Chapter Ninety-One

Chapter Ninety-One

Sephie

"We'll do it. Ivan, get Sephie out of here. Stephen, cover Ivan and Sephie as far as you can. The rest of us are going around the warehouse. Andrei will detonate once we're clear," Adrik said.

I didn't even have time to object to leaving him before Ivan had grabbed my hand, pulling me away from Adrik. There was no time to say anything to him before we were gone. I knew I would see him in a few minutes, but there was a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach about leaving him. I didn't like it.

We were moving so quickly that I didn't have time to say anything to Ivan either. I just went with Ivan, knowing he would keep me safe until Adrik could make it back to the building. We ran to the bike that was waiting for us and were leaving in under two minutes.

It was quiet on the route we took. We were out of sight of Stephen now, so we were on our own until we made it back to the building. I was still nervous, even though I was trying not to be.

"At least you're not bleeding profusely this time," I said as I held onto Ivan just a little tighter as we were speeding through the streets weaving our way back to the building.

He chuckled, patting my leg. He slowed to make a turn onto a new street and we were suddenly surrounded. There was an SUV in front of us, blocking the turn, and two more quickly blocked us from behind and the side. Ivan made a move to drive down the sidewalk to get away, but the vehicle in front of us moved at the same time, blocking our path. It gave them just enough time for two guys to jump out of the SUV behind us and catch up to us. One of them grabbed me from behind, ripping me off the bike.

"Ivan!" I screamed as they grabbed me. He stopped immediately and jumped off to try and get to me. I had screamed on purpose, to make the guy that grabbed me think I was helpless. I felt his grip on me relax slightly as he assumed he could easily manage me. I was still wearing my helmet, so I leaned forward as far as I could, then crashed my head into his as hard as I possibly could. He stumbled backward, his grip on me completely loose now. I got free, turned to face him, and promptly shot him in the face.

There were more guys on us. I turned to see Ivan fighting three guys. I pulled my helmet off to see better, but I couldn't get a clear shot of any of them without risking shooting Ivan. I did consider trying it, since I knew he wouldn't feel anything, but I decided against it. I ran toward him to help. Two more guys rushed me when I got closer to Ivan. They both slammed me into a parked car. One of them put a gun to my head, which made me freeze. The other guy grabbed my gun. The guy that had the gun to my head whistled loudly, which caused Ivan to look toward me. He stopped as soon as he saw they had a gun to my head. He'd still managed to kill two of the guys that were on him though.

"Hands where I can see them or she dies," the guy with the gun said to Ivan. He put his hands up immediately. They searched him, taking his weapons from him. "Get in," he said, motioning to one of the SUVs. They picked me up off the car and searched me as well. They found the tracker in my pocket and took it. They threw me in the SUV with Ivan; they zip-tied both of our hands in front. The guy that held a gun on me looked at me and said, "You try anything and he dies." He then looked at Ivan. "You try anything and she dies." They all got back in their vehicles and started driving. Once we were moving, Ivan reached over and pulled me closer to him. He looked over at me, saying quietly in Russian, "We're going to get out of this. Don't worry, princess."

I felt strangely calm when I looked at him. I could see the look of surprise on his face and raised an eyebrow at him. I was confused as to why he would be surprised.

"Your eyes are almost black, princess. Keep that. It's going to prove useful," he said, winking at me.

Game on, motherfuckers.

I held onto Ivan as best I could, with our hands zip-tied, as the vehicle we were in sped through the city. While Ivan had been driving south, toward the penthouse, we were now driving north. I wasn't sure whose part of town we were headed to, but I was sure it wasn't going to be good. The vehicle made a stop several blocks from where they had grabbed us. One guy got out and left our bike helmets on the ground. I saw him toss the tracker Viktor had given me before we left the building in between the helmets. We continued our way north.

