26. Peyton
PEYTON
I sat on the toilet seat for four full minutes taking deep breaths and pushing them out. Tears welled, and I pushed them down the way I’d been doing my entire life.
At the end of the four minutes, I wrapped up the test in the packaging, then in a huge wad of toilet paper, and shoved it down into the bottom of the trash.
Overkill, maybe, but I did not need the next person who walked in here to see that right away.
I washed my hands and patted my face to put color in my cheeks and sniffed once as I straightened my shoulders and unlocked the door.
Nothing on the other side of the door had changed.
I had. I wanted to smile but kept it contained because smiling for no reason was the kind of thing everyone would notice.
The feeling lingered, right under my sternum.
Underneath the ‘holy hell, what do I do now?’ was a warm, quiet feeling.
None of this was how I pictured it. None of it matched my version of the plan I’d loosely constructed in the back of my mind over the years.
And I couldn’t find it in myself to care.
I wanted this baby.
That was one thousand percent guaranteed.
Whatever came next, whatever the conversation unveiled about the men I shared a house with, I was having–and keeping–this baby.
Beneath the nerves and the fear, a completely immovable resolve settled.
I needed to tell them in a way that was more than a sentence dropped like a bomb that might cause the whole situation to implode.
I wanted to make is special for them, kind of test the waters in a way they didn’t expect.
I rounded the corner and walked straight into Elena.
Eyes wide, her whole face full of shock, she grabbed my arms and rocked us both back. “Peyton. There you are.” Her grip tightened.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mr. Petrov has been looking for you. He needs you in the parking garage. Right now.” Her grip turned painful.
I turned toward his office automatically. “The parking garage? But we just got to work. He’s in a meeting.” They were all in meetings.
Elena shook her head. “No. I mean, they were in meetings, but something happened. Misha left first, and then Leo found me.”
Hearing her call them by their first names rocked me to my core. “What did he say?”
“He said something happened to Misha. He needs you to meet him. Now. Parking garage. Level three.”
Level three. Where we had all started parking yesterday. Another why and the rampage of questions choked me. Leo needed me. “Is he okay?”
“I don’t know. Just go.” She pushed me toward the elevator.
I took off at a sprint, straight through the elevator doors.
Slamming my palm against the button, I twisted my hands together, not stopping until the doors opened and I rushed inside.
Turning, I pressed the button on the opposite wall, the one that opened their private elevator into the parking garage.
A brush of cold air hit my face, blowing my hair back as I stepped out, scanning the area for Leo’s car.
It sat in the corner, three spaces down from mine. “Leo?” My voice bounced off the concrete ceiling. I moved toward the car. “Leo, what happened? Is Misha okay?”
Movement in my peripheral vision stopped me in my tracks, my hand going to my side, only to realize I’d left my bag upstairs. “Leo?”
Leo would answer me.
Which meant the movement here was not something I wanted to encounter.
I turned on my heel and raced for the elevator.
Leo would call out to me.
He would not let me be frightened.
Men rushed out of the spaces between cars, one blocking my escape via elevator.
Tall. Broad shoulders. Mean eyes.
That was all I saw before they grabbed me.
Three men.
Hands everywhere.
I shrugged and threw my elbows out on either side, trying to wrench my body out of their hands.
I opened my mouth to scream.
Something hit the back of my knees, sending me crashing down onto the concrete.
I screamed anyway, knowing no one would hear me.
Nobody knew I was here except Elena.
Elena who had a keycard that accessed every floor.
Elena who had come to find me and tell me about Leo and then I’d walked into an ambush.
She’d stopped warning me about them and started asking for details. What did that mean?
A hand closed over my mouth, cutting off my scream. “No.” I tried to bite the palm over my mouth, but the man avoided my teeth.
More hands wrenched my hands behind my back. No. I bucked and threw my body forward, trying to break their hold.
I knew the statistics. If I left this property, most likely, I’d never be seen again.
Everything I’d told Misha came back to me.
I threw my head back, glaring at the camera on the upper corner of the parking garage.
Someone would see me. Someone would rescue me.
You’re safe as long as you’re with us.
Viktor’s reassurance slammed into my chest. I’d run right into this.
I fought the hands holding me back, fought with everything I had, which turned out to be not enough.
These men had done this before.
They moved with my struggling instead of letting go. One held my legs.
Another gripped my arms.
The hand on my arm tightened and something flashed in my peripheral.
A needle. My eyes went wide even as my muffled scream turned shrewish. Nothing mattered. They had me locked down, and the needle jabbed into my neck. I lost feeling in my legs first, then my arms. The world went sideways, my vision blurring. No.
