Page 44 of The Dancer and the Grumpy Billionaire

“I do,” he says. “She is loyal to Sasha.”

“Gigi told me Vera hits her sometimes.”

“She and Alexei can be rough with Galina, yes. But Alexei does it for pleasure. Vera is, as you said, jealous and petty. She has stars in her eyes for Sasha and thinks that he has provided this luxurious life for Galina, and that the girl takes it all for granted. She thinks that Sasha will open his eyes one day andrealize how loyal she has been, and that he will bring her home to be his wife.”

“But he won’t,” I guess.

“I cannot see that happening. He will have moved on to someone younger by now.”

“Well, I do not trust her, not one bit.”

“And Sasha will feel the same about you.”

CHAPTER 19

Galina

Ijerk awake when I hear the door unlock and open on its squeaky hinges. It is not Alexei this time, but instead a small, dark-haired young woman.

She wears no makeup, but I can see that she is very pretty, in spite of her stern face. She might be about my age, but it is hard to tell because her hair is pulled into a tight bun, pulling her features taut. Her grave expression ages her, as well.

She starts to loosen the ties at my ankles.

“Ya razvyazhu tebya i otvedu iskupat’sya i pereodet’sya. Ne pytayes’ bezhat’, potomu chto na territorii povsyudu muzhchiny.”

“I’ll untie you and take you to bathe and change. Don’t try to run because there are men all overthe property.”

When I am untied, I sit up, dizzy at first, rubbing my chaffed wrists and ankles while the feeling passes enough for me to find my feet. I follow the woman down the hall to a small bathroom with a clawfoot tub. I have no idea, at this point, how long I have been here, but when I look in the small mirror above the sink, I guess that it has been days.

I look tired, though all I have been doing is sleeping. There are dark circles under my eyes, and my mascara is clumped and smeared around my eyes. My hair is greasy and tangled. I am parched, so I grab a plastic cup sitting on the sink and fill it with water, gulping it down loudly and inelegantly.

The woman turns on the water and while the tub fills, hands me a fresh toothbrush from its packaging and then a small tube of toothpaste. It feels good to brush my teeth, and even better to step into the hot water. My limbs and back are stiff from being in one position for so long, and the water is a balm.

The woman sits on the toilet seat, presumably playing guard while I bathe.

“Do you speak English?” I ask.

She nods once.

“You’re not Russian,” I answer, not a question.

A shake of the head.

“Hmm. Your Russian is decent, though.”

“My mother,” she answers in a girlish voice. Her accent is Central American. Maybe Mexican?

“What is your name?”

She pulls her lips in as if trying to stop herself from answering my question, but then says, “Elena.”

“I’m Gigi,” I say. “I know whyIam here. Why areyouhere? You don’t look like the type of person to help bad men abduct innocent women.”

Elena says nothing in response, only looks at me with wide, brown eyes in a way that tells me she, too, is here against her will.

“I agree to do the cooking and cleaning and they leave me alone,” she says quietly.

“By leave you alone, I assume you mean they don’t…”

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