Her aim isn’t as pointed as her glare, though, so while her knee brushes against my balls, it doesn’t make contact. At least not the kind of contact that would take me out for any length of time.
Not that it would matter even if it did. I made sure to lock the door when I walked in. Which Alyssa discovers a second later when she darts past me and tries furiously to pull it open.
She yanks hard but it remains stubbornly shut. “No!” she screams. “No! Let me out! Help! Someone! Let me OUT!”
She’s pounding those delicate little fists against the door frame but her screams are making more tremors than her hands are. I gather myself and approach her from the back, noticing how quickly her confidence has melted into panic.
“Please! Someone! I—”
“No one can hear you, Alyssa.” I have to talk loudly so I can be heard over the screaming and pounding. “It’s just us in here.”
She shakes her head like that’ll change reality and keeps attacking the door. It feels like a weird and twisted sense of déjà vu. Except it’s not Lev I’m dealing with this time.
Although, come to think of it… maybe the same approach would work here, too.
Avoiding her flailing fists, I find an opening, grab her arms, and pin them against her body. I create a human straitjacket of myself as I restrain her.
“No!” she shrieks, nearly taking out an eardrum. “Let me go!”
She kicks at the door, launching herself into the air for a moment. I pull her away from the entrance and tighten my grip on her. “Calm down. Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you. But you need to breathe.”
I’m not sure why she listens. It’s hard to believe she can hear my soft words over the racket she’s making, but almost immediately, she stops screaming. Her body is still alive with trembles and her breathing is coming in hot and heavy.
But I don’t let go. I don’t loosen my grip on her.
Her heat mingles with mine and I catch that honeysuckle scent of hers. Don’t get distracted, I warn myself. This is business.
Unfortunately, my cock has a mind of his own.
I ignore the horny little fucker and keep talking. “Just breathe. It’s gonna be okay. Just breathe.”
Her struggle turns into a last few weak spasms before she stops moving entirely. “How is it gonna be okay?” she asks softly, her voice mired down with fear. “How is anything going to be okay?”
“Because I wasn’t lying when I said that I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Why keep me here then?”
“Because, believe it or not, I’m trying to protect you.”
“From who?”
“From the men who sent me that finger. If they get wind that you opened the package and you saw what’s inside, it’s not a question of ‘if.’ They will kill you.”
She fits so well against the lines and grooves of my body. I don’t think I’ve ever had that thought when sex wasn’t involved.
“I need to keep you here until this situation is contained. For your own safety.”
She cranes her neck to the side and I catch a glimpse of one deep blue eye. “This isn’t a trick?”
What would be the point of a trick—to keep her here? I would love to be able to scoff at the mere thought. But the truth is, there are many other ways I could handle this situation. There are many other ways I could protect her.
Yet somehow, the idea of holding her in my house, in my space, feels like the only option I can live with.
“No. It’s this or nothing.”
Alyssa sighs. A deep, sad, tired, worried, defeated sigh. “Okay.”
14
ALYSSA
I can’t believe I’m accepting my fate here. But what choice do I have?
Uri holds on a little longer, as though he needs to make doubly sure that I mean it. His arms feel even more massive now that they’re engulfing me, leaving no room for anything other than resignation.
When he drops them, I feel cold immediately. Wrapping my own arms around my body to make up for the loss of heat, I turn around slowly to face him.
“You’re saying that you will let me go when things are safe again?”
“Yes.” I’m looking for signs that he’s lying, but he doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t falter. He doesn’t look away.
“Soon?”
“Depends on your definition of ‘soon.’”
“A couple of days?”
His eyebrows rise, which makes my heart sink. “Then no, narushitel. Not soon.”
I try to tell myself that it’s okay. I mean, he could have lied, right? Maybe that means he’s not lying about the ‘letting me go’ part, either?
“How long?”
He shakes his head. “I can’t give you a timeline. The men I’m dealing with are cold-blooded killers.”
“What does that make you?”
My brain screeches in protest. Why the hell are you asking questions you don’t want the answers to? Idiot!
His eyes home in on me like a heat-seeking missile. “All you need to know is that you’re safe here. As long as you follow the rules and listen, everything will be fine.”
It’s up there as one of the more subtle threats I’ve ever heard, but there’s no doubt that it is in fact a threat. Stay and you’ll be safe. Leave and you’re a dead woman.
Right. Real freaking comforting.
But the sad truth is, I’m running low on options. There’s no way out of this basement and even if there was, I’m facing a legion of surveillance and security guards. Not to mention a high freaking fence with Garfield-exposing nails everywhere. I’m at Uri’s mercy. For as long as he says I am.
This right here—this is why I avoid intimacy. Nothing good ever comes out of it.
His eyes drop to my wrist and only then do I realize that I’m rubbing my charm link between my thumb and my index finger. I drop it and push my hands behind my back.
What would you do, Ziva?
The moment I ask the question, the answer pops into my head. Ziva would play him. She would let him think that she was going to be the perfect little hostage. She would lull him into a false sense of security and then she would take the opportunity when it presented itself. As soon as he slipped up, she’d run like hell.
So that’s what I’m gonna do, too.
“Okay, I’ll stay put. But I would like to be comfortable here.”
He frowns and looks around pointedly. “You have everything you’ll ever need.”
I scowl. “Except windows.”
“If they can’t see you, they can’t kill you,” he replies flatly.
I shudder. Is it possible to see death and violence so much that you become flippant about it? He’s throwing around the idea of murder like it doesn’t mean a damn thing.
“I need to breathe!” I protest. “I need natural sunlight! Vitamin D. Do you know how important Vitamin D is for your skin? Very.”
“I’ll get you supplements.”
Is he smiling? No. No he can’t be smiling at this. “You’re infuriating.”