Page 21 of Savage Bratva King

“Don’t get too attached, is all I’m saying. One day very soon, you will hand her over to Xander or Seamus, and then what?”

The thought of Gianna and Seamus together makes my flesh crawl. It opens up something twisted and rotten inside me and makes me want to put my fist through a wall. He is not the man for her; she deserves so much better than the Irish pank.

“Then we will be exactly where we want to be.” I pick up the tray and turn my back on Tamara, dismissing her from the room.

9

GIANNA

I’mon vacation somewhere hot and beautiful like Puerto Vallarta or Hawaii. I step out of the hotel and shade my eyes against the blinding sun with the flat of my hand. The sunlight makes golden ripples dance and shimmer across the surface of the pool, and I take in a deep breath, releasing it slowly as a sense of peace fills my chest.

This is paradise. I can feel it, I can smell it, and when I spread my arms wide, I can hold it in the palms of my hands. Why would anyone ever want to leave?

I navigate around the sun loungers and make my way to the water’s edge. The heat on my bare arms and legs fills me with energy like a flower with its face turned towards the sky soaking up the vitamin D. It surges through me. Makes me feel alive.

Laughter reaches me from the pool. Kids are playing with a ball, tossing it to each other, lunging into the water when the ball is thrown wide. Warm splashes land on my arms and exposed stomach, and I laugh along with the kids. It’s only a game. A bit of fun.

I sit on the poolside and swing my legs into the water. It’s warm, but it still takes my breath away at first as my body adjusts. Turning my face back to the sky, I sit there for a while, listening, breathing, living in the moment. Nothing else matters but the heat on my arms and my feet swaying back and forth, back and forth, making ripples on the surface.

Time to get in and cool down.

But before I can lower myself into the pool, someone grabs my head from behind and plunges my face beneath the surface. I try to push them off me, but they’re too strong. I open my mouth to scream, but no sound comes out, only bubbles. I thrash about, trying to draw attention to myself, waiting for someone to help me.

And the water is cold… So cold.

It sears the skin from my face. I feel like I’m on fire. My lungs are about to explode, but I’m not ready to give up, and rage flares inside me. Drawing on the last reserves of my energy, I tip myself backward into the water to get away from whoever is trying to drown me, sinking, sinking, knowing that I’m playing by my own rules, not theirs.

Then, just as I use up the last remaining dregs of oxygen in my lungs, strong hands grip my arms and haul me onto the poolside.

I’m shivering uncontrollably. I curl my body into the fetal position, unable to feel my frozen skin. Unable to even think.

All I know is the feel of the stranger’s arms around me as they carry me to safety. Then blackness.

* * *

Someone helps me into a sitting position. They support my back with their strong arm and hold steaming-hot sweet liquid to my lips.

“Drink.”

I swallow a mouthful of coffee, and it burns on the way down making me cough. They wipe my chin, make me drink some more, and this time I can feel it coursing through my veins.

My eyelids are heavy though as if someone has taped them down. I give up trying to open them and settle back in the comfortable bed. I don’t know where I am or how I got here, but I know that if I stay, I’ll stop shivering, and everything will be alright. Only the cold has seeped through to my bones. My teeth are chattering, click-clacking together and making my jaw throb.

Then someone lies down beside me in the bed, pressing their body against mine, sharing their warmth with me. The relief is instantaneous. I relax against them and finally drift off into a deep dreamless sleep…

* * *

I open my eyes with a start.

I’m in a room I don’t recognize, in a bed I’ve never slept in before. My head is pounding, and my face is stinging, raw, like I just came inside from a wintry blizzard. I touch my cheeks with my fingertips afraid that they’ll come away bloody, but they don’t. I swallow, and my throat feels as though it has been scraped with sandpaper.

Sitting up slowly, memories come flooding back in vivid bursts, making my breath hitch in my chest and my pulse race. Breakfast with Leonid Ivanov. Forcing me to eat. Being dragged underground to the cold room by the two sisters. Ivana and Tamara.

A cold knot of hatred coagulates inside my gut at the thought of Ivana pushing my head into the freezing water. It all gets a bit hazy after that, but I remember promising myself that I will make her pay. I will make them all pay.

Pushing the comforter off me, I realize that I am in my underwear. A quick glance around the room, and there’s no sign of the clothes I was wearing when I went to meet my captor, but I have no recollection of taking them off. Did he … undress me?

I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand up. My knees tremble, and my legs are shaky. But I force myself to examine my body from my toes to the top of my head. If Leonid touched me, I need to know. Not only because my father will kill him, but because my father will have to wait in line until I’ve finished with him.

---