Chapter 13
NIKO
I WILL FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
My eyes open slowly as I hear a buzzing sound. It gets a little louder as I try to blink through the fog but it still seems far away. Far away, high above.
My head bobs a bit; it feels like it weighs a thousand pounds, and as soon as I can force it upright, I squint against the bright light hanging above me. My eyes hurt but that’s the source of the buzzing, I don’t need the obnoxious flicker to confirm that for me.
It takes a few seconds for everything to register but the clearer my vision becomes, the faster that changes.
My head is throbbing.
I’m almost naked.
I’m tied up.
And I am spread fucking eagle.
Other important details worth noting? I’m definitely in some sort of abandoned building, which most likely means it’s pretty off-grid and far from the campsite.
The room is full of barrels and pallets, crates, and an unnerving amount of chains scattered around.
It’s damp and cold. I’m on the edge of a circle, a spotlight of sorts, tied to what I’d call a St. Andrew’s Cross in literally any other scenario, and right now I’m alone. Completely alone.
Thank god Liv isn’t here.
I look around, straining against the light, trying to see through the darkness to find anything to give me an idea of where I am or who put me here. There’s nothing, though. Nothing but a lot of pitch dark and eerie silence.
Jerking against the restraints at my wrists, I test how secure they are then do the same with my ankles.
They’re fucking tight but whoever stuck me here is overly confident because those are the only places I’m restrained.
If they were smart, they would have made it harder for me to get out.
It’ll take time and energy I don’t really have, but I can get out of this if I try hard enough.
I don’t give a shit if I end up as naked as the day I was born, I need to get out of here and find Liv, and I’ll let my dick flap in the wind while I do it if I have to.
“Hey, he’s waking up.”
I squint as the sound of at least three pairs of heavy boots start echoing through the place and as the bodies attached come into view, my questions only double.
“He is awake, you dumbass.” A big bald guy resembling Mr. Clean in army gear stops in the center of the space, grinning as he crosses his arms against his chest. “Aren’t you, boy?”
Boy?
Well, this is going to be a shit show.
I have to say it again: thank god Liv isn’t here.
I don’t know what’s going on, but I can only hope she got away, far away, and she doesn’t worry about coming back for me.
“You got the picture?” Mr. Clean asks as two equally large dudes join him in staring at me.
He holds out what I’m assuming is the photo in question, his beady eyes moving from it to me a few times before he nods.
The two do the same then the one on the right tilts his head in confusion. “Kinda small for an alpha, ain’t he?”
“Don’t ask questions,” the one on the left sneers. “I’d hunt for a fucking alien for the kind of cash being offered.”
What the hell are they talking about?
Mr. Clean folds up the photo and sticks it in his back pocket before he walks up to me, close enough for me to smell the hot garbage and onions on him. He reaches out and grabs a few pieces of my hair, letting the blood-stained blond strands fall back into place.
“You double check the info?”
The moron on the right nods. “Two point five on confirmation, the rest when the body is received.”
A grin splits the bald douche bag’s face, revealing a gold tooth right in the front of his mouth. “Doesn’t say anything about the condition, right?”
“Not at all.”
“Extra if we can get info out of him.” He pats my cheek hard before he takes a few steps back. “I remember that, and I think we can get him to talk.”
About what?
I have no idea what the hell these idiots are going on about, and based on the alpha remark, they clearly have me confused with someone else.
I’ve been a goddamn ghost for over a year and a half.
If someone wanted to find me, they would have by now.
Why the sudden interest in me and my nonexistent shit?
Especially when their facts aren’t exactly right.
“Gonna tell us everything, right, Dimitri?”
My stomach drops as my most pressing question is immediately answered. They do have me confused with someone else. Someone who’s name alone has panic setting in.
Mr. Clean nods as I hear more boots coming toward us. “The money. The guns. The little girl. You’re going to tell us everything.”
“Little girl?” I rasp, my throat like sandpaper as my sister flashes through my mind. I swear to god if anything happened to Tati… Hell, her or my asshole mate who tried to kill me. If anything happened to them, heads are going to fucking roll.
