Page 58 of Merciless Promise
My father came over to me and covered my mouth and nose with his large hand. I squirmed the best that I could, mainly so I could at least breathe as he was pressing down so firmly that I couldn’t move my head enough to get any air. I also pulled at the binds, keeping my hands in place, before I gave up because I knew I would need to preserve my energy before starting back up again.
My current predicament had been a result of me fighting back once I’d arrived at this godforsaken place. Using a few of the moves I had learned in self defense class, they did little good for me, so I did the only other thing I could. After disabling them enough to gain some space, I’d tried to run, but it had been fornaught. Two were able to overpower me so Aram could inject me with what I assumed was a sedative since it’d knocked me out and had me feeling a bit drowsy even now that I had come to.
Unfortunately, I had come to in the room where I was tied to a chair. My face throbbed not only still from Aram’s strike in the car, but the subsequent ones I’d endured from trying to defend myself earlier. My arm also throbbed from where the blood had been taken, and as I looked down at it, my flesh was already starting to heavily bruise.
“Please, Papa. Don’t do this to me,”I’d then begged the man who’d sired me, only to have him smirk and laugh in my face.
“I told you she’d be a feisty one,”he’d said to Aram. “Truly like her mother, you’ll have to take her by force.”
To have him insinuate that he had raped my mother was more than I could bear to handle right now. Aram would never be able to touch me without using force, as I would never willingly lie down with him. Even in the most tempestuous of times with Kingston, he’d never taken me against my will with violence. Hell, he could’ve taken me the night of his cousin’s birthday party, but he’d respected me enough not to fully take advantage of me when I’d obviously been drugged.
Oh, what I wouldn’t do to see him one last time. Throughout this whole ordeal, I was convinced he would find me. Not only did he have the means to track me, I knew he loved me and would have to trust that I was genuine when I’d told him the night before that I loved him, too. Because of our admissions, he’d have to know that I never would’ve left willingly. Even when he’d hated me, he’d protected me. He would now, too.
I have to believe it.
And I did. Since there was little I could do right now, I stayed as quiet as I could and silently observed the others. Despite his duplicity, my father didn’t seem to be at ease at all. He was second-guessing his alliance with Aram. I knew this man, or atleast enough about him to know when he was scared, nervous, or, at that moment, both.
I couldn’t really appeal to him when he had his hand over my mouth. Relaxing as best I could, he eventually turned his attention to me and loosened his hand. “If I uncover your mouth, you will shut up, or else I’ll make it to where you can’t talk at all. Am I understood?”
I nodded, and he slowly removed his hand completely. When he did, I was tempted to scream again, but I doubted anyone would hear me anyway, so I busied myself with sucking oxygen into my lungs once more.
“When are we going to get these results?” My father asked Aram.
“We can’t rush this. I have to know for sure before I accept her as payment for your debts. I’m sure you understand, Boris. It’s like waiting for the check to clear the bank before zeroing out the account. And in your case, she needs to be worth every zero I’m paying for.”
“She will be. Ekaterina might be strong-willed now, but she will comply. Let her get used to the situation, then she’ll?—”
“Her compliance is hardly an issue. I have ways to guarantee that,” he said before turning his leering gaze at me. I shivered slightly, which he caught because he grinned, revealing even, white teeth, then continued. “She’s not a virgin, but her womb must be.”
I was so sick and tired of men being so concerned with my fucking womb. First, it had been Kingston, and now Aram. Women in this day and age were allowed to say when and if they had kids at all, only I had signed that liberty away when I’d agreed to marry my husband in return for protection from the very man who had gotten to me anyway.
This was all on me, though. I’d been the one to foolishly escape my bodyguards and had trusted someone I now knewbeyond a shadow of a doubt couldn’t be trusted. I’d wanted so badly to believe him, as he was the only family I had left. Once I got out of this, I wouldn’t care if he lived or died, as he was now dead to me.
“I’m not?—”
My words were cut off the moment I heard a crashing noise from downstairs. Immediately, my father, Aram, and their two men all tensed.
Kingston. Do I dare dream it is you?
“Get the girl and take her outside,” Aram told my father, and for the first time in my life, I saw him jump into action as if he was a simple soldier, and not a Bratva Pakhan himself. I’d never seen my father acquiesce to someone so completely, and so easily, that I was a bit in shock as he untied my hands. The moment he did, I tried to get up, and a wave of dizziness washed over me. It was likely a lingering side effect from whatever had been injected into me.
I went to take a step forward and nearly toppled over. My father grabbed me, then hefted me over his shoulder as he looked for somewhere to go. He must’ve realized he wouldn’t get far because he made a beeline for the balcony instead. I sucked in additional oxygen the moment I encountered actual outside air, and then I looked down and could see what looked like Nolan’s SUV and a sports car I did not recognize in the driveway.
“Kingston,” I cried out, and it was met with a sharp strike to the face.
At this rate, my cheek would swell to twice its size. I had no idea why men always seemed to want to hit there first. When we were taught to disable a man with a strike to his groin, they must’ve been taught the same but with a strike to our jaw.
I wasn’t bound any longer, so I did not have to take this. Using my elbow, I jabbed it into my father’s rib cage, causinghim to bellow out in pain. It wasn’t successful enough because as I tried to slip past him, he grabbed me.
This time, I fought the man I’d once loved and idolized above all others, and I used my fists, elbows, feet, and head to try to break free. I would hear him grunt each time I was successful. I just had to wear him down. My father got a few blows in on me, too. And just when I thought I had gotten him where I needed him, he yanked me backward by my hair, then I heard the cracking of wood.
“Kingston,” I screamed as I fell backward, along with my father.
We both hit the metal awning with a thud, yanking my head away from my father. I was able to grab onto one of the few spindles still upright. It hurt like hell, but I had gotten used to having my hair pulled since marrying Kingston.
“Ekaterina,” I heard before another loud thud sounded below.
Looking over my shoulder, I screamed again as I saw my father on the ground with an expanding puddle of blood underneath him. I was shaking profusely now, and as I tried to hoist myself back onto the floor of the balcony, the wooden spindle began to crack further. I was about to join my father if I didn’t act quickly.
