Page 108 of Love to Defy You
Mikhail softens his tone. “That’s why everyone thinks Willow is the perfect pythia. She was with a ton of guys in that porn video, right?”
“Willow belongs to me.” I jab my finger into my chest. “No one else touches her but me. I’ll die before I let anyone else…” My voice cracks.
I don’t remember the last time I cried, but I sink down the wall until I’m sitting on the floor and bury my face in my hands. Tears burn my eyes.
“I’m so sorry.” Mikhail’s voice is heavy with regret. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
“You said you would protect me like you’ve always done, remember?” I look up from my hands and glare at him. “You’re the closest thing I have to a brother, and I trusted you to get me through this.”
“And I am!” He thumps his chest. “I love you, and Willow loves you, and neither of us will hesitate to do anything for you. You might be willing to throw your life away, but I’m not, and Willow would say the same. You know it’s true.”
I would sacrifice anything if it meant saving her from this. Anything.
If I ever return to Andarusia, I will go to my father’s grave and then my grandfather’s grave and spit on them and curse them for doing this to us. For sacrificing their sons, the ones they were supposed to protect, for the sake of power and wealth.
I pray that I never have a son of my own to offer up as a lamb for slaughter.
None of us can escape this cycle of evil, and the only way out is to end the Kurochkin line once and for all.
“If anything happens to me,” I whisper, “watch over Anastasia and Willow.”
“Stop talking like that.” Mikhail’s hands tremble. “We’re all going to make it out of this alive.”
“Just promise me.” Desperation pours out of me as I beg. “Promise me that you’ll protect Ana and Willow if I can’t. It’s the only thing I’ll ever ask of you again.”
He stares at me for a long while, perhaps to determine if I’m suicidal, but at last, he sighs. “Of course I will.” Mikhail crosses over to the bathtub and turns the faucet on. “Now, come on. Let’s get you cleaned up. You’ve got a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”
I make my way across Weltner’s campus under the cover of night. My dress shoes are the only sound to pierce the quietude of the empty courtyard, echoing off the stone buildings around me. The lampposts light my way toward the Order’s usual meeting spot: the cellar entrance to the underground tunnels.
The clock tower counts down the minutes until I can lay eyes on Willow. I waited outside the classroom of her Monday afternoon lecture, but she never showed up, and I’m certain Enzo Messina had something to do with it.
Revenge grips my heart, and I vow to cut off Enzo’s hand if he dares to touch my fiancée. All sorts of heinous thoughts race through my head about what he did while I was strategically locked away, allowing Enzo to run around unchecked with mymalishka.
I’m the first candidate to arrive at the meeting point, and I pace back and forth along the edge of the landscaping concealing the cellar from view. Thousands of students have come and gone from Weltner College without knowing the ugly truth of what happens beneath their feet year after year—torture, abuse, humiliation, rape.
A cold voice behind me breaks the silence. “How will you worm your way out of this one, son?”
I round on my father, who sits on a park bench, one leg crossed over the other. His arm rests casually over the back of the bench as he puffs on his cigar. Grigor pins me with his cruel gaze and smirks, taking delight in my suffering.
“For fuck’s sake, leave me alone!” I press my hands over my ears to drown him out, but it’s no use. “Do you have nothing better to do in death than haunt me?”
He chuckles. “A father’s work is never done.” Grigor turns his focus to the courtyard and glances around. “You were supposed to go to university in Moscow. I can’t believe your mother allowed this. You’re both such a disappointment, not that I expected any different from either of you.”
I take a deep breath to calm the rage spewing from within. “Go away. If I’m about to spend eternity with you in hell, at least give me a few more hours of peace.”
Grigor quirks his eyebrow at me. “You’d really sacrifice your life to keep your precious American girl untouched? Don’t be foolish. This is nothing she hasn’t done before.” He reaches down to his groin over his pants and adjusts himself. “The whole world saw what a whore she is. Don’t throw your life away to save her when she wants this.”
I stride over to Grigor, and with him seated on the bench, I tower over my father’s head. He’s taller than me by a couple of inches, so I’ve never had the pleasure of looking down at him this way. “No, she doesn’t want this. She wants me and only me.”
“Are you sure of that?” He peers up at me with an amused expression. “She craves more than just your attention.”
I lean down to get into his face until I smell the tobacco on his breath. “Trust me, I make sure she is well-satisfied.”
Grigor takes another pull from his cigar as he surveys the Weltner courtyard. “I have fond memories of my university years. What I wouldn’t give to be twenty again.” His gaze drifts over to meet mine. “Then I could fuck your American whore for myself, just like every other member who will stick their cock in her tonight.”
I slam my fist down on the bench. “I’ll never let you or anyone else near her again!”
Grigor is undeterred. “What is it about her that makes you so willing to throw your life away? No pussy is that good, son.”
