Chapter 35
Mercer
My one good eye tracks the two Americans warily. I don’t trust them at fucking all, but I’m trying. Mostly. Louhi obviously trusts them, which would normally be good enough for me. But they look like they’re military, and that makes my blood run cold and my hair stand on end.
As the three of them make trips to and from the car, emptying whatever vehicle they brought, their easy, natural camaraderie is noticeable.
The one with the darker complexion and golden-colored eyes looks like the nicer of the two men, with his bright expressions and boisterous laughter. I get the sense that it’s a front.
He reminds me a little of Louhi, burying his more savage layers. My sister, on the other hand, keeps her violence simmering just beneath the surface. I don’t know how deep you’d have to dive to see that man’s danger.
The other bloke, the one who can’t stop touching Lou, his brutality is right there on his face for all to see.
He’s huge, with muscles stacked atop muscles.
He looks like he could flip a motherfucking car.
I bet my sister likes that. She shines like the sun every time their bodies connect, and because of that, I’m making an effort not to transform into some sort of primitive caveman.
I didn’t even fight when he took my gun from me—I’m trying.
Well, sort of. I still have the blade tucked beneath my thigh.
I’m confident I could have the tip embedded in his brain before he so much as got a shot off.
It doesn’t take the three of them long to unload the car.
I’d volunteered to help, but my broken ribs still make it hard to breathe, and when I tried to get up, Lou told me not to.
I wasn’t going to argue, not when the severe laceration in my ankle is still extremely painful.
Based on how lethargic and exhausted I feel, I’ve wondered if I might have internal bleeding.
The overgrown one—Digs, I think she called him—strides through the room with bags in his arms and disappears down the hallway.
The other guy—Jacob? James? J-something—enters the front room, where I’m reclined with a bottle of wine, a glass, and three beers.
He holds a beer out for me, but I shake my head. I’m not drinking that swill.
I’m the one who originally introduced Lou to exquisite wine, and the ghost of a smile tugs at my lips when I catch sight of the label on the Bordeaux that’s been brought into the room.
She obviously had to go to a specialty shop for that.
Too bad I’m in no condition to consume alcohol.
I’ve surprised myself that I’ve woken up every day for the last fifteen days.
I halfway assumed I’d die in my sleep at some point.
He shrugs, as though to say, suit yourself, and falls into an adjacent chair. He pops the top on two beers with an exaggerated sigh as he settles into the seat.
The bear of a man appears and drops into the seat across from me.
When my sister starts to walk past, presumably to sit next to me, he wraps his huge forearm around Lou’s middle and drags her onto his lap.
She giggles as she leans forward and sets about removing the cork and pouring herself a glass of the burgundy liquid.
“So, Mercer,” the one with a J-name starts, “Why don’t you tell us why you look like you got thrown from the window of a forty-story building?”
I’ve known this moment was coming since my sister fell into my arms and pulled me out of the pit of despair I’d fallen into when she arrived. She brought hope with her when she arrived. She just didn’t know it. With her here, I can see my plan through to the end.
“Jace,” my sister chastises with a giggle as she chucks the cork at him. Jace, not James. “He doesn’t look that bad. Maybe only a five or ten story building.”
He chuckles, and even I bite the inside of my cheek to stop my lips from twitching. I should be offended, but I have seen better days.
“Seriously, man,” Jace speaks again. “Who has your ear?”
I didn’t think I’d get away with silence regarding my story for long, but I was hoping it would be something Lou and I could discuss privately.
But the glare the behemoth beneath her shoots me tells me I’m not so lucky.
Based on the various cuts and bruises on Lou’s exposed skin, I worry she lived a similar plotline.
“The United States Army,” I reply succinctly. I’ve never been as flowery as Lou.
“They have my toenails and some bits of my skin, too,” Lou chirps, kicking her feet out like I’ve developed X-ray vision in order to see her wiggling her toes inside her boots. If I didn’t loathe the idea of her having been hurt, I’d laugh.
“Where were you being held?” Digs asks, his thumb drawing lazy circles over my sister’s midsection. I’ve never seen anything like it. The Louhi I knew from just six months ago would’ve sawed through his wrist with a dull blade for touching her at all.
“I don’t entirely know. Somewhere in Kazakhstan.”
My attention leaves his thumb for long enough to find him eyeing me suspiciously. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“The gag I was forced to wear most of the time made chatter difficult,” I snap. Plus, I was a little preoccupied trying to survive. I absently rub my wrists where the iron shackles sliced into my flesh.
“How do you know you were in Kazakhstan, then?” Jace speaks up.
I settle back into the cushions, comforted by the feel of the knife handle against my thigh.
My lungs ache as I drag in a shaky breath.
It wouldn’t take a professional for me to know that I’ve got a myriad of issues—internally and externally.
I’ve been beaten, bloodied, waterboarded, and had body parts removed.
I’m shocked they didn’t try to harvest my organs and sell them.
For all I know, that was on the docket. Especially since I refused to answer their questions about what I was going to do with the information I gathered on my target or who I was working for.
“That’s what the driver of the car I stole told me before he was…incapacitated”
“Is the army responsible for your other injuries, or just the ear?” Digs quizzes, his voice gruff.
“They’re responsible for everything.” The more accurate answer is that I suspect he’s the one pulling the strings, but I don’t say that. I don’t trust these men enough to divulge that. Maybe if Lou and I could get alone…
Now that I’m out, I need to take some time to try to heal these injuries, then kill the man I once thought was trustworthy.
I was told to leave it alone; that he’s simply one piece of the much larger tapestry.
After months of digging into that level of depravity, my conscience can’t stand to let that man live one more day on this earth.
Not knowing what I do. What if he has my sister in his sights?
It’s why I expended every ounce of energy I had over the last week putting the information I had on my wall. I’m a visual person, so stretching everything out in front of me was going to give me my best shot at tracking down my sister’s whereabouts, then taking him down.
But now that Lou and I have been reunited, how do I tell her about the danger she’s in with one of her best friends?
“Did you escape, or did they let you go?” Jace asks, his face twisted into a dubious expression.
My eyes flick between him and the man holding my sister. Answering that question feels dangerous. Lou accurately reads the reason behind my reluctance, though, and gives me an encouraging nod.
“Escape,” I reply curtly. I’m omitting the part where I ran for my life, dodging the spray of gunfire and hiding out, nearly naked, behind a snowy embankment until I spotted a car. It wasn’t pretty…or clean. Thank fuck, I was within driving distance of Lou’s safe house.
I only had a few days left of the emergency food stash when my sister showed up, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about that.
“How’d you land yourself imprisoned in the first place?”
My jaw tics at Digs’s question, but it’s Lou whose gaze I hold. Her eyes are soft, but the guilt wells up inside me. I never should’ve asked Lou to take the fall for me, but regret is useless.
“Hazards of my job,” I state cryptically. It’s not a lie.
“What was your plan for Louhi?” Digs presses, his lip curled in contempt.
Nostrils flaring, my hands ball into fists. It’s all I can do not to hurl the knife at his head. “My plan was to come get her.”
My sister nuzzles against his chest. I swear that if I looked out the window, I’d find pigs flying through the bloody sky.
“So, you knew what she’d be subjected to?
” the ?p?r? doubles down, and it’s a miracle I haven’t killed him.
I’m injured, not incapable. I was trained to kill by the infamous Bratva enforcer, Anton Koskinen, so being injured does not make me incapable.
The hearts in Louhi’s eyes are the only thing that’s stopped me.
I love my sister more than anyone else in this world, but I don’t know how much longer my patience will last.