Chapter 12
12
S ofia didn’t know how long it was until Miller arrived with a large, heavily tattooed man behind her.
Who was he?
Both Anton and Pavel were here. Pavel had held his disgusting hand over her mouth.
While she wasn’t fully surprised, it still felt like a betrayal. These were men she’d worked with, who she’d watched out for as the owner of Solnyshko. And while they’d never been particularly friendly, other than the other day, she’d never felt threatened by them.
But that had all been blown out of the water.
The man behind Miller was new to her, though. And she would have remembered him if she’d seen him before.
A tattoo of a spider web covered his face, and from his left cheek, a giant spider climbed up the web.
He prodded Miller into the room where Sofia sat, watching the other woman fearfully.
She could feel Oleg standing behind her.
No doubt he had a hateful look on his face. To her credit, Miller didn’t look afraid. She kept her shoulders back as she glared at Oleg.
He placed his hands on Sofia’s shoulders and she flinched in reaction.
Please don’t let him hurt Miller.
For some reason, the man with Sofia scared her even more than Oleg. He was staring at Miller like he’d enjoy taking her apart.
Piece by piece.
She whimpered and his gaze shot to hers. A cold smile filled his face.
Oh, that wasn’t at all reassuring.
“Miller, so glad you join us,” Oleg said as though he was hosting her for high tea or something.
“Didn’t think I had much of a choice.” Miller’s gaze darted around the room. Sofia had already memorized the room. It had a few chairs and a small plastic table that held a half-empty bottle of whiskey, cigarettes, and a few bags of white stuff—most likely cocaine.
“You know most people here,” Oleg added. “Oh, except my friend behind you. His name is Arnie.”
Arnie?
Had she ever heard of an Arnie? If she had, she couldn’t remember. It wasn’t like Sacha ever kept her in the loop with the ins and outs of the family business anyway.
She was starting to see that maybe that was a big mistake.
Ignorance wasn’t always bliss.
“Arnie isn’t a very Russian name,” Miller commented.
“He not Russian. He is member of Seven Sinners. We have mutual goals. We both want your old man dead.”
Miller’s old man? Did they mean her dad, or were they talking about Rogan?
It had to be Rogan, right?
Seven Sinners? Oleg was affiliated with the Seven Sinners now? She knew next to nothing about them, but she had heard whispers about them causing trouble.
All she knew was that Sacha didn’t have any sort of agreement with them. They’d never been a part of the meetings that happened out the back of Solynshko.
“Shut up, Oleg,” Arnie snapped. “You talk too much.”
God, he was terrifying. She had to work hard not to let her fear show on her face.
Suddenly, Oleg ran his hand down Sofia’s chest to cup her breast.
What was he doing?
Disgust filled her, followed quickly by terror. And all she could do was sit there, frozen, her gaze fixated in front of her.
She was going to be ill.
“What does it matter?” Oleg asked. “She going to die anyway.”
Die?
Who? Were they talking about Miller? Or her?
Likely both of them.
It was what was going to happen before they died that she was honestly most afraid of.
“Seven Sinners?” Miller asked, holding onto her composure admirably.
Miller was a fighter. Sofia had seen that.
Unlike Sofia, the last thing she felt like was a fighter. Especially after all that she’d been going through this past year.
“You’re working with these guys?” Miller asked Arnie.
Arnie frowned down at Miller. “Sit down. Shut up.”
“You know, once Rogan finds you guys, you’re all dead,” Miller threatened as Arnie pushed her into a chair.
“Not if we kill him first,” Arnie said.
Jeez, that smile on his face wasn’t a pretty one.
Oleg yanked Sofia’s head back by her hair. Then his disgusting mouth was plastered against hers.
And he still wasn’t using mouthwash or breath freshener. She gagged, attempting to free herself. But she was tied down. She couldn’t move.
There was nothing she could do to fight back. He could do anything to hurt her and she’d be helpless against him.
“Let her go, asshole!” Miller yelled.
“Sit still and shut up,” Arnie told her. “Oleg, stop fucking around.”
Oleg pulled back, laughing.
“You’re a jerk.” Sofia scowled at him.
Screw this. She was tired of letting him hurt her. And now he was planning on harming Miller too.
No. That couldn’t happen.
“I been wanting a taste of you for months.” Oleg moved over to the table and grabbed a cigarette. He grasped his crotch. “Think I get myself a good taste later. What you think, boys? Want a go at the ice princess?”
The other men laughed, joking about fucking her. God, she wished this was just a nightmare. She was aware of Miller giving her a confused look.
She was probably wondering why Sofia hadn’t been sleeping with her boyfriend.
“I never dated that pig,” Sofia told her. “He told everyone I was, and I had to go along with it. How anyone could believe I would date this loser, I don’t know.”
Oleg walked over and slapped her. Hard.
Great. Now her cheek was definitely going to be bruised. She could feel it hot and throbbing. Tears flooded her eyes again.
Don’t let them fall.
Don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing you in pain.
“Stop it!” Miller yelled.
“Who will stop me?” Oleg taunted. “You? You going to help me bring death to the great Rogan MacGuire. Then I go finish the job I start with Anisimov.”
“You shot Aleksandr?” Miller stared at Oleg in shock.
Sofia got it.
It was hard to believe that someone like Oleg would dare attempt to kill the leader of the Bratva.
He’d lost his freaking mind. There was no other explanation.
“I work for months to get in with that asshole. I try to get in this icy bitch’s pants.” He pointed over at Sofia, and she glared at him. “When she refused to go along with my plan, I go to plan B.”
