15. Sonya
15
SONYA
T he second the cops got a good look at me, I knew it was over. Without an ID, without my saying a single word to their questions or speaking up at all, they still knew. Baranovs were royalty in the Mafia circles, and I supposed the family resemblance didn’t lie.
“I think it’s her,” one cop said at the station. He held out his phone, showing another law enforcement member a photo of Eva. They had a file on her, at least a digital one or a photo. In the split-second glimpse I had of her, I knew they were matching me to her.
“It’s her sister,” the other cop said, raising his brows at me. “But I thought Geoff wanted to have her…”
I slitted my eyes, daring the man to finish his sentence.
Geoff Ilyin wanted to have me marry a Mr. Benson? He kidnapped me and held me until I could marry some dumbass of his choosing? Yeah, that sums it up, you asshole.
“I’ll be right back.” He smiled and held up his phone. “I’m going to make a quick call.”
The first cop who was standing over me in the small, windowless interrogation room grinned. “This is gonna be a sweet payday, right?”
“Fuck yeah. We’re getting a bonus for finding her.” As the man exited the room, he rubbed his finger and thumb together, gesturing that he counted on lots of money coming to him.
I tuned out all further questions they lobbed at me. I wouldn’t tell them my name. I wouldn’t tell them where I’d come from. They would get nothing out of me, but I wished I could have the confidence to know that the Baranov family still existed and held power. It was on the tip of my tongue to insist they contact the head of the Baranov family, but I didn’t even know who that was supposed to be with my uncle, father, and mother dead.
Besides, they’d made it clear that they were in the Ilyins’ favor. There had to be a solid association or expectation between them for these two cops to so readily want to call my captors into the station.
When the one man returned, aiming his phone’s camera at me and letting someone see who I was via a video call, it was really over.
“Yeah, that’s the bitch,” a gruff voice replied. “I’ll send some men over to the station to collect her.”
Dammit! I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming at them in rage.
They didn’t wait to transport me out of the station. It was cruel, how corrupt and evil these supposedly “good guys” were. Police officers were the civilians’ heroes. Or they should’ve been. I bore witness to how wicked and greedy they could be, handing me over to pissed-off Ilyin guards who slapped lots of cash into the cops’ hands outside in the back of the station.
On the drive away, I remained closed-lipped and silent. Inside, I was fuming and ranting, shrieking until my throat would’ve been hoarse if I opened my mouth and released the sounds of pure anger and horror. Both of the Ilyins talked and joked. They laughed and taunted me, calling me names and promising pain for what I’d done.
I knew I’d killed the one man to escape their property upstate, but I was glad I’d rendered the other man sterile from how I’d fought him to get free.
“We’re going to fuck you up before handing you over to Benson,” one promised darkly.
“You’ll regret trying to get away,” the other sneered. “Big mistake.”
Fuck you. Fuck you both! Bottling in my fury and panic nauseated me, but I couldn’t try to find a rational line of optimism or hope to keep me from vibrating with rage. I felt like a coiled-up, ticking bomb, ready to lash out and explode.
Soon, in a blur with how shocked I was at the rapid sequence of too much action in a short span of time, I spotted a warehouse further from the city.
The Ilyins were rough as they forced me out of the backseat and coerced me into entering the building. Maybe they considered this a safehouse, but I knew what it really was. Cots lined one wall. Pots used for toilets sat next to them. Fortunately, no other occupants were being held here at the moment, but I recognized this building as a halfway stop for where they’d keep or move the children and women intended to be sold into trafficking.
“Don’t even think about it,” a soldier growled as he lowered to grab my wrists.
I didn’t bother to ask what it was. With how I’d left them before, killing a guard and severely injuring another, he had to be wary of my putting up a fight again.
To my surprise, he cut the chain of metal links that held my handcuffs together.
Why would you want to ? —
Then he yanked me up to stand so he could punch me.
No! I realized what he was doing a second before he delivered the strike. His fist reared back, and in that brief beat of time, I had the protective instinct to drop down.
He couldn’t hit me like that. Not on my stomach. Nowhere near my baby! Terrified of what I could face here, I let the boiling anger and fierce need to protect my child rule me. I would be a feral, rabid, and uncontrollable mama bear. If they wanted to show me how mad they were that I’d gotten away before, they would not harm my baby!
