26. Nicholas

26

NICHOLAS

My head lolled to the side just before I jerked awake. I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes and make out my surroundings, but everything was blurry. Had I been drugged?

After multiple attempts trying to lift my hand to wipe my eyes, I realized I was tied to a chair. Jerking my hands over and over, the ropes dug into my wrists with every move. I soon came to find that my legs were similarly tied.

No matter how I tried, I couldn't focus enough to figure out where the hell I was or how I got here. The last thing I remembered was…the explosion.

Raven.

My heart rate kicked up as I thought of the fire burning through the building, and Raven was still in there. Had she gotten out? Had she been burned alive? I couldn't think about that now. I had to find a way out of here. Only then would my questions be answered.

"He's awake."

I'd recognize that thick Russian accent anywhere. Ivan stepped out of the shadows, a look on his face I knew all too well. It was one that screamed danger and threats. He wasn't here to help me. No, this was his plan, and he reveled in the idea that he had me where he wanted me.

"What do you want?"

"Is not what I want. No, there is someone in need of answers. I thought…" He shrugged, his face hiding a smirk, "what better way to get one of you to talk than to have you here to witness such…tragic events."

"What are you talking about?"

He walked over to a table and picked up a blade, running his hand along the edge. "My friend Yuri has some questions. It would be good if those answers came sooner rather than later."

He stepped aside, gesturing in the distance. A light flickered overhead, illuminating a woman in a chair. Her head hung low and her hair covered her face, but I didn't need to see it to know it was Raven. She was strapped much the way I was, tied to a chair with no way out.

As Ivan took his first step in her direction, I jerked at my bonds, trying to release myself, but it was no use. I wouldn't get out of here tied up like this.

"Ivan, don't!"

He turned to me with a chuckle, mocking my words, "Ivan, don't!" he shrieked like a girl.

Another man stepped out. I assumed this was Yuri, but what connection he had to this, I didn't know. Ivan was supposed to be on our side. He was FNG's friend and he was supposed to be helping me save Raven's life. Instead, she was now at his mercy, and I had played right into his hand.

"Yuri, my friend. We are ready to begin."

He jerked his head at me. "What about him?"

"He is here for our pleasure," Ivan laughed, clapping Yuri on the shoulder. "Her screams will drive him insane. Is my favorite form of torture."

Yuri picked up a blade from the table and nodded. "I go first."

"Ah! No, is no good. You do not build suspense by starting with blades. Come, come. You take first hit."

Ivan led Yuri over to Raven with his arm around his shoulder, then stepped back, waiting for him to begin.

"Ivan, we had a deal!" I shouted.

He turned, raising an eyebrow at me. "Now I make new deal."

"You son-of-a-bitch!" I shouted, thrashing in my chair. "I trusted you!"

"Is never good idea to trust Russian." His deep laugh echoed around the room, sending chills down my spine. Where was FNG? What about Cash and the rest of OPS? They had to know what was happening. They weren't that far away. Fox was right by me during the explosion. There's no way he just left.

But then, where was he?

"Go, go," Ivan insisted. "You first."

I thrashed in my chair, trying to break free as I heard the first smack of Yuri's fist against Raven's face. Her answering groan twisted my heart in an inexplicable way.

"Ivan!" I shouted, trying to draw their attention. "I have what you want!"

"You have nothing," he chuckled, barely paying attention.

Yuri pulled back and hit Raven again. Her head snapped to the side and blood flew from her mouth. Rage filled me to an insurmountable degree. I was writhing so much that I knocked my chair over in my attempts to get to her. The chair clattered as it hit the floor, but I hardly noticed as Yuri's fist slammed into her again.

"Ivan! I'm gonna kill you!"

He threw his head back and laughed at me. It was almost more than I could take. He patted Yuri on the shoulder as he walked back over to me, bending down to look at me.

"Is good."

"You son-of-a-bitch! How could you turn on us like that?"

Cocking his head to the side, he stared at me for a moment before righting my chair. His hand slapped my face a few times. "I was right about you. I told her…I said, that man is in love with you."

I spit in his face, disgusted that he would put on such a performance with us, leading us to believe he was on our side, only to use it against us when a better offer came along.

But as he wiped his face, another booming laugh broke free. Then he leaned down and whispered. "This will be good. I promise you."

As he walked away, I tried to find any way to read into what he was saying. Nothing made sense. I couldn't justify his actions in any way. He had Raven strapped to a chair and was allowing her to be used as a punching bag. He stopped at the table with all his weapons and looked back at me as he picked up a machete. I didn't want to think about what he was about to do. It was too horrifying to even consider.

"My turn," he said to Yuri as he walked over to her.

I was too far away to see the look in her eyes, but the whimpers and pleas for mercy were clear as day. Wet tendrils of hair hung in her face as she pleaded with him not to kill her.

I wanted to call out to her, to tell her I was here, but what would that do? She would know I was watching but just as useless. In the end, it would do nothing for her.

"Tell me what I want to know," Ivan boomed.

"I don't know anything. Please."

The whimpers that left her mouth tore my heart out. I twisted in my ropes, trying desperately to free one hand. Burns scorched my skin as my wrists rubbed against the rope. But it was no use. They were too tight, and I didn't have anything to cut through the strands.

"Does anyone else want the eggs?" Ivan asked.

"No, I swear!"

"Is not good enough!" Ivan swore.

He shifted to the side of the chair and just as quickly, raised the machete above his head and brought it down in one swift motion.

"No!" I cried out just as the blade sliced through her hand at the wrist.

The screams that echoed around the room were deafening. Blood flowed from her body, dripping on the ground in a pool of crimson. I turned to the side, vomiting all over the floor as sweat poured from my body. Tears coated my eyelashes as I watched Raven be mutilated by a madman.

