Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
MARINA
T he elevator only went down four floors before the men pulled me from the car with the gun still held to my head and marched me through empty service hallways. I had no idea where we were going, but I knew it couldn’t be good.
Did Kostya even know about these elevators?
How was he going to save me in time?
I knew he would come for me. I just didn’t know if he would be fast enough.
The words the man whispered into my ear still burned, almost as bad as the sour stench of his breath. “It’s a good thing you like your sister’s sloppy seconds, because our boss can’t wait to get his hands on you.”
“I would sooner die than let anyone, especially a monster like Solovyov, touch me.”
“Death is definitely on the table for you, sweetheart,” he laughed. “But it’s not Solovyov who will deliver it. They sent Oleg. ”
Oleg. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Was he another one of Veronika’s lovers? An enemy? Solovyov may have been the man that she saw the most, but I knew he wasn’t the only one. He was the most dangerous, the one I was most afraid of, but there were others.
The man holding me moved his grip from my neck to my hair, twisting and pulling just hard enough to hurt. At least his gun was no longer at my temple. No, instead he had it digging into my spine at the small of my back as he shoved me into a service elevator.
Assholes.
I wanted to fight them, but I knew that was pointless.
How could I fight a man with a gun?
I was going to make some kind of move in the hotel room, but Kostya said no. He knew better than I did. If I wasn’t going to be able to get away from them with him in the room, what chance did I have alone?
The service elevator opened to garage parking and instantly the cold air hit my skin.
They pushed me out of the elevator toward a car that sat idling in the garage, waiting for them.
I stared at the car, the cold, sinking feeling in the base of my stomach solidifying into fear at the distinct click of a gun cocking behind me.
I froze, my back straight, a single drop of sweat traveling down my spine, dreading the shot about to be fired, ending my life.
Will it hurt?
Will I feel cold ?
How fast will I die?
What would be waiting for me on the other side?
Will Kostya mourn me?
Those questions raced through my head as I closed my eyes.
Two shots rang out, pain stabbing through my ears.
I stood there waiting for the pain of a bullet to register, but the man pushing the gun into my spine and the other one, who had shot Kostya, fell to the ground on either side of me. Dead.
I turned to look behind me, expecting to see Kostya’s angry face as he marched toward me to take me back.
Instead, a man emerged from the shadows; a single tendril of smoke curled from the muzzle of the gun he used to motion for me to get into the car.
I moved while he silently followed.
He opened the back door and tossed in the duffel, then shut the door behind me before melting back into the garage. I considered sliding all the way over to the opposite side and out the other door, but it was already blocked.
A man with a scar running from his temple to the corner of his mouth sat waiting for me. His scar was gnarled and pulled, distorting the side of his face.
I shrank back as an icy realization settled over me.
This was Oleg. I didn’t recognize the name because Veronika had always called him Two-Face, after the Batman villain. He was the other man she’d been sleeping with. A hitman who worked for Solovyov.
Not just any hitman; he was the one you sent when you wanted to deliver a message. Not a clean hit, not a quick death that was honorable, but a tortured one that lasted hours, one that would make any Hollywood serial killer’s stomach turn.
Veronika found his power, the depth of his depravity, intoxicating at first.
I thought she was batshit crazy.
Now, looking into his eyes, one milky and blind, the other hard and cold, I knew crazy was an understatement.
Seducing a man like him was a whole new level of reckless.
“What do you want with me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice strong, steady. The thing about psychopaths was that you never wanted them to know you were afraid.
Men like him got off on fear. Veronika gave him fear. It was a game for them I would not play.
I refused to give him that satisfaction. Not because it would save my life, but out of sheer stubbornness.
“Your sister took something from my employer. I want it back.”
“You have it. Your men took the money back,” I said. “And you took her life as payment.”
“You are not as pretty as she was,” he said, reaching out and running his thumb down my face. “Veronika was a rare beauty. She was as cold as Russian winters, and as fair as fresh-fallen snow. There was something about her that made a man ache to fuck some heat into her.”
I jerked away from him, pressing my back against the window.
“Do not play dumb with me,” he sneered. “She found out about the hit on the Ivanov family ordered by Solovyov. It was the perfect plan. In fact, your sister helped me perfect it. Her coldness was far more than just skin deep. She wanted her husband dead; she wanted a war that would kill the remaining Ivanovs as well as get rid of Solovyov.”
She helped plan a hit on Kostya?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, wishing he would shut the fuck up.
I may not know anything now, but if he told me, then I knew that my life was entirely forfeit.
The car was creeping through the New York streets and a part of me was still looking for Kostya. Still hoping that he would come out of nowhere, pull me out of this car, and kill the monster that had killed my sister.
Maybe if she was avenged, I could let go of my guilt for coveting her husband.
“I think you lie,” Oleg said. “Veronika told you everything, so she must have told you this. That is why you ran here. You ran to safety.”
I looked past his head out the window as the car sped up. We were getting onto the highway heading out of the city and panic clawed at my throat.
“You’re not as beautiful as Veronika. Tell me, will your cunt squeeze as hard as hers did with a blade to your throat?”
I closed my eyes in fear and disgust as cold dread seeped over me.
Kostya would never be able to find me, not in time.
My death would haunt him, just like my sister’s.