Page 108 of Captive Prize

“Russia,” I said. The word clanged like a hammer against steel in the quiet room.

Gregor stilled. His jaw flexed.

But there was something like satisfaction in his gaze.

He could enjoy his victory all he wanted.

He wasn’t going to win.

“You’re sure?” he asked.

I swallowed past the lump in my throat, past the part of me still waiting—hoping—for Roman to show up. To stop this.

I pushed that naive part of me aside.

The girl who wanted fairy tales. The girl who hadn’t been left behind in Russia after all.

I let her die, right here in this room.

I lifted my chin, steady even as hopes and dreams I didn’t admit to shattered.

Control. I needed to find my control.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said. “Send me…home.”

Home.The corrupt word left an acidic burn on my tongue.

CHAPTER 26

ROMAN

Over my dead fucking body…

She was not leaving. There was no way in this life, or in any other, I would let her get on a plane and go back to Russia.

She belonged here with me.

Zoya was mine by right.

I had taken her, cared for her, and I was the one who saved her…again.

“Leave,” I demanded, talking to the guard standing outside of her room. A guard that Gregor must have posted when he went to talk to her an hour ago.

I didn’t want Gregor to be the one who spoke with her. It wasn’t right.

I wanted to tell her about the deal myself. She would have questions only I could answer. A marriage, even one like this, was more than just a contract. I needed to be the one who told her what being my wife was going to mean, what it would look like.

Gregor insisted he be the one to tell her and gauge her reaction. He said it was nonnegotiable. That he needed to see the acceptance of her circumstances in her eyes himself.

He needed to know she could be trusted.

I fought him, but he threatened to take the option off the table indefinitely.

Artem insisted as well, and just like that, there was nothing I could do about it.

“Let him do this, cousin,” Pavel whispered in my ear. “If she is smart, she will agree, and you will be in the clear. You will have your girl and not have to worry about the implications of where your loyalty lies.”

Until he came back with a smug smile and informed everyone that he would arrange a private flight for her within the week. Per her request, he was “sending the banshee back to the frozen lake in the center of the hell that she crawled out of.”

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