Page 82 of Exacting Vengeance

All this time in the United States, and his Russian accent was still as thick as ever, making him sound like Count Dracula in the movies. Her parents both had thick accents but with them, that had never occurred to her.

Maybe it was because Yuri was a blood-sucking asshole.

“Yes, this is how it’s going to be.” She prayed he didn’t catch the slight tremble in her voice and couldn’t hear how fast her heart was beating. “Come near me, and I’ll kill you. I swear it.”

“Vika, Vika.” He let his arm drop to his side. “I came here to show you how much I love you. I want to make things up to you. You have to believe me.” He held out his hands in a pathetically pleading gesture she didn’t believe for half a second.

Ten years ago, she would have bought into his glib lies, having been so brainwashed and emotionally beaten down she could no longer separate fact from fiction. He was disgusting, lying filth. How she could have stayed with such an ogre was unfathomable to the woman she was today.

“I don’t have to believe a word that comes out of your mouth.” Despite the tremble in her voice, she couldn’t hide the contempt. “I’m not the same person. We’re divorced, and I no longer want you in my life. This is my home, and I want you out of here. For good!” She lifted the toilet brush even higher, fully prepared to whack him over the head with it if he made another move toward her.

Yuri’s upper lip quivered, a sign that he wanted to unleash his rage and was struggling to hold it back. “Dorogaya. Sweetheart,” he said in a smooth tone she knew was intended to be soothing. Instead, it put her on full alert. “All I want is another chance. You used to love me, as I loved you. As I still do. There was a time you couldn’t live without me, you know there was. We can have that again.” Slowly, step-by-step, he inched closer.

“No, Yuri. We can never have that again. I want nothing from you, except for you to leave.” Her voice shook more, and dammit! There was no stopping it. His nearness dredged up old fears, as he knew it would. That was how he operated. That was how all domestic abusers operated.

The days of him mentally manipulating her were over. That didn’t stop the brush from shaking in her hands.

“Now, dorogaya,” he repeated softly, then lunged, taking her off guard.

He knocked her to the tile floor, then wrested the brush from her hand and flung it away. He pinned her arms over her head and sat on her hips, holding her completely immobile.

She struggled, twisting beneath him, but his weight was too great. And he was strong, much stronger than she remembered. “Get off me, you animal!” The chemical stench of his over-gelled hair made her want to puke.

“No. You’re mine now.” His upper lip curled into the evil smile she remembered. The beast from her past had revealed itself again, like she knew it would.

She continued to struggle, the feel of him on top of her driving her crazy with loathing. Giving in was something she would never do again. “I’ll never be yours. I don’t love you.” What had she ever seen in him in the first place?

“Of course you will.” He chuckled in a way that made the hair at her nape stand on end. “Not to worry. This is always the way between us. You do something bad, we fight, then I forgive you and we make up.”

Right. And in between all that were the beatings, emotional and physical. “You’re insane. That’s not the way it is anymore. I. Don’t. Want you!”

“If there’s another man in your life, you can forget about him. I will kill him,” Yuri said matter-of-factly.

“Not likely.” Kyle could easily take down this barbaric spawn from hell. He’d done it once before. He could do it again.

“Not likely?” He laughed. “Are you referring to your FBI lover? I’ve been watching you for two weeks. Where is he? Not here. You will be mine until the end of time. Whenever I decide that will be.”

“I don’t have a lover.” Not now, anyway.

“Come, come, dorogaya. You and Alex Tarankov were lovers. I know that now. You were working with him to put me in prison.”

“That’s ridiculous! I didn’t know he was an FBI agent any more than you did.”

Yuri slapped her across the face. The sting made her want to cry out, but she refused. Crying was what he wanted, what he craved—ultimate power over her. He slapped her again. Her face throbbed with pain to the point where she had to bite her lip to keep from screaming.

“Don’t lie to me, pizda. I know you were fucking him the whole time, and I know you’re doing him now.”

The psychologist in her couldn’t ignore that Yuri had been flip-flopping, calling her “sweetheart” one minute and “fucking bitch” the next. His insanity was in high gear, and there was no point in trying to reason with him. Kyle might not be here, but there were two FBI agents stationed outside. Eventually, one of them would figure out something was wrong.

Yuri’s grip softened, and he removed one hand, still holding both her wrists with the other. Slowly, he slid the backs of his knuckles down her cheek.

What little she’d had for lunch roiled in her stomach. She tried turning away, but he caught her chin in his hand.

“Look at me!” he hissed when she shut her eyes. “You used to like it when I did that.”

In your dreams.

The next thing she felt was Yuri’s sharp, wet tongue pressing against her lips and the springy hairs of his beard biting into her skin. He tried thrusting his tongue inside her mouth, but she twisted away.