NIKOLAI

“What the hell were you thinking letting Tophas get away with her? You know what he's going to do to that woman!” Igor raged behind me as I tucked my arms on the brick boulder of the hallway sundeck, gaping at the slender back of the retreating woman.

I ignored the man pacing behind me, feeling the barb of Raya’s words still as it wormed and ate away at the hard armor of my chest.

The way the olive-skinned woman had looked at me when I’d asked her to stay, it was like I was some sort of parasite she was hoping to cut off and burn.

“Damn you,...