Before I can get the whole word out, a hand clamps down on my mouth.
Isaak is sitting behind his massive desk. Lachlan in standing on his right side. Another man I don’t recognize slouches against the wall in the corner. He’s dark and broody and looks only mildly surprised by the fact that I’ve crashed their little party.
“Hey now, let’s calm down,” a voice says in my ear. Bogdan, I realize belatedly.
Isaak fixes me with a trademark deadly glare, but he’s so calm that it’s unnerving.
“Give me a second,” he says to his speaker. He’s on a conference call with someone, it seems.
Isaak clicks a button and the green light starts blinking yellow. He lifts his gaze to me and nods. Bogdan releases me cautiously.
“Camila,” Isaak says coolly, “is there something wrong?”
“You cut the phone line in my room. I can’t make my call.”
His eyes narrow. “That’s why you barged in here?”
I can feel all three of Isaak’s men staring at me, but I refuse to let that intimidate me. They may be big, scary motherfuckers. But none of them are mothers.
None of them know what it’s like to be separated from their children.
“Yes,” I snap, “that’s why I barged in here. And if you won’t let me make the call in my room, I’ll use your line here.”
“It’s in use,” he replies acidly.
“I guess I’ll wait until you’re done then.” I notice Isaak exchange a glance with Bogdan.
“Maybe you should be here for this anyway,” Isaak tells me.
I freeze. My heartbeat slows to a crawl. I don’t like his tone or the look in his eye. “Who are you talking to?”
“It’s your knight in shining armor.”
“Alex?”
“Maxim,” he corrects harshly.
Do I even want to be here for this?
It takes me only a second to decide: Yes, yes I do.
I need to hear his voice. I need to hear him acknowledge who he is. I need the truth, from his lips.
“I want to speak to him.”
Isaak’s eyes get even colder. “Oh no, kiska, you don’t get to speak to him. You can sit here and be a good little girl, mouth closed. Or I’ll close it for you.”
“Absolutely not,” I seethe.
“I expected no less.” Then he gives another crisp nod.
I hear the screech of duct tape. “No!” I start to cry out.
But it’s too late. The tape is slapped over my mouth. Before I can pull it off, Bogdan wrenches my hands behind my back and holds them there.
Isaak waits until the commotion is over, face as impassive as ever. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?
Then he presses the same button again. The light turns green.
And the kind voice that promised me the world comes through the speaker.
“Isaak? I didn’t call you to be fucking put on hold.”
I feel my throat constrict. So it’s true. Alex really is Maxim.
Everything I thought I knew was a lie.
25
Isaak
Her shock is slowly wearing off. Anger seeps in in its place.
She’s going to come at me with her claws out and teeth bared when this is over.
I’m looking forward to it.
“Calm the fuck down, Maxi,” I say, using the nickname he had when we were kids. “I’m here now.”
I can’t take my eyes off Camila. Bogdan has her hands restrained behind her back. He’s keeping her on the other side of the room, probably to prevent her from doing something stupid and rash.
But I can see the expression on her face—hearing Maxim’s voice has done something to her. Hell, she’s not even struggling anymore.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. Is she frozen out of anger and resentment? Is she battling betrayal?
Or is there more to it than that?
“My inner circle advised me against this call,” Maxim says dryly. “I’m the one who insisted.”
“Missed me?”
I can practically see him grinding his teeth. “Fuck you, cousin.”
“Likewise.”
“How did you find out?” he asks, cutting right to the chase.
“How do you think? I’ve been doing this a long fucking time.”
“So have I.”
“You weren’t trained to lead.”
“I was fucking born to lead.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re a pampered mommy’s boy with a head full of lies,” I say. “You’re no don.”
“You’ve taken too much that belongs to me. There’s no lie in that.”
“I have to believe you’re fucking with me right now,” I scoff. “Camila was never yours. She’s been mine from the start.”
That gets a reaction from her. She flinches violently. But she doesn’t try to run. Nor will she. She wants to hear this conversation. She wants so badly to reconcile the man she thought she knew with the asshole on the phone.
There’s no pretense anymore for him to hide behind. She’s seeing the unfiltered Maxim.
“She never spoke about you, you know?” Maxim hisses, trying desperately to goad me into anger. “A year and a half I was in her life, and she never once fucking mentioned you.”
Somehow, he has managed to raise my hackles. But not the way he intended.
He thinks I care that Camila never once mentioned me? I don’t. Not in the slightest. I know damn well I’ve been burrowed deep into her subconscious from the moment I sat down at her table six years ago.
I do care about the amount of time he got with her, though. The amount of time he stole.
“You think that means something?”
“Of course it does.”
I laugh coldly. “Did it ever cross your mind that she didn’t mention me because she was trying to preserve the memory of the one pure thing in her life?”
Camila makes a strangled sound low in her throat. Her eyes are wide and turbulent. Rage? Fear? A mix of both, perhaps.
“That’s fucking bullshit. You never meant anything to her.”
“But that’s not why you took her, is it?” I remind him. “You took her because you thought she meant something to me.”
“And I was right.”
“No, you are a fucking idiot. The night you saw us together was the first night we ever met.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Why would I lie?”
“Why go through all the trouble to get her back then?” Maxim demands. “If she was nothing more than a random whore?”
“Because I want to make a point, little cousin. Whatever you take from me, I can take back. Whether I give a single fuck about it or not.”
I stare Camila in the eyes when I speak. She stares right back. Trembling, but unwilling to glance away. At the edges of the duct tape, I can see how tight her jaw is clenched.
The little kiska is as brave now as she’s ever been. But I can suss out the hurt beneath that fa?ade.
I just didn’t expect for it to make me feel so fucking guilty
I wanted to teach her a lesson as much as Maxim. Two rebellious little birds, one stone. And yet, even as it’s unfolding exactly how I predicted, I feel my chest constrict.
“Where are you keeping her?”
Focus, Isaak. Fucking focus. I need to stop looking at her.
“Do you honestly expect me to answer that question?”
“I want to speak to her.”
“I’m sure you do. What makes you think she wants to speak to you?”