Page 62 of His Forbidden Obsession

Lancelot shrugged. “So she says. Would you be willing to meet with her to confirm who she is?”

“Of course.”

A few moments later, someone knocked on the door. I stood, but Lancelot motioned me back.

When he opened the door, Lorenzo, his brothers, and a man I assumed was Remington Theriot stood there with Alina. She was paler than she had been the last time I’d seen her, and she was dressed in clothes that looked much too large. I doubted they were hers. Her father would never allow his daughter to wear torn jeans and a sweatshirt.

“Alina, are you all right? How did you get here?”

She started toward me, but Remington grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

I sucked in my breath. I couldn’t let him hurt her, but what was I going to do against Lorenzo and three other men?

I screamed when something jumped from Rafael’s hand and ran toward Lance. I realized it was a small monkey as it climbed up Lance’s leg.

“That’s Tony,” Rafael said. “He’s Lance’s.”

I was having trouble taking that in. “You have a pet monkey?”

Before Lance answered, Remington cleared his throat, and I turned to face him. “Nikolai, I’m Remington Theriot. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” I said, unsure of how to handle the situation.

Remington Theriot’s reputation was terrifying. I’d always assumed if I ever met him, I wouldn’t live much longer. Yet here he was, claiming to be glad to meet me.

He gestured toward Alina. “The young woman claims to be Alina Ivanov. You know her?”

“Yes, sir, she is Alina, my former fiancée.”

“Do you trust her? Is she loyal to her father?”

Alina huffed. “I told you I ran away. And this isn’t the first time.”

I fought the urge to smile. It was good to see that Alina’s spirit hadn’t been broken. “That’s true. She’s tried to escape before, and she attempted to plot with me so that we could get out of our prospective marriage, but we were interrupted too soon.”

“I want to talk to Nikolai alone,” she insisted.

“I’d like to talk to her too,” I said, looking to Lorenzo for help.

“Lancelot will need to stay. We can’t leave you alone for your safety.”

“And ours,” Remington added.

Alina gave a curt nod. “I’ll accept that. We should have a guard. I don’t know how high a priority I am to my father right now.”

Remington scowled at her. “But you thought it was a good idea to lead him here?”

“My intention was to find Nikolai and make sure he was all right. If you’re taking care of him, then you can protect me as well.”

“Are you always this demanding?”

“My father says I must be the devil’s child that my mother conjured and not his at all.”

Remington rolled his eyes. “Terrific. We’ll strengthen our forces here.”

Tony chose that moment to jump down from Lancelot’s shoulder and run over to Lorenzo, who bent to pet him. Tony started playing with Lorenzo’s watch. I laughed, and Lorenzo looked up and smiled. “Lance will help you if you need anything, and I’ll be back later.”

Tony yanked his watch all the way off his arm and took off.