Page 82 of Stripped

"You've done nothing but kill people and cause misery." She looked at him with disgust. Not only for him, but for herself, for thinking she needed him.

"You knew the cost. Did you think tonight would be any different? Did you think there wouldn't be a price to pay?" He reached out and cupped her chin, giving it a squeeze.

"I've done everything you've asked. I've surrendered to you."

"A life for a life."

"What does that even mean? My grandfather is dead, Ivanna is dead, Thomas is dead. How many more people need to die until this debt is repaid?"

"One," he said. His voice was devoid of any emotion and as cold as ice. "One more."

A chill went down her spine. "Me."

"You could have saved any of them."

"But I gave you what you wanted."

He raised an eyebrow. "You gave me what you thought I wanted, and in return, I indulged you."

"You deceived me." She prayed he could not hear the hurt from his betrayal in her voice.

"I deceived no one." He gave her a short laugh. "A life for a life. Two different levels of meaning for two different audiences. One for me, and one for you."

"That's madness."

"I like to think of it as artistic cleverness, artist duplicity. Just like your fucking Alasdair Gray. You should have recognized it immediately. We've been playing this game from the beginning." He stood up, keeping his back to her. "I can give as easily as I take away. You assumed I was looking for perfection, when all I wanted was for you to throw yourself on the sword. It's why I asked you to dance The Dying Swan. You were supposed to die. But you changed the rules in an instant, by dancing it so exquisitely. You did not suffer from delusions of grandeur as I presumed, and I suddenly wanted more."

"What is this debt?"

He turned back to her, watching her close. "I told you before, your grandfather took someone very special from me."

"Irina."

"You've talked to her, I see."

"She told me you were her stepbrother, nothing more."

"She was so precious to me. The most beautiful little girl, and I gave her everything." His eyes looked far off as if he were reliving the past, his mouth quirked in a smile. "I wanted her to stay that sweet, innocent girl forever."

"But she got pregnant," Pim said. "She betrayed you."

"The child was mine." There was a vengeful gleam in his eyes.

Natasha. She felt her stomach turn in disgust.

"When she came back to Moscow after having the baby, she was never the same. My sweet girl was gone. I sent her to Edinburgh, hoping that if she started dancing again, she would come back to me. I took her on lavish trips during her holidays, bought her anything she could imagine, but she was never the same. When she signed with Scottish National Ballet, things began to change. She seemed happy again. I moved to Edinburgh and visited her on the weekends in Glasgow. I had my little girl back. But then I found out she was seeing your father. She told me she was in love with him and that I couldn't see her anymore." He threw his hand in the air in disgust. "I went to her flat and she refused to let me in. But your grandfather, oddly enough, took care of that problem for me.

"You're both sick."

"You don't understand, love," he spat. "I wanted to punish Irina for her betrayal, so I sold your grandfather Natasha, our child. I couldn't care less about the brat. All I ever wanted was my sweet Irina. I wanted her to suffer, to have her see the sins of her disloyalty. Little did I know, Angus would betray me by sleeping with Irina too. He turned her old. She is no better than a common whore and drug addict, used up and trashy."

"So Irina is the debt I owe. Killing my grandfather wasn't enough."

"I didn't kill your grandfather. That stupid boy Irina danced with did. Then he got scared and pushed him over the edge."

"Thomas said differently," she said, remembering what Irina had told her.

"He's a liar and a coward. Of course, he would never admit to it."

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