“Just be careful, Sasha. The world in Russia is nothing like what either one of our families have experienced living in the States. If they were taken to Moscow, the chance of getting them back is…”
“Oh, I will get them back, Alessandro. Never underestimate me. You’ll only lose the bet. Where is this aunt?” I barked out.
“She lives forty-five minutes outside of Las Vegas.”
I’d always wondered who’d left white roses on Selena’s grave from time to time. Selena had told me her aunt had passed awayfrom natural causes. How many lies had been told to try to buy happiness?
Now I knew.
Now it was time to end the past, breaking the chains and forging the future.
With the woman I loved.
CHAPTER 25
Lainey
“Lainey. I’m scared.”Nina’s little voice was about to break my heart.
“I know, honey. I know.” I glanced around the room as I’d done hundreds of times hoping to find a way out of our prison. While we were locked inside a bedroom in some structure, with the single window boarded up and no clocks, I had no idea how long we’d been here. When I’d come to, we were already inside this room, Nina curled up against me.
Up to this point, no one had said a word to us. Armed men in uniforms had come and brought us scraps of food and bottles of water from time to time, but had remained silent. Even when I’d tried to push them, chide them, even yelling at them, the only indication they’d heard me had been their leering looks.
I put my arm around her, holding her close. She’d been so brave, maybe even more than I’d been. She’d only cried once, the forlorn sound breaking my heart.
“Everything will be okay.” I continued to tell her that, maybe in hopes of convincing myself that Sasha would find us. WhileI’d yet to find a way of confirming even where we were, I had a terrible feeling we’d been taken to another country. Little things indicated we certainly weren’t in the United States.
However, there was no way of confirming what my instinct was screaming. Someone had even taken the time to remove tags off the two cheap pillows we’d been provided.
The bottles of water also had their labels ripped off. What the fuck did these people think I was going to do, break out and find an address and a phone?
Despair was becoming more difficult to shove aside, but I had to try to keep Nina from falling into bouts of terror. I could see in her eyes she was losing hope.
Yet I had faith in Sasha. I believed what he’d told me even doing so in jest.
He’d burn the world down to find me.
There was no rock I could crawl under. What about being locked away in an ugly room?
Images of his face popped into my mind as they had a hundred times. They brought me comfort.
“My tummy hurts.” She leaned her little head against me. Our captors had barely given us enough food to sustain us.
“Hold on. I have something for you.” Easing off the bed, I went to the little hiding place I’d created behind the bed. I’d carefully wrapped up half of my peanut butter sandwich just in case the little angel became hungry. “Here you go, baby girl. Oops. I guess I shouldn’t call you that since you’re almost an adult.”
She giggled for the first time since she’d awakened from the horrible fog. The lingering effects of whatever drug they’d used had been terrible. Even now days later, I felt weak so I knew how Nina must feel.
“Are you sure you don’t want this?” she asked in her sweet little voice.
“No, girlie. I haven’t been very hungry.” Sighing, I moved about the room as I’d done how many times. There was a bathroom adjoining but only with toilet paper. We’d yet to be able to take a shower.
The blanket was thin, the sheets rough, and the pillows were crap. There was a table with a lamp and that was basically it. No pictures. No dresser. Nothing that could really be used to defend ourselves if necessary.
“Do you think Daddy will find us?” Her voice was back to being so tiny.
Turning, I offered as wide a smile as was possible. “I absolutely know he will. You do realize your daddy is a superhero. Right?” Another stab of angst hit me. I remembered very clearly her calling me Mommy. Now I knew why she’d been so out of it, but that didn’t make the sentiment any less powerful than when I’d heard it.
Maybe more than a little part of me wanted to be her mommy. That could only happen if we got out of here.
