Chapter 10

Samara~

I didn't want to get out of the vehicle, and maybe that made me a coward. After all, I'd given my word to save my sister, so it should be easy to honor it, despite what I knew about Avgust Kotov and the Russian Bratva. Still, maybe it was because I knew all about Avgust that I was reluctant to get out of the car.

Fifteen years ago, my parents had moved us across town because my mother had gotten a new teaching job. I'd been a freshman in high school, and Masha had still been in grade school, but we'd been excited for our mother. While our father had made good money as a security guard at the bank, Mom's passion had been teaching, and she'd been so excited for the new experience and raise in pay. Though we'd be leaving our friends behind, with social media and the internet, it hadn't been that big of a hardship to say goodbye. Plus, neither of us had wanted to ruin our mother's happiness with negativity.

At any rate, it'd been the first day of school, and when I had walked into second period, determined not to let being the new girl intimidate me, I hadn't ever expected to meet someone like Avgust Kotov. At first, I'd been wary of him because of his last name, but then he had assured me that he was merely a Kotov, not the Kotov. Na?ve and dazzled by his looks, I had believed every word out of his mouth, and in a matter of days, Avgust had become my best and only friend at Tudor High. That was also where I'd met Maksim, as they'd been best friends back then, and it was apparent that they still were.

The thing about my friendship with Avgust was that he'd been three years older than me, sometimes two when our birthdays would align. Still, by his accounts, he'd been too old for me and had only pushed for friendship during those first couple of years. However, his chivalrousness had backfired, because the more that he had respected me, the more that I'd fallen in love with him. He had become my everything so easily that I hadn't even recognized when it had happened.

Then, when I had turned sixteen, he had made his intentions clear, though he had still refused to do anything more than just hold my hand or give me a chaste kiss on the cheek once or twice. The entire time, I'd been dying inside for him, but he hadn't ever crossed the line with me, and I hadn't been able to help but admire his dedication and control. Now, while there'd been times when I'd been certain that he'd had to be entertaining himself with other girls behind my back, there'd never been any evidence of it, nor had I ever asked him. My teenage heart would have been broken beyond repair if he'd had been, but then it'd gotten broken anyways.

Anyway, the day that I had finally turned eighteen, Avgust had treated me to a day at the fair, a lovely dinner, then had asked my permission to spend the night with me. Though my parents had also been wary of him because of his last name, after assuring them that Avgust was nothing more than a mere relative of the family, they'd given him their blessing to date me, and that first night together was going to be burned in the back of my mind forever.

The first boy that I had ever loved had introduced me to things that had never crossed my mind before, and I'd been there for all of it. Whatever he'd wanted to do to me, I had eagerly allowed it. I hadn't been able to get enough of him that night, nor any of the other nights that had followed.

Of course, it also hadn't hurt that Avgust Kotov had been the most gorgeous thing that I'd ever seen back then, and if I was being honest, he still was. Even as a teenager, at six-foot-two, Avgust had been pure muscle, and his dark brown hair did nothing but make his vivid hazel eyes pop out. Though he'd had a boyish charm when I'd first met him, he had transformed into a young man right before my eyes, and his beauty had just grown right along with him.

The only difference between then and now was the number of tattoos that littered his skin. Back in high school, he'd had a couple, but nothing alarming. Of course, at the time, I had believed them to just be a fad, but once I'd learned the truth, the meaning behind his tattoos had just made me cry harder for the boy that I had loved and lost.

In high school, he'd had a spider on his forearm, and faced up, it meant that he'd been an active criminal within the bratva organization. He'd also had a ‘thieves' cross' on his chest, which I had mistaken for dedication to his faith like an idiot. Lastly, he'd had a skull placed above the spider, and I'd ended up learning that a skull identified you as a murderer, and my naivety still made me sick to my stomach to this day.

Nowadays, Avgust was covered in tattoos, and the visible ones that I'd been able to see were the letters ОМУТ and МИР on the back of his hands, a crown, and a circled letter A. Still, from my research that I'd done after our breakup, I knew that he had to have stars, medals, and a bevy of other tattoos that announced his rank in the bratva.

