Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Alyona
Viktor tries his hardest to hide his amusement, but I see it there all the same.
“Is it the color or the bow?” I ask, batting the thing from my face. The bow she added is the size of a small car.
“It’s both.” He winces. But like a good sport, he’s wearing a tie that matches the color.
“Are you sure Vika knows you’re coming to this thing?” I try to lean to the side, but I can’t freaking move in this thing and am tilting at an odd angle.
“I’ll wait in the car for the nuptials and join you for the reception.
” The car pulls up the drive of an estate the size of a castle, and my stomach does a little nervous dance.
The twins only agreed I should attend because Viktor was accompanying me.
Adam and his family are going to be here, and I didn’t want to sit alone, fending off their glares.
“Text me when everyone is settled at their tables,” Viktor says, his arm casually draped along the back of his seat in front of me.
“Are you going to cause trouble?” I groan, checking my hair in my compact mirror.
“Would I?” he teases.
“Oh God.”
“By the way, Alyona,” he says as I attempt to get out of the car. “I can see straight up that dress, sweetheart. Thank you for the lovely view.” I yank the bow from the dress and throw it at him. His laugh follows me out of the car.
Gravel isn’t heel friendly. I hobble into the building and get directed to my position at the makeshift altar in one of the reception rooms. It’s beautiful, decorated with an abundance of flowers and crystals, and over-the-top. A lot like Vika.
Maddox looks handsome in his tux, and when my eyes slide to Adam next to him, I flinch. His hooded eyes bore into me, making me squirm. It’s uncomfortable and there for everyone to see. Music starts, and all eyes go to the bride entering. All but Adam's.
“I can’t believe you’re a Whitmore.” I clink Vika’s glass, taking a deep swig of my own. There’s a nervous bubbling in my gut that I can’t shake, and as soon as the dancing starts, I’m making for the nearest exit.
“It’s my favorite name yet.” She winks, and it’s the first time I’ve seen her this relaxed.
Glasses clink and guests start chanting, “Speech, speech, speech.”
“Make it good, Ally,” Vika says, and I spit my wine.
Aren’t the parents and best man supposed to do the speeches?
“Ally,” she scolds, and then her eyes burn at something over my shoulder. Better yet, someone.
“Sister.” Viktor holds his arms out wide, drops a kiss to each side of her cheeks, and then moves to Maddox, kissing him, and stealing the microphone that gets offered to me.
“I’d like to say congratulations to the happy couple. I made a special little something for you both. Please,” Viktor instructs the DJ, who presses play on a large projector, spreading a screen across the full back wall of the room.
Baby photos appear on the screen accompanied by cheerful music, prompting everyone to "oooh" and "aww."
Then it flickers, and a white room appears. Not a room. A container of some kind with a woman cuffed naked to a bed, her body littered with scars. Gasps echo in the room, and I look over to Vika, who gets up and rushes around the table.
What the hell is this?
“This has to be the last time,” Maddox’s voice booms across the room from the speakers, his silhouette coming into focus on the screen. “I’m getting married in a week, Tanner.”
“A wedding gift,” Viktor’s voice says through the speakers.
On screen, he hands Maddox a knife. The screen flickers again, and then there’s fucking and cutting, blood dripping, skin slapping.
Maddox is balls deep in the girl, slicing into her flesh, and Viktor is balls deep in him.
You never see Viktor’s face. The angles are precise to prevent his identity being shown, but I know it’s him, Maddox knows, and of course, Vika, who is now screaming for the DJ to cut the video, knows it’s him.
Chaos erupts in the crowded room as voices rise angrily, creating a chorus of gasps and screeching.
Freaked out guests quickly flee, their faces panicked, while others rush toward the table where Maddox stands, his face as pale as Vika’s wedding dress.
I leap up from my seat, and my chair crashes to the floor with a loud clatter.
The table teeters precariously, nearly toppling over as a surge of bodies push and shove, trying to get to Maddox.
Wincing for Maddox, who has gone catatonic, I get bumped around and decide to make an exit when I see Vika fleeing.
“Amelia?” I call out when I reach an empty corridor, but she’s disappeared in one of the rooms. Surely this means I can just go home.
Footsteps sound behind me, and as I turn to see if it’s Viktor, something crashes down on my skull, and darkness consumes me.
My eyes flutter open, the harsh light streaming through the window feels almost blinding against my sensitive retinas. “Ow,” I grumble, my voice raspy. I try to lift my arm to rub the sore spot on my head, but it’s like they’re weighted. What the hell happened?
“They took everything from me. Now I’ll take you from them.”
No.
Adam’s fuzzy voice penetrates my mind, and I stiffen. The room floods in, and I try to take stock of where I am. A living room of some sort?
My head swims and my arms won’t cooperate. Adam is crowding over me, holding a needle, pulling the silver prick from my skin.
“Stop it,” I plead, my words slurring together in a haze.
A sharp pain radiates down my neck, and my skull throbs in rhythm with my pulse.
I struggle to piece together what happened, and a flicker of memory surfaces.
I was hit from behind, the sudden blow catching me completely off guard. “What is that?”
“This will keep you conscious and able to feel every damn thing I’m about to do to you, but immobile. You’ll be able to scream for me too. You owe me a piece of that cunt, Alyona. You’re a fucking dick teasing whore and I’m going to give you what you really want.”
Grasping the hem of my dress, he tears it, jostling my body around like a slaughtered animal, yanking until it comes away in his hands in pieces.
I can’t freaking move.
“Look at those tits. Jeremiah always fucking teased me about how good they were.” He gropes at me, his body covering mine, his breath dusting over my face, alcohol and stale heat.
“Stop it,” I plead, as I struggle to move once more, but my body remains stubbornly unresponsive.
