Chapter 23

Avgust~

A fter Maksim left my office, I made myself another drink before going to check on Samara. While I understood Maksim's concerns, they were unnecessary. Fifteen years ago, I'd treated Samara with kid gloves, granting her request for happiness. However, I wasn't about to make that same mistake twice. I was not going to allow her to lead me around by my heartstrings this time, especially when you considered that I no longer had a heart.

Now, ideally, she'd marry me, give me children, allowing me to live in relative peace. However, I was not foolish enough to believe that she'd ever willingly marry me, which was why I'd told Maksim that his suggestion of marriage was ridiculous. Then, true to Maksim form, he'd gone on to chastise me about my future wife and kids sharing a home with my mistress. Honestly, the man was insolent on a good day, and anyone else would have killed him by now.

There was also the fact that marrying Samara would solve the problem with Masha. I'd no longer have to worry about her trying to save her sister once marriage appeared in the picture. Masha knew enough to know that Samara would have the world at her fingertips as my wife. Both sisters would want for nothing, and I'd have Masha's loyalty as a wedding present for my bride. Nevertheless, Maksim wasn't wrong when he'd said that Samara would not struggle between stabbing me or having a nice dinner with me. Samara was in a feral state of mind right now, and I knew that she was going to need some time to calm down and reassess her situation.

Finally done with my drink, I walked out of my office, locked the door, then headed back upstairs. Though Samara needed her rest, she also needed to eat. I had no idea when she'd last eaten, but it was coming upon dinnertime, and she had to be starving after everything that she'd been through these past few hours.

When I reached my room, it was to an unkempt bed and no sign of Samara. A sense of unease danced down my spine as I made my way towards the bathroom to see if she was in there. Pushing the door open, I noticed that everything looked the same, Samara still missing. Walking back into my bedroom, I glanced around again, and when I noticed her purse still where she'd left it, I felt a little better but not by much. If Samara was walking around the house or grounds, then she was doing it in my shirt only, and I did not appreciate the possibility of my men watching her walk around practically undressed.

Leaving the bedroom, the first place that I looked was the kitchen since it'd make sense that she'd be hungry. It would also be like Samara not to come look for me. The woman was as stubborn as she was beautiful, something that hadn't changed much over those missing years.

After walking into an empty kitchen, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and that's when I began searching every fucking inch of the house, too furious to call out her name. While she had free reign of the grounds, I hadn't given her the rules to being outside yet. Though my home was protected as well as could possibly be, she needed a proper tour of the property and its boundaries. She needed to know just how far the protection extended, so that she wouldn't venture off too far.

A half an hour later, I was pulling my phone out, ready to murder everyone that didn't know where the fuck Samara was. If anyone on my staff let her walk out of here unattended, then they were going to be met with a bullet to their skulls.

"Pakhan," Viktor greeted as soon as he answered my call.

"Where is Samara?" I asked, wasting no time.

"She is back in her cage, sir," he answered, momentarily stunning me into silence.

What in the fresh hell?

"I'm sorry, what?" I finally asked once the shock wore off.

"She is back in her cage," he repeated, his words a little unsure this time around.

"What in the fuck is she doing back in that cage?" I snapped.

"Uh…it is my understanding that…that she was to return after you tended to her wounds," he answered, and I could feel anger like spikes in my chest.

"And what would make you believe such a thing, Viktor?" I asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

"Ms. Andreev explained that she was ready to return," he replied, his voice sounding less confident than it'd had seconds ago. "She said that you only brought her here to make sure that her wounds didn't get infected. When I…when I insisted on speaking with you first, she mentioned you being in a closed-door meeting with Maksim and advised against interrupting you with prisoner business."

"She said that? She referred to herself as prisoner business?'

"Yes, Pakhan," he answered stoically. "When I still insisted on speaking with you about transporting her back to the research facility, she mentioned that you and Maksim were scheduled to arrive at Erato's immediately after your meeting, and that it'd be unwise to bother you with something as simple as a prisoner transport."

I was going to fucking kill her.

"When I asked if she needed anything more from the house, she said that she was fine with the shirt and over-sized sweats that she was wearing," he went on. "She…uh, pointed out that it was much more than most bratva prisoners were allowed."

As much as I wanted to end Viktor's life for his error in judgement, it was clear that Samara had overheard my conversation with Maksim, then had manipulated Viktor into returning her to that goddamn cage. Though he should have still spoken to me about taking her back, I'd only made it clear that Samara was not to be harmed; I hadn't made her position within the organization clear because I'd been too busy fucking her and trying to find a way to convince her to be with me. So, it was reasonable for Viktor to believe that she was a mere prisoner, only one that could not be harmed.

"Thank you for the information," I replied simply before hanging up on him.

Making my way to the garage, rage filled every inch of my body. Though damning, Samara had overheard a conversation, then had decided that she'd rather live in a cage, filthy and uncomfortable, than live with me. Even if she believed that she'd be living with me as my mistress, she'd still chosen to live like an animal in a cage than be with me. She hadn't even had the courage to confront me about the conversation; instead, running off like a coward because she hadn't liked what she'd heard.

After slamming the door shut with enough force to make the entire vehicle shake, I started my car, then headed to the research facility. Honestly, I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't kill her once I got there, but I also wasn't going to let her off the hook. Though I was wise enough to recognize that sex didn't fix everything, I'd told her that I loved her the last time. She'd left me again, only this time, she'd chosen a fucking cage, not happiness.

As soon as I'd gotten to the facility, I stormed inside, but instead of heading to where Samara was housed, I headed over to the examination room that was still littered with body parts. Ivan and Orlyn were dismembering what was left of Rurik and Vlad, but it wasn't anything that couldn't wait.

Opening the door to the room, I said, "I need the both of you to wait outside."

Knowing better than to question me, they both gave me a terse nod before following orders. As soon as I heard the shutting door echoing throughout the quietness of the building, I finally made my way over to where Samara would be, and I could feel my hands shaking with enough rage to make me dangerous to her.

Still, that didn't stop me.

When I walked into the room, Samara was sitting inside the cage, the cuff on her other leg, her feet bare and just pissing me off more. Since this wasn't a place of luxury, we didn't leave the air on to cool it during the summer or heat it during the winter. The control rooms were the only rooms that were temperature controlled for the guards, so she could easily freeze to death with her bare feet.

"Comfortable?"

Her head jerked to the side as soon as she heard my voice, and if I'd been expecting a fearful, contrite, wilting flower, then I would have been sorely disappointed. Instead of a woman that should know her place, I got a woman with enough attitude radiating off her that she could power a small country.

Samara stood up, straightened her back, then lifted her chin as she looked at me. "It'll do," she replied defiantly.

I slid my hands in my pockets to keep from ripping the door open and killing her. "You will explain to me what you're doing back here, Samara," I told her.

She arched a blonde brow. "Where else would I be, Avgust? In the mistress' quarters while you take family pictures with your wife and children? Or perhaps I should be rooming with the other whores that you pick up at Erato's? I mean, how often do you allow Maksim to see you fucking other women?"

"And this cage is preferable to all three of those options, I take it?"

"I'd rather be tethered to this cage for your men's entertainment than be your whore," she flung back, and I saw a shade of red so vivid that I could have been bleeding from my eyes.

After everything that I'd just done for her, she'd rather be used by my men than be with me, and if that was the case, then so fucking be it.