Nonetheless, the tattoos didn't take away from how gorgeous Avgust Kotov was. No longer a boy, he was a grown man, and the power that he wielded radiated off him in waves. While Avgust had never lacked confidence, what he represented now was something entirely different. He was a man that knew his place in this world, and his place was at the top of the food chain, a spot shared only by Nero Sartori and Declan O'Brien in their respective territories.

At any rate, everything had come crashing down around me when Avgust had told me that he'd wanted to marry me. I'd been over the moon and ready to say yes, no big wedding necessary. However, refusing to start our marriage out on a lie, that's when he'd come clean about who he'd really been, and I'd never felt pain or betrayal like that in all my life. He'd been counting on my love for him to help move us past his lies, but I'd been only nineteen, practically a child still, and the pain had been too much to get past. It'd been too easy for Avgust to live two different lives, and I hadn't wanted that for myself. I hadn't wanted a marriage where I'd be forced to wear blinders to be happy, and he'd be able to do whatever he wanted because of who he was.

So, after letting him know that I'd wanted no part of the Russian Bratva, I had begged for him to let me go, and it hadn't been until I had begged for him to let me be happy that he had finally set me free. It'd been the worst time in my life, and I still hadn't healed from that heartbreak when my parents had passed away. Oddly enough, the only person that I'd wanted to help me get through my parents' deaths had been the same person that had hurt me irrevocably.

During our breakup, Avgust's only request had been that I stayed away from him. He'd made it clear that he'd never wanted to see me again, and though his request had felt like another dagger to my heart, I had agreed because it'd been the least that I could do since I'd been the one to end things.

I almost laughed at the irony.

I'd broken both our hearts because I'd wanted nothing to do with the Russian Bratva, and that's exactly where I'd ended up anyway. Thanks to Masha's thoughtlessness, I owed a debt to the Kotovs, one that I was never going to be able to repay.

The car door finally opened, and I looked up to see Alexei's hand reaching out to help me out of the vehicle. I thought his manners were misplaced, but I wasn't going to make this harder than it needed to be. Besides, I needed to keep in mind that I was here for my sister. While I'd known the Avgust Kotov from my teenage years, I didn't know Avgust Kotov, the man. All I knew about him was the same thing that the rest of Port Townsend knew; that he was known as a demon on the streets. It was also said that Maksim might be worse than Avgust in that regard, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.

Nonetheless, I took Alexei's hand in mine, then allowed him to help me out of the car. As I eyed the deserted facility, it occurred to me that I'd only campaigned for my sister's safety. No one had ever said that nothing would happen to me, but would that have even mattered? Avgust held all the cards here, and I had to just keep reminding myself that Masha would be dead right now if Avgust's men had stuck to the bratva script of leaving no witnesses behind.

"Follow me," Alexei instructed, and all I could do was obey.

As soon as we walked inside the abandoned building, the stench of death hit me hard, and it was all that I could do not to pass out. Either I was here, so that Avgust could torture me for walking away from him all those years ago, or else this was the place that was selected to drive me insane.

Following Alexei like a good captive, we passed a bunch of empty offices, and the more that I looked around, the more that I realized exactly what this place was. A few years ago, for whatever reason, the government had shut this place down, but I'd had no idea what had ever become of it. It'd been an animal research lab, and if the bratva owned it now, it didn't take a genius to figure out why.

When we reached a pair of double doors, we walked into find Avgust, Maksim, and another man standing in the middle of the room, which had obviously been used as a kennel if all the cages were any indication. The cages were all different sizes, and some of the doors were missing, but there was no denying that this room had been a holding cell for the animals that'd been housed here.

As my eyes searched around the room, I noticed a single cage that was floor-to-ceiling and also wide enough to allow an animal to pace dangerously within its confines. My heart started beating painfully in my chest, but throwing myself into a panic wouldn't help anyone right now.

Then, without any preamble at all, Avgust asked, "How do you like your new home?"

My eyes snapped towards his. "What?"

The look in his eyes looked like evil come to life. "What? Where did you think that you were going to end up?" Then the corner of his lip tugged wickedly. "Welcome to hell, baby."