Despite our situation, I was still able to remain calm. I wasn't sure if it was Ivan's doing. He looked almost happy about getting grabbed. I knew he would be able to withstand whatever they put him through. I also knew that Adrik would not stop until he found me and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would find me. I didn't know how. I just knew he was coming for me, along with the other four guys. Whoever had made the dumb decision to grab me was going to regret that life choice.

We eventually pulled into a parking garage of an older building. It was nondescript. It looked like every other building in the city. The garage was mostly empty, which likely meant the building was mostly abandoned. This doesn't bode well for us. It would take Adrik a year to search every abandoned building in the city to find us.

They pulled us from the vehicle, ushering us to the elevator. Well, at least that still works. We went up to the fifth floor. It looked like it was an office building in a previous life. They took us across the floor to a room on the opposite side of the elevator. I saw Ivan taking mental notes of our surroundings as we walked. He was silently calm beside me. He made sure to stay close enough to me that I could feel his presence as we were led through the maze of desks that had been left behind.

They opened the door to the room and I instantly recognized it. Shit. It was the same room, exactly, that I was in when I had the nightmare my first night at the house. It felt like a lifetime ago. I was afraid I knew what was going to happen. Ivan glanced at me, noticing a change in my expression, but he said nothing. I knew he would wait until we were alone to ask me anything.

The only difference between the room before us and the one in my dream was there were now two chairs, instead of just one. They put each of us in a chair and cut the zip ties off our hands, only to zip-tie us to the chair instead. Ivan watched everything like a hawk. I knew he was looking for weaknesses. If anyone could find a way out of this, it was him.

The men that had grabbed us walked out of the room, leaving us alone. Ivan scooted his chair closer to mine. "What is it about this room, princess? I saw the look on your face when we walked in," he said quietly, in Russian.

"I've been here before," I said. He raised an eyebrow, shocked. "No, not like that. I had a nightmare the first night I was at the house, after Anthony choked me at the restaurant. It started at my uncle's house, then faded to this room. I was tied to a chair and everything. Anthony came in. Of course, I said something smart to him and he punched me. That's when he told me he was going to use me as bait. I screamed and woke up, so I don't know anything past that."

"Well, at least we know who grabbed us," he said. "I should be able to grab a knife when they come back, if I can get them close enough to me. Princess, look at me." I turned my head to look at him. "They're going to use me to scare you. To intimidate you into doing whatever they want you to do. They'll likely torture me to try and break you. I've been in this situation before. I'm going to have to pretend that I can feel what they're doing. They can't know that I don't feel pain, so I have to put on a show. It's just a show. Got it?" he said, winking at me.

"This is why you're my protector, Super Squish," I said.

"Just like you screamed when they grabbed you, we need them to continue thinking they have an advantage over us. They'll get sloppy at some point. We just have to outlast them. I can handle whatever they're going to do to me. I need you to do the same, princess," he said.

I felt my anger getting stronger. I looked over at him again, only to see surprise in his eyes once again. I laughed. "How dark are they now?" I asked.

"You look scary, princess. Keep it up."

They left us alone for what seemed like forever. Ivan and I talked quietly to pass the time. Ivan picked ridiculous subjects to help me stay calm. We still inevitably ended up talking about how long it would take the others to find us.

"I realize we have no whiteboard here and we really don't even have a way to tell how much time is passing, since they took your watch. Dick move, by the way, but how long do you think it's going to take them to find us?" I asked. We kept our conversations to Russian only, even though it didn't really matter at this point.

Ivan chuckled. "I say no longer than a day and a half."

I contemplated his answer. I would've liked a shorter prediction, but I decided to take the over instead of under. "I say three days."

Ivan clicked his tongue at me. "Princess, you're not being pessimistic on me now, are you?"

"I like to call it being realistic. It's a big city and they have no way to find us."

"You underestimate your bond with your goddamn prince. He'll find you."

As I was about to answer, the door to the room opened. I kept my mouth shut, now feeling nervous to see who was going to walk through the door. I fully expected Anthony to walk through the door, just like he had in my dream. Two of the guys that had grabbed us walked in and closed the door behind them. Given that we'd killed three of their buddies, they didn't seem to be terribly happy with us. They didn't say a word, they simply leaned against a table across the room and watched us.

