Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 57121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“I shouldn’t have assumed it would get better. The second he took me, I should’ve done something. Even if it might’ve got me killed. It doesn’t get better when they move you to another location.”
My heart is thundering in my chest, beating into my throat, trying to close it with nerves.
“Why didn’t he use you to get the second phone?” I ask.
Nikolai grinds his teeth. “I don’t know where it is. Only Maksim does. We always agreed on that. Before you, Maksim was a cold-blooded bastard. He had some heart, sure, but nothing would make him squeal. They could’ve done anything to him. Not anymore.”
“Are they going to hurt me?” I ask.
“Stop talking,” he grunts.
“Are they going to torture me?”
“Just stop.”
“That’s not a no.”
“They’re going to use you to make Maksim play ball. Once he does, this will all be over.”
“But you can’t promise they won’t hurt me. And you can’t promise I’ll make it out alive.”
He groans, torn.
“You strike me as a good man forced to do a bad thing,” I say. “Can you really go through with this?”
“Enough,” he snaps. “This is happening. I’ve gone too far already.”
I lean against the window, my arms folded, breathing slowly, thinking of that patient with the haunted eyes. I have to do something. I have to take a chance.
He hasn’t restrained me… yet.
When they tie my hands, I’ll wish I used them when I could.
Another quick breath, just like I do at work when I know it’s going to be a tough shift, then I leap at him. He roars as I dive for his eyes. The wheel turns, the car tips, and suddenly we’re spinning. The car smashes into a tree, and everything goes dark.
“Sloppy driving for a Volkov,” a man grunts when I peel my eyes open, a sharp pain in my side. I’m horizontal, staring at the road. Beside me – above me, rather – Nikolai leans heavily against his seatbelt, his eyes closed, blood covering his face.
A man kneels, peering into the car, a twisted smile on his face.
“Howdy, ma’am,” he says. “Did this clever bastard even know we were following? Or is he that stupid?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper, my voice hoarse. I don’t feel seriously injured, but I think I might have cracked a rib. My hip is pulsing too, severely bruised at the very least. In the grand scheme of things, I’m lucky.
“Let me help you,” he murmurs.
I spit at him.
He chuckles, taking a gun from his waistband and casually aiming it at me. “The boss wants you alive. But he didn’t say anything about your hands or your feet or your kneecaps.” He moves the gun from spot to spot as he talks. “You get it?”
I shudder, then finally nod.
What choice do I have?
CHAPTER 26
MAKSIM
Anton drives way past the speed limit down the quiet road. We see few cars. I’ve called and texted Lia twenty times, but nothing. She’s not answering or responding.
“Are we almost there?” I growl.
The task I gave Anton, reluctantly, never believing we’d need to use it…
Put a tracker on my little brother’s car.
He stops at the side of the road. Nikolai is sitting on the concrete, his car on its side, no smoke, no fire, nothing as dramatic as that. It sits there as a metal husk, and my brother is the same. A husk with blood and glass all over his face and arm.
He looks up at me, clearly concussed. The disoriented look makes him look childlike, and suddenly, I feel sorry for him. I want to bark at Anton to get him medical help. I want to wrap my arms around him and gently lift him, whisper that everything’s going to be okay. His big brother is here.
Instead, I kneel. Take him by the chin and force him to look at me. He’s got tears in his eyes. “Rachael,” he moans. “Mikey.”
I shake my head. “How long has Vale had them? Is that what this is?”
“I love her, man,” he says, sounding broken.
“I love Lia,” I growl. “And you fucking took her.”
I take out my gun and press it against his forehead. He closes his eyes, waiting for death. A car drives past, but it doesn’t stop. People never interfere in our business. Our very presence makes them understand we’re part of a different world to them.
“Talk,” I snap.
“Just do it, big brother,” he says.
“Where the fuck did they take her?” I roar. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
“I—I had to,” he says, peeling his eyes open. “They need the second half of the key.”
“He tried to tell me,” I say, gesturing at Anton with my gun. “But I wouldn’t listen. Still, it niggled at me. Lying there with a bullet hole in my side. Who knew how much I cared, really knew? Who did I share it with? Who had access to all the information?”