Chapter 11
I beg her finest motherfucking pardon? His brava fucking ragazza sex doll?
My eye twitches and our breaths mingle as I invade the space around her.
Odessa Kuznetsov is nobody’s fucking anything but mine.
I knew by the way she took my cock that she had some form of a sexual experience in her life, but she was abused and assaulted for five years? Five? Fucking? Years?
The bruising on her body pisses me off even more, because Ferrero thoroughly broke her.
He stole her from me and stole all that she was, all that she was meant to be at my side, from me.
He cost me my fucking family. My sanity.
He took what wasn’t his to take and Odessa was ready to die because of him.
“Did he…” My fingers brush over the fingerprints on her neck with a tenderness I certainly do not feel. I physically shake my head of my errant thoughts and ask again. “When he did this to you,” I brush my thumb over the scab on her lower lip, “did he?—”
“No,” she answers quickly, her eyes never wavering from mine when she speaks.
Her delicate hands cup my cheeks and it’s as if her touch quells the fire burning through my veins.
My stomach twists uncomfortably at the sudden change but I ignore it, redirecting my focus on her face as she explains, “With Santino, the pain always overpowered the pl?—”
“Don’t you fucking dare say pleasure ,” I hiss, but she has the nerve to put a finger over my lips to silence me.
“But that’s what it was, unfortunately. It’s not something I wanted, nor did I ask for.
In fact, I fought him every chance I got in the beginning, but I soon learned that he was less violent if I was less combative.
” Her dark eyes pin me to the spot and I can’t look away.
I welcome the feeling of her nails digging into the skin of my jaw as she continues.
“He took me and broke me and turned me into this… monster who craved the pain. I wanted to fight him so that he would hurt me. Because feeling the pain on the outside was better than the pain I felt in here,” she says, tapping my chest. “When I felt like the world had finally forgotten about me, I gave up. I started to hope that he’d finally take it too far.
To put an end to the shame and disgust I felt when my body would react against my will to his touch. I hated— hate him, but I hate me more.”
She tries to curl back into herself at her admission, but I’ll be having none of that.
Gripping her hips, I pull her into my lap until her small, lithe body is straddling my thighs.
I revel in the fact that she comes willingly.
A quick hiss bursts from my lips when her knee brushes the spot on my side where she stabbed me earlier, and the zap of pain hardens my dick because like her, I crave and get off on it.
The only difference is that mine came with the experience of willingly testing my limits. Her choice was stolen from her.
I cup her ass and scoot her closer to me until we’re nose to nose. “I’m not going to promise you a life of sunshine and rainbows and peace on earth. What I can promise you, though, is to bathe the world in the blood of whoever dares to try taking your power from you.”
“But you took?—”
“Control,” I interject, leaning in to nip at her neck before whispering against the shell of her ear, “because you’ve always had power over me.”
Her body tenses over my words, and I can tell by her silence that she doesn’t believe me. That’s fine. It doesn’t change the truth that’s plagued me for years.
I look up through my lashes over her shoulder to find Calix and Rune watching me with rapt attention.
I ponder how well Odessa would respond to the four of us together, but I file it away for later because now isn’t the time and I don’t trust myself not to hurt anyone who comes near her that isn’t me.
I shift Odessa in my lap until she’s sideways, but of course she fights me and my “ manhandling,” as she so lovingly labeled it.
“Adris, I can sit on my own.”
“Shhh-ut the fuck up and just rest, little Wraith. ” I lay my head back against the headrest, watching as Calix lays his head in Rune’s lap so he can rub his fingers through his curly hair.
I smirk. “Murdering a man is no walk in the park, and you’re going to need your energy.
Otherwise the arrow can get stuck in the squishy, fleshy part of the?—”
“Ew, Adris, okay. Stop talking,” she snaps while simultaneously settling into my chest. Just before her breathing evens out, her last words force a silent, yet equally unhinged chuckle to barrel through my chest. “Fucking psychopath.”
No lies detected there.
“I’m your psychopath, baby. And now there’s nowhere you could go that could keep me from finding you. Even if it’s right into a goddamned grave.”