Her screams slowly died down as Ivan turned Yuri with a grin. "Satisfied?"

"Almost."

Yuri drew a gun from the back of his pants and pointed it at Raven.

"What are you doing?" Ivan asked.

"Finishing the job."

Ivan stepped in front of him, his hands held up to stop him. "You take fun away from me."

"I'm just making sure it ends."

Ivan nodded. "Do me favor. Put bullet in her chest. I have no desire to clean her brains off the floor."

Yuri nodded as Ivan stepped out of the way. I saw the pleading on her face as she turned to Ivan.

"Ivan!" I shouted, but he didn't turn to face me.

"Please—"

She never got to finish her thought. Three bullets fired in succession into her body, flinging her back in the chair. She gasped one last time, and then she went silent, her head falling to the side.

I sat there, stunned and unable to believe what I had just seen. She was dead right before my very eyes. I was supposed to protect her. I swore I wouldn't let anything happen, yet she was dead with blood pooled all around her from the brutality Ivan inflicted on her.

Yuri shoved the gun in his pants and nodded to Ivan. As he walked to the door, all I could do was stare at Raven and replay all the ways I had let her down. I remembered that first night I met her, how she had been so full of life and sass. She licked my ear. And I had liked it.

Yet now, that woman was gone. The life had drained from her body and all that was left was a shell of the woman she used to be. I hung my head, unable to look at her any longer. Ivan could do whatever he wanted with me. There was no way I could ever go back to the life I once led. Not when I knew I was no longer worthy to do the job.

Ivan's footsteps echoed through the warehouse as he walked over to me. He stood just feet from me, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at me.

"You did good."

A loud bell rang and a voice echoed over a loudspeaker. "That's a wrap!"

Men and women swarmed around the room, bustling about as they started grabbing weapons and carrying them away. Furniture was moved around and lights were lowered from the ceiling. Someone carrying a camera walked out and winked at me.

"Nice performance."

"What?"

Cash came jogging over to me, a grin on his face. "That was some great shit. Seriously."

"Great—"

Movement caught my eye as Raven sat up, groaning as she rubbed her chest. "Man, did you have to shoot me three times, Ivan?"

"It was Yuri!"

A little brunette spitfire came running over, practically throwing herself in Cash's arms. "Thank you so much! That was perfect!"

I shook my head as I finally put the pieces together. I hadn't spent a lot of time with OPS and their families, but this woman… "Zoe?"

She turned to me with wide eyes. "Oh my gosh. Amazing performance. Seriously, I believed it was real."

"It…this was for show?" I exclaimed, nearly tearing out of my bindings.

"Yeah, for my new movie. FNG called and said he needed use of my set and—wait, you didn't know?"

"Know that you were fake killing my girlfriend?" I snapped.

Her face paled as she took a step back. Then she spun on Cash. "You didn't tell him? I thought he was just faking it!"

"I—"

"You big jerk!" She punched him in the arm. "I can't believe he didn't know that was a setup!"

"It had to be authentic!" he shouted as she ran away. He turned to me with a sigh. "Thanks for getting me in trouble."

"Yeah, I can see how this is all my fault," I snapped. "How the fuck could you do this to me? I thought she was actually dying! I had no way to save her!"

"Right, but if I had told you it wasn't real, there's no way you would have gone along with the plan. I sort of needed you there for it to work."

"For what to work? For you to put her in the line of fire? Do you have any idea how badly that could have gone?"

He nodded. "See, this is why I didn't tell you."

"He fucking shot her!"

"She was wearing a bullet-proof vest."

"And bullets can still pierce those. He was right the fuck in front of her!" I shouted.

"She agreed to it!"

I clenched my jaw as anger tore through me. "And what if he'd decided to go for the headshot instead?"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. That was a possibility. But Ivan talked him out of it."

I stared at him for a moment before my voice came out in a low rumble I didn't recognize. "It was a possibility?"

"Well, in our defense, it was a zero-sum game."

"That doesn't give you the right to play with her life like that!"

"She knew the stakes. It was worth the risk. If we didn't go through with it, the mob would have hunted her down. Men died because of her actions."

"There were other ways?—"

"Yuri wasn't supposed to live," Cash snapped. "He was supposed to die in that fire. But he walked out of that church. We only had a hot minute to devise a new plan."

"Yeah? And the third explosion? Whose idea was that?"

Crickets could have been heard chirping outside for how silent he went. "I didn't know about that," he admitted. "It was all Ivan. He convinced IRIS to?—"

"Where is the son-of-a-bitch?"

"Ivan?"

"IRIS," I grumbled.

"Uh…"

"Cash, let me at him. That explosion could have killed her."

"It was supposed to kill everyone aside from her," he explained. "Listen, Ivan knew the only way the mob would back off was if they thought she was dead. He knew we wouldn't go along with murdering all those people, so he went behind our backs to IRIS and?—"

"Why the fuck am I still tied up?"

He raised his eyebrows at me. "I think you know the answer to that question."

"Untie me now."

"If you'd just take a minute?—"

"You killed off my girlfriend without consulting me."

"If you ask her, she's not?—"

"I don't give a fuck what she says. We're together. You don't get to make decisions like this behind my back."

"Technically, you were passed?—"

"Don't even try to make excuses for what you did," I spat.

He rubbed his brow with a sigh. "Are you ever going to let me finish a sentence?"

"Sure. I look forward to ramming the words down your throat."

"You make a terrible Rochefort."

I had no fucking clue what he was talking about, and I didn't give a shit at this moment. "Untie me."

"Are you going to behave?"

"Cash…"

"Yeah?"

"Go fuck yourself."

He cocked his head to the side. "Maybe another half hour."