Chapter 80

• Vladimir roars at the woman but he never looks away from me, never breaks the eye contact, as if, challenging me to say another word, to accuse him once more. And even though fear claws at the back of my nape, floods with the blood in my veins, whirls my head and makes every creep of my skin break with goosebumps, I stand up to him without cowering away. I challenge him all the same, to prove me wrong, to tell me he didn’t bring me here for his own gain.
• “Don’t talk to her like that!” The tattooed man is suddenly standing between us with his back facing me. I cannot see his face but the exasperation laced with his baritone voice is unmistakable. Nonetheless, it makes no difference to me, doesn’t change the way I feel. Betrayed. Lost. Defeated.
• It takes every ounce of his strength, but Vladimir eventually takes his glares off me and scowls at the tattooed man instead. “Or what?” He bares his teeth and snarls, his voice dangerously low. “You’re messing with the wrong man, kiddo!”