Chapter 34
IVY
I’ve lost track of time. After being dragged into Alexei’s car, I was struck hard in the temple and woke up some time later in this room, the same room he’s kept me in ever since I opened my eyes.
It’s empty except for the hardback chair I’m tied to with heavy, rough rope that cuts into my ankles and wrists.
Peeling streaks of salmon-pink paint cling to the dirty walls and light radiates from behind me.
I’ve given up on trying to escape after twisting in every possible direction for long enough to exhaust myself.
I’m alive.
And I have to remain that way.
Ruslan will find me. Somehow. He has to.
The dark wooden door swings open, spilling golden light across the bare stone floor, and Alexei enters the room for the umpteenth time. Every time he looks at me, his brows lift as if he’s surprised I’m still here.
“I need to pee,” I say as soon as he walks through. “Unless you want me to piss all over myself.”
His beady eyes narrow to slits and his gaze darts briefly down to my legs. “Hold it.”
“I’ve been holding it for the hours you’ve kept me here.
I’m not a robot.” Despite the strength in my voice, my heart beats wildly.
Every ache and growing bruise from the car crash stopped throbbing a few hours ago as numbness spread to every inch of my body, but my temple where Alexei’s fist made contact burns.
Every blink pulls at the bruised skin on my face, and every thump of my heart is mimicked through the blood vessels in my face.
I cling to those two sensations and use them to make myself stronger than I feel.
“It hasn’t been that long,” Alexei replies. “Hold it.”
“Are you kidding me? I can’t see out the window, but I was dark when I woke up and now I can see the shadows getting higher, which means the sun is sinking, and I need to pee!”
“Shut up!” Alexei strides forward and whips his hand out, striking me hard across the face. My head snaps to the side and hot pain explodes across my ear from the impact.
Gritting my teeth, I clench my thighs together then slowly lick my lower lip. As I lift my head, I narrow my eyes and glare at Alexei. “Hit me again and you’ll be cleaning up the mess.”
His lips purse. “Tell me about Ruslan.”
“Huh?”
“Did I hit you so hard that you can’t understand English? Tell me about Ruslan.” Alexei begins pacing back and forth in front of me.
“Take me to the bathroom and I’ll tell you anything.”
He hesitates momentarily. “Tell me and I’ll take you.”
If I were stronger, I’d argue that we were at an impasse, but the possibility of making it to the bathroom is alluring enough to make me shrug. “I don’t know anything about him.”
“Yes, you do,” he snaps. “You’ve spent months with the Suit. You must know all about them.” He stops walking and leans down, grabbing both my shoulders. “No one’s ever spent that long with them. You must know everything.”
My teeth clack as he shakes me back and forth. “I… I barely know anything.”
“Tell me!” Alexei roars suddenly, making me flinch, and a lump begins forming in my throat.
“I don’t know! I was their prisoner, okay? Ruslan kidnapped me from the hospital and held me in some place.”
“What place?”
He doesn’t know where the base is, does he? Ruslan mentioned how secretive they were. I shrug. “I have no idea. The windows were high and they never let me out. Any time we left, they’d blindfold or drug me, so I have no clue. Something all you Mafia fucks have in common, it seems.”
Alexei’s fingers dig painfully into my shoulders for a moment, then he releases me and steps away while rubbing his jaw. It’s faint, but there’s a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
Is he… scared?
The Suit must be the reason I’m still alive, but I can’t quite work out why. It’s not like I’m a member. “So can you take me now?”
“Is it true there are only five members? There aren’t any secret ones?”
I shrug. “I only ever saw five, but they’re always calling people. Who knows? Look, can you just—”
“You must know something.” He spins back around to face me, eyes flashing with anger. “You know their weaknesses. You know their schedules. You must have eavesdropped on them and learned things, things you don’t even know that you know.”
“Why do you care so much?” I snap as my bladder burns and I shift in my seat.
“I’m just a pawn for both of you, right?
I’m just something to use and shunt back and forth across the board for whatever plan you have, and frankly, I don’t care what you want or what they want, but please just take me to the damn bathroom!
