“I’m saying, she’s been feeding me pills for the past six months. It seems she wanted me to be addicted.” I suppose I don’t need to explain the hospital trip that resulted from my accidental overdose, because Ivan already knows about that. So I briefly mention it, then I tell him about the doctor who showed up at my house afterward. I tell him how I thought I was taking prescription medicine for my anxiety—only to find out they were painkillers. “Preston’s been helping me.” I look back at the man I love and lightly scrape my fingers over his stubble. “He doesn’t want me on them either. He wants the best for me.”
“I want the best for you, darling,” Ivan interrupts our moment, but he does look a tad uncomfortable to be witnessing so much affection between Preston and me.
“Well, you failed,” I fume at him. “It’s your first day on the job—and I’m no expert at what dads should be like—but I can say with certainty this isn’t the way to do it.” Angrily waving my hand, I indicate the entire fucked up situation.
Ivan winces.
He’s surprising me.
He’s not supposed to be soft or sorry. I’ve been preparing myself to deal with his wrath, not his remorse.
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” Ivan rasps, “is to find you and make sure you’re safe and happy. I… apologize for the way my men handled it.”
Brushing off his half-assed apology and his attempt to pass the blame to someone else, I say, “Speaking of finding me… how did you do it?”
“There’s a tracker in your arm,” Ivan replies casually.
At first, I think he’s joking. But when he continues to stare at me with his serious face, I make a noise of outrage. “Excuse me?”
“A nurse gave you a shot at the hospital—”
“Yeah, a flu shot.” I remember that. While my mom was in the bathroom, a nurse came in and gave me a vaccine.
“No, darling. That was a lie.” Ivan’s back to being unapologetic.
My hand slips into the leather jacket and goes to the place on my inner bicep where I got the injection. After I get into my shirt and do some prodding, I find a hard little bump under my skin. It’s so small. I probably would’ve never figured out it was there.
A fucking tracker. That’s something neither Preston or I thought of as a possibility.
“How could you convince a nurse to do something like that?” My voice is rough with emotion.
“Simple,” Ivan answers. “I offered to put her son through college. It’s amazing what people will do for their children.”
“That—that’s—” Sputtering, I glare daggers at Ivan, but he’s unaffected. In fact, he’s downright smug. “That’s a violation of my rights!”
Preston’s been quiet during our exchange, but his body has tensed up, and I know he’s pissed off on my behalf.
“Donovan doesn’t have the best reputation, but his tracker technology is unrivaled,” Ivan continues. “He’ll be punished for pointing a gun at you, just as Nico was for sedating you. Please know that everything I do is because I care. This world is rough. I want to shield you from it.”
“I think overprotectiveness is what got us into this mess in the first place.” Getting to my feet, I bravely step up to my father. He’s got a foot of height on me, but it doesn’t stop me from giving him a piece of my mind. “Mom had the same idea—keep me locked up so I’d never experience anything in the outside world. But by isolating me, she deprived me of all the good stuff, too. She kept me from you, and you let her.” I point my finger at him. “Why swoop in and rescue me now? All this time, you knew where I was, and you let me sit there and rot in that house. Why didn’t you come get me? If you’re so powerful, you could’ve just—”
Ivan cuts me off with a wave of his hand, looks to Preston, and asks, “What have you told her?”
“As much as she can handle right now.” There’s a warning in Preston’s reply. I’m not sure what that warning is, but Ivan seems to understand.
Surprisingly, he backs off. Pursing his lips behind his steepled fingers, he gives Preston an appraising look. Almost… respectful.
“What?” My head whips back and forth between the two men before my eyes land on Preston. “What were you supposed to tell me?”
“I think what we have here is an instance of miscommunication,” Ivan says smoothly, smiling as he spreads his hands like he’s conversing with friends instead of people he abducted. “Let’s take this meeting to a more comfortable place, shall we? I would like to invite you both to have dinner with me at my home.”
I doubt we’re allowed to refuse. But as long as Preston and I can stay together, I’ll go without a fight.
And that’s how we end up at a brick mansion that makes my mother’s Victorian estate look like a gingerbread house.
The first thing Ivan did when we arrived at his house is separate us.
But not for the sinister reasons Rosalie suspects. She put up quite a fight when a grandmotherly maid named Helga started guiding her away to go take a shower and clean up, but I promised her it’d be okay.
Not just because she got filthy in the woods, but because Ivan and I need to have a conversation without her listening.
I’m no longer restrained, and Ivan’s thugs are absent, but I can’t let my guard down around him. This man is a killer.
I keep that in mind as I follow him into a lounge of some sort. There’s a warmth and sophistication about the room. It’s masculine, with its built-in bookshelves, a wet bar, and the case of expensive cigars. It’s dimly lit by crystal wall sconces and the fireplace to my right. An expensive white fur rug is spread out on the glossy wood floor. It’s big. Probably a polar bear or something. Various antlers are mounted to the wall, and I wonder if Ivan hunted them himself on some luxurious safari.
But I’m not charmed by shiny light fixtures, high-priced alcohol, or trophies. Ivan’s riches are laying on a foundation of drugs, money laundering, and blood, and that makes them tainted.
He hands me a glass of bourbon.
I don’t tell him I don’t want it, but I accept it and set it on the mahogany side table next to the fancy-ass leather chair I’m sitting in. I wouldn’t put it past him to slip a sedative into my drink.
As if he knows my line of thinking, he smirks, raises his glass, and takes a sip. “You know what I’ve learned in my lifetime?”
“What?”
“The world is a very gray place. The difference between right and wrong is sometimes split by a hair.”
“If you’re trying to justify your actions today or any other time, you can stop. I don’t care if you didn’t mean to cause Rosalie harm—you still did it.”
“I wasn’t talking about my intentions or wrongdoings. I was referring to yours.”
“Ditch the subtleties and riddles, Ivan. Just tell me how you really feel.”
His jaw ticks. “I did things your way, Ethan. I gave you time to extract my daughter the way you thought was best. And how did you repay me? You took her from me. When I first learned you had run off with her, I realized I was wrong to place my trust in you.” This is the moment I think Ivan’s going to lose his cool. Instead, he surprises me. “But after hearing the way my daughter speaks about you… I’ve changed my mind. I shouldn’t have assumed you’d hurt her. You’ve been good to her.”