Page 94 of The Tsar's Obsession
Hot blood poured down my hips and pooled on my lower back, but Dmitry’s butchering never ceased.
The torture was alien, the agony like nothing else I’d ever experienced. The cement floor underneath my cheek, I convulsed on the frozen ground, praying, screaming. Fading.
He cut out my flesh. He submitted me. He degraded me. But he couldn’t take my hope away.
Kirill.
Baby.
Come quick…
40
Only I Can
Kirill
Ourfuckingoffice.Ourfucking office!That’s where he had her—right under my fucking nose.
I missed thirteen of Yuri’s calls, and once I floored it out of the fucking golf course, I called him back. "Kirill! What the fuck?! I've called you like twenty times! She’s at–”
"I know, where the fuck are you?!" I swerved to avoid colliding with an eighteen-wheeler, suddenly feeling alive. I wondered if my mind was actually on fire; I could barely see out of my eyes from the white-hot rage that pulsed inside me.
Et tu, Brute?The fact that Dmitry was behind itallwas the biggest shock of my life and, at the same time, strangely predictable.
“I’ll be there. Kirill…he has a bunch of my guys working for him." Yuri's embarrassed tone seeped through the phone like he was a little misbehaving child.
"No, really?!" I retorted sarcastically, annoyed and pissed off at him. "And I thought he did it all by himself! You fucked up, Yura!” I pressed the gas harder, knowing I had to admit it. “And so did I. I fucked up big time."
"Fuck," Yuri responded in defeat. "You have to finish this and finish them all. Or else we will all drown."
For the firsttime in weeks, my mind was awake. I was going to getmygirl. Finishing Dmitry in the process would just be a bonus. "If I get there first, I won't wait for you. I'll go in, and you back me up when you get there. How many of your boys are there?"
"About ten. Maybe more,” Yuri responded quietly. Ten?! What the fuck had Yuri been up to?!
"Fuck. That's a big security leak, Yura; you're getting old, man, time to retire!" I chuckled, excitement and determination lighting up inside me like fireworks as I pressed on the gas once more.
There were no doubts in my mind—tonight, I was leaving with Mia in my arms, and she would sleep with me, at home, inourbed.
My sudden disappearance from the meeting would leave a scar on my reputation, maybe even one that would never mend, but I would just have to deal with the fallout later because nothing had meaning without her. Without my Sunshine.
Roman was assigned with leading the meeting, I sent Misha to the hospital to get Polina, and everyone else would just have to wait. And theywouldfucking wait. How many of them were on Dmitry’s side?
"Oh Ilya, you picked the wrong fucking side, my boy." I chastisedmy ownman while he searched me before letting me into my own fucking building. The whole setup was Dmitry’s style. Just how we used to do it: hole up in a familiar area, place your men in every corner, isolate the enemy, expose him, and attack.
No weapon, no backup, going in blind, I marched inside behind another one of my guys, the rest of the world burning into nothing. In fact, I would set this whole fucking place on fire too.
But before I had a chance to even think about where Mia might be, a blood-curdling scream sounded from inside, stripping all my senses. Mia. My head flooded with images of what he was doing to her, and all of meshook with rage.
“Mia!” I called out instinctively, but a sudden swoosh behind me interrupted my thoughts. The pain exploded across my back, sharp and blinding, and I collapsed onto my knees, unable to keep myself up. I gasped for air, but a boot landed in my nose, sending another radiating ache through all of me. Fuck.
The lights of our lobby went out, leaving me in the pitch darkness. Blind, unarmed, and smack dab in the middle of enemy territory, I didn’t fight back; I just needed to get in there. Another scream sounded; this time I knew it was from the basement.
I breathed through the blood on my face and the pain, standing to face my abusers. The pain intensified with every single one of their hits. A bat, a metal pipe, a boot, a fist. They were doing it old school, but I took it all, Mia’s screams hurting more than anything they could give me.
I folded, falling to the tiled floor once more. “Enough,” I gurgled on my own blood, choosing to surrender just to get there in time. “Take me to him.”
Another scream…quieter this time. My vision obscured, I was pushed forward and down the steps to be faced with a scene I’d never forget.