” My voice rises until I’m yelling, hunching over as my core contracts and I’m seconds away from losing my battle.
Alexei, for some reason, finally relents. He snorts in amusement while untying the rope around my wrists and ankles. He grabs my arm and hauls me upward, but I’m unable to stand straight and follow him while hobbling.
“Fucking fine,” he mutters as he drags me out of the room and into a well-lit corridor with carpeted floors and blue decorated walls. It resembles a fancy office and is alarmingly warm compared to the odd, empty room Alexei was keeping me in.
He drags me down the corridor, past several closed doors and around the bend where the bathroom comes into view. As soon as he releases me, I sprint inside, but the door catches on his bulk as he remains in the way.
“I don’t trust you,” he mutters.
“Don’t care,” I gasp as I throw myself into the stall with seconds to spare.
Relieving myself helps clear my thoughts. Alexei’s questions about the Suit must mean something. Since I’m alive, he must need me as a bargaining chip, but would that even work against the Suit? Ruslan, maybe, but I don’t know the others well enough.
Is this really how it’s going to end? He’ll work me down until he learns something that he can use to save his own pathetic life, and then he’ll get away with everything.
Bastard.
After I finish, I step up to the sinks and begin washing my hands while sneaking glances at Ruslan’s reflection in the mirror.
This man raped and killed my mom, tortured and killed my father, blew me up on a plane and then continued to try and kill me to the point of even manipulating my best friend.
Yet he stands there, confident that I’ll be the one to do it.
“Why?” I say suddenly, still washing my hands. “Why did you do it?”
Alexei glances back at me. “What?”
“My mom. My dad… You killed them both. You tried to kill me, and now you expect me to help you?”
“I don’t need your help,” Alexei sneers darkly. “As soon as I have what I want, I’ll kill you.”
My heart lurches, but I force myself to remain calm. “Then tell me why. It’s not like it’s going to change anything.”
Alexei is silent until I turn off the tap and reach for a handful of paper towels. “Your father overstepped.”
“With Florence?”
Alexei’s eyes flicker at the mention of her name. “She’s mine, and your father tried to take her from me.”
“I thought you two broke up?” Drying my hands slowly, I study Alexei’s belt in my peripheral while keeping my eyes on him.
“No one breaks up with me,” Alexei growls. “She was mine and she still is. Always.”
So he’s possessive. Jealous. “She doesn’t seem to know that,” I reply, sinking my teeth into the inside of my cheek. The pain is sharp enough to cut through the cloud of fear consuming me as I slowly walk closer. “She was moving on. Going to flee the country.”
Alexei’s jaw shifts back and forth and darkness bleeds around the edge of his vision as his head tilts forward. “She wasn’t going anywhere.”
“Is that why you blew up the plane? To scare her away from flying?”
Alexei suddenly bursts out laughing as if that’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. “No, I blew up the plane to kill you.”
“Me?” Weakness pulses through my knees and my next casual step is unsteady.
“Your father was a cocky son of a bitch. So I showed him that I could get to everyone he cared about.”
Faster and faster, my heart races. I’m a foot away but moving slowly, as if a sudden movement will derail Alexei’s speech. “So you tried to kill me and you r-raped and killed my mother.”
“Now you’re getting it,” he replies with a twisted smile. “Turns out your father was all talk, though, and gave up the ghost before I was even finished with your mom. Pretty little thing, she was. And then I found out you survived.”
“And that I was on the plane your father was using.” I reach him and swallow hard, a wet sound that I’m sure Alexei must hear from how tightly my throat contracts. “Did that feel insulting?”
Alexei scoffs. “You’re not that important.”
“And yet you kept trying to kill me.”
“Loose ends, that’s all.”
“And now I’m the only thing that can save you.” I step closer still, until Alexei’s radiating warmth brushes against my chilled skin. “The information I have is the only thing that will save you from the Suit.”
His dark brows pinch together and his cocky, smarmy smile vanishes. “You’ll talk. They always do.”
“Then you’re shit out of luck because I’m not telling you a damn thing!”
