Page 106 of The Chaos She Brings

The pilot's voice crackles overhead. “Apologies, there’s a signalling error so there’s a delay to landing. It shouldn’t be long now.”

Nikolai’s expression turns murderous, but he doesn’t say anything. Just begins to stare at me once again.

I fidget and he beams like he won the lottery. “So, I do make you uncomfortable.”

I try to make my expression say,“are you stupid?”

“I didn’t realise that was up for debate.”

He cocks his head at me. “It’s nice to be reassured.”

“Need your ego stroked do you, baby?” I sass with a smirk.

His eyes turn molten. “Say that again.”

“What? Ego?” I know exactly what he wants me to say, but I refuse to give him that satisfaction. I curse myself for joking about it in the first place.

He growls. And not a sexy growl. A deep, evil growl that would be comical if I wasn’t trembling like a leaf, my pulse racing.

I roll my eyes, pretending to be unaffected. But I also don’t have a death wish—yet. “Baby, you’re not you when you’re hungry.”

He barks out a laugh. “I’m going to have so much fun with you.”

“That makes one of us,” I mutter.

After another hour the pilot finally announces that we are beginning our descent. The sky outside is dark, lit only by thescattering lights inside the few houses surrounding the airstrip. The clock showing the local time tells me it’s now three in the morning on the twenty fifth. Birthday over.

Oh well.

The plane touches down on the tarmac and begins to slow. Outside I see three figures waiting for us in the darkness. More guards I’m guessing.

The plane door opens and stairs unfurl. Nikolai offers me his hand. I really don’t want to take it. But I do, because I really am trying to stay alive.

We had five guards on the plane with us, each of them now surrounding us as we walk towards the waiting bodies.

“Is everything ready?” Nikolai asks.

The new guards nod and Nikolai drags me behind him to the waiting car, pushing me in roughly before climbing in next to me.

I keep myself huddled against the door on the opposite side to him, trying to calm my breathing.

The car rumbles to life and we begin moving. Nikolai turns to me with a grin. “Take off your clothes.”

Ice climbs up my spine.

I force myself to maintain an outward persona of confidence and calm. I can’t let him know how truly terrified I am.

“No.”

His grin turns feral, he undoes his seatbelt, sliding across the seats towards me. I have nowhere to go, already backed against the door, so when he reaches out to trail a hand over my arm in a featherlight touch there’s nothing for me to do but shiver in disgust. His hand moves towards my breast, and I slap it away, bile rising in my throat.

There’s a gleam in his narrowed eyes that scares me more than anything else ever has.

Quicker than I can react, there's a gun pressed to my skull. The cold press of the barrel against my skin has my heart stuttering in my chest.

“I said,” he growls (again, not the sexy kind), “take off your clothes.”

The command comes with another press of the gun into my temple.