“Don’t play stupid, boy. It’s fucking insulting for everyone involved.
” His grin grows as a high-pitch screech joins more footsteps in the distance, squeaking in a rhythm that definitely belongs to something on wheels.
“And to make sure you don’t fuck around and keep acting the fool, we’re going to show you our little insurance policy. ”
I watch in absolute horror as what can only be described as a medieval stockade is wheeled out, stopping on the edge of the light across from me, and locked in at the neck and wrists, is my girl.
“Liv,” I growl as I jerk against the ropes, anger flaring through every inch of my body as her grass green eyes latch onto me. “I swear to god, if you fucking hurt her—”
Mr. Clean backhands me in the face, smiling like he just shut me up for good, but when I spit a mouthful of blood at him, his entire demeanor changes. “You’re going to make us do this the hard way, aren’t you?”
“Fuck off,” I grit through clenched teeth.
“Hard way or not, this is a little more like what we expected from the son of a Bratva king.”
There are so many issues with what this dumbass just said, but the most prominent is the fact that he really thinks I’m Dimitri.
I don’t know what that dickhead has gotten himself into, and frankly, I only care on some sort of baser, previously bonded level. Whatever shit he’s pulled, whatever problem he has, Dimitri created it on his own, and now Liv and I have been dragged into it.
Liv.
My heart hurts looking at her. It hurts but I’m so fucking angry, I’m not sure there’s an accurate enough word to convey it.
Aside from the stockade, we’re in the same position except she’s completely naked, and completely vulnerable.
She seems more out of it than I am, though.
I have a feeling they might have drugged her, based on the glassy look in her eyes, and I’m real fucking pissed about the split in her forehead and obvious bruises on the parts of her body I can see.
I’m sorry.
I haven’t bitten Liv just like she hasn’t me, but I’m going to try to send her my thoughts anyway.
Dimitri and I weren’t together and bonded long enough to see if the bond-link shit works, but years of phantom pains in my chest lead me to believe it would have.
I can only hope that sharing a soul bond and being intimate with Liv is enough for her to at least understand how fucking sorry I am.
She’s in this situation because of me, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to forgive myself for it.
“I’m not Dimitri,” I grunt, my eyes never leaving my girl. “Dimitri Volkov, right?”
The dumbass nods.
“That’s not me.”
He reaches into his back pockets and pulls out the photo, unfolding it as he steps closer and then holds it up in my face. “This isn’t you?”
I barely refrain from rolling my eyes.
It is me. It’s me and Dimitri from about five years ago on a hit in Illinois, I believe.
I can tell by the visible tattoos and the pub we’re walking out of where we were and why.
I don’t know who took this picture, most likely someone from Boris’ organization keeping tabs on us, and while this idiot isn’t wrong about the fact that I’m in it, he’s drastically incorrect about who is who.
“Dimitri is on the right,” I say as I watch one of the big guys by Liv get up on the platform behind her. “I’m Nikolai Koslov. No blood relation to any member of a Bratva. You have us confused.”
He looks at the photo again, scanning the two of us for a few seconds before he snorts. “Of course you’d say something like that to get you out of trouble. Nice try, boy.”
“Look a little closer, dipshit. Which one of us looks like the alpha Boris Volkov gave his genetics to?”
Another backhand to the face is all the answer I get.
“Since it’s clear you’re going to be uncooperative, you’re leaving me with very little in the way of options,” Mr. Clean says as he crumples the photo and tosses it on the floor. “Hard way, it is.”
The two goons who brought my girl out put the brakes on the platform while the one standing on it kicks her legs open. He smirks at me as he runs his hands up her back, dragging those nasty fingers down toward her ass before he smacks it.
“I will fucking kill you,” I spit, jerking against the ropes binding me. “I will destroy you for—”
My jaw clenches, my teeth slamming together tightly as my back arches against the wood. My eyes go wide and my body starts to shake, and I can’t comprehend why. Not until I see the little stream of smoke in front of me and the smell of burning flesh assaults my senses.
I shake off the pain in my thigh, quickly refocusing on Liv, but I don’t miss the two guys on either side of me now, smoking cigars and laughing to themselves.