Chapter Thirteen
Tiana
“Please. You have to believe me.” Even to my own ears, my voice sounds powerless. “I don’t know anything about shipments and pickup points.” I shift awkwardly, the wooden chair hard and uncomfortable beneath me. The cool air raises the tiny hairs on my skin; or maybe that’s just fear.
“Try again, suka. ” The men surrounding me reek of sweat and cigarettes, their eyes gleaming with malice as they circle like vultures. Boots scuff the bare floor, echoing in the almost empty room. “You’ve been in his household for weeks. Do you think we’re idiots?” the smaller of them says.
“No!” I shake my head wildly.
“Then start talking!” he snaps, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him. “When is the next shipment? Where is the drop-off point?” His eyes are cold and flat, the color of dirty water, beneath short-cropped brown hair. A scar runs along the length of his jawline.
I try to shake my head again, but his grip doesn’t allow it. “I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whisper. “Why would he tell me anything? I’m not involved in his business.”
They laugh, a chilling sound that sends shivers down my spine.
“That’s not what we heard, bitch,” the other one sneers.
He’s the bigger of the two, broad and hulking, his head shaved; the one who’d carried me here so effortlessly.
“You’re his whore. All that time fucking him and you didn’t pick up anything? ”
“I’m not a whore,” I protest, my voice sounding weaker than I intended. “And I don’t know anything about any deliveries or locations.”
“I don’t believe it,” the one holding my chin says. His grip tightens. He looks at his companion. “Do you believe it, Boris?”
Boris shakes his head, his lip curling. “She’s lying, Aleksei; protecting that pizda . But we were told that you would put up a good fight, suka .” He glances at me. “That you would need convincing. I think I’m looking forward to it, actually.”
My eyes water at the pressure on my chin. I try to twist my head away, but it’s no use. I’m sure I’m going to have bruises after this. That’s if I live long enough for bruises to form.
Don’t think that way!
“I swear to you, it’s the truth.” I want to weep, to release the tension that’s been building in me, but I know it won’t get me anywhere. “Why would he tell me anything? I’m just a woman he bought to entertain himself.” It hurts to say it, but ultimately it’s the truth.
“Have it your way.” The one named Aleksei raises a thick eyebrow. “You know, our boss has told us that we are not to return until we find out what he wants. Which means we have to be persuasive.” He looks over to his friend. “Boris?”
Boris nods and pulls a plastic bag from the pocket of his black leather jacket. He then holds it up and dangles it in front of my face. “Do you know what this is, suka? ” His slate-gray eyes are cold as stone.
I stare at it, licking my lips. “I… I don’t,” I husk out.
“This is what we call ‘persuasion’,” he smirks. Before I know what he’s about to do, he slips the bag over my head, pulling it tight under my chin.
“No!” I gasp out, stiffening in shock, then fighting against the ropes holding me down. Panic starts to set in as I realize that my oxygen is running out.
I can’t breathe!
He’s suffocating me!
I gasp and choke, my lungs burning as I struggle for air. I can hear them laughing, enjoying my suffering.
“Ready to tell us what we want to know?” Aleksei snarls, his voice muffled through the bag. “We can do this all night, bitch!”
I struggle against the bag desperately, terrified for my life and for my baby’s.
My lungs feel like they’re about to implode.
The air in the bag is completely depleted, and each futile breath draws unyielding plastic into my mouth.
Black spots swim before my eyes as I strain and arch against the ropes.
Just when I think that I’m about to pass out, they yank the bag off my head.
I suck in sweet air as if it’s the first time I’ve ever drawn breath.
“Memory starting to come back?” Aleksei chuckles.
“I… I don’t… know anything… I swear to you!” I start to sob. I give a small scream when the bag goes back over my head. “No! Please!”
“Let’s try again, shall we?” Boris says, twisting the bag so that it’s tight around my throat, stopping any air from getting in.
Within seconds, my lungs are burning again, my body bucking as I fight to breathe.
I’m going to die!
In that moment, I realize that I don’t care what I have to do to get out of this situation. Not for myself, but for my baby. I’ll do whatever it takes to save my child, even if it means serving myself up on a plate to these men.
“Please,” I beg, my voice muffled. “I’ll do anything. Anything! Just don’t hurt my baby.”
They laugh again, a cruel sound that makes my stomach churn. “We don’t give a shit about your kid, shlyukha ,” Boris sneers. “It’s a spawn of the devil, just like its father. It would only give me pleasure to wipe the Vyronov bloodline from this planet.”
