3. Sonya
3
SONYA
I t was time for me to escape. This time, I had to. Not just to sneak out and have sex with a stranger. I needed to get the hell out of here and end my captivity once and for all.
Footsteps sounded down the hallway outside my room, and I held my breath.
Ever since I heard the guards talking about transporting me to the city, I freaked out. Last night, two of the loudmouths were arguing about who’d get to drive and where they’d get to go after dropping me off to my fiancé.
“No. It’s your turn to drive,” one Ilyin guard said with an exasperated sigh as they walked past my locked door. Following the capture after I had sex with that tall, rugged stranger in his motel room, they’d upped the surveillance on me. The Ilyin bastards considered me more of a flight risk, ensuring that patrols passed my door around the clock now.
“I don’t care,” the guard’s companion said just as tiredly. Clearly, they were old partners, used to arguing. “I’m not in the mood to drive for three hours and?—”
“But it is your turn,” the first one repeated.
Pressing my ear to the door to better listen, I rolled my eyes and wished they’d cut out this damn arguing. Yes, yes. Neither wanted to drive. Both of them were looking forward to leaving this property. One wanted to go straight to a club, and the other was more interested in visiting a whorehouse while they were in the city.
I needed facts. I wanted details about the timing. The location. The vehicle. The more I knew, the better I could plot to get away—for good.
I have to get out of here.
Gulping down a hard swallow, my throat so dry since no one had brought me more water when I requested it, I winced and lowered my hand from the wooden surface of the door to lay it over my stomach.
We have to get out of here.
When I planned to thwart the Ilyins by losing my virginity before meeting my fiancé, I hadn’t considered the odds that I could end up pregnant.
From just that one interaction, that single, initial act of intimacy, and ta-da, I was pregnant.
Sure, it could happen. It only took once to get knocked up. I knew that. It was simple science. One sperm had to find its way to an egg and a baby would follow. One shot was all it took. Yet, the fate of that happening to me, in these circumstances, was twisted.
Evading my forced engagement was a goal. Now with a child growing inside me, though, it had become my mission.
We will get out. Promising my baby seemed foolhardy, but I stood by my wishes. I had to.
I couldn’t be handed over already pregnant. It would be too obvious of an indicator that I wasn’t the virgin they expected. It would be too clear of evidence to show that something had been reneged or changed in the deal. Offending the people who’d dared to make deals about my future and my life wasn’t the issue, but I wasn’t na?ve. I was well aware that the more this deal seemed botched, the worse I would be punished for it.
“Okay, okay,” the guard said as the pair walked by my closed door again. “We’ll take her to Benson’s place, then head to the club near…”
Their words faded as they strolled further down the hall. But that was fine. I didn’t care what they wanted to do after they’d transported me.
That name mattered, though.
Benson?
I scrunched my face, thinking back for the significance. I’d heard of a Benson before, but I had no clue who it was. I couldn’t tell if I’d heard the name while I was in captivity here or if it was a moniker that seemed familiar from when I lived at home, with the Baranov family I missed so much.
Benson. Benson. Benson…
This was the first time I’d heard who my fiancé was supposed to be. Having that clue was like light coming in through the shroud of darkness and lack of knowledge they’d kept me in these past eleven years. All that time, I knew I was being held as a virginal bride for someone when they deemed the time was right. They’d thought the time was right three months ago. But it was now.
Benson…
I cringed as I concentrated, too frantic to place the name.
Someone from another Mafia family? The Bratva? A gang? The Cartel? Racking my brain didn’t help, but I was confident that the man they wanted to force me to marry had to be someone in power. My capture and forced marriage had to be a transaction of some kind, and I knew better than to think this could be a random match that they had in mind for me.
Benson?
No one came to mind, but as the footsteps went by again, I shook my head and scowled. It hardly mattered what my fiancé’s name was. It was only important to realize that I’d soon be handed off to him, whoever he was. And he wouldn’t be happy to see that I was already knocked up.
“The timing is actually in our favor,” one guard gossiped.
“What,” his partner replied, “delivering her now instead of back in February?”
“Yeah.”
The other man grunted. “Well, if she hadn’t acted out and tried to sneak away, we probably would’ve delivered her then.”
No guilt or shame filled me. I wouldn’t regret sneaking out and giving away my virginity on my terms. I couldn’t regret this baby, either. This new life was giving me new life, encouraging me to break out of here once and for all just to protect him or her.
