Hearing him insult Vasily is the kick in the ass I need. I lunge forward, trying to break his hold on me, but all he does is tighten his grip and press me back against the chair. My mind panics as he cuts off my air. I claw at his hands, but he brings his other arm across my chest, pinning me in place. Somewhere in the back of my head I register the sound of Ruslan’s deep bark. The ferocious sound startles the man enough to make him loosen his grip just enough for me to take in a big lungful of air.
I dart my eyes around the dimly lit room, spotting Ruslan’s large silhouette pawing at one of the windows, frantic to get inside. The relief I feel at seeing him makes me momentarily forget my fear. The reprieve is short. All of it comes rushing back when he pulls out a knife and holds the sharp blade up for me to see. Keeping ahold of my neck, he steps around the chair so he’s standing in front of me. I recognize the rage in his brown eyes all too well. I know what’s coming, but knowing it doesn’t prepare me for the sharp blow across my cheek. His tight grip on my neck stops my head from jerking too far to the side, but it doesn’t do anything to stop the pain. A scream escapes as tears prick the corners of my eyes, and it sends Ruslan into a frenzy. He’s snarling and growling and pawing wildly at the glass.
“Don’t fucking scream,” he growls, bringing his face closer. “If that dog gets in here, you won’t like what happens.”
Hearing him threaten Ruslan sends me over the edge. I forget about the knife and start swinging my arms at him. “Don’t you dare hurt him!” I scream, barely feeling the sharp sting of the blade as it slices through my arm.
Seeing me fight back pisses him off. He’s not used to it. He wants me to cower and cry and beg him to not hurt me, but I’m not fucking doing it. I’ll fight him or die trying because there’s no way in hell this man is getting inside me again.
“Nina,” he growls, grabbing my arms and pinning them to the couch.
“Fuck you!” I growl right back, bringing a leg up to try and kick him in the balls. He dodges me at the last second but lets out a satisfying grunt when I hit his thigh instead. His leg buckles, forcing him to his knees. Right when I think I may have actually pulled this off, he rears up and grabs me, slamming me onto the ground in front of him. My head hits the floor hard enough to daze me and darken my vision. My phone starts ringing, and even though it sounds like it’s a million miles away, I know it’s on the chair where I was sitting, just a few feet away. I know it’s Vasily, and knowing he’s so close but still impossibly far away nearly destroys me, but it also gives me hope. His frantic calling and texts means he knows something’s wrong and that he’ll be here soon. I just need to hold on a little bit longer. The man on top of me pins my wrists above my head with one hand and sets the knife down beside us.
“No!” I scream as soon as I find my voice again. “Get off me!”
“Oh, I’m going to get off all right, sweetheart.” I start to cry when I hear his zipper being yanked down. “Ruby’s not here to make sure I wear a condom.” He lets out a harsh laugh and leans closer. “Let’s see how much Vasily loves you when it’s my child in your belly.”
His words are enough to send me into a rage. The thought of this man raping me again is more than I can take. I won’t survive it this time. I know I won’t. Not after Vasily’s shown me what it’s like to be with a man who loves me. I can’t go back to being used by this monster. My survival instincts take over, mixing with the rage that’s consuming me, and using the last of my strength, I raise my head fast, head-butting him in the nose. I’ve never head-butted anyone, and I clearly don’t know what I’m doing because I’m pretty sure it hurt me a hell of a lot more than him, but it does surprise the hell out of him, making him let up on my wrists enough for me to break his hold. I grab the knife as he reaches for his bloody nose and then bury it in his stomach right as I hear a loud crash and breaking glass. The man screams when Ruslan bites around his neck and pulls him off me. I scoot away, holding my aching head as angry, snarling growls fill the room.
“Nina!”
I look up when Vasily runs into the room, staggering to my feet as he gives Ruslan a one-word command that has him letting go and coming to stand by me. I’m so dizzy I nearly pass out, but as soon as Vasily is close enough, I throw my arms around him. His brothers come in with Andrei and Ilya. They take in the scene quickly and go to make sure the man doesn’t get back up.