“Blackmail,” she told Miller. “He blackmailed me to help him get close to Aleksandr. I had no choice but to agree, although I definitely never slept with the bastard.”
Miller looked much the same way that Sofia felt.
Ill.
“He has a video of Aleksandr, which he threatened to hand over to the police if I didn’t go along with him.”
Miller gave her an incredulous look.
She got it. Perhaps she was nuts for not just telling Sacha. But that wasn’t the only secret that Oleg knew.
Still... if she’d just told Aleksandr everything, then perhaps all of this could have been avoided.
Probably, Miller wouldn’t be in danger.
But maybe Sofia would have found herself ejected from her family. Her home.
Something that terrified her.
But perhaps it was what she deserved.
“You such a dumb bitch,” Oleg said. “Video was faked.”
What!?
It was fake?
All this time . . .
She was going to vomit.
“And I nearly get somewhere with this bitch and then you come along.” Oleg glared at Miller. “So, MacGuire’s death is your fault.”
What had Miller done? Sofia couldn’t understand his reasoning.
“You told MacGuire I hurt you. Now he hunts me. You know how hard it is to hide from that bastard? You ruin all my plans and now you pay.”
Miller swallowed. “What are you going to do?”
“First, MacGuire part with cash if he want you back. Then we take cash and get rid of him. And you.”
“And you think Rogan’s men are going to let that slide? That they won’t hunt you down?” Miller asked.
“Their leader dead. It take time to sort things out. He has no second. By then, we be long gone.”
Miller glanced over at Arnie. “What about you? What do you get out of this?”
“He want MacGuire dead too,” Oleg told her.
Arnie nodded. “MacGuire has made my life hell for years. But I’m not hiding from him any longer. The Seven Sinners are rising, and I’ll be with them. MacGuire is in my way.”
“Why would Rogan be after you?” Miller asked.
Yeah. Who was this guy?
“MacGuire blame him for killing friend,” Oleg stated.
Wait. Arnie had killed a friend of Rogan’s? Well, that made sense about why Rogan was after him.
“Was it you who tried to run Rogan off the road?” Miller asked. “You were trying to kill him?”
Arnie grinned and started rolling up his sleeves. “Soon, he will be dead, and I can get on with my life.”
Sofia gasped as she saw the tattoo on Arnie’s arm.
That was the image she kept drawing. The one she saw every night in her nightmares.
And Arnie had it. It was the first time she’d seen it in person.
But how did Arnie relate to her dreams?
The man who died in her dreams when she was a child had had the same tattoo. Was he related to Arnie? Maybe his father?
“What? You’re acting like you’ve never seen a tattoo before. Get me a cigarette,” Arnie snapped at one of Oleg’s men.
“You’re wrong if you think you can use me,” Miller told him.
Sofia was only half-listening. Her mind was running through all the reasons Arnie would have the same tattoo as the dead man in her dream.
“But I already am,” Arnie sneered.
“Hey, what about me?” Oleg protested. “I put this together. I shot Anisimov.”
“You fucked that up!” Arnie snapped. “You didn’t kill him.”
“I said I take care of it!” Oleg kicked a chair over with a yell, then strode off.
There Oleg went again, losing his temper.
So predictable.
Unfortunately, he soon strode back in.
Arnie stretched. “Oleg, call him. Make the ransom demand. I have some phone calls to make.” He turned and left the room, Oleg glaring after him.
“You always let him speak to you that way?” Miller asked Oleg.
“What?” Oleg scowled at the other woman.
Sofia started paying more attention to her surroundings. What was Miller doing? She was going to make Oleg even angrier.
Or wait . . . Was that what she wanted?
“Do you always let him boss you around like that?” Miller asked Oleg. “Funny, I always thought you would be too masculine, too alpha to let someone else take charge of you.”
“He not in charge of me.”
“No? Sure sounded like he was.”
Sofia gave her an incredulous look, but she kept quiet. If the other woman had a plan... well, it was better than anything Sofia had.
Which was a whole lot of nothing sprinkled with plenty of confusion.
“Shut up. You do not know what you talk about.”
“Okay,” Miller said placatingly. “Just sounds to me like you’re doing all the work and Arnie’s getting all the glory.”
“We get the cash.”
“And he’s going to lock up most of the city’s underworld? That seems pretty lucrative to me. Meanwhile, you get a bit of cash and all the risk? Didn’t he get you to shoot Aleksandr? And now you’re the one who has to handle the ransom with Rogan? I suppose you’re going to have to kill him as well.”
How was Miller not more scared?
“Arnie shoot your old man,” Oleg said. “Then he take care of you.”
“Like I said, he gets all the glory,” Miller said. Although her voice cracked slightly.
Oleg scowled.
“How certain are you he won’t do the same thing he’s got planned for Rogan to you?” Miller asked him.
Sofia kept silent, watching them. She got it. Miller was trying to turn Oleg against Arnie.
It was a dangerous ploy, but at the moment, it wasn’t like they had any other plays.
“Because we have agreement,” Oleg stated.
But was he starting to sound uncertain?
“Right, and I’m sure he’s known for keeping his word,” Miller said sarcastically.
“Shut up. Your words poison.” Oleg moved over to her, leaning in to wrap his hands around Miller’s neck. “You hear me? Shut up before I shut you up. For good.”
Miller gasped for breath.
Oh God.
He was going to kill her!
“Stop! You have to stop!” Sofia screamed. “Someone, come in here! He’s going to kill her!”
Suddenly, Anton and Pavel raced in and grabbed Oleg, pulling him off Miller.
Sofia sobbed in relief.
Oh, God.
She’d felt for sure that he’d been going to kill her.
Oh God.
Oh God.