“No, I doubt it. Benson was too busy then. But now, with Boris dying, we’ll be done with the Baranovs for good.”
My mouth dropped open. With how dry and chapped my lips were, I didn’t need to aggravate the lack of moisture. Lip balm wasn’t a necessity during imprisonment.
It hung for another moment, too. Shock reverberated through me, holding me in place and barely cognizant of my surroundings.
Boris? Boris Baranov? He’s… dead?
Blinking at the thought, I tried to snap out of this stunned status. I couldn’t lock down under shock. I couldn’t let myself be hindered by a surprise like this.
I had been so limited, so deprived of information about my family that I had to ferret out nuggets of gossip like this.
Overhearing the news that my father was dead threatened to knock me down.
How? Why? How can he be dead too?
Without a phone or computer, I’d been stuck in ignorance for over a decade. No allies got word to us. Nothing at all. That lack of information had been hardest on my mother before they’d killed her, but I learned to pocket scraps of news the guards were too lazy to hide as they talked among themselves. Playing the meek, quiet, shellshocked captive girl allowed me to blend into the background, and they spoke freer around me.
Boris is dead ?
This timing was terrible!
“It can’t be…” I muttered to myself as I lifted my hand to my mouth. Placing my fingertips over my lips wouldn’t block the words from leaving. But I wished I could erase this news.
Boris Baranov was dead, and that meant no leader remained over my family. Oleg was killed not long after Mother and I had been taken. I overheard the Ilyin men bragging about killing my uncle many years ago. All this time, I’d held on to the faith that my father, weak and drunk though he was, would stay strong as the family’s patriarch.
Not anymore.
Not now.
Without my father at the helm, my younger sister would be left unguarded. Anyone could force her into marriage. Anyone could try to end my family now. The Baranov legacy, the family name, was vulnerable to be overtaken more than ever.
Panic rose within me. Fear claimed my thoughts as I tried to process this news.
Boris was dead. Oleg and my mother had been killed years ago. No other siblings would be waiting out there.
It was just Eva back home, open to be taken and used.
Just like me.
“No.” Tears stung at my closed lids as I squeezed them tight.
I couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering like I had.
No!
A sob threatened to break free at the thought of my younger sister suffering. I held it back, though, determined not to let the guards hear me near the door. I had to keep my strong, defiant mask on a little longer, until I got out of here.
It had been years since I’d seen Eva. She would be grown now, ripe for marriage and defenseless to the men who held all the power in our world. But my love for her hadn’t ever faded. My devotion to the family hadn’t ceased once.
I didn’t know this baby that grew in my belly, but I was already fiercely protective of wanting to spare him or her from a life with this Benson man I’d marry.
I did know my sister back home, though, and I was equally filled with rage to protect her from being taken without our uncle or father in charge of the family.
This was it .
The time had come, and there wouldn’t be second chances.
If it was the last thing I did, I had to break out of here and get back to my family.
Keeping my narrowed gaze on the closed door of my locked room, I backed up steadily. Those two men would be coming in here tomorrow to transport me. They’d unlock the hardware, step inside my cell, and approach me to drag me toward my fiancé.
Not happening.
Once more, until I’d have my strategy memorized without error, I retraced my steps and practiced how I could evade them and escape. Over and over, with this burning need to defy them all, I rehearsed how I’d slip the hidden knife out from its hiding place under my mattress. How I’d play dead and feign my submission until one came close enough for me to stab him. Then how quickly I’d need to move to the other side of the room to lure the second man there.
In my mind, I envisioned the escape. I imagined every step of the way that would lead me toward the window, keys in my hand, enabled to get out of here and flee.
Tomorrow, it will be time.
Nodding to myself, I went through the routine again, faking the attack and danger that would come as I fought back and escaped. Like a mime stuck in a never-ending rehearsal, I prepared to fight my captors and get away.
Because if I couldn’t, if I didn’t, it wouldn’t just be my life on the line.
My unborn baby’s life depended on this escape.
My unwed sister’s fate relied on my ability to flee and return to her at home.
I won’t let anyone hurt you . I vowed it as I stared out the window, placing my hand over my stomach once more as though I could protect the precious new life that grew there just by covering the slight bump that was already growing from my one night with the sexy stranger.
I’d been hurt and tortured enough for one lifetime, and I’d be damned if I wouldn’t do all that I could to prevent any more harm intended for my family.