Chapter Fifty

The smell of something like acetone is the last thing I remember. It was slightly sweeter, almost like a cleaner of sorts. I remember smelling it, and then…nothing. I feel myself slowly trying to pull out of whatever haze I’ve been put under, but it’s hard, so fucking hard.

My head lulls limply in front of me, forcing a tired groan out of me. I try to push my hair out of my face, but my arms are stuck, trapped. Slowly, understanding begins to hit me, and I muster up the strength to open my eyes. I find a ceiling, not just any ceiling, a crown-molded extravagant ceiling with a crystal chandelier.

I slowly allow my gaze to travel down the cream walls, coming to the large bed I’m lying on. No, tied to. Each of my hands is tied to the headboard. My legs aren’t tied, and I should be grateful for that, but the fact that I’m completely naked gives me no such comfort.

“Good morning, kratsoka.” A chilling voice smiles from a lavish chair in the corner.

“Maxim,” I whisper on a choked breath, yanking at my restraints, only to find them tightening with each movement I make.

My eyes whip around wildly, landing on a tall man in a black suit. He’s standing in the doorway, his hands folded and his eyes forward. I beg him with my own to save me, spare me, anything. However, he won’t even look in my direction.

Maxim chuckles a filthy sound filling up the room as he does.

“Good try. My men are quite faithful to me. They wouldn’t dare sign their death certificates for a pretty pussy.”

He stands up to his full height, striding toward me as he smirks in a way that flips my stomach and chills my bones.

“Though I have to say, it is a very, very pretty pussy,” he says, his hand reaching out to touch me.

I snap my legs closed, forcing them to the other side of the bed as fast as I can. He doesn’t look irritated by my move, more amused than anything. Like he expected it, like he was testing me. I’m not sure if I passed or failed. I’m not sure if I wanted to pass or fail.

“Where am I?” I ask.

His eyes come to me, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

“Did your mother not teach you manners, kratsoka?”

I clench my teeth in irritation.

“Please,” I grit out. “Where am I?”

A satisfied smile curls across his face as he spreads out his arms.

“My home. How do you like it so far?”

“It’s a little cold,” I snark, goose bumps covering my body, though I’m not sure it’s just from the temperature in the room.

He barks out a laugh as he scratches his beard.

“Yes, that is Russia for you.”

Panic rushes through me. Russia? I’m in fucking Russia?! Oh my fucking god.

Taking another step closer to me, he shakes his head reverently.

“You really are a spitting image of your mother.”

My brows furrow at that as I look at him.

“You knew my mother?”

“Very well.” He smirks. “You have her nipples, the perfect rosy shade,” he says, leaning over the bed and tweaking my left nipple between his thumb and forefinger painfully.

I do my best not to react, not to give him the satisfaction, but that only seems to egg him on. He palms my breast, squeezing until I whimper in pain. As soon as I cry out, he smiles but it falls almost immediately. His other hand comes to the skin under my breast, brushing against the healing skin, and a thunderous look crosses his face.

“You let them mark you?”

“Of course I?—”

My words can’t be finished, a sharp slap snapping my head to the side as he fumes above me.

“I’m very disappointed in you, kratsoka. I’m going to have to punish you for this.”

I don’t respond, which seems to be the right move at the moment because his anger seems to dissipate as he grips my cheeks, forcing me to face him.

“It’s amazing you have her eyes, such a rare beauty.”

“How exactly did you know my?—”

I stop midsentence, worst-case scenarios fluttering through my mind. No. There is no way.

“Yes, kratsoka.” He smiles, that sinister way he seems to have perfected over his lifetime. “It’s been far too long since I’ve seen her. Having you here is like a serendipitous reunion.”

My stomach rolls and saliva pools in my mouth, my body feeling the need to retch instantly. I do my best to swallow it back before I look away from him, squeezing my eyes shut.

“You’re the man she had an affair with. The reason my father killed her and himself.”

A darkness passes across his face as he practically snarls at me.

“That worthless pig was a coward! Your mother was getting ready to move here when he took her from me.”

I shake my head. He’s lying. There is no way. I was only six when my mother died, but I remember enough about her. She was warm and kind. There is absolutely no way she would have fallen in love with this monster of a man, no way she would have left me behind. I don’t believe him.

“How did you even meet her? She was a secretary.”

“For one of my business partners, yes. I’d worked with Harold for years. He handled all of my…assets in Chicago. One day I came in for an annual meeting and saw her.” He pauses for a moment, an almost wistful look on his face as he stares at the wall to his left.