I’m horrified, my heart racing as I realize the depth of their cruelty. Sobs wrack me as I realize the futility of my resistance. They’re not going to stop until I tell them something… and I honestly don’t know anything.
Sweet baby… I’m so sorry.
Tears stream down my face, not for myself, but for the little life that will never get a chance to exist. The tiny soul I already love so fiercely for that I would easily give up my own life to save it.
And yet, there is nothing I can do. I am completely at the mercy of these men and there is nothing I can tell them.
They continue to press for information, their questions growing more specific and more threatening. I don’t know the answers, and they don’t believe me. They somehow think I’m holding out, that I’m protecting Kirill even now.
“She’s a tough one, I’ll give her that, Boris.” Aleksei has just hauled the bag off my head yet again. I hang limply from my bonds, too exhausted and drained to even fight back anymore. I can’t think clearly, my head pounding as I struggle for air.
Where did they even get the idea that I would know anything? What do they actually want from me other than to lure Kirill out?
Yet again, I’m visualizing cold blue eyes and platinum hair.
She did this.
Zoya sold me out to these people.
It’s all her fault.
“You know, Boris, I think we’ve been going too easy on her.
” Aleksei is running contemptuous eyes over me.
They’re toying with me, but I’m too far gone to care anymore.
That is until his next words have me jolting in shock, horror pulsing through my veins.
“Last chance, bitch,” he snarls, drawing a knife from a sheath at his hip.
“Start talking or I’ll cut that baby out. ”
“No!” I scream the word hoarsely, twisting and writhing. He grabs my hair, yanking my head back. The blade glitters evilly as he traces a pattern in the air in front of my face.
“Do you want to meet your child in person?” he roars.
“I can make it happen right now!” The sharp point moves dangerously close to my eyes, and I cringe away, my lashes flitting.
He trails the tip down my chin, my throat, my chest, and then down the valley of my cleavage.
I’m not breathing again, but now it has nothing to do with having a bag over my head.
I swallow convulsively, terrified that even this small gesture might have the razor-sharp edge piercing my skin.
“Have you ever seen what an unborn child looks like, Boris?” Aleksei twists his head to look at the other man.
“Not yet.” Boris gives an ugly chuckle. “But I’m ready to find out.”
Aleksei looks back at me. I’m paralyzed with fear, my body trembling as I stare into his cold, dead eyes.
I don’t know what to do, how to save myself and my baby.
If I’d hoped they’d go easy on me because I’m pregnant, I’d been dead wrong.
It only seems to have given them more ammunition to torment me.
“Let’s get rid of this first,” he says, sliding the blade beneath the fabric of my dress and applying slight pressure. The blade is so sharp that it slices through the material like a hot knife through butter. The ruined garment falls open, exposing the lace of my bra and all the way to my belly.
“Ahh. Very nice.” Boris is leering at me, his eyes moving over my breasts and then down further.
I can’t breathe. Nor think. All I can do is feel the cold metal of the knife against my skin and hear the sound of Boris’s laughter.
The blade presses into my stomach, and I feel a warm trickle of blood slide down my skin.
I shriek as the shallow cut begins to sting as the cool air meets it.
The sting turns into a burn as sliced nerve endings react.
“Please,” I gasp. “Please. You can’t be this evil. You can’t!”
“Why not?” Aleksei’s eyes are cold and empty. He’s enjoying this, enjoying the power he has over me. He traces the blade in a slow circle around my belly button, and I can’t help but flinch away from the sharp edge.
“You know, Boris,” he says, his voice low and menacing. “I’m starting to think our little friend here is telling the truth. She really doesn’t know anything.”
Boris chuckles, his eyes never leaving my face. “Then she’s no use to us, is she?”
“That’s right,” Aleksei agrees, pressing the blade harder into my skin. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun with her before we get rid of her.”
“You’re right. Petrov only told us to find out what she knows. He never said what he wanted us to do with her after that.”
“You have heard of death by a thousand cuts, have you not, suka ?” Boris’s expression is baleful.
The knife in his hand presses deeper. I scream, the sound echoing through the room and the hall beyond.
I can feel the blood trickling from a series of tiny gashes he’s knicked into my skin, and I know I don’t have much time left.
I have to do something. Say something. anything to get away from these monsters.
But before I can even try to move, I hear a noise coming from outside. Something that sounds like gunfire. It’s distant at first, but it quickly grows louder. Then, an explosion rings out. And then another. Aleksei and Boris exchange a glance, and I can see the alarm in their eyes.
They know what’s coming.
Kirill Vyronov is here.