hours of you laying around like a sad sack, I gave up and decided to go in myself. Turns out it was all a huge waste of time.”

“Do you mean locking me up was a waste of time, or…?” The question is out of my mouth before I can stop it. I know instantly how desperate it sounds, but I can’t take it back. That would make it worse.

Nikolai smirks darkly. “A good fuck is never a waste of time. If nothing else, you’re still useful for that.”

“You’re disgusting,” I hiss. “You’re a cruel, nasty asshole.”

He shrugs casually. “I guess your pussy didn’t get the memo. Because it still fucking loves me.”

It’s not the only one,I think with misery.

But the thought is too pathetic to dwell on. I brush it aside and try to keep moving forward. At this point, it’s the only thing I can do.

“Well, I didn’t take you to Xena because I don’t know where she is. If you’d stopped to listen to me, I would have explained that.”

“Like I should trust you?” Nikolai grabs my arm and starts hauling me down the sidewalk. I don’t even try to pull away. I know it’s hopeless.

“You should trust me. I’m the reason she was in the hospital.”

“You mean you’re the reasonyouwere in the hospital,” he says.

I frown. “The EMTs on scene told me that Xena was loaded into another ambulance and—”

“And proceeded to slaughter the EMTs and leave the ambulance abandoned on the side of the road.”

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