“I pursued her for months and she denied me at every turn. She was certainly a force,” he smirks almost to himself before his smile drops, that stone cold killer mask back in place.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t believe it, but your mother was the only woman I ever loved. Her death hurt me deeply, and even at that age, you were an exact replica of her. I always kept eyes on you, though. Even sent my brother Ivan to the States to look after you.”

I stare at him before laughing in his face.

“Ivan?! You mean, Slinky? Oh yeah, he took great care of me. Especially when he’d rape me into the concrete floor, tearing and beating me until I was bloody!” I shout, waiting for his anger or shock.

Surprisingly, he remains completely impassive as he speaks.

“Was he not a man? There is only so much time you can spend around someone of your beauty and not do something about it.”

My mind reels at his words. What the actual fuck? Disgust, pain, and so much confusion rip through me as I let out a pain-filled scream, breaking into a rough sob as I do. Maxim stands there, watching me stoically until my sobs have quieted. I sniff as I look up at him through watery eyes before he begins speaking again.

“When the Graves brothers took an interest in you, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get them back in my reach. I had only learned of their supposed survival after Zayden began following you. Imagine my surprise when I find out my two most promising proteges had become infatuated with my ex-lover’s daughter. The coincidence is fantastic.” He smiles with a gnash of his teeth.

“Then Zayden made it all too easy, getting himself thrown in prison for you and coming crawling to me for a way out while Dominic fucked you instead of answering his calls.” Maxim laughs.

“So, what happened? Why am I here? I’m not much leverage when you’ve taken me from them.”

He nods his agreement.

“I quickly realized how deep their infatuation for you truly ran. They wouldn’t allow me to use you as leverage, they would kill me before they did. Look what they did to my brother just for retribution in your name,” he says with a pained glare, looking away as if he were trying to hide the fact that he’s upset his brother is dead.

When he turns back to me, all of his emotion is wiped clean again as he levels his eyes on mine.

“They have become liabilities, and now they will come to me, on my own property for you, and I will behead them before they can even set eyes on you.”

His words scare the living shit out of me, mainly because I know he isn’t bluffing. The guys will absolutely stop at nothing to find me, to try to get me back. When they do, they will be walking into their own death trap. I wish I could tell them, beg them not to come for me, to forget me. My fate is already sealed, it sounds like it has been from conception, but theirs doesn’t have to be.

Maxim’s hand begins drifting across my skin, skating down my stomach before slipping beneath my ass, kneading it in his hands.

“Wh-at are you doing? Don’t touch me!”

“Krasotka, I told you. What is a man expected to do when such beauty is laid out before him like a feast?”

“You’re disgusting! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Reminisce about the past in your body until you’re no longer of any use to me.”

Tears spring to my eyes as his hand skates around to cup my pussy, forcing my thighs apart no matter how hard I try to keep them together.

“P-please. Don’t do this. I’m her daughter. Y-you loved her, right? She wouldn’t want you to do this.”

“Mmm, you are. Let’s hope you have your mother’s cunt,” he says before peeling my thighs open more, preparing to shove a finger inside me.

Before he can, the guard from the door comes up behind him, hitting him in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. He hits him again and again until Maxim falls to the ground. My eyes look up to the intimidating man, my body shaking as he stands over me.

I try to choke out words, to ask him what’s going on when he pulls out a knife, slicing me free from my restraints, before offering me a pair of sweatpants that are four sizes too big and a T-shirt that drowns me.

Silently, I get dressed quickly before he takes my elbow, guiding me to the door.

“What are you doing? Where are you taking me?” I finally ask.

He opens the door, sticking his head out and looking both ways before pulling me with him.

“Away.” His thick Russian accent rolls.

“Why?” I whisper, unsure if there are others around.

“Dominic has secured my loyalties.”

Dom. My sweet, brilliant man. Relief begins to slowly consume the gut-wrenching fear inside of me when the man escorts me to a running car in the front driveway. He opens the back door, holding it for me before looking from side to side.

“Thank y?—”

Pop. Pop. Pop.

Suddenly, the man’s body is riddled with bullet holes. His body jerks in response before collapsing to the ground. Three guards similarly dressed close in on us, or, I guess, me, before shooting the awaiting driver in the front. They begin yelling at me in Russian, and I don’t speak a lick of it, but I have enough common sense to show them my hands and get on my knees.

My arms shake as I sink to the floor, knowing that the best chance I had at escape has now slipped through my fingers. Not only will I not make it out of this, if Dom and Zay come for me, I don’t think they will either.