Page 66 of Marrying the Mobster
“Exactly. He has her because he knows I’ll follow. It’s a trap.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Jovan asks, a hand resting on the pistol holstered at his hip.
I’m already halfway out of the room, and both men struggle to keep up as I make my way toward my office—where the best of my firepower is stored in the safe. The cold resolve is back, smothering all the fear and worry over Elena. I’ll allow myself to feel it all later, when this is over and Elena is safe. It’s the only outcome I can accept right now. I can’t fall to pieces wondering what Viktor might be doing to my wife; not right now. I’m going to need every bit of the cold ruthlessness I possess to get her back.
“Get every soldier and lieutenant over here now. This is an all-hands on deck situation. We’re going to get my wife back, and then I’m going to tear Viktor apart piece by piece.”
31
Elena
The splash of cold water hits me like a tidal wave, jolting me back to consciousness. Coughing and sputtering, I blink to clear my eyes of the water streaming into them. My entire body aches, but most of the pain originates in my skull. My forehead throbs where it crashed into the dashboard, and my right eye is swollen, making each blink scratchy and uncomfortable.
Through hazy vision I make out my surroundings—a dark, humid room with bare floors and brick walls, maybe a basement. Viktor stands over me with an empty bucket in one hand. He’s still immaculately dressed in a white button-up and gray slacks, every hair slicked into place. His expression is soft with humor and smugness as she stares down at me.
It isn’t until then that I notice my hands are tied and stretched over my head. My butt is planted on the hard floor, and as my senses come slowly back to me, I realize I’ve been stripped of my clothes. I jerk against the rope biting into my wrists, bending my knees to try to cover my exposed skin. Viktor left me in my bra and panties, but I can’t be sure what he might have done while I was out cold.
“Relax,” he croons, crouching in front of me. The bucket hits the floor and he raises a glass to his lips with his other hand while pinning me in place with his cold, frightening eyes. “I haven’t touched you … yet.”
I blink and struggle to hold my head up. It’s heavy and spinning with every breath I take, threatening to push me back into darkness. I gave myself over to it before, but I can’t bring myself to let go this time. That instinct to survive, even in a world where Diego no longer exists, keeps me awake and defiant.
“What’s your game here, Viktor?” I ask, both because I’m curious and because I need to stall for time. I need to know what he intends to do to me and whether there’s any way out of this.
“Come now,dorogoy. You’ve never pretended to be a brainless bimbo. I know you’re smart enough to figure it out on your own.”
Just now I feel like a bumbling idiot. I can’t tell up from down, let alone try to figure out what the hell he’s up to.
“If Diego’s dead, you have no use for me,” I mumble, my words drunkenly slurred. He smashed my head into that dashboard harder than I thought. “Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?”
Viktor takes a sip from his glass, and I smell the vodka on his breath when he speaks. Yezhov Platinum … the best money can buy. “Oh, you sweet little thing. I don’t want to kill you. That would defeat the purpose. You’re worth much more to me alive. I’ll give it another few hours before Diego and the rest of those Pérezpridurkisshow up on my doorstep, guns blazing.”
I blink several times, my head lolling against my arm as I try to make sense of his words. Diego and the rest … but that can’t be right.
“Diego is dead,” I say, my throat burning and my eyes welling with tears as I say the words out loud for the first time.
“No, sweet,” he purrs, one hand cupping my cheek. He lets his fingers trail down my chin, my neck, my collarbone. Revulsion sweeps through me when he traces the edge of my bra, one finger slipping past the fabric and skimming my nipple. “I only said that to get you to cooperate. I have to say, my father was suspicious of your sudden romance and marriage, but I knew the truth all along. I told him Diego was pussy-whipped, and I was right. But he isn’t the only one, is he,dorogoy? You really do love that mangy little prick. You came running like a good little bitch when I sent you that video footage. Did you know it was taken two hours before I sent it to you? By the time I called, your husband had already come and left from my building.”
His taunting laughter sends a surge of heat through me, and exhaustion and pain melt away in the face of my rage.
“Fuck you,” I snap, lunging clumsily in his direction. My arms jerk when the rope brings me up short, my shoulders screaming from being nearly torn from their sockets. My legs splay uselessly beneath me, my body sagging.
Viktor grabs my chin, his fingers tight enough to leave fingerprints. He wrenches my head back and slowly begins to stand, pulling me up with him. I scramble for balance, my legs tingling when the blood goes rushing into them. My neck strains and aches from the way he’s holding me up, his jaw jutting out as he stares at me as if I’m a lowly slug.
“That feisty mouth of yours would piss me off if it wasn’t so goddamn sexy,” he growls, forcing the insides of my cheeks against my teeth until I taste blood. “I’m going to enjoy breaking you, little by little. You want to know what my game is? Once your husband is gone, I intend to keep you for as long as you amuse me. You fascinate me … you have ever since the night you appeared in my father’s house, so defiant. You’re a fighter, and I like that. It’ll be a shame to destroy that but … well, I could never resist a challenge.”
I jerk my face out of his grasp and sneer at him, forced onto my tiptoes by the short pull of the rope. “You don’t have the balls to break me, you spineless little bitch. You’re just a pale imitation of your father, wishing you could live up to Daddy’s greatness. You’re a fucking disgrace, pitiful in every way.”
The last word is hardly spoken before I’m choking and coughing as my mouth and nose are flooded with vodka. Viktor hurled his liquor in my face, and now drops the glass. It shatters all over the floor. With a snarl I spew a mouthful of saliva and vodka at his eyes, too furious to care that he has me at a disadvantage. I’ve already let him trick me into getting myself in danger; I won’t allow him to turn me into a sniveling, weak bitch.
Viktor lets out a string of sharp, unintelligible Russian before slamming his fist into my stomach. My belly quivers and seizes, and I double over, my wrists wrenched up behind me as I wheeze and fight for breath. My body snaps back up when he backhands me across the face, filling my mouth with blood and making me feel like my head is going to spin right off my neck.
My legs give out from under me, and I slam into the floor, the impact rattling my bones and making my teeth clatter.
Viktor lands a kick in the center of my chest, sending me sprawling against the wall. “You sound just like the rest of them,” he rasps, his voice deepened by heavy breaths and a snarling edge. Apparently, I hit a nerve. “I’ve done everything that man has ever asked of me. I’ve been the perfect son. I’ve killed for him! I helped build an empire worthy of any greatbratvafamily … but do I get any recognition? No, I get compared to the son he wishes he had—the mongrel wetback who let his mama help him murder his way onto his father’s throne!”
Even with my head slumped toward my chest and my entire body throbbing with agony, I can’t hold in the laughter that wells in my chest. It starts as low giggles and slowly increases into the full-throated cackles of a cartoon witch.
“You stupid jackass,” I wheeze out between laughs. “You spoiled little shit.That’swhat this is about? You’re jealous of Diego? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You could never be half the man he is.”