Dropping down ensured that he’d punched my face instead. My head jerked back, and instant agony lanced over my skin.
“You stupid ass,” another Ilyin man yelled at him, forcing him back and away from me as I breathed through the pain of the beating. “You can’t hurt her where anyone can see! Benson won’t want her delivered with bruises.”
“I don’t give shit. She killed my brother. Benson can have his fucking virgin however she’ll look like by the time I’m through with her.”
“Dumb cunt,” another man said as he kicked my leg.
Again, I curled to protect my stomach. They could try to break me down all they wanted, but they wouldn’t get to harm my child.
Over and over, they struck out at me. When they stopped, pausing, one held the others back. They all heaved out harsh breaths, winded from the exertion of attacking me.
“You’re—” He wiped spit from his mouth. “You see how she’s leaning over?”
“Huh?” One of the others narrowed his eyes.
“She’s holding her stomach,” the one pointed out. “Are you—Fuck!” He lunged to grab my arm and pull it back. Moving so quickly, he had an advantage in the element of surprise. I wasn’t prepared to keep my arm close, and as he yanked it aside, they all could see my small baby bump that I was trying so hard to protect.
Tears streaked down my face, wetting my skin with the scalding liquid, but I’d be damned if I wasted the time to wipe them away. Pain filled me. Every cell of my body seemed to be lit on fire with inflammation. But my priority was to wrap my arms around my stomach again.
“She’s not a virgin anymore!”
“Someone knocked her up?”
“We’re supposed to give him a virgin.”
“How the hell did this happen?”
They shouted and cursed, freaking out with their voices overlapping each other’s in a frantic flurry of anger and shock.
“You stupid fucking bitch!” the leader of them roared. “You’re not taking some bastard baby to your fiancé. You hear me?” After stepping aside, he returned with a crowbar. “Your little bastard isn’t going to fuck up the plans. You’re going to marry Benson, but not with someone else’s bastard in your belly.”
As he reared the crowbar back, as if to swing it like a bat at me, two others grabbed my arms and held them back. With my stomach thrust out, the sadist had a clear shot to strike my belly.
“No!” I screamed it until my face stretched with the force of straining my face so hard. “No!” I kicked and bucked, flailing and fighting to break free with every last reserve of my energy. “Don’t!”
“Shut up, you whore,” the man warned, a nefarious snarl curling his lips. “Shut up and pay for your sins.” He lifted his arms again, the metal rod lined up to come into contact with me.
But then a hole showed on his brow. A single dot, clean and small. Blood rimmed the new spot.
Stunned immobile, he stared ahead, not down at me. His arms began to lower as he pitched forward.
Someone had shot him. Someone had come to help? Someone?—
I wrenched to the side the best I could, craning my neck to see who was behind us.
Ben.
He’d come. He was here .
Somehow, my baby daddy, my mysterious man, had come here to shoot my attackers.
“Get him!” The Ilyin holding my right arm released me to reach for his gun, but Ben was faster. Moving his arm, he aimed and fired again, taking out that man. And again for the man who’d gripped my left arm. Then another man fell as more ran into the fight.
One by one, shots were fired. Ben was picking them off cleanly. Calm and poised, he shifted his arms and shot the Ilyins as they filed out into the room.
Ben.
Ben was here .
Just when I’d feared the worst horror ever, being unable to protect my baby, he’d shown up.
Right at the moment when I knew I’d never survive the loss of my child and get over the pain of this beating, he strolled in to save the day.
Before I could accept the cruel reality that I’d been captured again, he’d changed my fate.
I couldn’t understand any of it—why he was here, how he’d known to come, and when he’d targeted me as the woman he needed to rescue. Questions stabbed my mind, but they didn’t settle with the dizzying cloud of shock that enveloped me.
Sinking down, curling over as I hunched to the ground, I closed my eyes and waited for it all to stop. Leaning over like this, in the tightest ball I could manage, was my last line of defense for my baby.
Our baby.
He wasn’t just saving the stranger he’d fucked twice now, but also the new life he’d helped create in me.
Plastered low to the floor, I hugged my stomach. I clenched my eyes shut tight, willing no stray bullets to reach me as the Ilyins and Ben completed their shootout.
I didn’t understand any of this, how he, of all people, had come to save me.
I couldn’t try to figure it out, not yet. All I could do was hold on and wait for the all-clear that we would be alive after all this carnage and death.