by Raven Dark
Wow. I’ll have to have a word with her later.
“And the dress?” I ask him coolly once she’s gone.
His eyes dance. “Ah. That was my doing. You like?”
Not trusting myself to answer, I dig into the sumptuous meal.
Under the table, Michael’s hand glides over my bare leg, making me jolt at the warmth of his touch. “I told you I wanted you dressed nice for me at all times, kravitsa. I like looking at you.”
How the hell does he make that sound so hot? I hate him, and yet, the lust in his rich voice makes me want to dress just for him. I try to jerk my thigh away, but he squeezes it before letting it go.
We eat in silence for a while. The food is delicious. Jo has really outdone herself.
“So, what kind of trouble did you get into while I was away?” Michael spears a twirl of buttered shrimp with his fork and slips it into his mouth.
“None.”
“Why?” his tone is light with surprise. “There’s plenty for you to do in this place.”
“It’s not as much fun when I have that hired gun hovering over me every second.”
He smiles. “Grigory?”
“Yes. He could give my dad lessons in helicopter parenting.”
He snorts a laugh. “Get used to him. He’s here for your protection when I and Adrian are not.”
“Don’t you mean he’s here to keep me from escaping?”
“That too.”
“Does he have to follow me everywhere? He even follows me to the bathroom.”
He shrugs, but I swear an emotion I can’t place flickers in his eyes before he focuses on his food.
“This may not be a fun getaway for you, kravitsa, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the place while you’re not with me. You might as well enjoy it when you have the chance.”
Jesus. The way things are going now, I could almost wonder why I want to keep the promise I made to myself before he left, that I’ll leap at any chance I can to get away from him. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was the perfect boyfriend. All I have to do is remember the night before he left, and it’s enough to send that same desperation I felt then flooding back.
“Sir. I wish you’d stop pretending this is some sort of idyllic weeklong getaway we’re on. It’s insulting.”
Michael dabs his mouth and sits back, regarding me with an amused gaze. “Are you telling me you haven’t enjoyed any of what I’ve done to you?”
I drop my fork with a clatter, my appetite gone. “You dragged me here against my will. You forced me to quit my job. Among other things.”
“If you hated me as much as you claim to, kravitsa, you wouldn’t get so wet every time I have my hand on your pussy.”
“God, I fucking hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
“Stop it!”
“No.” His fingers capture my chin, forcing my eyes to his. “You and I both know you got off on what I did the night before I left as much as I did, Aurora.”
I push to my feet. “If you’ll excuse me, Sir. I’m going to my room. I’d rather eat alone than put up with your—”
His hand snags my wrist. He opens his mouth as if he’s about to order me to my seat again, but the doors to the room open before he gets the chance.
“Sir?” Adrian steps in. “Sorry to interrupt.”
Michael nods and waves him in, apparently noticing the same urgency as I hear in his tone.
He crosses the room to Michael and whispers something to him I don’t catch. “Do you want me to get rid of him?” he adds.
My heart leaps into my throat. Get rid of who? I hope that the term he used is only meant to imply he’ll send away whomever he’s talking about and not something more literal.
Michael scowls and stands up. “No. Thanks, Adrian. I’ll take care of it.”
I stand slowly. “What’s wrong?”
He shakes his head and heads for the door, then glances back at me. “Adrian, take her to her room and lock the door. Now.”
My face pales. What the hell is going on?
Adrian crosses the room toward me. “Let’s go.” He heads for the doors to the room, gripping my elbow.
At the doors, Michael pats his chest as if looking for something. When Adrian nods for him to lead the way out, Michael reaches into his protector’s blazer and pulls out one of his guns.
“I need to borrow this.” He checks the safety, and puts the pistol in the waist of his pants at the back. He covers it with his own blazer.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask both of them.
Neither man answers.
While Michael stalks down the hall toward the front doors of the lodge, Adrian escorts me toward the stairs to the second floor. Katerina comes out of a room down the hall and falls into step with Michael as he passes. The two of them whisper to each other, but I don’t catch a word.
As Adrian stalks with me toward the stairs, I try to slow my pace, allowing me to hear whatever Michael says to whomever has showed up here. Adrian speeds up his pace, leaving me no way to stall until we reach the stairs. On the way up them, I pretend to twist my ankle on the heeled pumps I wear.
Male voices drift from the front hall, Michael’s, and someone else’s I don’t recognize.
“We’re just letting everyone around here know,” the other man says. “There’s a hell of a storm that’s supposed to blow in tonight. If you have to go into town for anything, best to do it now. You may not get out of here for a few days.”
“I appreciate you letting me know, Sheriff. Any idea when it’s supposed to let up?”
Sheriff!
My heart gives a huge bound.
Adrian helps me up, shaking his head at me. There’s nothing I can do but follow him, so I walk slow, as if my ankle hurts.
Half of me is tempted to run right for the officer, or scream my head off, except that would be a stupid move. Michael is not afraid to use that gun. If I run for the sheriff, he might end up shooting the cop in order to avoid his secret being exposed. I need to get the sheriff’s attention without letting Michael know.
