Page 72 of Refrain

“My little beauty. Still unmatched, even while flawed.”

“You’relying.”

“I will admit that it wasn’t easy,” he tells me while his thumb drifts down my jawline. “Watching you all those years. How you destroyed your hair. Became a new woman.Chloe.” He scoffs at the name. “My men were always within reach of you. Always. I could have had you back any second, but I withheld. I endured. It was a necessary pain, but it was pain nonetheless…”

I shake him off. He’s close enough now for the barrel of the gun to brush his chest directly. The nearness of the weapononly makes his grin widen. God, that expression… The pathetic girl I used to be would have cherished it—done anything to make it last. She would have sold her soul for a hint of his smile.

“You tried to kill me.”

“I needed torestrainmyself. For you. For us. My beautiful little Ksei.” He cradles my chin in his entire palm this time.

For the love of God, I can’t move.

“I knew you were loyal. But was it love?” he asks. “Would you die for me? Live for me? Forgive me for anything—even the worst of betrayals?”

Would I?

Did I?

A burning sensation consumes my eyes. There are two of him now, laughing as I try to distinguish between them. The barrel of the gun drifts left…right. I fire and splinters fly from a sideboard across the room. I missed again.

Or did you?He might have whispered the words to me. Or maybe I was just taunting myself.

“I had already loved you then, Ksei. But when you finally came back. When I saw what you did to Vladimir…”

Now.I want him to pull the gun I know he has hidden in his breast pocket. I wait for him to strike me with it and try to avenge his friend by putting a bullet into my brain. I wait.

And Piotr watches me. “I knew then who you really are.Moya lyubov, willing to do anything to see us reunited. Anything.”

“You’re sick.” Spittle flies with how harshly I grit the words out. “I killed him because I hate you. I bashed his brains the same way you tried to kill me. I used the same damn weapon—”

“Ourweapon.” He lets his tongue linger on the word, and it serves as the password to unlock the memories I’ve struggled for seven years to suppress.

The feel of the ashtray in my hand. His voice in my ear.“Strike them hard… Draw it out.”The stench of blood in the air. I nevercould seem to scrub it from my fingers no matter how hard I tried. Maybe I never really tried at all.

“You remember it. How good it was between us.”

I remember…

I remember the beatings. The rapes. The awful things he made me do. I didn’t want to do them.

Lies.

I remember the feel of his weight on top of me. The hungry way he used to kiss me. Touch me. Possessively. Demandingly. How his scent would fill my lungs more than oxygen would. Wolf Blood.

“You remember the fun we used to have.”

Nostalgia taints his voice in a way I’ve never heard it. It almost sounds like he’s humming.

The fun. Him goading me on while I…

“Stop!” I’m shouting. I’m begging. Him. Myself. The gun flails—it finds a new target. My wrist aches as I twist it so that the barrel is against my stomach. “Stop.”

“Ksei.” His voice regains that commanding edge. For once, he seems afraid. “You think killing yourself will keep you from me?” He throws his head back for a sharp bark of laughter that pierces me deeper than any bullet ever could. “You are mine, Ksei. You came to me. But our reunion might be too much for you to bear at once. I can understand that.” He gives me another smile. Another lethal blow. “I will give you a few days to remember our love. How about seven?”

I’m panting. I’m breathless. He seems so unconcerned. The only time he so much as flinches is when I raise the gun to my heart rather than my stomach.

“Seven days,” he tells me. “In the meantime, you may have the run of the city. Go back to that hovel you’ve found yourself in, though I would prefer the apartment. I will not contact you.”

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