Ivan said, in English, "Are you boys going to stare all night or are you going to tell us what you want with us?"

The two men looked at each other, then looked back at Ivan, but still didn't say a word. They'd been speaking Italian when they grabbed us, so it made me wonder if their English wasn't that great. I translated what Ivan had said to Italian. Both men were surprised to hear me speak Italian.

"Yeah, I know, right? It means I understood everything you assholes were saying when you grabbed us. I don't forget easily. When we get out of here, and we will get out of here, I'm going to enjoy sending you to meet your dead friends," I said. I could feel my anger rising as I thought about what they said about me when they grabbed me. They actually had a discussion about whether they could get away with having their way with me before they brought us to the building. They only decided against it because Ivan was with me and they'd have to explain killing him. They had orders to bring us both alive.

One of them, a clear smirk on his face, said, "Strong words from someone who's tied to a chair."

"Ask your buddy how much stronger my actions are than my words. Oh, wait. You can't. I shot him in his goddamn face," I said. I had to admit I was actually enjoying this little exchange. They had grossly underestimated me when they grabbed me.

"Princess, careful. I don't know what you're saying, but I know you're verbally owning them right now," Ivan said to me in Russian. He said it quietly, so the two guys barely heard him.

Ivan was right. I was supposed to be making them think they had the upper hand with me, so I tried to show restraint.

"You never answered his question. What do you want with us?" I asked in Italian.

"We're just following orders. Our boss is very interested in you and the men you keep company with," one of them said.

"Who's your boss?" I asked.

"Patience, dear. You'll find out soon enough." With that, they both got up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind them.

Ivan looked at me, waiting for me to tell him what had just been said. Before I could tell him, he said, "Your Italian is better when you're angry." His wide smile spread across his face.

I laughed. "You didn't understand what they were talking about when they grabbed us. They were trying to decide if they had enough time to pull over and take turns raping me. They decided against it because they would've had to kill you and they couldn't come up with a reason to cover. I told them when we get out of here, I would enjoy sending them to meet their dead friends." I glanced at Ivan, his anger visible on his face where not two seconds ago his smile had been. "I asked them again what they wanted with us. They said they were following orders and whoever they're working for is very interested in the men I keep company with. It's gotta be Sal or Armando."

"Agreed. It could be both of them, for all we know."

"That wouldn't surprise me either. They said we'll find out soon enough," I said.

Ivan sighed. "They really are using you as bait. I would rather get out of here before that happens, but I also want to see who is behind this. If we leave now, we won't know for sure who ordered this."

"Oh, I'm all for waiting for the big reveal. If it's Armando, I want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he deserves to die."

I heard Ivan laugh quietly again. "Misha was right, you know. You're so much like us now that it's scary."

I laughed this time too. "He told you about that, huh?"

"Yeah, except for Stephen and the really big stuff like my past, there aren't many secrets among us. And now that Stephen told us, there aren't many secrets with him either."

"That guy. I used to think he was a serial killer and I was still strangely fine with that possibility. Now that I know he's just a vampire, it all makes sense," I said, laughing.

"We all thought that and we were all fine with it. Have you heard about him when he gets pushed too far?" Ivan asked.

"Stephen? He can be pushed too far? Really?"

"He's similar to your goddamn prince. The bloodlust is almost as bad in Stephen. I've only seen it happen a couple of times, but there was no stopping him when it happened. I'm counting on it happening when they find us. They could just send him and your goddamn prince in here and nobody would walk out of here alive. Doesn't matter how many people are in this building with us."

"I might enjoy seeing that," I said.

We kept talking quietly for a while longer, just trying to pass the time. I needed to pee, after what I assumed to be a few hours of sitting in this chair. I groaned. "Shit, I need to pee. Think they'll let me use the bathroom?"

