“You will be useful,” he says. “And if Volkov refuses to cooperate, you will be a message instead.”
Alex stands behind him, eyes bright with anticipation. My pulse stutters wildly.
Lebedev turns toward the far wall.
“Let’s make her a little more comfortable,” he tells Alex, but his tone suggests it won’t be. “Let’s get her on the bed.”
The man moves toward me. I wish I had any control over my body, any way to pull away from them, but I can’t. Lebedev holds my hands while Alex quickly unlocks the handcuffs around my wrists. They’re both so strong, there’s no way to fight them. In a flash, my hands are brought around my body and re-cuffed in front of me. Lebedev then holds me tight as Alex unties my legs. The men easily lift me up and carry me to the far side of the room.
I want to fight them, to struggle, but they have all the power. Lebedev pins my arms tightly against my body so I can’t move them, not that they would be much help while my hands are cuffed. Alex clamps down on my legs so I can’t kick.
They set me down on a dirty mattress and lift my hands over my head. I hear the sound of a click and look up to see my handcuffs being attached to another chain that’s bolted to the wall. The metal is cold and unforgiving against my skin, and the position hurts my arms.
The position also makes me more vulnerable. I refuse to look at the mattress. I don’t want to know what horrors it’s seen.
“Good,” he says. “Now we wait.”
He walks away, leaving me alone with Alex. I feel his stare on me like grease settling over my skin.
“You know,” he says casually, “I was going to have fun with you that night. But Volkov ruined it. Then he locked you up so I couldn’t get to you afterward. So now I get the pleasure of making him watch while I finish what I started.”
His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I almost lose the battle to stay silent. A whimper tries to escape, but I choke it down. I close my eyes because I can’t look at him anymore. I think about the baby. I think about how tiny they are. How vulnerable. The memory of the ultrasound flashes through my mind, bright and fragile.
The grainy shape on the screen. The heartbeat that sounded like a horse galloping in the distance. The way Samuil squeezed my hand the moment we heard it. The video he took. The quiet kiss he pressed to my hair. The whisper I almost didn’t hear.
Lyubimaya.Beloved.
The memory hits me with such force that tears rush to my eyes before I can stop them. I turn my face away so Alex can’t see them. I will not give him the satisfaction.
My only solace is that he doesn’t touch me. He places a chair a few feet from me, just watching me, as if he’s daring me to try and make a move. He wants to “have fun with me” only to make Samuil suffer. He won’t do anything to me until Samuil gets here. Which means Samuil is coming, and Samuil will be the one to finish what he started in that alley.
The room becomes very quiet for a long stretch of time. Only the flickering light and the distant groan of metal shifting in the rafters break the silence. My shoulders ache from the restraints. My legs shake uncontrollably.
Lebedev returns eventually, glancing at his watch. “Volkov should receive our message soon,” he says. “Then we will see how valuable you really are.”
Alex cracks his knuckles, his gaze hungry. My heart races so fast it hurts. My breath refuses to steady. I picture Samuil’s face as he finds his empty apartment. I picture him piecing together what happened. The panic. The fury. The guilt. The determination.
He will come for me. He will rescue me and he’ll put a bullet in Alex’s head before he has a chance to lay a single finger on me.
I hold on to that thought with every ounce of strength I have left. I let it wrap around me like a shield. I let it keep the terror from swallowing me whole.
25
SAMUIL
Once we confirm that Molly is definitely being held in Lebedev’s old warehouse, things move fast. Davýd gets me the blueprints for the building. By the time we reach the place, I’m fully following Davýd’s advice. I’m not a man riddled with guilt anymore. I am thepakhan. I’m thinking like a weapon. Everything human in me has been set aside. The fear, the pain, the guilt are all buried for the sake of the plan.
Davýd steps out of the SUV behind me, his face grim and jaw locked. He’s already spoken to our men and divided them into two teams: one to create a diversion and the other to hit the location hard from the ground the second I give the signal.
I’m not going in from the ground. I’ve already got the blueprints mapped out in my head. It’s an old storage warehouse with patched-in electricity and steel rafters running the length of the roof. It has one vent system big enough for a man to crawl through. Davýd cleared the approach five minutes ago.
I barely hear myself breathe. My pulse is a steady, vicious drum in my ears.
“She’s in there,” Davýd says confidently. “You ready?”
“No,” I answer honestly. “But I’m going anyway.”
He nods expectantly and claps a hand on my shoulder. “Go get your woman.”
