Chapter 10 Nikolai
NIKOLAI
The pain in my arm was what brought me back to full consciousness.
I could tell from just looking at it that my father had broken it.
Several minutes later, a man came to examine me.
He’d brought a portable X-ray that he used to assess the damage to my arm.
He didn’t ask any questions about how the injury had happened, not that I expected him to.
If he worked for my father, then he was surely used to patching people up without asking questions.
“It’s a simple break,” he announced.
It didn’t feel simple. The bastard showed no mercy in setting the bone.
He refused to numb it and seemed oblivious to the way I screamed as the separated bone came back together.
I nearly passed out as the pain cut through me, then left my arm throbbing.
Without another word, the man cast my arm with no care for my comfort.
“You’ll need the cast for around six weeks. I’ll be back to check on the arm in a few days.”
I didn’t bother giving a response.
He set a prescription bottle down on the nightstand and left.
I picked up the bottle with my good hand.
There was no information on it other than the words “Take Two for Pain” written in Sharpie.
Thank God. I wasn’t sure I’d be allowed any drugs.
As I shook two pills in my hand, I hesitated.
There was no telling what the pills were, but if my father wanted to kill me, he could have just beaten me to death.
He would have enjoyed that far more. After I popped the pills in my mouth and dry swallowed them, I lay down, hoping they would make me sleep.
When I woke up, I was still alone. I tried the door, and, as I expected, it was locked.
“You’ll stay in there and be quiet if you know what’s good for you,” a man said from outside the door.
I assumed it was one of my father’s guards.
I looked out my window and saw that a man had been posted there as well.
He looked up at me and shook his head. I stepped back, pulling the curtains together.
Hoping it wasn’t too soon, I took more pain pills and slept again.
When I woke up, I was desperately hungry, and my mouth was as dry as a desert.
I didn’t have any food, but at least I could get water in my bathroom.
I filled a glass and drank it down. How long had it been since the fight with my father?
It was dark outside, but was it early in the night or late? I had no idea.
The guards had taken my phone. Now, my smartwatch was gone, and so was my laptop. My father wanted to be sure I couldn’t contact anyone, not that I had anyone to call.
I knocked on my door. “What do you need?” the guard asked.
“What time is it?”
“3:00 a.m.”
How the hell did I sleep that long? What was in that pain medicine?
I cradled my arm against my chest. It hurt like hell, but I was more concerned with the fact that I hadn’t had any food, and I felt so weirdly out of it.
No matter how bad my arm hurt, I wasn’t taking any more of the pills.
Maybe I could find some ibuprofen in my bathroom. “I’d like some food, please.”
“You’ll be fed when your father decides to feed you.”
Great, now he was going to starve me. I lay down on the bed. The room felt like it was spinning around me. My arm felt hot and achy, and I couldn’t hold back my tears. Why the fuck hadn’t I sent Lorenzo away?
Could you have? Would he have gone if you told him? Did you really have the strength to resist his seduction? He played you. He showed his power over your father by using you.
No, no, that couldn’t be all it was. He didn’t have to be nice. He didn’t have to make me think…
I cried harder until I was fully sobbing. I used my good hand to wipe my eyes until I finally gave up and let my tears wet the sheet underneath me.
I fell asleep soon after that, retreating to the world of my dreams. I was outside in the sculpture garden, where I’d seen Lorenzo from the window.
I wasn’t wearing anything besides my robe. What if my father saw me?
“He’s not here.” I turned. Lorenzo was there, dressed in a dark suit like he’d been the night before. “You’re alone with me.”
I stared at him. “That’s… impossible.”
“No. I sent them all away. I wanted you all to myself.”
My heart raced. I took a step toward him.
“Closer,” he ordered.
I moved, more floating than walking, until I was right in front of him.
He undid the sash of my robe and pushed it open.
“Beautiful.” He ran the back of his hand down my torso. My cock hardened, and he smiled. “And eager. Just like you were before.”
I was so eager but still unsure how I could be here alone with him.
“Turn around,” he ordered. I glanced up at the house to see if anyone was watching. “Do as I said.”
This was insane, but I did it anyway. He pulled the robe from my shoulders and tossed it away. “Brace yourself.” I leaned forward, putting my hands on the back of a stone bench.
He gripped my ass cheeks, pulling them apart. “I’m going to fuck you, and you’re going to keep your hands where they are, no fighting me, no screaming. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
My cock was all the way hard now. I pushed my ass back, inviting him to take me. I wanted this. I wanted to be fucked.
I felt the tip of his cock against my hole, and then a loud bang startled me.
“Lorenzo?”
Another bang.
He was gone, and I was back in my room.
Bang.
Someone was knocking on my door.
“Open the door if you want to eat.”
Food. I was starving. I couldn’t lose my chance to eat, no matter how much I wanted Lorenzo back.
I stumbled to my feet, tied my robe, and pushed my hair from my face.
I opened the door, and the guard shoved a tray at me.
I almost dropped it since I was trying to hold it with one hand.
I gasped in pain when I had to grab the side with my injured arm.
“Eat up,” the man said. “I don’t know when you’ll get more.”
He slammed the door as I jumped back.
I looked down at the tray. There was a small sandwich and some thin soup. The sandwich was filled with turkey, which I disliked, and the soup looked grayish and unappetizing. I ate it all. What choice did I have?
