CATALINA
Two days passed quickly enough.
Two days with Damien and Nikolay and no Mikhail.
They tried to tell me he was busy—or, at least, Nikolay tried to tell me Mikhail was busy. Damien just distracted me by playing with my body whenever I brought Mikhail up, but even as dense as I could be at times, I knew Mikhail was ignoring me, and I didn’t know why.
Was he mad? Or scared? Or was he bored with me already and didn’t know how to tell me?
I didn’t know, but it was frustrating and painful, and it was hard to confront him when he was nothing more than a ghost in this house.
I wanted to find him. Surely he couldn’t hide from me, no matter how big this house really was, but a part of me was still intimidated by everyone in this house whom I didn’t know, including Gabriel, who looked unnervingly like his evil little brother; and Melinda, who probably held a grudge against me since Nikolay cut her for insulting me.
I was stuck in this room, and I was so bored.
I let out a frustrated groan and lay back down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling.
Damien and Nikolay left a few hours ago to do whatever it was they did that they didn’t want me to know about.
Damien said I wasn’t free, but he meant I wasn’t free from him. From them.
That didn’t mean it had to be like before when I was locked in the room, did it?
I braced myself on my elbows and looked at the door. I didn’t even think it was locked. What if I wanted to go outside?
Slowly, I climbed off the bed and headed for the door. I touched the doorknob and held still. I didn’t even think I was breathing.
A sharp pain formed in my chest, and I took in a deep breath before letting it out.
I turned the doorknob, and it—
It gave way easily.
I let out a small sigh, taking one step out and looking around the empty hallway.
I couldn’t believe it.
Freedom within my new cage, indeed.
I made my way to the top of the staircase and paused. Where would I go? It wasn’t like I had any means to go anywhere, and I realized I couldn’t just leave without telling anyone.
The men would probably freak out to find me gone from the room.
Or, at least, Damien and Nikolay.
I rubbed the ache in my heart at the thought of Mikhail.
Would he even care to find me gone?
What made it worse was that he was the first one I’d opened myself to out of the three men. The first one I’d talked to, the first one I’d given my first kiss to, and now …
I didn’t know.
“Catalina?”
I gasped and turned around in fright, clutching my chest.
Leo stood about two feet away from me, and both hands were held up in front of him as if to say he didn’t mean any harm to me. Hard to look harmless when you were a part of the Russian Bratva, and Leo looked every bit a mob soldier, with tattoos covering two full sleeves of his bulging arms, hard blue eyes, an eyebrow piercing, and buzz-cut brown hair.