Chapter 26
It’d been two days since I’d last seen Zarren.
As I lay in the bathtub after he’d brutally fucked me in the hallway, I’d heard him leave, and that was that.
I’d assumed he would come back, and maybe even try to fuck me again, but he chose not to even return that night or even the next morning.
I had no idea where he was, but I knew it wasn’t here.
Irrational jealousy filled me at the thought of him sleeping in another woman’s bed, but I’d forced those thoughts from my head because they didn’t help me or my situation.
I should’ve been thrilled with his absence.
It would help me figure a way out of this place, but there was no way to contact the outside world.
Not a landline, cell phone, tablet, or laptop in sight.
And I still had no idea what the keypad combination was.
I almost pictured him laughing hysterically if he got any of the alerts for all the times I had tried.
At worst, I bet he had hidden cameras in here.
If so, I had yet to find those either. Trying to escape was hopeless, but I refused to give up on the slimmest of threads.
When not scheming a way to freedom, I was entirely too focused on what had gone down between us before he’d left. His last words had been that I should’ve let him die when he’d put himself in danger to save my life. Even now, tears sprang to my eyes whenever they cruelly echoed in my thoughts.
And it wasn’t only painful because I had fallen in love with him.
The very thought of leaving him to die only made the blade already wedged deep in my chest twist and turn.
What hurt the most, however, was that the thought had actually crossed my mind at the time, only he had never known it.
One of his men was injured, and the other was tending to him.
I could’ve easily disappeared into the woods and tried to hide until everyone left from his team and those mercenaries my father had sent.
Leon Barganella. I’d never forget the name.
And it wasn’t because I wanted to get to know him or even have him in my life.
It was the opposite. None of this would’ve ever happened had it not been for him and his plan to sell me off to the Bratva.
The Branningtons wouldn’t have had to step in, and I would be back living my normal life.
Only parts of that life had been revealed to be lacking.
At the time, I had nothing else to compare my love life to.
Sure, my friends all seemed to fall in and out of love until they found their one.
I thought I’d found it, too, only Drake was a fraud.
An imposter posing as a devoted boyfriend when he was truly just scum.
And my sex life. Being intimate with Drake felt okay, but never had I imagined it could be as mind-numbing as it was with Zarren.
Had I remained in that life, I would’ve never known what I was missing.
Only now, I would be reminded of it repeatedly once I got to Russia because Zarren was never mine to have.
My parents, who’d doted on me from the time I was adopted, to my friends who’d been by my side and had my back, to a career I had worked so hard to get into, were now gone.
I’d never walk into Massachusetts General and smile politely at Jan and Ronnie, who manned the visitor’s desk, or talk to Allen, Keri, or Lenny, who worked on my floor delivering patients from their rooms to the various other departments.
I’d never gossip about a binge-worthy television series, music, smutty romance books, or life in general with those at the nurse’s station.
Not the janitors, the doctors, the technicians, anesthesiologists, or anyone else I’d befriended over the years.
“Mom... Dad...” I murmured aloud. “I miss you guys so much.”
There’d be no more family vacations on the Cape, parties at the yacht club, or leisurely days spent at their country club.
There’d be no more mother and daughter pampering days at the spa, shopping, and at the salon.
I’d never learn how to make her famous banana bread or be able to tie one of my father’s ties like I’d always done.
My entire life as I’d known it was now over. Or was it gone?
Whatever it was, it’s slipped through my fingers like sand in an hourglass.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I refused to cry.
Had this been the first or second day, I would’ve spent it crying as I’d once done.
So much time had passed since then, and I was no longer the woman who’d slipped into the backseat of that SUV expecting to be whisked away to the airport for a romantic vacation.
I’d been so unsuspecting, whereas now, I was way more intuitive and suspicious of everything. And everyone.
I had just sat back down on the chair in my room when I heard commotion coming from downstairs. “Zarren,” I whispered as I rose to my feet.
I slipped out of my room, and it was only when I looked over the railing that I saw Conor and Liam carrying an unconscious Zarren into the living room.
Even from here, I could both see and smell blood.
In this time alone, I’d vowed to distance myself from him, but seeing him hurt like that was too much.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I was already halfway down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I rushed over to them. Liam noticed me and immediately rose after laying Zarren on the sectional.
“You should go back upstairs, Miss,” he said to me.
I shook my head. “What’s wrong with him? What happened?”
Conor smiled warily at me. “It’s nothing a few hours of rest and a pain pill can’t fix. You should go upstairs.”
“No,” I told them matter-of-factly.
I pushed past the two large men and knelt down beside him. Immediately, my heart rose up in my throat, threatening to choke me. Zarren’s entire face was battered and bruised. His normally tanned skin was almost ashen in the few spots where it wasn’t a dark purplish-black color.
Those full lips of his that I’d bitten just two days before were now split open, but from another source.
Blood smeared his cheek and chin, and one eye was completely swollen.
I looked lower, and there was some bruising on his arms, but what caught my attention was the blood soaking through his dark T-shirt.
I hadn’t noticed it at first because his shirt was so dark, but as I touched the large, damp spot, I pulled my hand away and sure enough, it was now wet and red.
“He’s bleeding,” I said to the other men. “We have to help him.”
“Zarren wouldn’t want you to see him like this. You should go upstairs.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” I said to them as I swatted away whoever tried to stop me from pulling his shirt up.
When I did, there was a large gash, but it didn’t look like it had come from a knife.
