Page 24 of The Enemy's Defector
Huh.Interesting. Her wording mattered. She’d called ithisproperty. She didn’t call ittheirproperty, as if she saw no ownership over it. She had distanced herself from Anton by freeing me. But I wondered how else she was motivated to break from her family.
I thought back to her saying they’d be even now.
That could only mean one thing. Antonhadkilled Thomas all those years ago. It was the proof she’d wanted for so long, and for her to be against her uncle now, she had to know that fact, not just speculate about it.
She let out a long breath as I rolled over to face her, then slowly sat up. I saw the worry on her face, and I appreciated how she brought pillows forward so I could lean on them.
“I first heard the rumors that you had been taken a month ago.”
“Yes. I was taken just days after you and I…” I glanced at her, wondering if she’d like a reminder of what we’d shared that one night.
She cleared her throat and focused on gingerly removing my shirt.
Days after she took my clothes off, in other circumstances.
“Yes.” She refused to make eye contact. “Days after I helped you look into the surveillance from when Grigory was poisoned.”
I winced as she removed my shirt fully. The open air on my wounds worsened the sting of raw flesh.
“I figured my uncle was behind it or involved, so I started checking cameras for where you could’ve been hiding. I didn’t find anything until recently. Not for the lack of trying.” She furrowed her brow, and I wondered if that was guilt she was hiding.
“Anton was in Greece all month, so I searched through as many properties as I could.”
“Searched for me?”
“Yes. And no.” She glanced at me with a stubborn frown. “I was looking for the missing surveillance records of when my father died. So, I checked as many places as I could while he wasn’t home to supervise what I did.”
“Did you find it?” It’d be pointless to ask if she found me. Clearly, she had.
She nodded. “I did. With that search over, I knew my time was running out to stay?—”
“Why?” She hinted at a threat, and I hated that she’d ever be in danger like that. I caught her hand and watched her closely.“Because Anton would be home again?” It was no secret she hated the man, but she’d been stuck living with him as his only niece.
“Yes. And because once he got home, he wouldn’t be pleased with how I’d defied his orders.” She wetted a rag and began wiping off the blood that coated me, her careful gaze inspecting my wounds as she likely calculated how she could help me with them.
“What orders?” I asked, breathing through the pressure of her delicate and careful touch on my wounds.
“To marry.”
I caught her hand and stared her down. “What?”
The idea of this woman belonging to another man filled me with instant anger. She couldn’t. She just couldn’t be with someone else. I’d grown up knowing she could never be mine, delegated toonlybe my enemy because of her uncle, but I hated the thought of her with any other man.
Jealousy gripped me and I couldn’t shake it off.
“Apparently, my father made an arrangement with Grigory many years ago. To unite me with one of his sons.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I never heard of it.”
“I didn’t either until over a month ago when Anton found the paperwork in an office. Anastasia was surprised when Anton’s representative contacted her about it, and then with Grigory still recovering, he didn’t recall it.”
I sighed as she continued wiping the blood away. Cool touches of the wet rag became more soothing than irritating. My father couldn’t remember much with how altered he was from being poisoned.
“Did it say which of us you were supposed to marry?” I asked. Thomas Kozlov offering his daughter to us made sense. He was good friends with Father. But if the arrangement was forgottenand Anton disliked us… “Wait. He wanted you to fulfill the arrangementnow?”
She nodded, then shook her head. “No, it didn’t specify which brother. And yes, he insisted that I go marry someone in your house immediately.”
“What for?” I narrowed my eyes again.
