All Chapters of A Prey For My Enemy: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

— Tatiana —I stormed into Kain’s office without knocking, chest tight with fury and desperation. The room was dimly lit, monitors casting a cold blue glow across his sharp features. He sat like a king on his throne of shadows, reviewing security feeds, but the moment I entered, every line of his powerful body went rigid.“Let Julian stay,” I demanded, stopping right in front of his desk. “A proper suite. Not some temporary cage you can toss him out of whenever you feel like it.”Kain slowly lifted his gaze. Those pale grey eyes pinned me in place with unnerving intensity. “No.”The single word landed like a gunshot. I slammed my hands on his desk and leaned forward. “He risked everything coming here for me. If you throw him out now, he will try to come back, and we both know you will kill him.”Kain rose to his full, imposing height and rounded the desk with predatory grace. He stopped so close I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. The heat rolling off his body made my skin pr

— Tatiana —The rain came down so hard it sounded violent. Not rain against glass. Fists. A hundred fists. The cliffs below the mansion disappeared every few seconds beneath silver sheets and then reappeared again like the sea was reconsidering whether it wanted us tonight.I couldn’t sleep.Julian’s question during the day triggered a nightmare. Every time I closed my eyes I saw blood sliding across white plates. My mother’s hand hanging limp beside her chair. My father staring at Kain like he finally understood something too late to matter.So I wandered because apparently that was my new coping mechanism. Trauma and insomnia. The common room was dark except for the storm throwing light through the windows in flashes. Kain stood near the glass in black sweats and a dark shirt, motionless enough to pass for part of the room if you didn’t know better.Turn around. Go back upstairs. He is literally the reason you can’t sleep.Instead I crossed to the sofa and folded myself into the co

— Tatiana —I had barely finished changing back into soft leggings and an oversized cardigan when a familiar knock sounded at my door. Julian. He came to ask me out on a walk. The earrings were diamonds.Julian handed them to me in the garden, standing beneath the stone arch tangled with dying ivy, his scarf loose around his throat, his expression already arranged into tenderness before I’d even opened the box.“One year,” he said softly. “I couldn’t let it pass without giving you something worthy of you.”The velvet box clicked open between us.The diamonds were elegant in an almost aggressive way, each stone cut so sharply it threw white fire across my skin when I tilted them in my palm. Platinum hooks. Expensive craftsmanship. The sort of earrings that belonged to women in perfume advertisements who had their lives together and definitely never developed emotional fixations on emotionally unavailable Russian men.“They’re beautiful,” I said honestly. Because they were.Julian smil

— Tatiana —Julian held Kain’s gaze for one taut second longer, waiting perhaps for a response that never came.Kain simply sat there, fingers resting loosely beside his untouched wineglass, expression carved from something colder than indifference. The candles flickered between them, soft gold light catching the silver at his temples and the scar near his brow, but none of it warmed him.God, he was impossible.Julian exhaled another quiet laugh, though there was no humor in it now. “Right,” he murmured. “Good talk.”Julian reached for his coat draped over the back of the chair and started toward the door.I shoved my chair back so quickly it nearly tipped. “Julian, wait.”I rounded the table fast, fury climbing so high in my chest it felt difficult to breathe properly.“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped at Kain. “Seriously. What is actually wrong with you?”Nothing. No reaction.“You are unbelievable. You don’t even know him!”Grey eyes lifted lazily to mine. “I know enough

— Tatiana—“Are we training or are you planning to torment me again first?”“Well,” he said calmly. “Are you planning to follow instructions today?”Our eyes locked in a staring match.God, talking to this man was exhausting. Every conversation felt like accidentally wandering into a hostage negotiation.I pulled my shirt over my head and the fitted tank top I had worn underneath came to light. Kain waited patiently beside the mats.“Today, you learn how to break a chokehold.” He said.“Useful. In case another emotionally repressed billionaire kidnaps me?”His expression did not change. “One arm around your throat from behind,” he continued, stepping closer. “Most attackers pull backward. Panic is what kills people.”How comforting to know.“You panic, you lose oxygen. You lose oxygen, you lose judgment.”“And then?”“Then you die.”A shiver ran through me at his tone. This is exactly why everyone avoids you.Kain stepped behind me. Without notice, our bodies fused together like tw