Page 55 of Captive Union
She pulls away from him. Maxim’s hand lingers in the air before dropping. “I don’t want to go back home, Maxim. I want to stay here. With Erik.”
He barks a laugh. “Kira, sweetheart, you’re in pain. You’re not thinking straight.”
She frowns. “How did you find us?”
“Elena helped. She slipped you her phone. We were able to track it.”
Fuck. I knew she shouldn’t have spoken to her sister. But I’m a fucking sucker in love, so sue me.
Kira’s eyes widen. “When she hugged me, she put it in my purse.”
Maxim nods. “She explained that you didn’t seem in your right mind. That she had to do it. It was her only option. Kira, why didn’t you leave with Elena when you had the choice?”
Her eyes flit to mine before looking back at her brother. “There’s a lot you don’t understand, Maxim.”
“Oh, I understand plenty. Now let me get you a change of clothes. I’m so sorry that he violated you like that. I heard you screaming as we came up. It was awful, knowing that my baby sister was in pain. But I’m here now.” He goes to the closet and pulls out a shirt and pants. “Put these on. Then we can go home.”
Kira looks back at me again.
“You don’t need to fear him any longer,” Maxim says. I try to convey my love for her in my expression. I hope Kira understands. “Let’s go home.”
After a moment, Kira slowly gets up, the blanket still tucked around her as she walks to the bathroom and shuts the door behind her.
Maxim turns back to me.
“If you’re going to kill me,” I spit out, “just get it over with.”
Maxim nudges my broken nose with his foot. Shit, it fucking hurts. I hold myself still and try my best not to flinch. “Since you wanted to torture me by taking Kira, why would you think I’d grant you the mercy of a quick death? Oh, no, Erik. I’m taking you home, too. So I can torture the fuck out of you.”
A gasp sounds from the bathroom. I manage to turn my head and look. Kira’s standing there, now clothed, a look of horror on her face.
“Kira,” Maxim says softly, taking a step toward her.
“You’re going to torture him?” she whispers. No longer her bold voice. After a few minutes with her brother in the room, she’s already reverted to her quiet little self. Just the sight of it breaks my heart.
“You don’t need to see it, I promise.” Maxim thinks he’s helping her when he’s only doing the opposite. He nods at Alexei and Nik. “Bring him out to the car.”
They jerk me up, both of them gripping my arms tightly with one hand, and in the other, they each have a gun pointed at me.
“No!” Kira shouts as I’m walked out the door and down the hallway.
I hear fast footsteps behind me, and then Kira is in front of me. “Don’t take him,” she pleads. “I’ll go back home. Just let Erik go.”
Maxim approaches and places a hand on her shoulder, forcing her out of the way. “Kira, Erik is going to pay for what he’s done to you, I promise.”
“Stop promising me things I don’t want,” she snaps at him.
Maxim clears his throat and nods at Alexei and Nik to resume walking me down the hallway.
Kira is right behind as we go down the stairs, then out the door, where a large black SUV is waiting.
“Put him in the trunk,” Maxim says. “Kira, you’re going to ride in the back by me. I want to keep an eye on you. We should also have the doctor look at you. I can’t even imagine what he’s done to you, the pain he’s caused.”
Kira doesn’t say a word. She only keeps her eyes on me as Nik opens the trunk. I never remove my gaze from her until I’m forced into the trunk, the only thing I can see is blackness as the door closes on me, but I keep the image of her beautiful blue eyes with me as the car starts and Maxim takes me to wherever he’s going to torture me.
I guess it was inevitable. One of us was going to always win in the end. I thought I was winning for a while, but it was like a little bandage on a bigger, bleeding wound—naïve to think it would work.
Maxim is the head of the Bratva. He always had the resources to win. It’s just funny that he needed his sister to do it. I’ll give Elena props. That was a smart move, putting her phone into Kira’s purse. It was just stupid of me to let Kira get close to her.