Maybe glass or something else. “It doesn’t look like he’ll need stitches this time, but I still need to clean this so it doesn’t become infected. ”
“Miss, we can get—”
Interrupting what I didn’t want to hear, I began to rattle off everything I’d need. “Bring me some gauze, rubbing alcohol, tape, and a damp cloth.” When they stared at me, I said more emphatically. “Now!”
Liam quickly moved away, and I heard him in the downstairs bathroom, hopefully gathering what I’d asked for. Conor pulled out his knife and sliced the shirt upward, and I helped him pull it off a still unconscious Zarren.
“What happened to him?” I asked the man.
“He wouldn’t appreciate our telling you, Miss. Please just let it be.”
“I can’t let it be.” Can’t you see that I love the asshole? “Was this my father’s doing again?”
If he got hurt or worse because of me again, I didn’t know what I would do.
A part of me almost wanted to offer myself up to the man to spare Zarren, but I knew he’d never allow that.
He did tell me that he wished I had let him die, so maybe he wouldn’t.
The man was so Jekyll and Hyde that he constantly kept my head on a swivel.
“It wasn’t. Zarren likes to let steam off in the ring.”
“He was fighting?” I didn’t picture Zarren as a boxer, but he certainly has the physique for it.
“Street fighting, Miss,” he clarified, evidently sensing the confusion on my face.
“Oh my God. Does he do this often?”
He smiled before nodding. “He’s undefeated, at least usually. The saying about seeing the other guy is usually true, but not at the moment. He was preoccupied, so his reflexes were not—”
“Conor,” Liam said in warning before he dropped the needed supplies down near me.
I knew the other man was about to say something to me, so I glared when Conor went silent as warned. I’d revisit this conversation later, either with Zarren or Conor. Right now, I needed to tend to his injuries.
After cleaning the surrounding skin of all dried blood and sweat, I treated the infected gash, then covered it with gauze and tape.
Zarren was still out, but I could see the steady rising and falling of his chest, as well as the soft snore he would make from time to time.
The men then debated on whether to take him upstairs or not, but I made the decision for them when I grabbed a nearby blanket and covered him with it.
From there, I lit the fireplace before going upstairs to grab a blanket of my own.
The men were sitting in the two chairs, silently observing me. I wasn’t quite sure if either man actually liked me. Conor seemed more amenable to my presence, while Liam seemed unusually hostile toward me right now. He hadn’t always acted that way, or at least I had never taken notice if he had.
The silence was deafening, but I didn’t leave the room. I did get up once to go into the kitchen to grab some aspirin and a bottled water just in case he woke up. I glared more than once at the other men. They said Zarren often fought, but it all seemed so barbaric.
The more I thought about it, though, the more sense it made. Was that why he’d been able to fully function after being ambushed? Hell, it’d only been hours after being shot in the upper arm and shoulder when he’d lifted me up and had feasted on me. Right after, he’d fucked me and not just once.
I could feel the slight heat creeping up in my face as I remembered our first time. Or should I say times? Zarren was a man possessed, almost machine-like. Pain rarely seemed to afflict or affect him in any way, and I supposed if so, it was easy to understand why he’d do this.
“He’ll be out for a while now, Miss. You should go upstairs and rest.”
“I don’t want to go to bed. I want to stay here until he wakes up.”
The men exchanged a look between each other, and Conor decided to speak right after. “Zarren didn’t want us to bring him here because he didn’t want to see you. It’s the reason he’s been gone for two days. Waking up to find you right here will only upset him more.”
“He stayed gone because of me?” I asked.
Our last conversation came rushing back, and I knew they were right. Zarren hated that I could see the things he wanted to keep hidden. I could feel the things he tried to push deep inside of him. He wanted to act as if he didn’t love me as much as I loved him.
Well, maybe what he felt was something different to love, but I doubted he could spend all the time we’d spent together, especially doing the things we did together, and not feel something more than lust.
There’d been actual pain in his words and on the brutally sharp features of his face before he had left.
I also knew there was too much emotion pent up inside of him that he could only seem to alleviate when he was pounding into me.
He wanted me to tell him that I was his, which had to mean something.
“I don’t believe you,” I finally responded.
Liam growled. “For fuck’s sake, Miss. You’re causing him to act out of character and that can’t happen in this world.
You live in the pink bedroom with teddy bears and dolls on your shelves while he runs a fucking criminal organization that spans continents.
He needs to be on his A-game, and you frankly weaken him. ”
Each word felt like a lash to my cheek, so it was not surprising when tears sprang to my eyes, then started to fall from my partially closed lashes. “I weaken him?” I finally managed to get out.
Conor took a deep breath, then came over to me.
“This time with you has been very difficult on Zarren. He’s done some uncharacteristic things, and while not all are bad, he knows, like we do, that he needs to keep his focus on business.
The merger between the Branningtons and the Bocharovs has been weighing heavily upon him.
If you care for him as much as I suspect you do, please allow him to rest privately.
He’s not going to be very good company once he awakens, so it’s for the best, really. ”
They wanted me gone. I tried not to dwell on that, so I focused on his words before that. Zarren was having difficulty handing me over to the Bocharovs. Somewhere deep inside of me, I had suspected it, but Conor had basically just confirmed it.
“I’ll go upstairs, but I won’t stay up there like some prisoner.
I will be back,” I told them as I rose to my feet and disappeared upstairs.
Once in my room, I returned to the chair and covered myself with the blanket.
Despite the warmth of this penthouse, my hands and feet were blocks of ice.
I rubbed them as I leaned back and began to devise another plan.
“Maybe my escape is not an escape at all. I think I’ve finally found my way out of this predicament. ”