Page 2 of Wicked Vow

“Do it.” Mikhail laughs. “I don’t think you fucking can.”

“I’ve killed men before.” I give him the same hard stare right back, and from the waver in his gaze, I think he realizes that I’m telling the truth. My voice has stopped shaking, and so has my hand. “The only reason you’re still alive, Mikhail, is because I can’t get out of Russia on my own. I need to see Viktor Andreyev, and you’re going to take me to him. I need to know where my money is, and my old passport won’t get me out of this fucking country, not with Obelensky on it.”

I take a step closer, the gun still pressed to his head. “So this is how it’s going to go. I’m going to make sure you can’t get away, just like you did to me. I’m going to take a shower and clean all this mess up off of me. And then so are you. You’re going to get dressed, and then you’re going to get me a passport and ID that will enable me to get out of Russia. In fact, you’re going to get new ones for Ruby, too, just in case she has some reason she can’t leave. And then, when all that’s done, you’re going to get us on a plane to see Viktor Andreyev.”

“Like fuck I am,” Mikhail spits, and I laugh.

“You can do the things I just said, or you can die. It’s your choice. Either way, I’ll figure out my next steps.” I shrug. “Who knows? Maybe I can find a way to contact Viktor on my own, and he’ll get me out of here. Maybe I don’t even need you.”

My finger curls around the trigger with the slightest pressure. Mikhail’s expression doesn’t change, but I know that doesn’t mean anything. He’s a trained Bratva enforcer; he knows how to hide fear, pain, and all of that. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t feel it.

I wish I could know what he’s feeling right now, at this moment, with the gun pressed against his temple. I wish I could know if he’s feeling the same fear he made me feel.

“Go into the bathroom,” I tell him, moving to one side as I keep the gun where it is. “Now, or I’ll assume that you’re choosing for me to shoot you.”

“I want to see the test,” he snaps. “I don’t believe you for a second,suka. I think you’re lying to me.”

“Why would I, when you’ve so clearly demonstrated to me how much you hate being lied to?” I walk behind him, the gun pressed to the back of his head now, all the way to where the box of tampons is still sitting by the toilet. “Pick that up. And don’t make any fast moves, or I’ll shoot you. I’d rather have to figure this out alone than let you get the upper hand on me again.”

From the careful way he moves, I’m fairly certain he believes me. He holds out the box, and I nod at it.

“Open it up. The test is inside.”

Gingerly, Mikhail opens the box, slipping out the pregnancy test I’d hidden inside. He looks at it for a long moment, and then he snorts, tossing it into the trash can.

“Maybe it’s a false result. Maybe you faked it somehow. How should I know?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I look at him, exasperated. “Fine. You want to see it in real-time?”

I keep the gun pointed at his head as I reach for the remaining test. “Move, and I’ll shoot,” I warn him again. “I’m not fucking kidding.”

I can see the fury in Mikhail’s eyes, and it thrills me. All the more so, because I know that if he didn’t believe that I’d shoot him, he would have already rushed me. He knows I’ll do it–or at least he’s pretty certain–and he’s not willing to take the risk.

Five minutes later, I hold up the test for him to see. “Well? Black and white–or rather, blue and white–enough for you?”

Mikhail’s face changes. Only for a second, almost too quickly to notice for most people. But I see it, in the moment before his expression returns back to the hard, angry sneer he’d been wearing before, when he realizes that it’s true.

I see the moment his face softens, and I know I’ve found his weakness, just as I’d thought.

“Strip down,” I tell him, taking a few steps back with the gun still pointed directly at him.

Mikhail leers at me. “Horny again for me already,kotenok?”

“Hardly,” I spit at him, even as I feel my body clench at the memory of what we did in bed not all that long ago. “But you’re going to get cleaned up, so I can make sure you don’t go anywhere while I do the same.”

There’s a certain pleasure in putting him through a similar humiliation to what he’d made me feel. I see the anger burning in his face as he strips off the boxers he’d put on after we’d gotten into bed, and I know I need to be careful. One wrong move that gives him the upper hand, and I’ll be much, much worse off than before.

He walks to the shower, turning it on as he glares at me. “You’ll pay for this,suka,” Mikhail hisses. “Just wait. You can’t keep this up forever.”

I smile tightly at him. “I don’t need to. Just long enough to get what I want.”

I stand there, leaning against the counter and waiting as he showers. The thrill of finally having some power over him ripples through me as I wait, looking at the opaque outline of his body through the glass shower door. He’s objectified me for so long now, through weeks of coming to the club, taking me on “dates” that were only ever meant to trick me into captivity here–not to mention everything that’s happened since I’d agreed to go home with him that night.

You enjoyed it, though,the small, insidious voice in my head whispers.You were terrified, sure. It hasn’t been all good. But you can’t pretend that you didn’t want any of it.

“Happy?” Mikhail asks sarcastically when he steps out, reaching for a towel.

I force myself to look at his face, not wanting him to have the satisfaction of thinking–or knowing–that I’m checking him out.A man so terrifying shouldn’t be so sexy.He’s gorgeous at any time–all of him lean and chiseled with muscle, from his arms down to his ridged abs and the cuts of muscle below that–but fresh and wet out of the shower, with his blond hair slicked against his scalp and water dripping from the lines of muscle across his torso, he’s stunningly gorgeous. It takes everything in me not to look at his cock, soft between his thighs but still thick, and think of all the ways he’s pleasured me with it.

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