“He’s still alive,” Volodya says, checking for a pulse near the angry gashes that Ruslan left in the man’s flesh.
“Are you okay,zolotse?” Vasily asks me, holding me so tightly I can barely breathe. I feel his body trembling against mine, and I know he must’ve been scared to death that he wouldn’t get here in time. “I’m so sorry, baby. I tried to get here faster. I’m so sorry,” he says again, and the pain in his voice hurts me worse than anything that happened tonight.
“I’m okay,” I quickly tell him. “I managed to fight him off and then Ruslan took care of the rest. He busted through the window.” I turn my head to try and get a better look at the dog that saved my life. “What if he got cut?”
“Baby, he’s fine,” he says, trying to calm me down. He cups my face, looking over my injuries. When he sees the cut on my arm, he lets out a string of Russian, and then pulls his shirt off, wrapping it around the bleeding wound and tying it tightly to stop the blood. His fingers are gentle, lingering on my skin. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers again before turning to Volodya and saying something in Russian. He must be giving him a command to move the body because Valeri bends down to help him.
“No,” I say, surprising everyone. “I want to see you end him, and I want to see who he is.”
“Baby,” Vasily starts to say, but I cut him off.
“I need this,” I tell him. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life without closure. I want to see his face, and I want to see him take his last breath.” When he still hesitates, I grip his arm, clutching it tightly. “Please, Vasya. I need this.”
He cups my face, gently kissing what I’m sure is going to be one hell of a bruise on my forehead before nodding his head. “Okay,zolotse. You can watch me end him, but you might not like what you see. Look away if you need to.”
He lets go of me after I nod, and as soon as his eyes leave mine, they harden, losing every trace of softness and love that was just in them. He looks down at the man on our floor, and I don’t know how in the hell the man doesn’t shit himself because Vasily is a sight to behold. He’s pure rage and vengeance and the muscled body to back it up. The knife is still sticking out of the man’s stomach, and his neck is shredded. Pools of blood fill the mangled flesh, and I’m surprised he’s still breathing. Ruslan paces the floor next to them. Eager to finish the job, but too well trained to disobey a direct command.
The kick Vasily gives the man is as brutal as it is quick, hitting him in the side where the knife is. The scream the man gives is one of pure agony, but it doesn’t elicit any sort of sympathy from any of us. Vasily reaches down and pulls the ski mask off the man’s face, and I take a step closer so I can see him. He looks so damn ordinary. Just a man with dark hair that’s beginning to turn grey and a face that many would consider handsome. No one would look at him and suspect he was capable of such horrible things.
“This will start a war, Vasily,” he manages to say, even if his voice is broken by pain and the puncture marks from Ruslan’s teeth.
“It will,” Vasily agrees. “And I want you to know before you die that I’m going to end your fucking mafia. I’m going to fucking destroy it, Colin.”
With that name, all the pieces fall into place. I remember Vasily talking about Colin, the Irish mafia boss that he’s been working with. Disgust washes over me at knowing he’s been talking to Vasily this whole time, all the while knowing exactly what he did to me.
“You can’t kill me,” Colin groans. “My wife and kids, you can’t do this to them.”
“The fuck I can’t.” Vasily squats down next to Colin’s bleeding body. “You raped my wife, you fucking piece of shit. Your family should thank me for ending your life.”
“How’s it feel to know I had her first?” Colin rasps out, filling me with so much disgust that I almost dry heave.
I expect Vasily to lose it and end his life, but he doesn’t. He lets out a long, slow breath and grabs the handle of the knife that’s sticking out of Colin.
“It’s not going to work,” Vasily tells him. “Your death is going to be slow and painful, but I’m only human, and I don’t trust myself to not go into a rage if you’re going to keep talking about my wife. You don’t deserve a quick death, and you’re not going to get one.”