A wave of desperation washes over me, my mind screaming, but it’s like a raging undercurrent beneath a water’s still surface.
There’s nothing I can do. It’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.
He fucking planned this, brought a paralytic drug with him here.
Was it him who told Maddox and Vika not to invite the twins?
Teeth bite into the flesh of my tit, puncturing the skin, and pain blossoms there, but I grind my teeth to stop from crying out.
“I’ll mark every inch of you so when they come to identify you, all they will see is me everywhere.”
No. No. No.
His hand wraps around my throat, and my Roza blazes across my thoughts.
I won’t see her start school, graduate, learn to drive, and find love.
He squeezes until my breath cuts off and my eyes feel like they’re about to pop.
I’m dying under this bastard’s hand. I’m sorry, baby girl.
My madmen will never heal from this. When the darkness creeps in from the corners of my eyes, he releases me, and air rushes in, in desperate gasps, filling my burning lungs.
“They’ll kill you,” I choke. My throat feels like I swallowed glass.
Breathing heavily, he licks his lips, a smirk curling at the corners of his mouth.
“But my memory will be a stain on them for the rest of their lives,” he declares, his voice laced with a dark amusement.
He lets out a low chuckle as he rises to his feet, the faint sound of metal clinking as he unbuckles his belt.
With a swift motion, he pulls the leather strap free from the loops of his slacks, and in that moment, my heart feels as if it’s shattering into a million pieces.
“Don’t,” I croak, squeezing my eyes shut.
“You weren’t built for soft, Ally.” He snaps the leather across my skin setting a fire over my flesh. “You were meant to break under my hand.”
Whip. Sting. Fire.
“Cry for me, whore.”
Whip. Sting. Fire.
“I’m going to carve my name into your flesh, my bite, my cum, my scent.”
Whip. Sting. Fire.
Booting at my thigh to spread my legs, he repeats the action with the other leg and then stands on the soft tissue of my thigh, looking down at my center spread open. I can’t fucking move. Please move. Please move.
Where is everyone else? Where has he brought me?
“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it,” I beg, hating the sound coming from my lips. “Help, help me.”
He doesn’t stop. “Look at that golden cunt that caused all this trouble.”
He drips saliva from his lips until it falls and splatters at my core. Then, he unbuttons his slacks and drops them to his ankles.
“Don’t fucking touch me, you bastard,” I growl, willing feeling into my fingers and getting nothing.
Dropping to his knees between my legs, he wraps the belt around my neck, looping it. “I’m going to do more than touch you. I own you now, Ally.” His disgusting little dick prods at my hole, and tears roll down the sides of my face. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to take myself anywhere but here.
Movement sounds, and instead of penetrating me, he lifts off me, a thump rings out, and then his weight is back, crushing me.
“Alyona?” The voice is a desperate plea, and my eyes spring open.
Vika?
A scream rips from my lungs. Anger, relief, hatred. “Get him off me!”
Straining with the weight of him, she shifts him from side to side until he falls off of my body and slumps to the floor. Blood drips from his head creating a crimson pool on the wooden floor beneath him.
“Is he dead?” I ask, panicked. My eyes shift around in my skull.
Holding her hands up, her features crease. “I don’t know. I hit him with that ornament.” She points to a rock looking thing on the floor. “What the hell happened?” Her hands shake, and blood splatter covers her beautiful dress.
She saved me. Fucking Vika saved me.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t!” she screeches. “I came here to hide from fucking Maddox that fucker.” She seethes with rage.
“Call the twins, please,” I beg, my eyes darting to Adam to make sure he doesn’t wake up.
“I don’t know their number.”
“Call Viktor,” I urge.
“I’d rather eat my own shit.” She drops to her knees, unwrapping the belt from around my neck. “Why can’t you move?”
“He drugged me,” I sob, dipping my eyes to try and see if he’s moved. “I know you hate him, but for fuck’s sake, please call Viktor.”
Groaning, she lifts her dress and pulls a cellphone from her garter. “Shut up and listen. Adam hurt Alyona. On the property is a white cabin. Yes, that one. Okay.” She ends the call and moves hair from my face. “He’s close.”
Chills break over my skin, and I realize I’m still buck ass naked. “Can you find something to cover me with?”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Her footsteps thud around and then a blanket falls over me. “Those marks will scar.” She winces.
“Alyona?”
“In here,” I cry out.
Viktor’s gaze takes in the scene, and he swears under his breath.
“Please check if he’s dead,” I beg.
Leaning down, he fists Adam's hair, pulling his head up and palming his jaw. He twists until a snap echoes through the room. “He’s dead. He’s dead, Alyona.”
“Thank you.” A sob bursts from my lungs. My eyes close again and pain encompasses every inch of me.
“Put it down, you stupid bitch,” Viktor threatens.
Slowly peeling my eyes back open, I see Vika standing with the same wicked rock ornament she hit Adam with. It’s raised high above her head, this time aimed at Viktor. “I should kill you.”
“You tried that and failed,” he snaps. “Now fuck off before I snap your neck like a twig too.”
Whiskey colored eyes narrow at him and then she throws the ornament across the room, making a huge racket of sound that makes my head pound. Yanking at her dress, she shoves it down her body and throws it at him. “I hate you.” And then she walks out in a cream bodice.
Ignoring her, Viktor pulls his phone out and gets down beside me, lifting my head.
“He drugged me. I can’t move,” I tell him through chattering teeth.
“It’s okay, I’m here now. I should never have left you. I’m so sorry, Alyona.”
It doesn’t matter now. I’m safe. I’m safe. I’m safe.
“She found me,” I say, sucking in a breath. “Saved me.”
Holding his phone to his ear, he says, “I’m putting on my location. Find me. It’s Alyona.”