Page 21 of Kidnapped Bride

Then the line went dead and I stood there holding the phone, glaring at the Markin soldier in front of me.

For weeks I'd been planning this move to force Markin out of my territory thinking he was like me, that he cared enough about his progeny to make concessions in his business. And I'd been wrong.

Xavier Markin was nothing like me.

He was a monster in men's clothing, with a black heart. If he thought sacrificing his own daughter to the gods would make him rich and powerful, he'd have done it the day she was born.

It was sick and cruel and twisted, and when I thought about how much I wanted to feel the life draining out of his body under my own hands, words finally rose out of my mouth.

"Get rid of him," I growled, throwing his phone against the wall. It shattered and fell to the floor as he started whimpering and pleading, writhing around.

I turned my back as Gregg and Vlad moved in, and Yakov followed on my heels.

The shouts I heard behind me as I stalked back through the warehouse toward the front ended abruptly after a gunshot boomed, and then everything went quiet.

And when I burst out into the cool night air, angry enough to burn Markin's whole world to the ground, I knew my mistake.

I had made an assumption that Markin was a man of honor and integrity, and I'd been wrong.

Playing dirty was his game, not mine.

But getting even was something I planned on.

"Take me home," I told Yakov as I climbed into the car, already diving into the thoughts that threatened to consume me.

I had hoped to end this peacefully without police involvement, but it was obvious to me that a chance for peace was past.

Using Kira as leverage wasn't going to happen.

Her father had no interest in negotiation to get her back, so she was my problem now.

And killing her didn’t seem like the right option either, not with a body like that and such a feisty demeanor.

Letting her go home wasn't an option, even if Markin couldn’t care less. It would mean forfeiting, which I refused to do.

Besides, she might still be useful to me in more ways than one.

I just had to convince her that it was in her best interests to cooperate.

6

KIRA

I'd been staring at the same wall for so long, I could've drawn the pattern of the paint texture from memory.

So when Vlad unlocked the door and told me to come downstairs for dinner, I didn't argue.

Boredom didn't begin to describe what I felt.

My legs were stiff from lying in bed most of the day and my stomach had gone past hunger to the point where my stomach no longer growled.

Like my body was adjusting to starvation and not even crying for help anymore.

I hadn't eaten a real meal in close to a week.

Anya brought trays and I picked at them, mostly moving food around the plate until she came back to collect it.

It was a hunger strike in its truest sense because I was miserable, and miserable people don't eat.