The next few days dragged by. I wasn’t given anything else to eat except a piece of bread on the third day.
I spent most of my time crying or sleeping, often dreaming of Lorenzo coming back to rescue me.
I didn’t care what he made me do in the dreams. I was willing to let him have me any way he wanted.
A sane person would probably crave independence after growing up the way I had.
They would never want anyone telling them what to do after, but I didn’t feel that way at all.
I craved someone who would take care of me, protect me, and tell me what they wanted from me.
I needed rules and restrictions, but I didn’t need abuse.
“I deserve a chance to see my son.”
My mother was outside, yelling at the guard. What was she doing here? I hadn’t thought my father was going to let her attend the wedding, and I couldn’t think of any other reason she’d be here.
I was supposed to be married the next day. I’d lost track of days, so I only knew because one of the guards had told me to be presentable today because someone would be coming to test out the style for my hair and makeup. It was going to take some serious work to cover all the bruises on my face.
The lock turned, and the door opened. I rolled over to see my mother standing there.
“Niko, are you okay?” I realized she was sober—or at least mostly so. How had that happened?
“I’m fine.”
She frowned. “Don’t lie to me.”
I’d been lying to myself as much as her. If I believed it, maybe I’d have the strength to get out of bed. She turned to the guard who stood behind her. “Leave us.”
I hadn’t heard her speak with that kind of authority in her voice in years. When I was young, she occasionally tried to stand up to my father. It never did any good, but I still hated that she’d stopped.
Shockingly, the man stepped back into the hall.
“We don’t need you out there either,” my mother said, but the man shook his head.
“Dimitri wants me to stay here. Nikolai is not to be left without guards under any circumstances.”
“Then at least close the damn door.”
My mouth fell open as I stared at her. This was not the woman I’d left in New York.
When we were as alone as we could be, she looked me up and down. “You’ve lost weight, you’re pale, and, oh my God, what happened to your arm?”
“I… I fell.”
“Nikolai, I already told you not to lie to me. I didn’t come all this way to help you for you to act like I’m stupid.”
This was the mother I remembered from my childhood, not the woman she’d become in the last decade. How had she changed so much? I’d only been here at my father’s house for three months.
“Mom, you… I didn’t know you were coming.”
“I told that son of a bitch I was determined to attend my son’s wedding. He thinks I’m too weak to do anything, but he’s wrong. It’s time for you to get out of here.”
“What?”
“Your own father is bad enough, but Ivanov is worse. There are powerful people who want to make sure this marriage doesn’t happen. We’re not alone in this, and I have money for you.”
“Mom, what—”
“We don’t have much time. You need to get out of here. I failed you before, but I’m not going to let you end up in a marriage you never wanted with a father-in-law who will… I know what a monster Ivanov is. I won’t let him have you.”
She pressed a bag into my hand. “There’s a phone in here, some money, and an address. Go there.”
“What address? Whose?”
“Where is that bitch?” my father’s voice boomed down the hall.
My mom pushed me toward the window. “Go. Now. I bribed the guard that was outside your window, but he can’t stay gone long.”
I opened my window and looked down. It was a long climb, and it would be hell with a broken arm, but I didn’t have a choice.
I slung the bag over my head with my good hand and leapt to the drainpipe, gripping it with my legs.
I could use it to help me descend. At least this way, I had a chance one-handed.
I looked back at my mother. What would happen to her? How could I just leave her there? “Come with me.”
She shook her head. “No, this is for you. I want you to get away.”
I heard my father pounding on the door. It was time to go. “Thank you.”
“It’s so much less than you deserve. Go! Don’t let this all be for nothing.”
I made my way down the drainpipe, using my bad arm as little as I could and trying to ignore the pain.
Once my feet hit the ground, I ran toward the woods behind the house, praying I wouldn’t run into anybody.
I needed to get off my father’s property as quickly as I could, but not by the road at the front.
Thank God I’d spent so long playing out here when I was a kid. I knew a few paths that would take me to one of the back roads. When I was far enough away that I didn’t think anyone would find me, I stopped to take a breath and examine the contents of my bag.
As promised, there was a card with an address there for a location in Ville Marais. Why was she sending me there? I saw a rideshare app on the phone and realized there was money in the account that automatically opened. At least I had a way to get there once I docked the boat.
I quickly counted the money she’d given me.
I had five thousand dollars. Should I just go to the airport and get a plane ticket?
Not without an ID, and even if I had one, my father would track me.
Surely he had already sent people out searching for me.
I started moving again as I requested a ride from the road where the path would end.
Half an hour later, I stepped out of the rideshare in front of a beautiful house. Who lived here? How did my mother know them?
The car pulled away, and I still stood there, heart pounding, sweat rolling down my back. The humidity pressed down on me. If I kept standing there, I’d pass out from the heat.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had anything to eat. I took a shaky breath and forced myself to walk down the sidewalk and up the steps.
I rang the doorbell, aware that I was now on camera. I glanced up, hoping the person would somehow recognize me or be expecting me.
The last few days had been so crazy, so unreal. Was this any worse? Was anything worse than being stuck in the house with my father?
I heard footsteps, and then the door flew open. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
It was Lorenzo, the only man who had ever touched me so tenderly, made me feel so hot, so needy. My mother had sent me to his house.