As we reach the top of the steps, the sheriff says something, but I miss it.
“How kind of you to come all the way out here to let us know, Sheriff.” Katerina’s tinkling voice sets my teeth on edge.
Adrian hurries me along the hall. There’s nothing to do but follow him, lest he realize I’m trying to stall. He pushes me into my bedroom and shuts the doors. The lock clicks.
Shit!
Panic wells up, and I almost abandon the whole idea of escape. Then my eyes catch sight of my blue scarf tied to the post of the bed’s headboard. That strip of silk cloth serves as plenty of a reminder as to what I’m in for if I don’t at least try to escape. If the sheriff leaves before I can find a way to get his attention, it might be my last chance to get out. Especially with a storm coming.
My gaze flits around the room, searching. Adrian’s feet shuffle in the hall. He’s standing outside the door, probably making sure I don’t do anything stupid. If I smash the window or call out, he’d hear.
Wait. I can’t call out to the sheriff, but maybe I can signal him another way. All I need is a flashlight. Lucky for me, in the mountains, places like these always have flashlights, since power outages are common.
As quietly and quickly as I can, I race to the nightstand and pull open the drawer there, searching amid old papers, loose change, and stationary until I find the flashlight. I yank it out and check to see that it’s working.
The light flicks on. Thank god.
I race to the window and look down at the front drive.
The sheriff’s car is still parked in the drive. I can’t see the door or Michael from my angle, but I can see the sheriff’s head nodding, his arm waving, indicating the property.
Hands trembling, I point the flashlight at the window and wait until I see the sheriff walk down the steps at the front door toward the drive. Good, except Katerina’s at his s
ide. She tosses her hair and lays her hand on his arm as she escorts him toward his car.
Damn her. Michael probably told her to get rid of the sheriff by flirting with him.
I flick on the light. Now, what was that sequence again? One long flash, one short, one long? Or was it one short flash, one long, one short?
Fuck, it’s been forever since I used Morse Code.
When Isabella and I were kids, we used to communicate via flashlights using Morse Code, delighting in the idea of using a language no one around us understood, and using it to sneak out at night. I’d been fascinated by the concept as a child, and I’d learned it well, but I hadn’t done it since I was a teen.
The sheriff is almost to his car with Katerina.
I flick the light on and off in what I hope is the proper sequence. Or, if it’s wrong, that it’s close enough for him to see and understand that someone up here is in need of help.
Katerina slips on the icy drive and the sheriff steadies her. I continue flashing the light in an S.O.S.
The sheriff doesn’t look up. He nods and his shoulders shake with laughter. Katerina tosses her head on a giggle.
Fuck! He’s not looking my way at all. The signal is no good if he doesn’t see it.
Come on! Look up! Over here!
At his car, he opens his door.
Katerina’s head turns. Her eyes go right up to my bedroom window, as if she’s checking to see if I’m there. Her eyes focus right on the flashing light.
I drop the flashlight to the floor with a clatter and throw myself to the wall beside the window, out of sight, but it’s too late, I know she’s seen what I was doing.
Goddammit!
My chest heaves, my heart hammering in my ears.
The sheriff’s car door shuts. The engine growls to life. I hear him back out of the drive. The front door to the lodge shuts, Katerina coming back inside. The car’s engine fades.
The sheriff, my only hope of salvation, is gone.
Voices drift indistinctly from the living room. I close my eyes, thumping my fists weakly against the wall at my back. Right about now, that bitch is probably down there telling Michael all about what I was doing.
That I was trying to alert someone—a law enforcement officer, no less—that I’m in trouble. I give it less than a minute before...
“Adrian.” Michael calls out from the bottom of the stairs, his voice a growl. “Bring Aurora down here. Now.”
And there it is, the ringing sound of my doom.
Swallowing, I cross the room to the doors, which Adrian is already unlocking.
He opens the doors and steps in. His gaze goes to the floor across the room near the window. The flashlight.
I look down. The damn thing is still lying on the floor. A beam of light shines out of it like a beacon of my guilt.
Adrian scowls at it. Unable to make myself move, I stand there like a dear caught in headlights as he crosses the room and picks the flashlight up. He studies it, and then shuts it off.
“Come with me, Miss Romano.”
He gives the order as if it’s all in a day’s work. As if delivering me to Michael for punishment is right up there with driving his boss to his next Bratva meeting.
Hands still shaking, I follow him from the room.
Chapter 14
Traitor
I can’t breathe.
With every hall Adrian walks down, my thoughts spin more wildly, my throat tightening until it seems to be trying to cut off my air. My mind scrambles for a way out of what’s coming. Hoping for such a thing is as useless as hoping Michael won’t lose it on me for what I’ve done. Several times, I nearly turn tail and bolt, but that would be equally useless, and incredibly stupid. Whatever’s going to happen now, it will be infinitely worse if I run.
There’s nothing I can do but follow Adrian to wherever Michael is waiting.
Not far from the entrance to the lodge, Adrian stops in front of a pair of closed doors.
“Enter.” Michael’s deep voice rumbles from the room within.