A whole-ass eternity later, we touched down in Italy and had to pay an old fisherman to discreetly drop us off on the far side of the island where Santino was spotted docking the previous night.
It took a few hours to trek through the island to get just beyond the perimeter of Ferrero’s property.
We couldn’t risk a vehicle being seen or heard. It fucking sucked, but we survived.
Once we were about a mile out, Rune had done a thorough scan for security and hacked their entire system to get a headcount on security detail which is…
not a lot of men. Santino has an entire horde of enemies six miles long and he’s only got barely more than tw o dozen men stationed outside of his hideaway?
Dumbfuck thinks he’s so untouchable. But hey, his loss, our win.
Hours later, I’m feeling ragey and ready to fucking drive my arrows not just through some hearts, but I’m about to start cracking skulls open at the sight of Odessa after having to look at every mark on her body in all shades of daylight.
Her bruising is so much worse, but the determined set of her jaw makes the marring spots look like fucking war paint.
It’s hot. Like, I’ve been trekking through the fucking forest with a semi rubbing against my zipper for hours, hot.
She’s still wearing my black button down top with the sleeves rolled up and one of my belts cinched around her waist. Her tan legs are still bare, save for the scrunched-up socks and combat boots that were waiting for her when we deboarded the plane.
Courtesy of Calix “ Tenderheart ” Sterling.
Fucker.
I wasn’t about to let my little Wraith traipse through the woods with no protection for her dainty feet, but he fucking beat me to it. Made my eye twitch when he blushed while handing them to her.
I couldn’t see reason beyond my jealousy and need to claim her all over again, so I pressed her up against the railing on the front deck of the boat and made her come all over my fingers while I swallowed her every moan.
It’s nearly time to move in and expunge the life force from the shit stain that is Santino Ferrero, and I’m practically vibrating with anticipation.
Killing people is what I do. It’s my norm.
Last night was enough to throw me so off-balance that I’m shocked as fuck I don’t have a trail of bodies haunting me.
Calix followed Rune to find higher ground about fifteen minutes ago to scope out a spot to set up his sniper rifle.
Rune isn’t just a master hacker and technology genius, but he’s one of the best marksmen in the Volkov bratva.
If there’s anyone I trust implicitly to take out the appetizers before I get to the main course, it’s Rune Volkov.
Odessa and I remain where we are, hunkered down and hidden within the heavy brush, waiting for the “all clear” from the boys.
I’m trying to give her a little lesson in how to shoot a gun, handle a knife, and the best angle to stab a man with my arrows, but I can tell she’s distracted.
Anxious. I’d originally thought that cutting her non-dominant hand was a stroke of luck, but she barely has the strength to pull back the slide and hammer on the pistol with her right hand, so we’re flying by the seat of our fucking pants when I get it ready for her.
Before she can fire off a rogue shot, I switch the safety on so she doesn’t accidentally shoot me or herself.
“Keep the fucking safety on until you’re ready to shoot, Wraith. ”
She simply nods and inhales a shaky breath.
The arrows are self-explanatory but I drove the point home that she’s not to use them unless she’s up close and personal with an incapacitated or de-weaponized victim.
She’s entirely too small to be charging in like a raging bull with nothing but an arrow.
So we’re moving on to knives. I keep a grip over her hand as I show her the basic workings of the OTF knife I gave her. She’s right-handed, so it’s a bit awkward to maneuver with her left, but the mechanics should be simple enough.
“This one’s easy,” I tell her. “Just press this mechanism here and—” The knife emerges from the front of the blade in the blink of an eye with a snick . “To retract it…” I demonstrate and she nods.
I let go of her hand and watch her practice a few times before she tucks several of them into the belt around her waist.
She starts to pace as she pulls the gun out and just stares at it in her hand.
My dead heart stutters when I think she’s going to turn the fucking thing on herself, but I force my muscles to relax when I see that she’s only familiarizing herself with her weapon.
I feel an odd mix of uncertainty and pride because she’s not only taken all the instructions without missing a beat, but not even twenty-four hours ago, she was ready to die.
“You good?” I ask, feeling like that’s the right question to ask here. Her eyes snap to mine and understanding softens her gaze.
“I’m…” She takes a deep breath. “I’m okay. ”