Roman leaned back on his heels, a flash of annoyance appearing in his eyes.
“No. While I was at her house, she made some ham-fisted excuse about desperately needing a grocery run. Funny thing to do when she has a full refrigerator.”
“Is she okay?” I said, my entire body clenching as I anticipated his answer.
“So concerned about her…” Roman’s voice took on a false note of pity. “When really you should be worried about yourself.”
His fist slammed into the same spot on my ribs, and this time I did scream. Roman raised his fist again.
“Why are you doing this?” I gasped out.
I needed to stall for time. To keep him talking so I could come up with a plan before I was too weak to fight back.
“The competition is ending,” he said.
Roman’s head cocked as he took in my expression, looking disappointed when I didn’t react.
“You knew…. Interesting. Well, maybe you aren’t the clueless pawn I thought you were.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I asked, feeling the ache in my side.
I twisted to relieve the pain and noticed a little tear in the ropes around my wrists. Thankfully, they were knotted behind my back, so Roman wouldn’t notice…
“Your ranking is low enough that you might as well be irrelevant. But Dmitri and I are the top two in the competition.”
Yes, I was more than aware of where we all stood, but I needed to keep him talking. Every breath he wasted speaking was another second for me to inconspicuously grind the ropes pinning me in place.
“As it stands, the Pakhan will name Dmitri his heir,butsince I did so well, he’s likely to make me his Sovietnik. The last thing I need is any kind of bad blood between myself and Dmitri, so I’m eliminating you before you can say anything to mess with the equilibrium.”
Understanding flooded through my aching body. “Because Dmitri will destroy you if he finds out what you did to me at that party.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Alisa.” Roman rolled his eyes. “Sure, he’d probably be a bit upset that someone hurt his little fuck doll. But he won’t risk his life when you arecompletelyreplaceable.”
I thought back to the raw fury stamped on Dmitri’s face when I told him what had happened to me. His promise of violence swirled in my mind like a soothing antidote to Roman’s belittling words.
Roman was wrong. I wasfarmore than Dmitri’s little fuck toy.
Chapter sixty
Dmitri
If you’d asked me previously, I would’ve sworn that what remained of my heart had blackened beyond recognition years ago.
But the thing beating furiously through my chest as I ran down the cracked sidewalks contradicted that. With each minute that passed, the urgency pierced further through my nervous system.
Knocked out.
Taken.
I ground my teeth together as my mind re-wound the security footage.
Alisa’s soft smile at her friend Gemma. Then the wide-eyed shock as she caught sight of her attacker. Finally, her body falling limply to the ground like a crumpled up piece of paper.
That final image had haunted me as I’d raced deep into Brooklyn. Alisa hadn’t even twitched when her hooded attacker had carelessly thrown her over his shoulder. My right hand tightened into a fist hard enough to leave marks.
When I found them, I’d leave far more than marks on that man. I’d saw into his skin until I could see his bones.
I checked my phone and took a sharp left, thankful that I’d spent a couple of hours sewing trackers into all of Alisa’s clothing. Learning to sew just so I could track her whenever I needed was worth every damned pinprick.
