Chapter 20-2
1211 Words
“Morning, beautiful.” A tender kiss on my shoulder wakes me up. “How about some tea?”
“What?” I pry open my eyelids and blink to clear the fog of sleep from my brain. I’m lying on my side, so I roll over onto my back and squint up at Lucas—who’s standing next to the bed, already dressed and with what appears to be a steaming cup in his hand.
“Tea,” he says. His hard mouth is curved into a smile. “I made some for you. I hope I didn’t mess it up.”
“Um…” My brain is still not fully functioning, so I sit up and try to make sense of what’s happening. “You made me tea?”
“Hmm.” Lucas sits down on the edge of the bed and carefully hands me the cup. “Here you go. I wasn’t sure how long it should steep, but there were instructions on the box, so hopefully, it’s right.”
“Uh-huh.” I take the cup from him and take a few sips. The tea is hot enough to burn my tongue, but the familiar taste of Earl Gray revives me, chasing away the cotton-candy fuzz in my mind. Slowly, in bits and pieces, it all starts coming back to me.
Lucas as Kirill. Telling him about UUR.
The cup tilts in my hand, hot liquid spilling onto my naked breasts.
Startled by the sudden pain, I look down and hear Lucas curse as he grabs the cup from me. He puts it on the nightstand before dabbing at my chest with a corner of the sheet. “f**k. Yulia, are you okay?”
I stare at him, my skin growing cold despite the burn from the tea. “You want to know if I’m okay?” I remember everything now. The way he broke me. The way he held me afterwards. The nightmare. Clinging to him in the darkness.
Asking—no, begging him to f**k me.
Lucas’s face tightens. “Did you get badly burned?”
“No.” The chill within me deepens, numbing the sick terror flowing through my veins. “I didn’t get burned.”
Not by tea, at least.
Turning away, I lift the blanket, searching for the pair of shorts he kicked away when we were going to sleep. It’s something to focus on, something to do. Besides, I need those clothes. They’re a buffer, and I need that.
I need to cling to something to stay sane.
How could I have reached for Lucas after that awful dream, when just hours earlier he made it my reality? How could I have wanted a man who broke me in that manner? It’s like I blanked out about what he did, suppressed it all in my desperate need for comfort.
In my weak, selfish neediness, I embraced the man who’s going to destroy my brother.
“Yulia.” Lucas reaches for me, but I twist away. My fingers finally close around the shorts, and I grab them before jumping off the bed on the other side. I know I have nowhere to go, but I can’t let him touch me yet.
I’ll shatter all over again.
“What are you doing?” he asks as I shimmy into the shorts and then get on all fours, looking for the top I dropped last night. “Yulia, what the f**k are you doing?”
Ah-hah, there. Ignoring his question, I grab the tank top—if the lacy-edged sports bra can even be called that. All the clothes Lucas got me are like that: casual, yet ridiculously sexy. They’re better than nothing, though, so I pull on the tank top and get to my feet, doing my best not to look at him.
That seems to irritate him. In a second, he crosses the room and stops in front of me, his fingers closing around my arm.
“What the f**k, Yulia?” Lucas grips my chin with his free hand and forces me to look at him. “What game are you playing?”
“Me?” As I meet his gaze, a tiny ember of anger flickers in the ashes of my despair. “You’re the game master, Kent. I’m just along for the ride.”
His eyebrows snap together. “So last night was what? You going along for the ride?”
“Last night was a moment of insanity.” That’s the only way I can explain it to myself, at least. My voice is hard and bitter as I add, “Besides, what do you care? You have what you need.”
“Yes, I do.” His expression is unreadable. “I have enough to take down UUR.”
A swirl of nausea makes me want to throw up. I don’t know if Lucas senses it, but he lets go of my chin and steps back.
“You’ll be fine,” he says, his voice oddly strained. “I told you I’m not going to kill you or do anything to you once I got the information, and I won’t. There’s no reason for you to stress anymore. It’s done.”
I stare at him, struck by the fact that the idea of Lucas killing me didn’t cross my mind either last night or this morning. I didn’t think about what’s going to happen to me at all. Somewhere along the way, I started believing that my captor doesn’t want me dead.
I started trusting that his s****l obsession with me is real.
“Look,” Lucas says when I remain silent, “things are going to get better. Once UUR is gone, I’ll give you more freedom. You’ll be able to walk around the estate on your own, go anywhere you please.”
“Really?” Despite my despair, I almost laugh out loud. “And what makes you think I won’t run?”
The corners of his lips pull up in a dark smile. “Because you wouldn’t get far if you tried. I’m going to put some trackers on you.”
My heart falters for a beat. “Trackers?”
Lucas nods, releasing my arm. “Esguerra’s guys worked out a new prototype. For now, why don’t I give you a small taste of what your future will be like and take you outside after breakfast? We’ll go for a walk.”
A walk outside. At any other point, I would’ve been ecstatic, but now, it’s all I can do to interact with him in a semi-normal manner.
To act as if my whole world isn’t about to come crashing down.
“Breakfast first, though,” Lucas says when I remain frozen. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to the bathroom for your morning routine.”
Bathroom. Breakfast. I want to scream that he’s insane, that I can’t possibly eat, but I keep my mouth shut and do as he says. I need to figure out what to do, how to fix the awful mess I’ve made.
“What kind of trackers are you talking about?” I force myself to ask as we walk to the bathroom. “Implants or the exterior kind?”
“Implants.” Lucas stops in front of the bathroom door and looks at me. “Just a few to keep you safe.”
And ensure he’d always know where I am.
“When are you going to put them on me?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady. If the trackers are going to be as difficult to remove as I suspect, escape will be all but impossible.
“When I return from Chicago,” Lucas says. “I have a two-week trip coming up in five days. Unfortunately, the trackers won’t be here before then, so you’ll need to be restrained for the duration.”
“You’re leaving?” My heartbeat kicks up with sudden hope. If he’s going to be gone…
“Yes, but don’t worry. I’ll have a couple of guards I trust keep an eye on you.” He smiles, as if reading my mind. “They’ll make sure you’re safe and comfortable.”
And still here when I return.
The unsaid words hang in the air as I step into the bathroom and quietly close the door behind me. Lucas’s plan to chain me to him should terrify me, but the nauseating fear I feel has nothing to do with my own fate.
If Esguerra’s men come after UUR the way they’ve gone after other enemies, nobody connected to the agency will escape their wrath.
Obenko’s entire family will be wiped out—and my brother along with them.
- Writer