"If they do, use the opportunity to get a feel for where everything is. I know where the stairs are, where the elevator is. Look for things that can be used as weapons and distractions. Like fire extinguishers and paper towel dispensers in the bathroom, if they're metal."

"If they let me use the bathroom, then they'll be more likely to let you use it too. Can you lift a knife off one of them if they let you out of the chair?"

"Possibly. You can too, princess. Use a distraction, like tripping and bumping into them to grab what you need."

I chewed on my bottom lip, nervous about trying to lift something off of one of them, worried about what would happen to me or Ivan if they caught me.

It wasn't very much longer and the same two men came back into the room. I told them that I needed to pee. They both walked to the chairs we were tied to. One of them pulled a gun and pointed it at Ivan. "You try anything and he dies," he said flatly. The other guy cut my restraints and pulled me out of the chair. He kept a tight hold of my arm the entire way to the bathroom. There was no way I was going to be able to grab anything off of him, so I looked around while we were walking. There was a fire extinguisher on the opposite side of the floor from the room we were being kept in. It was by the elevators.

Luckily, the guy didn't follow me into the bathroom, so I had a chance to be alone for a minute. I took note of everything in the bathroom that we could possibly use to our advantage. I heard a beep in my ear. My earpiece. They missed it when they searched me. I pulled it out of my ear. I had no clue how it worked, but there was a blue light blinking on it. Normally, there was a blue light that remained on when they would hand it to me. It was never blinking. I looked it over, pressing the only button on it, just to see what would happen. It beeped quietly three times in a row, then went silent, but the blue light was still blinking. No idea what that means. I put it back in my ear, just in case.

The guy that escorted me to the bathroom stuck his head inside the door and yelled at me to hurry up. I quickly finished up and walked out of the bathroom. He grabbed my arm once more and practically dragged me back to the room with Ivan. When we walked into the room, Ivan was bleeding from a cut above his eye.

"What the fuck? I didn't do anything wrong. Why did you hurt him?" I asked, trying to appear as frightened as possible, rather than showing the extreme anger I was feeling.

"He has a smart mouth," the guy with the gun said. "Almost as smart as yours." I glanced to Ivan as they shoved me back in the chair. He was totally fine. He didn't look it, but I knew he wasn't feeling like he just got hit with the butt of a gun.

They zip-tied my wrists back to the chair once more. The guy with the gun put it back in its holster once I was secured to the chair again. He looked at me, then punched Ivan once more before walking out of the room, once again leaving us alone.

"Are you going to tell me what your smart mouth said to him?" I asked, trying not to smile.

"I asked him how good his English was. When he didn't answer, I asked him if he wanted to die quickly or if he was okay with me dragging it out," he said. "Then he hit me with the butt of his gun."

"Rude. I knew their English was better than they were letting on," I said. "I bet that was a test to see if I really could speak Italian."

"Which means it's likely Sal that we're waiting on. Armando knows you can understand Italian."

"Is it wrong that I'm slightly disappointed it's not Armando? I really want a definitive decision on that fucker," I said. "Maybe Sal just didn't believe that I could understand Italian, so he tested it just to be sure. It could still be both of them."

We heard voices outside the door. More than just the two guys that had been watching us. "Looks like we might find out the answer sooner rather than later," Ivan said.

The door opened once more. The two guys who grabbed us walked in first, followed by Salvadori, followed by Armando. Oh, he's dead. They glanced at Ivan, who had blood that was drying on his face, then looked to the two guys who had grabbed us. They just shrugged their shoulders like it wasn't their fault.

Sal walked toward me. The look on his face was difficult to read. He looked happy, but he also looked angry. "You, my dear. You can't keep yourself from killing my men. That's not very ladylike of you," he said as he ran a finger down the side of my face and my neck. I felt nauseous at his touch. I could feel Ivan's anger, much the same way I could feel Adrik's, but it wasn't quite as strong of a feeling. But I didn't need to look at him to know he was not happy that Sal was touching me.

