I don’t spare a moment, rushing out of the room to get home. I have to make sure she’s safe.
Chapter 6
Danielle
I’m sittingin my room, reading a book, when a knock at my door draws me out of it. Ivan said he would be gone all night, so I assume this has to be Katia or someone asking me to come to the dining room for dinner. I couldn’t possibly stomach a meal right now.
I’m still grappling with the idea of Ivan being some kind of monster.
A moment after the knock, the door opens, and I set the book down, ready to jump to my feet.
Nikolai rushes into the room, walking around to the side of the bed I’m standing on.
“What’s going—” I start to ask before his hands clamp down on my arms, and he starts dragging me away. “Let me go!”
I kick and claw at him, but his grip is far too strong. I can’t do anything to wiggle free, and I feel completely helpless. Is this Ivan’s doing? What the hell is happening?
When he brings me to the living room, I see seven strangers standing around, all wearing black. The rest of the staff are bound with burlap sacks around their heads so they can’t see anything. For a moment, I’m worried they’re all dead, but then Isee Katia and Yuri trying to wiggle against the restraints, and I’m relieved.
“Tell me what’s going on!” I scream, still fighting against Nikolai.
Nobody says anything, but I can see the sadistic smiles on all of the men’s faces as someone walks toward me with a burlap sack just like the ones around everyone else’s heads and just like them, it’s placed over my head and tightened around me. My wrists and feet are bound, and before I know it, I’m being carried away.
Everything around me is dark, and I’m hyperventilating in the sack so much I fear I might pass out. I can barely register what’s happening, but I know I’m in a car, and it’s driving somewhere. The men around me all whisper under their breaths in a language I’ve come to realize is Russian.
Every time I say anything to ask about what’s happening, Nikolai’s grip tightens on my arm. I quickly learn it’s a warning to keep my mouth shut.
The car comes to a stop, and I feel the cool air as I’m removed from it, it doesn’t relent as I’m brought inside some building. It’s bitter cold and dark. To make it worse, I swear I can hear Christmas music playing on someone’s car radio nearby.
I’m forced into a chair and tied around it tight enough it feels like my circulation might be cut off. The bag is ripped off my head, and a flashlight is shined in my eyes immediately after, blinding me to everything else going on around me.
“What’s going on?” I ask again, desperate tears escaping my eyes. I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want these people to see me as weak. But I’m so scared I can’t help it.
The light is still blinding as Nikolai steps in front of it, his face darkened with the backlighting. “Nobody’s going to hurt you as long as you comply. We’re going to ask you somequestions, and I want you to tell us the truth. How do you know Ivan, and why are you living with him?”
He kneels in front of me and waits for the answer. I hear someone else moving beside me, and I try to look to see who they are, but the light is too bright.
“I just met him at the cafe I work at,” I say, being completely truthful.
Nikolai looks at the person at my side and gives them a subtle nod. Immediately after, a hand slaps across my face, sending my head jolting to the side. I scream out, and Nikolai stands up, bracing his hands on the back of the chair.
“Consider that a warning. What do you know about the shipment?” Nikolai asks, his voice loud and firm.
“I swear I don’t know anything,” I say, shaking from fear. “I’m telling the truth. You were there when I asked him about the guns. I know nothing.”
“I didn’t believe that then, and I don’t believe that now,” Nikolai says, nodding to the man beside me.
His hand strikes me again on the same cheek, and I feel the welt starting to grow. Tears spill from my eyes as I look around desperately for anyone who might help me. I can’t see them, but I know they can see me under the flashlight.
“Please, I’m telling the truth,” I cry out, my entire body shaking.
They ask me more questions in the same vein, and I can’t give them the information they’re looking for. I’m slapped a few more times, my chair is pushed to the ground, and my arms are scratched up from hands gripping me too tight.
After I don’t give them anything, the light turns off, and I blink away the shock of that to realize I’m in some old, dingy warehouse. Nikolai talks with some of the other men around him for a few minutes before I’m dragged away in the chair toward a cold, dark cell underground.
At least they untie me, and I scramble away from them into a corner.
I don’t know what the hell I’ve gotten myself into, but this is a nightmare. All of this is because of Ivan, too. I just know it.
