He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 305

Chapter 305

isy’s POV)

Her face had been turned away this entire time.

That was the only reason it had taken this long

his Archer’s arm, angled the way it was, had kept her hidden until the moment he was forced down onto

knees beside the rest of us, and her face finally tipped into view.

That was when Volkov said her name.

Shock rooted me in place now, and he still wasn’t looking at me. His eyes stayed fixed on her, unconscious, motionless on the floor like the rest of us had simply stopped existing the second he’d seen her face.

Something pushed against my ribs. A thought, forming whether I wanted it to or not.

I shoved it away before it could take shape.

“How do you know my mother?” The words came out unsteady. “How do you know her name?”

Volkov turned to me.

And the intensity of it hit like a physical thing.

Every trace of that flat, bottomless indifference he’d worn all night vanished, replaced by something sharp and focused, aimed directly at me now instead of

somewhere past me.

didn’t answer.

What is your name?”

I stared at him, some stubborn, exhausted part of me refusing to let that slide.

Elena is my mother’s maiden name,” I said instead. “Not many people know her by it. How do you know it?”

He didn’t answer that either.

P

I hesitated, and a hand closed around my arm, hauling me upright before I’d decided anything for myself. I tore my arm free the second I found my footing, glaring at the guard before returning my attention to Volkov.

“Rise to your feet.”

“Come closer.”

I hesitated again. The guard shoved me forward this time, propelling me across the remaining distance, and every step closer made his presence feel heavier, denser, like walking into deep water that kept getting colder the further in I went. From a distance he’d been intimidating. This close, he was suffocating.

I tried to hold onto something bold. My mother was on that floor. Whatever had paused the execution, I still didn’t understand why, and bold felt like the only thing standing between panic and total collapse.

1:04 Fri, Sep 4

Chapter 305

The guard released me as I reached him, leaving me standing there, face to face with Roman Volkov, with nothing left between us at all.

close, his eyes were an unsettling shade of gray-green, pale enough to look almost colorless in the low light, sharp enough that I felt them cataloguing every inch of my face. There was something wrong about how familiar they looked. Not from tonight. Not from anything I could immediately place. Just a strange, prickling sense that I’d seen this exact shade somewhere before, somewhere close, somewhere I couldn’t quite reach.

His hand closed around my jaw before I could finish the thought.

I went rigid, every instinct screaming to pull away, and every other instinct overriding it completely, because something about the sheer authority radiating off him made resistance feel physically impossible. Off to the side, Fritzo remained kneeling, watching, unable to do a single thing to help either of us. Adrian was somewhere I couldn’t see, couldn’t reach, couldn’t even guess at.

It was just me. Held in place by a man who could end my life with a single word to the people around him.

Your name, Volkov said again, deeper this time, heavier.

Whatever boldness I’d been holding onto slipped away completely.

“Daisy,” I said, barely above a whisper.

He heard it anyway. A slow nod followed, deliberate, considering.

Like the flower.”

He said it like the words carried weight I couldn’t access, like there was a reason behind them that meant something only to him.

Please,

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