As I speak, I surge forward and lunge for the knife hanging from his belt. At the same time, I shove the wet paper towels into his face and as he stumbles back in alarm, I raise the knife and clutch it in both hands.
“I hate you!” The knife comes down as Alexei raises an arm to defend himself. The blade pierces right into his forearm, and hot, red blood pours out past the knife and over my fingers like a fountain.
“You bitch!” Alexei roars as he stumbles back against the wall.
It’s my chance and I take it. Rushing out of the bathroom, I sprint down the hallway and disappear around the corner. The next corridor mirrors the first but I keep running, feet pounding the floor as I race with every ounce of strength I have.
One door isn’t as white as the others with some discoloration near the handle.
I choose that door, rushing through it and hitting the wall on the other side.
A set of stairs leads upward, so I take them two at a time with no time to think or consider my choice.
The door at the top opens onto an open floor with multiple office cubicles dotted around, the walls just low enough that I can see over the top of the entire display.
I keep running, weaving through the cubicles like I’m well-versed in this kind of obstacle course. My heart pounds like a drum, the pain throbbing in my temple grows louder and louder, and my chest throbs from panting, but I don’t stop.
I can’t stop.
The last door I sprint through leads to a stairwell, and I barely have time to grab the railing before I stumble into it to stop myself from toppling over the edge.
Down. I have to run down.
Just as I run down the first few steps, the door two floors me slams open and bounces against the wall.
“Ivy!” Alexei bellows, his voice echoing and bouncing around the stairwell.
Up.
I run upward. My thighs burn like they’ve been lit on fire, sharp pains throb in my hips, and an odd coppery taste floods the back of my tongue as I sprint up the stairs as fast as I can, praying for another door to take me out of here.
Sweat soaks into my clothes, my hair catches to the back of my neck, and my forehead adds to the panic that’s gradually climbing in my gut.
I thought I could escape. I stabbed him and now he’s really going to kill me, isn’t he?
There’s only one door at the top of the stairwell and I crash through it with a ragged gasp as heavy, booming footsteps thunder up the stairwell behind me.
The door opens out onto the roof of the building, where a cool breeze whisks past me and immediately warms against my skin.
Abandoning the door, I sprint across the rough roof, darting around a couple of ventilation boxes and stumbling over myself as I make it to the edge.
Maybe there’s a fire escape or another close building I can leap to.
No such luck.
As I reach the edge, the severity of the height of this building hits me. A single glimpse at the street miles and miles below makes my stomach lurch and my heart flip up to join the lump in my throat.
There’s nowhere to go.
I’m trapped.
Alexei joins me a second later. He’s panting heavily and brandishing the knife he ripped out of his own arm. The arm in question is drenched in blood and his face twists in fury as he points the blade at me while he stalks forward.
“I was being nice,” he snarls. “I was just talking, but now?” He starts to laugh, a hollow sound. “Now I’m going to fuck you harder than I fucked your mother, and then I’m going to chop you up and send bits to Ruslan until he gives me what I want.”
“Not if I die here,” I gasp breathlessly, taking one step back toward the edge.
“I’ll jump. I’ll jump and I’ll kill myself and then there’s nothing standing between you and a slow, painful death at Ruslan’s hands.
And you know him. He’s the Ace. He’ll make sure it takes weeks, maybe even months, because if I’ve learned anything about him over these past few months, it’s that he doesn’t half-ass anything! ”
My rambling is partially a cover as I scan my surroundings, praying for a solution to present itself.
I don’t want to die.
I want to go home. Back to Ruslan. I want to thank him for saving my life, for not giving up on me and for caring about me even when I was the worst version of myself.
Wind rushes past me, grabbing at my clothes with its long, cold fingers and threatening to pull me off the edge. Alexei’s eyes narrow, and he tosses the knife, reaching for the handgun at his hip instead.
Fear spears through me like a blade.
“It’s over,” he snarls. “You won’t jump. You’re so fucking pathetic that you—”
Alexei is suddenly bowled over, and he hits the ground with a loud yell. My chest contracts so painfully that I can’t breathe as I glimpse who the hell is on top of him.
“Ruslan?”