Chapter 21
Cara
Days bleed into weeks since I was taken.
And I still don’t know who is behind it. Being in the dark this much is starting to make me lose my mind. In fleeting moments when I’m teetering on the line of unconsciousness, part of me can’t help but wonder if any of this is even real.
They won’t let me remove the blindfold, though.
They’re determined to stay anonymous. There was only one moment when the blindfold was almost knocked off my head because I was struck so hard, and the only thing that I saw was a man’s hand with a large, oval-shaped ring on his finger with some sort of symbol in the middle.
That little glimpse wasn’t enough.
I’m just as screwed as I was before.
I swallow thickly, my throat sore. Dried blood sticks to my chapped lips and my chin, a deep, dull ache radiating throughout my entire body. A nearby rustle makes me tense up, my eyes squeezing shut under the blindfold as I prepare for yet another blow.
But it doesn’t come.
When the man behind all this picked up that knife and sliced away while interrogating me, I thought that he would kill me that day or the next.
I was sorely mistaken.
Cutting me progressed to punching me. Kicking me. Pulling out my hair from the scalp. Any sort of abuse the person doing the torturing felt like doing to me because I refused to give up any information. I just couldn’t.
I can’t be the reason Dmitri gets hurt or killed, though it’s probably too late for me.
I breathe in and out slowly and quietly, making myself as still and silent as possible to not draw any attention to myself.
Maybe this guy would just go about his duties and leave me alone.
It’s been days since the leader came down here to torment me and laugh in my face about how no one is coming to rescue me, that Dmitri wouldn’t even listen to his offer when he called him.
I don’t believe him. I can’t. If I believe that there’s no end in sight to this, then why am I fighting so hard through the pain and starvation to survive?
“Disgusting,” the man mutters as he walks near me, the vibration of his footsteps echoing through the floor under my feet.
I’ve been without my sight for so long that I’ve had to learn the shape of this hell by sound and smell.
Around five men, including the leader, have come down to periodically feed me and water me, lead me to the bathroom, and take turns torturing me. I’m sure there are more upstairs who have also come down, but there are only a handful of voices that I recognize so far.
“If you don’t start talking soon, we’ll start withholding your food,” the man warns me.
“You barely feed me as it is,” I mutter, my voice cracking and weak. Bread and water aren’t a nutritional diet.
The man steps close enough for me to feel the heat of his larger body. “I don’t think you want to be smart with me. We can get creative.”
If I had more strength, I would laugh because what in the world is he talking about? I feel about as alive as roadkill.
“Kill me or let me go,” I tell him, keeping my head down. “I’m not telling you anything about anyone. I don’t even know anything to begin with.”
“You were in the middle of Dmitri’s operations, and you grew up in the Irish mob. I find that very hard to believe,” the man hisses at me. “You’ve at least overheard things.”
I merely clench my jaw, refusing to say a word. I do know some things, but there’s a lot that they have asked me that I truly don’t have a clue about. How am I supposed to know what Luca has been up to? Or what secrets Andrei is hiding?
I barely even know either of them!
The man grabs the back of my neck, forcing my head to tilt back.
If I didn’t have the blindfold on, I’d be staring up into his eyes.
I bet he looks pissed off. “If you would just work with us, we could make some adjustments. Maybe you could be chained to a bed instead of tied to a chair. Maybe you could have a bigger meal.”
“All you want me to do is sell out other people,” I say with a faint sneer. “You took my sight. My comfort. You don’t get my dignity too.”
The man releases my neck roughly, making my head jerk back forward. “You need a shower.”
As if I don’t know that. I feel disgusting. My clothes are so dirty and stained with blood that they’re stiff, and my skin feels sticky.
The only way for things to get worse is if I got my period and started bleeding on myself too.
My frustration quickly fades as my blood chills, my heart thudding to a sudden stop.
My period.
If I’ve been here for weeks, like I think I have, then shouldn’t I have gotten my period?
My heart restarts and slams against my ribcage as I try to count and calculate how late I might be. It’s definitely later than a week. On top of everything else, I can’t possibly be pregnant too!
Maybe I’m just late from the stress of the situation or because they’re starving me half the time and beating me the other half. Or because I missed all those birth control pills when Dmitri locked me up.
Who knows? All I know is that my period hasn’t come this month.
The door at the top of the stairs opens and slams shut, followed by the sound of rapid footsteps heading down the staircase.
The man near me sighs heavily.
I strain my ears to hear the voice of whoever walked in, but not a word comes out of them before someone strikes me against the side of the head with an open palm. My ears ring as my skin stings, a pained grunt leaving me.
The man steps away from me, but I can still sense whoever came down in front of me.
My body automatically tenses, preparing me for whatever comes next. Given how our interaction kicked off, I doubt it’s anything good.
I hear a sharp exhale before a flurry of blows land all over my body. A fist to the cheek. A strike to the side of the neck. A kick to the shin. Pain detonates across my body making me grit my teeth and try to endure all that I can.
One more blow lands, and it knocks the air out of my lungs. A kick to my stomach.
“Wait! Stop!” I blurt out, wishing that I could move my arms to protect myself. All that I can do is hunch down as much as possible to prevent more hits to my stomach.
What if I’m pregnant?
The thought hits me like a bullet, stunning me as I consider the possibility. Because it is possible. Dmitri and I had sex when I was missing pills.
I could be pregnant with his baby right now.
The person tries to kick my stomach again, but their foot catches my chest, making a breathless gasp of pain break from me.
“Stop! Not there!”
“Hold on,” the other man says, waiting a few moments before speaking again. “She hasn’t bled since we captured her. That was weeks ago. She should’ve by now, right?”
My blood turns ice cold, my eyes widening under the blindfold. He shouldn’t have figured that out. But what if that works in my favor? What if the people who are holding me captive have enough of a heart to spare my child?
“Holy shit. That means it’s probably Dmitri’s kid,” the man continues.
I swallow hard as silence follows his words, anxiety heating my skin.
Even monsters hesitate around babies. Sometimes.
The person in front of me moves, but instead of walking away, they drive their foot even harder against my belly.
A cry of pain rips from me, my guts hurting so much that I feel like throwing up. I release a few pained coughs before gasping for air, my lungs burning. However, through the spike of agony, anger breaks through.
“What the hell? Fuck you!” I grit out before spitting ahead of me.
I don’t know if it even hit its target, but it pissed off the person enough for them to slap me in the face. I grit my teeth against the sting, tears pricking at my eyes. Somehow, I’m in even more danger than before.
Possibly carrying Dmitri’s child has put an even larger target on my forehead.
“Stop!” the man growls at the other person. “I need her alive for the trade!”
The person huffs and storms back up the stairs, slamming the door shut behind them.
I hang my head, exhausted and hurt. I’m glad that the man sent the other one away, but he’s a monster too.
They’re all the same. Cruel. Empty. Every single damn one of them.
“For you and your kid’s sake, you better start talking,” the man grunts before heading out of the basement as well, leaving me alone.
A sob breaks from me the moment the door shuts, my tears soaking into the blindfold as my body shakes. As if things can’t get any worse! How am I supposed to survive this?
If I am pregnant, how are we supposed to make it out of this alive?
I’ve been stuck in this hell for weeks, and there hasn’t even been a semblance of a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like I’m dying. And if Dmitri is searching for me, I don’t know if he’s going to find me in time. The man said he needs me alive, but for how long?
With what my captors have learned today, I don’t think I have much time left.