Page 84 of Merciless Union
The cabin is tiny – a living room with a single couch and two wooden chairs. A small kitchenette. And one closed door that leads to another room.
I sit in the chair, racking my brain for how I’m going to escape. How will Maxim find me all the way out here?
Stepan ties my hands behind the chair. “There. Now wait here like the good girl I know you are.” He storms up the closed door, wrenching it open and going inside. I hear the sounds of a muffled voice, then the sounds of shuffling.
Stepan comes back out, pushing a blonde woman, who’s head is down, forward towards me. “Sit,” he says to her.
The woman looks up. Both our eyes widen.
Elena stands before me, her hands tied behind her back, duct tape over her mouth.
She keeps her eyes on me as she sits down. Stepan ties her hands to the chair.
“Now, I’m doing you a kindness,” he says. “Don’t try to bite me. I didn’t appreciate that before.” He rips off the duct tape.
Elena winces. “Do you know who I am?”
“Yeah, the Princes of the Bratva, blah, blah,” Stepan mutters. “I don’t really care. All I care about is that taking you will hurt your brother. You’re one of his weaknesses after all.”
He stands up, looking between us. “Now, behave. I actually have a date. In fact, it’s to kill Maxim. So, I’ll see you two later.” The way he eyes us both over makes my skin crawl. He whistles as he leaves the cabin, locking the door behind him.
“Elena,” I say, turning to her. “Are you ok?”
She nods, looking exhausted. This is the first time I’ve ever seen her look so disheveled. “Are you?”
“Yeah. Stepan didn’t really hurt me.”
“Not yet anyway,” she mutters.
“Why would you say that?”
She sighs, dropping her head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, at some point, he’ll probably want to do what all men in his position want to do to woman like us.”
“You mean rape,” I whisper.
She looks at me, pity in her eyes. “Yeah.”
“How did he get you?” I ask.
Her lips turn up. “I was sneaking out to… see someone.” She doesn’t elaborate. “And was caught by that little weasel and brought here. You?”
“I was at my dad’s house. Stepan found me there.”
“He must have been watching us.”
“How long have you been here?”
She scrunches up her face. “Just a few hours. I seriously doubt my family even notices I’m missing. I told them all I was going to my room and to not bother me for the rest of the day.”
“What, you snuck out your window?” The thought of elegant, refined Elena climbing out a window is too funny.
“Shut up. It was the only way.”
I shake my head, trying to hide my smile. “Ok.” I look around us, my smile fading away. “When do you think Stepan will be back?”
“Probably after he kills my brother.”
“Then we have to get out of here.” I start shifting in my seat, pulling at the rope around my hands. “We can’t let that happen.”
