19
CORA
The maid checks the hallway and then closes the door behind her.
I’m still on my knees. My legs are weak and wobbly, but my grip on the phone is crushing. My mouth opens and closes around silent words I can’t speak.
I miss you.
I need you.
Where are you?
Come save me.
Finally, I rasp out, “It’s you.”
“It’s me,” he repeats. “I’m sorry it took so long.”
Tears sting my eyes, but I blink them back. I don’t know what this conversation is about yet. Last I heard, he’s engaged to Francia. I’ve learned better than to jump to conclusions.
“What is this, Iv—”
“Don’t say my name,” he barks.
I snap my mouth closed.
“Don’t risk it,” he adds a bit softer. “In case anyone is listening.”
“Are you worried what your new fiancée will think if she finds out?” More venom than I expected leaks from my voice. Apparently, losing a game of musical fiancés will do that to a girl.
I use the anger to force myself back to my feet. I need to be ready for whatever is coming next.
Ivan has the audacity to chuckle. “I knew you’d be pissed about that.”
“Pissed? I’m not ‘pissed’; I’m devastated.”
“Cora.” He sighs.
The pity in his voice makes me feel physically sick. “I trusted you and you lied to me. You got engaged to the woman who wanted to kill me.”
I make it sound personal, but I’d be just as broken if he was engaged to some random girl I’d never seen before.
It wouldn’t matter who he was with—it would always feel wrong.
He should be with me.
“It’s more complicated than that. It was the only way to save your life. Why the fuck else would I ever want to be with Francia?”
Mikhail’s words in that basement dungeon come back to me.
Ivan Pushkin never gave a fuck about you, and now, he’s going to marry Francia. He said she would have been the better choice all along. You were nothing more than a distraction.
“She knows how to play the game better than I do,” I say softly. “She has connections and she wants a business arrangement. That’s what you—”
“I didn’t want you to actually answer the question. Fucking hell, Cora,” he breathes. “I’m not with her and I never will be. Not in any way that matters.”
I want those words to be true more than I’ve ever wanted anything.
But I’ve been deceived too many times. Tricked and lied to too often to trust anything.
Even Ivan.
Especially Ivan.
He exists in a world I barely understand. As far as I know, this could all be another manipulation.
“Are you okay?” he asks gently. “Has anyone hurt you?”
I look down at my wrists. They’ve scabbed over, though still tender to the touch. But beyond that…
“No. No one has hurt me,” I say. “Not physically.”
He breathes out and it sounds a lot like relief. That alone goes further than anything else he has said to making me believe that he actually cares.
Even if he can never love me—even if I’ll never be his wife—at least he cares whether I’m safe. That’s more than can be said for any other man in my life, including my own father.
“I’m sorry it has taken so long to get in touch with you. It took a fucking eternity just to figure out where you were being held. Then I had to get someone on the inside to make contact.”
I glance over at the maid. She is standing against the door, her eyes fixed on the floor.
“Why did someone need to make contact? What is this about?”
“Because I need you to know that I’m going to get you out of there, Cora.”
I’m asleep. I’m dreaming. That is the only way those words are coming out of Ivan Pushkin’s mouth right now.
“I’m going to get you out of there and send you… God, so fucking far away,” he continues. “I’ll get you away from this city and these people—from me. Where you’ll be safe.”
Just like that, the dream pops. “You’re going to send me away?”
“Halfway around the world if I have to. Whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
Okay, so this doesn’t seem like a trick, but it also isn’t the romantic rescue I was hoping for.
“I don’t want that,” I protest. “I don’t want to be sent away.”
“It’s the only way you’ll be safe, Cora.”
“I don’t care about being safe if I’m not—” If I’m not with you. I swallow down the words. “Even if that is what I wanted, it’s impossible. I can’t leave.”
“The fuck you can’t,” he growls. “I’m going to get you out of there. No one is going to stop me.”
“Jorden.”
He hesitates. When he speaks, his voice is icy cold. It sends a shiver down my spine. “Is Jorden involved in this shit, too? Was she working with Francia? If she is involved, you need to tell me everything—”
“No, no. She isn’t involved. She’s a victim,” I tell him. “But they have Jorden. If I escape, they’ll kill her.”
“Who will kill her?” he asks.
I bite my lip, guilt rising up in me. “I should have told you about all of this that night at The Coop. I should have told you before that probably. But I was… I was running away. I was trying to hide. I didn’t think—”
“Mikhail.”
“Yeah.” I sag, head dipped low. “Maybe if I’d been honest about everything from the start, you could have stopped this before it started. But now, it’s too late. Mikhail has Jorden and he is going to kill her if I don’t marry him.”
“Mikhail does not have Jorden.”
I stand tall, my every cell at full attention. “What?”
“Mikhail doesn’t have Jorden,” he repeats.
“But… I heard her. There was a scream, and—How do you know?”
“Because she is with Yasha right this second.”
I stare at the wall as reality shifts around me.
“Fuck,” I hiss.
One scream through a tinny cell phone is all it took for me to buy into Alexander’s version of events. That is all it took for me to go quietly. To do what I was told and obey without question.
I could have plowed through my mother and her two friends at the shop and sprinted down the sidewalk this afternoon. I could have screamed for help when Mikhail and I walked to lunch.
“I could have escaped so many times,” I grit out. “I’m going to kill them. All of them.”
“Cora, wait.”
I walk to the bookshelf and pull out my letter opener. The maid is still in the room, but if Ivan trusts her, then I guess I trust her, too.
“I’m tired of waiting,” I say. “I’m going to—to—shit, I don’t know! Force my way out?”
He snorts. “With what? Do you even have a weapon?”
I look at the tiny blade. When I close my fist, it barely sticks out of my hand. “I have a letter opener.”
“You and a two-inch dull blade against the world?” He laughs. “Why am I not surprised? But if you stop and listen to me for a second, I think I have a better option.”
“A better option for what? Is the maid you sent in here armed with something more deadly than a cell phone?” I look over at the woman and she finally meets my eyes. She gives me a quick shake of her head.
Guess not.
“I have a better option for getting you home,” he clarifies.
Home.
God, I want that so bad.
Ivan clears his throat. “I’ll get you out of Alexander’s house and get Francia out of our lives. But I need you to be patient.”
I cling to the phone with both hands. “I can’t. I need to get out of here.”
“And you will.” He says it with so much certainty that it’s almost impossible not to believe him. Yet some part of me really can’t see beyond these four walls. Some part of me refuses to think I’ll ever escape.
Tears well in my eyes. I swipe them away, grateful Ivan can’t see them. “Alexander is scary. I know what he’s capable of now. I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to.”
“If I could get you out right now, I would. But…” He growls in frustration. “I’m going to get you out, Cora. And you aren’t in there alone. I have people watching over you.”
I look over at the maid again. As if she can hear Ivan, she nods her head at me.
“But we have to get off the phone now.”
“No!” I know I sound like a child. Just one more minute. But that’s how I feel. Small and helpless. Even if he can’t be here in person, having Ivan in my ear is better than nothing. I feel safe.
“It will look suspicious if she’s in your room too long,” he explains. “I’ll call again soon.”
“You promise?”
“I swear it, solnishka.” His voice is low and serious. I want to wrap up in it like a blanket. “I won’t leave you there. I’ll get you out.”
I nod, tears clogging my throat.
“I need you to trust me.”
I swallow down my emotions. “I do. I trust you.”
He doesn’t say anything else as the maid takes the phone and slips out of my room.