Page 126 of Velvet Chains
I swallow hard, forcing a smile. “I promise, my brave little Hatter. I won’t let anything happen to either of us.”
With a deep breath, I start to pry at the rusted screws holding the grate in place. It’s slow, painful work, my fingers slipping and tearing on the jagged metal.
But I don’t stop. I can’t. Every second counts, every moment bringing us closer to discovery, to danger.
Finally, with a creak and a groan, the grate comes loose. I catch it before it can clatter to the floor, setting it aside as quietly as I can.
“Okay, Eli,” I whisper, beckoning her over. “It’s time to play hide and seek. I need you to crawl into the tunnel and stay very, very quiet. Can you do that for me, love?”
Eli nods, a flicker of fear in her eyes. But she doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t falter. With a boost from me, she clambers up into the vent, her small body fitting easily into the narrow space.
“I love you, Tetya Laura,” she whispers, her voice echoing softly in the metal tunnel.
I reach out, brushing my fingers against her cheek. “I love you too, Eli. More than anything. Now, be still and quiet, okay? No matter what you hear, don’t make a sound. Don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe.”
Eli nods solemnly, her eyes big and bright in the darkness. “I’ll be as quiet as a mouse,” she promises. “The Queen will never find me.”
I smile, even as my heart clenches with fear. “That’s my girl. Now, I’m going to close the grate, okay? But I’ll be right here, just on the other side. I won’t leave you, Eli. I swear it.”
With a final, reassuring squeeze of her hand, I ease the grate back into place. It settles with a soft click, hiding Eli from view.
But not from my heart. Never from my heart.
I slump against the wall beside the vent, my legs shaky with relief and terror. Eli is as safe as I can make her, for now. But I know it’s only a matter of time before our captors return, before they realize what I’ve done.
Chapter 50
Victor
THE RED dot shines on the map, a beacon of hope and despair all at once. That’s where my wife and hopefully Eli are being held captive by that mudak Ivan.
I stare at the tiny, pulsing light, my jaw clenched so hard my teeth ache. It’s a cruel twist of fate that the necklace I had repaired for Laura, the one I slipped a tracking device into on a whim, would be the thing to lead me to her now.
Sometimes things just happen for the right reason, I think bitterly. But fuck, I never wanted this to be the reason.
“They’re in the middle of fucking nowhere,” Misha mutters, leaning over my shoulder to study the map. “At least two hours outside the city, in some podunk town nobody’s ever heard of.”
I nod, my eyes never leaving the red dot. “Ivan’s not stupid. He knows better than to keep them too close to home.”
Ksenia stands beside me, her face an unreadable mask. But I can see the tension in her shoulders, the white-knuckled grip she has on the edge of the table.
“Dimitry screwed himself over, got what he deserved,” she says, her voice cold and hard as steel. “We’ll need to bring Eli home now.”
I drag my eyes away from the fucking red dot to glare at Ksenia. “We’re bringing Laura back too; she’s moya zhena. My wife,” I spit the words out through gritted teeth.
Papa sits silently in his leather chair, puffing on a cigar, the smoke curling around his head like a halo. He hasn’t said a goddamn word since we got the news about Eli’s kidnapping. Dr. Petrov stands beside him, looking like a completely different man than the kindly doctor I know. He’s decked out in a black tactical suit, a large knife strapped to his thigh. I remember seeing old photos of him like this back in his days with Spetsnaz. The look in his eyes is cold and merciless.
Ksenia rolls her eyes slightly at my insistence on rescuing Laura, but she nods curtly. “Da, she’s semya now. Family.”
I turn to Yuri, who’s been sitting in the corner, pale and shaking. The poor kid just lost his father, and now his sister’s been snatched.
“Derzhis’, stay strong,” I tell him gruffly. “We’ll get her back, obeshchayu. I promise.”
Misha clears his throat. “Boss, so what’s the plan? We can’t just go in guns blazing. Blyad, Ivan will have that place locked down tighter than a nun’s pizda.”
“I’m working on it,” I growl, my mind racing. Every second we waste is another second Laura and Eli are in that suka’s clutches. “Ari, what do we know about the location? Any satellite imagery of the area?”
Ari taps furiously on his laptop. “Got it. Looks like an old, abandoned factory surrounded by woods. Only one road in or out.”
