Again, I try to go for my watch, then someone roars in Bulgarian, “Take down the piece of shit!”
More than one Taser is used on me, the barbed probes latching onto my body. This time, the electric shocks take me down. My knees hit the ground, and my body convulses from the electric shock.
I hear more footsteps running toward me, and the group of men doubles in size.
Raya.
The electric shocks stop, and I’m grabbed from behind.
Another man dives into me from the side, slamming me against the wall where Nina stood moments ago. His fist catches my cheek, but I barely feel it before returning the favor, my knuckles smashing into his temple hard enough to drop him.
More shouts sound up, the fuckers telling each other how to take me down, then suddenly the street falls quiet except for heavy breathing, the groans of the men already down, and my own loud exhales.
Then the assholes come at me again. I use all my strength to climb to my feet while the bastard behind me tries to tighten his hold on me.
A man slams his fist into my side while another tackles my legs, forcing me to stumble as someone else grabs my right arm and wrenches it upward.
A hard blow to my ribs forces the air from my lungs, and another blow lands against my jaw, making my head whip to the side.
The asshole behind me drives his knee into my lower back, and I let out an angry roar, gripping his arm and bending forward. I throw the fucker over my shoulder and kick him on his way down while wildly swinging at the nearest man.
Swinging wildly, I deliver punch after punch, but then something hard slams into the back of my head, and my vision blurs. Another strike follows immediately after, this one hard enough to force me back down to my knees.
Hands grab at my arms and shoulders, restraining me while the darkness begins to close in from the edges of my vision.
Through the haze, I manage to focus on two people standing off to the side. Nina, and an older man.
Boris Pavlov.
Jesus, this is a setup.
The realization hits right before I lose the battle against staying conscious.
Chapter5
Nina
During the drive home, my mind is inundated with flashes of Georgi fighting for his life. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Normally, the men go down hard and fast when I use the stun gun on them, but not him.
Jesus, he’s strong.
Which means it’s going to take much more to break him.
A wave of intense guilt has me closing my eyes.
God. Forgive me. I did it for my daughter.
In the beginning, I used to tell myself they were all bad men, but the lie didn’t last very long. It doesn’t matter who these men are and whether they deserve what happens to them. It only matters that I lured them to their deaths.
Knowing what kind of hell Georgi Torrisi will have to endure before Boris decides to kill him makes the guilt in my chest increase.
It’s not his devastatingly good looks or that he made an impression on me that’s upset me, but the fact he’s so much younger than all the men I’ve crossed paths with. Most were in their late fifties to sixties. Georgi seems to be in his mid-thirties, probably only a few years older than me.
At least, that’s the lie I tell myself, because admitting I feel attracted to a man for the first time in my life is something I’m not ready to do.
It will also be a waste of time, seeing as Georgi is the enemy whom my father is going to torture and kill.
