“How did you find me?”
He grunted.
“Nikolay, that’s not an answer. Not that I’m not happy you found me, but … how did you?”
He walked over to me, and I had to remind myself that as much as he looked like a bull right now, this bull wasn’t going to attack me.
He lifted me up on the counter and stood between my legs.
He grabbed onto one leg and moved his hand down until his finger came across the golden anklet he got me.
My eyes narrowed at the move.
I pushed his finger away and looked at the anklet, moving my fingers around and trying to find the clasp. I hadn’t really explored this anklet all that closely, and I knew now that was my mistake.
There was no clasp.
What. The. Hell?
I yanked on the chain, but that only worked to make me hurt myself. I yanked on it again, harder this time.
“What the fuck, princess? Don’t do that. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“Take this off.”
He shook his head. “Didn’t I tell you never to take this off? That this is my ownership of you?”
I gritted my teeth. “But it won’t come off even if I want to take it off, will it?”
He smiled, looking too much like the Russian devil everyone knew him as. “That’s right.”
“What is this?”
“I already told you,” he said, coming closer to me until his face was inches from mine. “It’s my ownership of you.”
I shoved his chest. He didn’t budge. “No, what is this, actually?”
“A tracking device,” he said unapologetically. “It’s the only reason we were able to locate you in the first place. It’s the only reason you’re here with me and still not locked up in that dirty room, so no, princess. I won’t fucking take it off. Deal with it.”
The last part was said quietly, harshly.
I punched him in the chest.
I thought the move hurt me more than it did him. But the punch surprised him enough that I was able to shove him away me and climb off the counter. I walked to the door, shaking my hand. Why was his chest so hard?
“What the hell? Why did you do that?” he asked, coming closer to me. “Let me see your hand. You keep hurting yourself like this, and I’m going to handcuff you to the bed.”
“No,” I said firmly, getting away from him. “Either take off this anklet or … or …”
He smiled meanly at me. “Or what?”
“Or I’ll stop talking to you.”
He walked over to me, his nose flaring. “Don’t test me, princess. I can be every bit the bastard I was when we first met.”
Both of my fists came down to his chest. “You’re still that bastard.”
“Why do you want it off so badly? Us knowing where you are is a good thing.”