Page 15 of Stolen Empire
He looks at me, his gaze traveling over the filth covering my clothes, the blood on my palms, the sweat matting my hair to my forehead.
Then he reaches out and takes the pitchfork from my hands, setting it aside.
"You're done for today," he says.
I don't have the energy to respond.
I push off the wall and walk past him, my legs barely holding me upright.
He follows me out of the stables, and when we reach the tack room, he opens the door and gestures for me to go inside.
I collapse into the chair, too tired to care about anything but resting.
"You'll stay here tonight," he says. "Tomorrow, you'll do it again. And the day after that, and the day after that, until I decide what to do with you."
I look up at him and try to decide what he wants with me, studying his features as if somehow by a miracle, they'll reveal his motive.
His face is hard, but there's a look in his eyes that I can't decide whether I like it or not.
The others fall silent when he speaks.
I've watched it happen all day, the way conversations stop mid-sentence when he walks into a room, the way men step aside without being asked.
He doesn't demand respect through volume or theatrics.
Whatever things he's done to them in the past, they give it willingly.
And I realize, with a sinking clarity, that he could break me if he wanted to.
He could push me until there was nothing left, and I wouldn't know how to stop him.
That sort of power terrifies me.
But it's also so magnetic.
To have that much authority and sway in other people's minds is a scary and dangerous thing.
And Dimitri Vetrov doesn’t take crap from anyone.
It's kind of alluring when I think about it.
For whatever reason, this hardened man has taken me and has some sort of fixation on me.
In any normal world, a girl like me would have no place in his presence, let alone the sliver of a chance of escape.
But he hasn't hurt me yet, and if there's anything I've learned about these types of men based on my days on the street, it's that they only leave you alive if you're useful.
Thank God I'm useful to him for now.
But why?
And where is this going to lead me?
4
DIMITRI
Iunlock the tack shed at seven in the morning, and the smell hits me before I see her.
