24. Nadia
24
NADIA
M y gag was a soggy, soaking mess of a rag. Erik jammed it in there so tight, my jaw ached. The knots tugged at my hair, and it took conscious effort to breathe steadily through my nose.
I couldn’t risk passing out. I had to stay alert and with it, to track where we were going. Whatever I could do to help the effort to get back to Maxim, I would do it.
I refused to lose him. With this separation, I knew without a doubt that I belonged with that Mafia man. Doubts filled my head when we arrived at that penthouse, but now that I was violently whisked away, I yearned to be right back at his side.
Erik hauled me out of the building in a cart. It looked like a housekeeper trolley, only heavier duty like something a maintenance man might use. Unceremoniously, he dropped me into a large bin like something to collect multiple bags of garbage. I beat at the container, but with the thick plastic walls, my hits were dulled.
No one stopped him. And before I panicked that I’d run out of air, I was tilted to the side, tumbling into the back of a van.
Without the opportunity to look out windows, I was lost. But I remained alert and listened for where we were going. The slow speeds and many turns indicated that we had to be in the city, at lower speed limits. Then the faster rumble of the van zooming along without turns suggested that we were on the highway.
My clues likely wouldn’t do much. I had no way to contact Maxim. I had no phone. No phone number to call. And what could I tell him if I did? I couldn’t tell what direction we traveled. Which way was north or south. Or how long we were in the van for. It felt like several hours, but it was probably much less.
Still, I tried to remember everything that I could. I had to do something, and if paying attention to all I could was the only thing I was capable of, then that was that.
Simmering in anger that Avilov had found me, I struggled to remain calm and levelheaded. Terrified that I would be taken straight to Mr. Avilov, I fought not to get too riled up with horrid emotions that would lock me up.
The irony of finding something with Maxim felt extra bittersweet now. Before, I didn’t have any direction in my life. My only mode of living was to avoid being married off. After I met Maxim, though, just mere days ago, I had so much to live for.
His affection. The intimacy we shared. All those moments of knowing how thoroughly he wanted to keep me safe.
I will not give up. I won’t lose.
When the van slowed, I tensed and perked up to pay attention. It stopped completely, and the second the engine turned off, I sat as still as I could, straining to hear. Breathing faster in anticipation, I roved my gaze back and forth, as if I could guess which of the double doors in the back might open first.
I heard nothing but the pounding of my pulse. I felt nothing but the tension of anxiety and dread. I had no means to fight back, tied up and gagged. My odds weren’t looking good, but I still refused to surrender to the fear or panic creeping up my spine and threatening to take over me.
Erik flung the doors open and didn’t waste time reaching inside and grabbing me by the ankle. He’d only tied my hands, so it was with great force that I kicked at him and bucked on the floor to escape his grip.
He won. Of course, he did. He was bigger and stronger, not tied up and wounded. The cut on my cheek bled quicker the more I screamed from behind my gag, but it did nothing. All I did was tire myself out more.
With a rough hold, he carried me into what looked like a huge warehouse. Bruises would litter my flesh from how harshly he brought me in here. He transported me so swiftly that all the details of the location merged in my mind like a dizzying blur.
“Stop fighting it,” he snarled.
I screamed, cursing him out behind the gag silencing me. He tossed me to the ground, and I didn’t wait, slamming my leg out to connect with a hard kick at the back of his ankle.
“Fucking bitch!” He doubled down, grabbing the wounded area, then stood and kicked my thigh.
I breathed through the pain. My nostrils flared. Snot ran out as tears burned in my eyes. Taking the toe of a boot to the leg would never feel good, but it really hurt. Bad.
He spared me any more injuries, though, stalking out of the room and slamming the door shut.
I blinked through the ache and scanned the space I’d been deposited in. It wasn’t much. Like an abandoned office. A table stood to one side, and the chairs looked like they hadn’t been moved in a while. Dust still floated up from the floor in the wake of Erik storming out and slamming the door shut.
Eventually, my exhaustion overcame me. I was so scared, mad, worried, and stressed that I didn’t think I could get tired. I was wired up and locked in a panicky survival mode, but my body was beat. I was too damn tired.
Sleeping with my arms behind me didn’t feel great. My hands went numb. My shoulders ached. I didn’t sit in the chair, afraid I’d fall out of it, but I kept my back slumped against the wall with my legs sprawled out ahead of me.
I drifted in and out of consciousness. It was hands-down the single worst night of rest. When I woke, giving up trying to close my eyes again, I prayed there was a god in the universe that would get me water. My stomach clenched with hunger pains, but I was so dehydrated that I doubted this headache would ever go away.
After several minutes of stretching my legs the best I could with that hard kick from Erik, the door opened. I tensed, immediately nervous at who could be coming in. Two men walked in with Erik. One held water bottles and the other had a bag of food. Erik was on the phone, and he stayed on it as the men set the bag and water on the table.
I glared at the taller one who smiled at me. He smirked as he put containers of food on the table, and as they all sat divvying up the meal, I knew they were pure evil. Taunting me like that. Eating in front of me and not offering anything. They were terrible, sadistic torturers.
Erik propped the phone up and continued to talk to whoever had an even thicker accent.
“We have another location, Erik,” the other man said.
“Uncle,” Erik replied with a roll of his eyes at the tall man who kept checking me out. “That’s not smart.”
