SWNOVELS Twilight Sins: Chapter 10
“Oh. Okay. I’m in danger. Right.”
Nod along with what the crazy man is saying and ease towards the door.
Yakov didn’t seem crazy last night. Not in a scary way, at least. He seemed dangerous and interesting. Sure, he lied about who he was to have dinner with me. But what some people might call crazy, I call flattering.
Now, I’m wondering if it wouldn’t have been better if we’d never met. I would have been stood up for a blind date I didn’t ask for in the first place and then gone home alone, but at least there wouldn’t be a mountain of a man between me and the only exit in sight.
“You don’t believe me,” Yakov says. It isn’t a question. My acting skills must be worse than I thought.
“No,” I admit with a sympathetic smile. “I don’t. I’m sorry. I think you might be a little confused.”
That’s probably why he has so many staff members here. This is some kind of halfway house. They’re his watchers, not his workers.
“Things would be easier if you believed me, but it isn’t necessary. What we discussed last night remains true.” He leans in, voice low. “I want you to stay, so you’ll stay.”
My heart is a hummingbird in my chest. I can’t catch my breath. “I think we should just talk about this. Let’s be logical about the situation, okay?”
He nods. “Okay. I’ll start: you’re in danger. I can keep you safe. Logically, it makes sense that you stay here.”
“That’s not—” I huff out a breath. I have no clue how to talk to a person in the midst of a crisis. Especially when I also feel like a person in the midst of a crisis. “Why am I in danger now if I wasn’t in danger last night? What changed?”
“Nothing. You were in danger last night,” he says. “That’s why I brought you back to my house.”
“No, no. You brought me back because we were on a date. It went well. We came back here to… you know. Classic good date trajectory.”
If nothing else, I need that to be true. If there’s any chance that last night was some elaborate setup for Yakov to get me back to his house, I really will be in danger. I might self-destruct from sheer humiliation.
“We never finished our date. I got a call in the middle of dinner that we weren’t safe. I got you out.”
I run a hand through my greasy hair. “If I was in danger last night, why didn’t you tell me as soon as you got the call?”
I shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. The first good date I have in my entire life and the prince turns into a frog when the sun comes up. Go fucking figure.
“Dragging you out would have caused a scene.”
I shake my head. “If I was really in danger, I would have left. You just aren’t telling me why I’m in danger in the first place!”
“Correct. And I won’t.”
I blink at him. “You won’t tell me what’s going on? You expect me to believe you, even though you won’t explain what’s happening?”
“I don’t give a fuck if you believe me,” he says coolly. “You can think I’m crazy if you want. At least you’ll be alive.”
Whatever sympathy I felt towards Yakov for being obviously mentally unstable is burning away quickly.
“This doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know what your deal is, but you have to see that this isn’t normal. You made up some threat. I’m safe.”
“You are now. Because no one gets on or off my property without my permission.”
I glance around the room, but I don’t see any obvious cameras. No motion detection lasers. No sentries ready to pump me full of lead if I so much as breathe wrong.
“None of this is real. I’m safe,” I tell him again.
He crosses his arms and I studiously ignore the way his biceps strain against the material of his t-shirt. “You’re lying to yourself.”
It’s so absurd that I almost laugh. “I don’t need to lie to myself. You’ve been lying to me since the moment we met!”
“You didn’t want to hear the truth.” His green eyes are sharp, piercing straight through me. “You asked what I did for work and I said I’d tell you the truth if you were brave enough to hear it. You chose the pretty lie instead. You stopped asking questions. You left with me even though you had no fucking clue who I was.”
“So this is all my fault now? You kidnap me, but I’m the bad guy?”
“No, I’m definitely the bad guy,” he says with a dark laugh. “You’re just the silly girl who didn’t figure that out soon enough.”
My dress is so tight that I can’t breathe. I never would have thought a mansion could be too small, but I’m feeling claustrophobic.
“Okay, then tell me the ugly truth.” I throw my arms wide. “You’re kidnapping me. That’s pretty ugly. I think you’ve blown your cover. Might as well tell me everything else.”
