76. Tessa

76

Tessa

T he door opens and Elena stands in a halo of light, her arms folded. Fuck, I must have fallen asleep. Thankfully, the door opening hasn't disturbed Chloe, so I carefully put her in the crib and pull a blanket over her body.

Elena waits until I step into the hallway before laying into me.

"I told you to be quick!"

"I fell asleep." She can fuck off and die. Since I assume dinner is now off the table, I turn away. I'm not sure where my bedroom is, as I'm not familiar with this part of the house, but it can't be that far away. Besides, the longer it takes me to find it, the more chances I have of spotting potential exit points.

"Don't you walk away from me!" she hisses before wrenching my arm back. Her acrylic nails dig into my arm and I yelp in surprise.

"Get your hands off me," I spit, shoving her back. She looks shocked for a microsecond, not expecting me to retaliate, but soon follows it up with a sharp crack across my cheek. The sound is unexpectedly loud and I flinch, half-expecting Chloe to wake. But she doesn't.

Elena grabs my hair and yanks me toward her. I want to pull away, but if I do, I'll lose a chunk of hair.

"It's about time you learned your place. You may be the mother of my son's daughter, but that won't protect you. Not for much longer." Elena leans in. "Sergei will put you to work soon, doing what whores like you do best."

"Elena!" Aleks snaps. Elena shoves me away like I'm radioactive and I stumble, hitting the wall and knocking a vase of flowers off a small table. Water and lilies spill all over the plush cream carpet, but Elena doesn't seem to care. She ignores the mess.

"Aleksander," she murmurs, slipping back into her sweet, guileless persona. "I was just making sure Tessa knows her place."

"That's not your job, Elena. Your job is to manage the house and look after the baby. You need to remember that. You know how angry Otets gets when you don't stay in your lane."

From the way Elena pales, I suspect Sergei has a lot of anger management issues. I hope he slaps her around the way she's slapped me around. Karma's a bitch, bitch.

" Otets needs you. I'll escort our guest back to her room."

"Of course, moy sladkiy mal'chik, " she simpers before scurrying away.

Aleks doesn't say a word as he takes me back to my room. He gestures at the guard standing outside to take a hike and once the man has vanished out of sight, he unlocks the door with a small plastic keycard and gently pushes me inside.

The minute the door closes, he turns to face me. "I'm trying to help you, but you need to avoid provoking Elena. She's very volatile."

My jaw drops. "You are?"

"Yes." He looks exhausted. There are dark shadows under his eyes and his unshaven cheeks are hollow. He looks worse than me, and that's saying something.

"Why would you help me?" As much as I want to believe him, I'm suspicious. Sergei raped me, even if I can't remember anything about that night, so although Aleks has done nothing wrong so far, I don't trust him.

"My father isn't a good man." Understatement of the century . "But removing him from power is not that easy. If he suspected I was trying to usurp him..." He pauses for a moment, then shakes his head. "He plans to take you to the auction next week. We need to get you out of here before then."

"Auction?" That doesn't sound like a place I want to be. "I can't leave Chloe."

"I know. That's why I'm trying to help you. Chloe can't grow up here with him. It's too dangerous for her. The auction is where he and his associates sell women and sometimes men. It's a huge earner for them, as well as a source of entertainment."

The floor tilts beneath my feet, and I lurch to one side. Aleks grabs my arm, steadying me as the full force of what I'm facing starts to sink in.

"It's OK, I won't let that happen to you." For the first time since I arrived in this cursed house, Aleks shows me who he really is. The full extent of his pain and suffering.

"This is personal, isn't it?"

He nods. " Otets sent my mother there when he grew tired of her. I was 11. I never saw her again."

Dear god. How could any man do that to his wife, the mother of his son?

"He said she was making me soft, and that I needed to toughen up." I see a brief glimpse of the rage burning behind his eyes, then he schools his expression back into one of stoic acceptance. "I won't let that happen to you. And I won't let him use my sister for his own twisted schemes."

Hope flares in my chest. If Aleks is on my side, maybe Chloe and I might have a chance of escaping.

"Can you contact Kade? He will help."

Aleks shakes his head. "I can't do that. Otets is watching me closely. But trust me, I will find a way to get you away before he sends you to the auction."