"Your men are anything but gentlemen toward me. Maybe if they weren't constantly trying to harm me, I would be nicer to them," I said, trying to move away from his hand as far as I could.

Sal laughed, turning to look at Armando. "You were right, Mando. She is a firecracker."

"What do you want with me?"

"Well, my dear, it started out innocently enough. You were going to be the bait to draw out Ghost, so we could kill him," he said. I tensed at him mentioning Adrik. "But now that you've killed so many of my men, I can't let that go unpunished. There's the matter of my son as well. You've made him look like a fool. You seem to be in my debt, you see," Sal said. His fingers were still running down my neck. He caught the zipper of my shirt, unzipping it as far as it would go, which thankfully was only halfway down. He stood and stared at my bra for a moment, like it was the first time he'd seen a woman's breasts.

"Is this your first time seeing boobs?" I asked. I didn't expect him to slap me, but he did. Hard. My head jerked to the side with the impact of his hand. Ivan threatened him, but Sal ignored him.

"You do have a smart mouth. You'll learn to keep it shut," Sal said.

"I told your idiot son the same thing. School really wasn't my thing. I'm probably not going to learn that anytime soon," I said, looking at Sal with every ounce of hatred I could muster. His fist made contact with my face once more. This time, it was exactly like it had been in my dream. He punched me so hard that my chair tipped over backwards. I heard Ivan yell at him and I could hear him struggling in his chair. The two guys that grabbed us came over and set me back upright. "You punch like a weak old man," I said as soon as I was upright once again. "I bet you can't even get it up. How many dick pills do you have to take to even have sex?" Ivan laughed loudly beside me, which caused Sal to focus his anger on Ivan instead of me. Sal punched Ivan, squarely across the jaw, but Ivan's massive frame barely budged. He stayed quiet for a moment, looking at Sal. He turned his gaze to me, saying, "You were right. He punches like a weak old man."

"That's enough!" Armando said sternly. He had been quiet since they walked in the room. He looked uncomfortable. Good. He should be uncomfortable. His time is coming. "You're not going to get anything for her if you wreck her face," Armando said.

So, Dario was right. Sal was planning on selling me to the highest bidder. My anger was a raging inferno inside, but that thought made me laugh. This dumb fuck. Armando walked to stand next to Sal. He hadn't looked me in the eyes since walking into the room, but he did once he stood next to Sal. The look of surprise on his face was evident. Clearly, my eyes were still dark. I held his gaze, letting even more of my anger come to the surface, secretly hoping that my eyes would go still darker. I said, in Italian, "You're both going to die. Slowly. Painfully." I maintained eye contact with Armando until he looked away. He looked more nervous than when he'd come into the room. Even Sal looked uncertain about what to say. They looked at each other and walked out of the room without another word.

Once they were gone, Ivan asked in Russian, "How's your face, princess?"

"I mean, it's felt better, but I'm okay. Lucky that he really does punch like a weak girl."

Ivan laughed. "What did you say to them?"

"I told them they were both going to die slowly and painfully. I'm guessing by the look on Armando's face, my eyes are still dark?" I asked, looking at Ivan.

"Um, yeah. Every time you look at me, they get darker. They're going to be black by the time this is over with."

"Or I'm going to spontaneously combust. It could go either way, really," I said, laughing.

"Judging by that interaction, I would guess Sal is in charge and Armando is going along with him for whatever reason. Maybe Sal has something over him?"

"Yeah, but remember who Armando is sleeping with. I don't think he's as innocent as he's trying to get us to believe. He only came to my defense because Sal beating me further would've meant a lower price for me. I'm done with him. There's no getting out of this for him as far as I'm concerned," I said.

"I agree. We might be able to play them off each other though. If we can get them fighting each other, it might give us a chance to get out of here. You're doing great, princess. I'm proud of you," he said, winking at me.

"I would not be doing this well if you weren't here with me, Super Squish. You're my favorite. Don't tell the others."