Chapter 17

Chapter

Seventeen

April 19 th

8:10 A.M.

It was over.

Ironically, it was also seven years to the minute since Sarah had been snatched from her car as she stopped at a red light while driving home from work late one night.

Leonid Baranov was dead, and it felt wonderful.

So wonderful Sarah didn't even care that she hadn't been the one to end his life.

Without even thinking about what she was doing, she ran to the woman who had just ended Baranov's worthless life and flung her arms around her. Beth was stiff in her hold, and she was sure the woman had cried out in pain, but right now she didn't care. She just needed to hold her fellow victim because of everyone left alive, only the two of them knew just how dark and depraved Leonid Baranov truly was.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she wept over and over again as she held onto Beth.

After a long moment, one of the woman's arms moved to wrap around Sarah's shoulders in a loose hug. "It's over now, he can't hurt either of us again, or anyone else," Beth whispered.

"I … wanted to kill him myself but … I couldn't. Hurting was one thing, but killing him … I'm not as strong as you are."

That was the absolute truth.

While she did not like Beth Lindon, who had somehow managed to do what nobody else had and actually survived Baranov's brutality, she had to admire the other woman's strength. Of course, at the time when they had both been prisoners, she hadn't known the extent of suffering the woman had lived through, she now knew all about poor Beth's horrific past.

No wonder the woman could survive the devil, she'd grown up in hell.

"I didn't want to kill him either, Sarah. Not really. I wanted him dead, but I don't want to be surrounded by violence anymore. I just want peace," Beth said softly. "Please, you can understand that, can't you? I did what you wanted, I killed him, please can you just let me and Axel go now?"

There was a part of her that wanted to, she didn't want anyone on Axel's team dead, after all, they had saved her life. But letting them go wasn't possible.

"I can't," she said simply, standing and brushing at her wet cheeks. Sarah crossed to her husband, and grabbed his shoulders, pulling Tomas down so she could press her lips to his. "Thank you for letting me have my revenge."

"Of course, darling," Tomas said, his tongue trailing across her bottom lip. "Anything for my girl."

"You two can make out later, Beth needs medical attention," Axe said, his voice hard.

Tearing her gaze away from Tomas, she looked over to see Beth on her knees beside Baranov's dead body. The woman was hunched in on herself as though in pain, and she cradled one of her arms against her chest in a protective manner that Sarah had already seen Beth do before.

"We'll have her taken to the infirmary to be patched up. We're not monsters you know, Mr. Lindon," Tomas told him.

"I'm going with her," Axe said in a voice that brokered no argument .

"Yes, of course," Tomas agreed.

"Both of you are coming, too. I want answers and I'm done waiting for them," Axe continued like he was the one in charge.

Before she could snap at him, Tomas' hands smoothed down her arms. "Yes, of course. Both Sarah and I are happy to explain, aren't we, darling?"

"I guess," Sarah huffed. What she really wanted to do was take Baranov's body and cut it into tiny pieces, then smash them all up until there was nothing left of him but dust.

Tomas nodded at some of his men, and two of them went to grab Beth. Another two went to Axe's gurney and began to wheel it back to the infirmary. Baranov's body remained where it was, Sarah knew Tomas wouldn't have it moved until she decided what she wanted to do with it. She changed her mind more often than she changed her clothes.

"Beth, honey, look at me," Axe said in a soft, soothing voice once they were all in the infirmary.

With eyes clouded by shock, Beth's gaze moved slowly to meet her husband's.

"You did amazing, wisp. I'm so proud of you. Your strength is limitless and every day you make me love you more," Axe told his wife.

A small smile curled Beth's lips up. "Love you, too," she whispered.

Axe never took his eyes off his wife while one of Tomas' doctors attended to Beth. He relocated her dislocated shoulder, he cleaned and stitched a gash on her cheekbone, and he prodded at her ribs and declared them bruised but not broken. It wasn't until Beth was seated on a gurney beside him, holding his hand, clean and medicated, that Axe's hard eyes turned to her and Tomas.

"How long have you been together?" he demanded.

"Tomas wanted me from the beginning, but Baranov doesn't share his toys," Sarah said bitterly.

She could never understand why Tomas hadn't made a move to take down his boss and stop the man from hurting her. Whenever she brought it up, Tomas always told her that he hadn't been able to make his move until the timing was perfect.

Why did it have to be perfect when she was being tortured every single day ?

Wasn't that more important?

Tomas said it wasn't, that if things weren't perfect, he wouldn't win and she would have to remain Baranov's toy forever. It wasn't that Sarah thought her husband was lying to her, but she just didn't understand his reservations. Tomas was bigger, stronger, and smarter than Baranov. Without Tomas, the man would have been arrested a dozen times over. Tomas was the one who paid off cops and witnesses or had them killed if they couldn't be bought. He was the only reason Baranov was as feared as he was. Baranov was but the puppet, it was Tomas who was the puppeteer.

"Tomas is the reason I was still alive. Baranov wanted to kill me, but Tomas told him that if he did then he would kill him," Sarah explained.

"Baranov was afraid of you?" Axe asked Tomas. "I thought he wasn't afraid of anyone."

"I wouldn't say afraid was the right word," Tomas replied. "More like he knew he was reliant on me if he wished to remain out of prison. I was the one who took care of all his problems for him. Yes, he could have had me killed and found someone else to do my job, but I was the one with the reputation. So, we worked out an agreement. He got to keep his toy but had to keep her alive."

"So, after we rescued Sarah you two were free to be together," Axe said.

"We were," she agreed, smiling at her husband.

"It was you who had Baranov's male victim killed," Axe said.

Sarah shrugged. She'd liked Dennis, but business was business. "Not by choice. He wouldn't let it go. I begged him to move on, to stop worrying about Baranov, but I couldn't tell him that Tomas and I had a plan to destroy the man and take over his empire. When he wouldn't let it go, we had to act. He realized that Tomas and I were involved, and he was going to tell you. Killing him was the only option."

"You killed your own daughter," Axe said in disgust. "How could you do that?"

"The child was neither planned nor wanted," Tomas said dismissively. "She might have been a useful tool in keeping our cover on Sarah's farm, but when it was time to move on we had to get rid of her. When Beth was able to escape, we had bigger concerns than an unwanted brat. When we realized Beth did not remember that it was Sarah and I who were responsible for her disappearance and you all believed it was Baranov there was no need to do anything further about the problem unless her memories returned."

"I don't understand why you even took Beth," Axe said. "She was no threat to you. And I don't understand why you didn't kill me and my team when you knew where we were all along."

"Killing you would not have furthered our goal," Tomas replied. "We were on the same side, Baranov was an enemy to us both. As for taking Beth, it was a strategical decision and one that was necessary to destroy Baranov. Beth was the only toy he'd ever had that could not be broken, he was fascinated with her. Watching her kill the soldiers who were most loyal to him, watching how indestructible she was, how perfect, but knowing he could never have her was the most delicious form of torture for a man like Baranov."

At least that was part of the reason.

Not all of it as far as Sarah was concerned.

She had her own reasons, just ones she hadn't shared with her husband.