Uncle? He was talking to Lev!
“If we keep moving around, it’ll give our enemies too many chances to follow us.”
“Nonsense,” Lev yelled. “I am the boss. You listen to me.”
The shorter man seated with them laughed, chuckling under his breath. Erik mouthed, Not for long, fucker.
I blinked, watching and listening to it all.
Erik planned to take over the Avilov name? I couldn’t wait to share this with Maxim. His brothers, especially Alek, would want to know.
“We have the location the Kastavas are using,” Lev said.
“In New York?” Erik asked, smirking.
“Yes. They are using it to hold their other hostages.” Lev coughed a wheezy, then hacking, sound.
Kastava! I recalled the name. I didn’t know much about them, just the little that Maxim had told me. Sergei Kastava tried and failed to take over the Valkov Bratva. And more recently, Sergei captured Maxim’s brother, Dmitri.
My God, they’ve got to be talking about him. I tried not to look like I was listening in to everything they said, but I was riled up with newfound excitement. If they were discussing Dmitri…
Oh, I’ve got to find a way to contact Maxim!
“It’s time I deal with those motherfuckers,” Lev said. “At first, when Petrov said they would send reinforcements to bring my bride home, I thought it was about time something was done. I figured the Valkovs wouldn’t have the power to spare after Pavel’s death. I was impressed that Alek would send his brother to assist.”
Erik smiled and shook his head.
“But then the motherfucker tries to stop you from personally retrieving her?” Lev let out a string of curses. “He took her. He stood in the way, fighting you back, and now my bride’s been missing with him all this time.”
“Yeah,” Erik replied. “She was with him, all right.”
“And probably fucking her nonstop.” More curses filed over the line from Lev. “I’ll beat her. I’ll whip those memories out of her. But I’ll be damned if I don’t make the Valkovs pay. You take my bride to where his brother is,” he ordered, “and we’ll kill two birds with one stone.”
Erik scowled at the phone. “I don’t think all that’s necessary, Uncle.”
“I am the boss!” he roared. “I say what shall be done. We’ve given Sergei Kastava far too much money, far too much funding and backing, and we can override them where Dmitri is concerned.”
That confirmed it. They had him, all right.
“Sergei thinks he can get Alek to step down for the price of his brother’s life.”
Erik chuckled. “Well, I’ve been busy making sure that fucker is just barely hanging on to the last thread of his life.”
You asshole. He was gloating, happy as can be that he’d been torturing Dmitri alongside the Kastavas at that location. I thought it was impossible to hate him even more, but I did. Down to the depths of my heart.
“Take my bride there. I will meet you there. We will show the Valkovs what happens when they interfere with my plans.” Lev disconnected the call.
Erik and his two friends didn’t seem bothered. They continued to eat and drink without a worry, rubbing it in my face. I was starving and dehydrated, and they didn’t care.
“I say we should do what he says, Erik,” the shorter, bald man said.
“No.” Erik shook his head. “I don’t want to mess with the goddamn Valkovs now. We need to eliminate him .” He jerked his thumb at me without looking my way. “We’ll bring her there but hand her over before we reach the place they’re keeping those hostages. Lev will be infatuated and too busy with her to realize I’m going to kill him. And the Kastavas can do whatever the fuck they want with Dmitri Valkov. It’s not our concern. All we gotta focus on is getting rid of my uncle. Then we will rule. Right?”
They agreed, saluting each other with some sort of hand gesture as they clinked their bottles together in a toast.
“Besides, the bitch will be dead too. As soon as we hand her over to my uncle, I’ll kill them both. That would be just as good as letting him kill Dmitri. It’d be a more fitting message.”
“How so?” the taller man asked.
“Because I tracked Maxim’s last call to his brother. He practically admitted that he loved her. That he wanted to keep her.”
Dammit! That had to be how Erik knew where to find me.
“If this bitch is someone one of the Valkov brothers wants, then she’s leverage.”
The short, bald man nodded. “Yeah. Best way to attack those men is to hurt or kill their women.”
They discussed more details, and I was stuck in a stunned state of confusion.
I didn’t doubt that Maxim cared about me. He had to, and he had to have conveyed that sentiment to Alek when they spoke in order to get his brother’s support in all of this.
But to be considered his woman? I hated it because it made him more vulnerable. They’d hurt Maxim—all the Valkovs in association—by killing the woman he might love. Addressing that , that Maxim might love me, was too big of a concept to think about right now. I couldn’t. If I let my emotions rule me, I would lose this logical approach to staying alive and getting away.
But now…
I couldn’t get away. Not if that meant abandoning his brother. If they brought me near Dmitri, I could not in good conscience only save myself.
I was sick of being used. I hated being a victim of anything. Now, I had a chance to do something. To stand for something, or someone.
Maxim had proven time and time again how much of a protector he was. In return, I would rise to the challenge and do the same for him and his family. I would do whatever I could to learn about where Dmitri was being held. If they took me there, I would do my best to help him get out and back to his brothers who were already so worried about his condition.
Today was the last day I would ever sit back and only think of my own survival. Of my own escape plan. Until now, I ran for my own sense of survival. I couldn’t do that this time.
Because I loved Maxim. From the bottom of my heart. It happened quickly, but so boldly. My heart belonged with his, and I’d be damned if I wouldn’t try to help him however I could.
Even if it meant not running until I could drag his brother out with me.