Nikolay slapped her bottom.
“Hey, that fucking hurt,” she yelled.
At least she was building up some of her confidence. I had never heard her curse so much before.
Damien and I followed Nikolay to his room. He grabbed something from his closet before depositing Catalina on the bed.
She saw what he had before I did.
“What the fuck?” She tried to move off the bed. Nikolay just pushed her back and threw what he got from the closet on the bed next to her.
Zip ties.
He had zip ties in his closet.
Damien and I silently watched as he bound both her hands and legs together before fluffing his pillow and pushing her back against it.
“Comfortable?” he asked.
“No! What are you doing? Let me go!”
“No, princess. Me, Mikhail, and Damien are going to go on a little trip. We’ll be back for you soon. But don’t worry, I won’t leave you like this. Leo will come up and untie you once we get on the plane. And you are under strict house arrest. You won’t leave this place. It won’t be possible, so don’t even try it.”
Her wide eyes moved to mine. I shook my head. “Don’t look at me, kotyonok. I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, and if we need to tie you up, so be it.”
“Damien?”
Her eyes were wet with tears.
“Pet,” Damien gritted out. “Stop crying.”
She laughed. There was nothing humorous about it. “You are all ganging up on me.”
“Because we love you,” Nikolay said, sounding pained.
Her mouth opened in surprise, but nothing came out.
Fuck, was this the first time he told her he loved her?
He leaned down and pressed a hard kiss against her. Then he walked out of the room. “I’ll call to make the arrangements,” he said to me.
I nodded.
Damien whispered something to her that I didn’t hear before he kissed her and followed Nikolay out.
I walked up to her. “Kotyonok.”
Her lips trembled. “Hurry back to me. All of you. Understand?”
I cupped her cheek. “I promise I will always come back to you.”
I kissed her, letting my lips linger before pulling away and walking out the door. This was harder than I thought it would be.
I didn’t know why it was, but my gut was telling me not to leave her.
I left anyway.