Page 34 of The Bratva's Captive

I’d never pushed myself this hard. Without food since yesterday morning. Without water since I’d arrived. Hardly any sleep since I spent all morning and day cleaning up the mess my apartment was in. And now I was back here, in this recurring nightmare ofhaving to strip and dance when I was two seconds from passing out.

I can’t do this.

Moving the best I could, I stayed in the back so I wouldn’t interfere with the dancers who weren’t messed up like I was. I wouldn’t stop them from making whatever they could, but I also knew I couldn’t sneak off stage again with Lenny on the warpath back there.

Music boomed so loud that the bass notes felt like a hammer inside my skull. The stink of booze and too many men’s colognes tricked me into thinking I would vomit on the stage. Hunger pangs had me shaking, pushing my body too far.

I needed sleep. I needed food and water and…

Licking my lips again, I winced at an ache in my side. It was just a stitch, but feeling any discomfort near where my baby bump would show had me panicking.

Fuck Lenny.Ihadto sit down. I wouldn’t hurt my baby by not taking care of myself. One of the other dancers wouldn’t notice if I sipped from their water bottles or snuck a protein bar or candy bar out of their purses. I’d pay them back one day. I would.

Feeling the burn of a man’s stare on me, I turned away and refused to work with a guest’s clear interest. There was no ounce of energy left in me to try to concentrate on getting all the dollar bills I could.

Staggering backstage once more, I blinked and willed the black dots dancing in the periphery of my vision to cut out.

Water. Something to eat.Then after I sat and caught my breath for a couple of minutes, I was sure I’d have a second wind.

I had to.

As soon as I dropped into a chair, I realized that I would have to revise my plan.

Okay. Catch my breath. Then get a drink and something to eat.

Forcing a rough swallow with how dry my mouth was, I closed my eyes and counted my breaths. Panic started to rise in me with how shaky and close to exhaustion I felt.

“What did I just fucking tell you, bitch?”

Lenny loomed over me as I wrenched my eyes open. He was there, snarling and more pissed off than before. His nostrils flared as he reached down to grab a fistful of my hair to yank me back up on my feet.

I cried out, lifting my hands to get his fingers off my hair. My scalp stung with the pain of my hair pulled out by the roots and I damned the tears that slipped free from my eyes, an instinct at the burning pain.

“What the fuck is going on with you?” He shook his hand, rattling my head without letting go. “You’re supposed to be one of the better dancers out there and you’re trying to hide back here like some good-for-nothing, lazy bitch?” He drew his free hand back to slap me.

Flinging back from his strike, I lost the fight with this nausea. Gagging, then coughing, I felt the dribble of bile coming out of my mouth.

“Ah!” He let go of me then, roughly dropping me so hard that I fell back to the wall as I wiped my mouth off. “You fucking bitch!” he roared, staring at his sleeve. “That’s the second time you’ve puked on me!

I shook my head, not sure why my instinct was to protest or deny it. That wasn’t who I was. Running was always the first and best move I could make, but I wasn’t some wallflower who couldn’t fight back when I had to. Like this, weak and sick and so depleted of energy, I had no fight left in me to give him. And he deserved it all. I wished I could stand up straighter to knee him in the nuts and punch his ugly face.

All I could do was lean on the wall and wait for this wave of nausea and dizziness to pass.

“You goddamn bitch! Don’t you dare think you can show up like a useless whore and not do your job. Get a rag and clean this up.” He pushed me aside and kicked out at me, catching me in my shin. “Fucking dumbass bitch,” he growled, still scowling at where I’d puked a little on him. “Again? You think you can play dumb and act sick just so you can get away from me? Huh?”

He raised his arm again and struck me, this time catching my shoulder. Sharp stabs of pain pierced me, making me gasp at the intensity of his hit. I dropped back, lacking the strength to stand up straight and take it or give him a taste of his own medicine. The most I could do was hold my arms up, one to deflect him from smacking my face again and the other over my stomach to protect my baby.

True to his vicious nature, he raised his arm again, rearing back to punch me. “I’ll show you?—”

A low growl ripped through the air. It reached my ears as a beastly premonition, a warning call from someone behind Lenny. Past the buzz that still rang in my ears from his first slap to my cheek, I registered the thudding footsteps of someone rushing at Lenny.

The long sleeve of a dark-suited arm entered my vision. As the cuff lifted up, I caught a peek of the end of a thick black line of tattoos merging over a man’s wrist.

Lenny cried out, arching back as this newcomer forced him to turn.

It was him.

I blinked, and blinked again. Cowering against the wall and trying to stay away, I questioned my eyes and wondered if I was delusional now.

---