Adrian steps in and moves aside for me. Throat dry, I force one foot in front of the other.
The living room I’ve stepped into is large enough to fit my dinky apartment inside it twice over. However, as so often happens when Michael is in a room, he makes the space feel claustrophobically small. With its timber walls, polished wood furniture, the dark brown carpet covering the floor, and a fireplace at one end with a fire crackling in the hearth, the rustic appearance of the room oozes masculinity. The room is gorgeous, but with the lights so dim, I can’t help feeling as if I’ve walked into a room where the light struggles to survive.
Seated in a high-backed, ornately carved chair in front of the fire, Michael’s presence seems to suck all the air out of the room. That Katerina sits in chair next to him eying me with a look of smug satisfaction on her perfect face only makes the room feel all the smaller, as if I’m being cornered not only by a lion, but also by the lioness who’s hunted down a traitor to the pride.
The doors click shut behind me and I look over my shoulder. Adrian has shut us in. Still holding that flashlight in his hand, he nods toward where his employer sits.
I swallow and make my way across the room. Every pace makes my feet feel like they have lead weights on them. Adrian follows me. Once I’m standing in front of Michael’s chair, Adrian hands him the flashlight.
“It was still on when I found it on the floor of her room, sir.”
It’s like hearing him deliver the final exhibit in a court case. Michael’s lack of questions as to the flashlight makes it clear Katerina’s already told him what she saw me doing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Katerina’s lips twitch.
The horrid part is, this time, if she told him I had been trying to get the sheriff’s attention, she’d have been telling the absolute truth. There wasn’t even any need for her to make up lies about me. God, I hate that woman.
Michael regards me with eyes of topaz ice. Waiting, probably for me to say something to further solidify my guilt and seal my fate.
Since there’s no excuse I can offer that will make sense, I clasp my hands behind my back to stop their trembling and remain silent. Waiting him out.
“Thank you, Adrian.” Michael nods to the doors. “Leave us, both of you, please.”
“Sir.” Adrian departs.
Katerina follows him, but not without a smirk for me.
She really is a piece of work.
When they’ve both stepped out, Adrian shuts the doors to the room. Leaving me to my fate without so much as a twitch of hesitation.
Michael turns his attention back to me. His gaze is like a raptor’s, trapping me before him. The flames from the fire warm my backside. I almost cover it, reminded too much of what his hand feels like when he caresses it. Right before he delivers those fiery slaps.
“This is getting to be an alarming pattern with you, isn’t it, Aurora?”
I can only assume he’s referring to my effort to escape. I buy myself time. “Pardon, Sir?”
“This is the second time you’ve tried to involve law enforcement in things that should be kept within the Family. Considering who your father is, I know you’re aware of the penalty for such things.”
My throat goes dry. For the second time in less than a week, my life is measured, not in years, but minutes. And once again, it’s all due to one foolish choice. How ironic that, once again, my transgression involves turning to law enforcement, the sworn enemy of any Mafia man.
“As I told my father, I had no idea he was behind that. I didn’t deliberately betray the Organization.”
“And this time? Are you going to tell me you weren’t deliberately betraying me tonight?”
Without much other choice, I look away. There’s no way off this path I’ve set myself on, so I won’t waste time trying.
“What did I tell you?” Michael drawls, leaning forward. “What did I tell you would happen if you told anyone about me, or m
y business?”
My gut twists. He’d said that if my transgressions against him were severe enough, he’d let the Italian Mafia deal with me. He hadn’t put involving a cop on that list, but since trying to draw the sheriff into this could have led to the discovery, not only of his holding me here against my will, but probably other criminal activities as well, it went without saying that my actions tonight held a top place there.
“Are you going to send me back to my father then?”
He rises smoothly to his feet and pushes his hands into his pockets. “I don’t tolerate betrayal. From anyone.” He fixes me with that icy stare. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t.”
Damn. Considering what I’ve done, it’s scary how calm he is. It would have been less unsettling if he’d been raging like a pissed off bull.
I drop my shoulders. “I can’t.”
He shakes his head. “I have to give you credit. Using Morse Code with a flashlight. You’re quite the resourceful little traitor, aren’t you?”
Not rising to his bait, I just lift my chin defiantly, meeting his eyes.
“Do you know what could have happened if that sheriff had seen what you were doing?”
I can just imagine. Michael probably has evidence of his family’s gun business, not to mention other criminal enterprises on his computer. On his phone. He might have evidence of it hidden in this lodge somewhere as well. To say nothing of the obvious.
“Yes,” I deadpan. “He would have realized you’re a kidnapper.”
His jaw muscles flex. His chest pushes out on a breath before he stalks across the space between us until his face is in mine. “If he’d have realized what was happening between us, what do you think would have happened?” He closes his fist slowly around the back of my hair. “Did you think I would just let you go? Hmm?”
My throat works, the blood draining from my cheeks.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t considered what would happen if the sheriff had tried to get me out of here and things went bad. I’d known there was a possibility that Michael might be forced to kill him in order to keep me with him, but actually hearing in his voice now sends a shiver up my spine.