I slumped to the side, my thoughts fuzzy at the edges, then doing dark altogether.
My baby. I had to protect my baby.
My body ached, and my mouth tasted like I’d drank pond water. I should know, I’d done it once on a dare from my brother.
I licked my cracked lips and tried to lift my head. Nope. It weighed a million pounds. I blinked, staring at the concrete floor under my feet. My tied up feet.
Wait. What happened? I twisted my hands, trying to pull them up to rub my eyes. Nope. Couldn’t do that either.
A few blinks brought more of the world into view, as far as I could see without moving my head. Concrete floor. Chair legs. And on the edge of my vision, a wall. I twisted my wrists again. Definitely tied up.
I pulled on the restraints again. My neck ached where the needle had gone in. I needed a plan to get out of here.
Leo would notice. Viktor would find me. Misha would save me.
They would come for me. Leo’s warning about their having enemies became my reality.
A tingling sensation spread up my arms and into my neck. I lifted my head, and it fell all the way back until I was staring at the ceiling. More concrete. Nice.
The door opened, and a man walked in.
He strolled like he had all the time in the world, his eyes cold and hard. He reminded me of every villain in every scary movie I’d ever watched, and my pulse reacted appropriately.
He undid the buttons on his jacket and swept it to either side of his hips, revealing the same toned physique my men sported.
He was older, with gray at his temples and lines fanning from his eyes. He set his hands on his hips and stared down at me. “Miss Stirling.” His accent was punctuated and deeply Russian. “I apologize for the accommodations.”
I cocked my head to the side. Did I let my sass go or hold it in? A shudder rippled down my spine. Definitely hold it.
“My name is Anton Krachenko. I expect you understand what that means since you are so close to Leonid.” He spat the name at me, his lips curling.
Anton? I knew that name. This was the man Leo asked me about. But… but it had all been roleplaying. I’d shown up and removed my dress and then they’d started asking me questions like it was in interrogation. All make-believe.
Then why was a very large, very angry Russian staring me down?
This was not playacting. This was real.
Everything they’d ever half-told me rearranged itself in a breath. The enemies they mentioned, along with the surveillance, made sense now.
I’d accepted all of it because I trusted them, and I still trusted them, but the edges were fraying.
I’d been kidnapped because of them.
My baby was at risk because of them.
Anton moved to the side and sank onto a nearby chair. The only other chair. “You are important to Leonid, Viktor, and Mikhail.” The sneer deepened with each of their names. “This makes you useful to me.”
“I’m their secretary.” I licked my lips again. “I work in their office. I schedule appointments.” My voice cracked, the dryness turning severe enough to steal the last word.
Anton smiled the eerie, calculated grin of satisfaction. “You live in their home, Miss Stirling. You have for weeks. You and Mikhail drive to work together.” He ticked off each point on his fingers. “I know a great deal about your arrangement with them. More, perhaps, than you know about theirs.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“What do you want?” I dragged my spine straight one vertebra at a time. It hurt like a bitch, but I managed.
“What I have always wanted.” He splayed his legs and leaned forward, no more concerned with me than any other monster. “Leverage. Leonid is a problem I need to take care of. You are the solution.”
“What about Leo and Misha? Elena said…” I trailed off as his face shifted. The sneer turned almost gleeful.
“Ah, yes. Elena. Quite the woman.”
No. All my previous assumptions lumped themselves together and fought to dominate my fear. Elena set me up. My hands burned, and I twisted them hard enough to cut. “They’ll come for me.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “That is the point.”
I pulled against the restraints without meaning to, my reflexes coming back in fits and spurts. The plastic bit into my wrists, and I stopped.
Anton clicked his tongue. “I won’t hurt you. That would defeat the purpose.” He paused. “As long as they cooperate, you’ll be quite safe.”
Safe. The word in his mouth made me feel the opposite. “Who are they?” I had nothing better to do than to learn as much as I could.
Anton wanted to ruin them. This might be my only chance to hear the truth, though it came from a man who hated them.
“You mean, who are we, my dear.” His head lifted. “We are Bratva.”
Bratva. Exactly what Elena had said. Oh, God. Elena was right. Well, about their being Bratva. She was not right about the evil incarnate part of their world. I held onto that, held it hard, because it kept me sane.
They had not lied to me, exactly, but they hadn’t told me everything.
Anton studied me.
I held his gaze despite everything in me screaming for me to run. Run where? How? I could barely wiggle my fingers.
They would find me. They would save me. And then, once I had answers, I would make the decisions I needed to make for me and my baby.
And if any single moment came up where I had the chance to save myself, I would take it.