“Do you think kidnapping is the worst it gets for me, Luna?” Yakov saunters a step closer to me. “Everyone you met this morning knows that you aren’t permitted to leave the premises and they didn’t bat a fucking eye. They’ve seen far worse.”
He said the same thing last night about the driver. I assumed it was because he’d had a lot of women in the backseat. Now, I’m not so sure.
He steps back, once again looking bored. “You can go wherever you want in the house and the grounds, but don’t try to leave the property. I don’t want to waste time bringing you back.”
“You can’t be serious. You really expect me to just sit around and… what? Wait for you to come back?”
“There’s a library, a pool, a television. It’s not like I’ve left you in a jail cell with a metal cup,” he snaps. “You’re in a mansion. Enjoy it.”
At that, I really do laugh. “Of course. I should be grateful you’re kidnapping me, right? Otherwise, I’d never be able to afford these kinds of luxuries. Unfortunately, I don’t put a price on my fucking freedom!”
He’s in front of me before I can even blink. My head barely reaches his chin and I have to tilt my head back to look up at him.
“Do you have any idea how easy it would have been for me to leave you at that restaurant? I could have left you to fend for yourself without a second thought. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.”
“I’ve survived just fine on my own so far.”
“You’ve survived in your world. Where your biggest threat is a mean ex-boyfriend and drunk assholes who show up late to dates. But you’re in my world now,” he snarls. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
I’m not sure what’s worse: the thought that Yakov might be crazy…
Or the overwhelming feeling I have that he isn’t crazy at all.
“I’ll call the police,” I blurt suddenly. “If you don’t let me leave, then I’ll call the cops.”
He glowers down at me. “With what phone?”
It takes a second for the words to sink in. As soon as they do, I stagger back. “You… you stole my phone. You went into my purse while I was sleeping and stole from me!”
He brushes me off. “Add it to the list of sins.”
Tears burn in my eyes. Not even ten minutes ago, I was creating a very different list for Yakov. I could barely believe he was real. It seemed impossible that one man could have so many amazing qualities.
Now, I know it is impossible.
“All of this—everything you said, everything we did—it was all a lie.”
“Once again: I never lied to you.”
“Bullshit! You protected me when Sergey showed up and acted interested in my life. You brought me back to your house and we—” A tear rolls down my cheek and I swipe it away. “I don’t do that kind of stuff with just anyone. It meant something to me and you were lying about everything. I trusted you.”
“You cast the wrong man as your Prince Charming. I didn’t promise you anything.”
He isn’t wrong, but I still hate it. There’s a hollow ache in the center of my chest.
“You know what? You’re right. That’s my bad. Excuse me for mistaking you for a fucking human being!”
“I’m sure you won’t make that mistake again.” Yakov swipes his keys off the counter and stalks past me towards the entryway. “Remember what I said. Stay inside the fence.”
He is the last person I want to see right now, but he cannot leave me here alone. I hurry after him, my stupid heels clicking across the tile floor. “You can’t just leave! Where are you even going? How is kidnapping someone not the biggest thing you have going on today?”
“Kidnapping you barely fucking registers.”
“If I’m so meaningless, then why did you agree to have dinner with me?” I lunge for his arm twice before I manage to grab his wrist.
He spins to face me, but jerks his hand out of my grip. His face is cold and I wilt. He looks nothing like the charming man I had dinner with last night.
“I was having a shit night and you were the distraction I needed. You were supposed to be a few mindless hours of fun before I sent you on your way.”
There was a real connection between us. I felt it. He couldn’t make that up, could he?
“But why… why me?”
He leans forward and hisses, “Simply because you were there. I chose you because you were standing the closest. And now, you’re part of something you can never understand and your life is in my hands. Believe me—I’m not any happier about this than you are.”
Tears well in my eyes until Yakov is nothing but a blur. The only reason I know he’s gone is because the door slams shut so hard the floor shakes.
The house was bursting with people and voices this morning, but in the aftermath of our fight, there isn’t a single sound.
Yakov’s staff seemed friendly and warm. Now, I know the truth. No one in this house is going to help me.
I’m completely alone.