Page 35 of Ruby Menace

“Ready to tell us what we want to know?” Aleksei snarls, his voice muffled through the bag. “We can do this all night, bitch!”

I struggle against the bag desperately, terrified for my life and for my baby’s. My lungs feel like they’re about to implode. The air in the bag is completely depleted, and each futile breath draws unyielding plastic into my mouth. Black spots swim before my eyes as I strain and arch against the ropes. Just when I think that I’m about to pass out, they yank the bag off my head.

I suck in sweet air as if it’s the first time I’ve ever drawn breath.

“Memory starting to come back?” Aleksei chuckles.

“I… I don’t… know anything… I swear to you!” I start to sob. I give a small scream when the bag goes back over my head. “No! Please!”

“Let’s try again, shall we?” Boris says, twisting the bag so that it’s tight around my throat, stopping any air from getting in.

Within seconds, my lungs are burning again, my body bucking as I fight to breathe.

I’m going to die!

In that moment, I realize that I don’t care what I have to do to get out of this situation. Not for myself, but for my baby. I’ll do whatever it takes to save my child, even if it means serving myself up on a plate to these men.

“Please,” I beg, my voice muffled. “I’ll do anything. Anything! Just don’t hurt my baby.”

They laugh again, a cruel sound that makes my stomach churn. “We don’t give a shit about your kid, shlyukha,” Boris sneers. “It’s a spawn of the devil, just like its father. It would only give me pleasure to wipe the Vyronov bloodline from this planet.”

I’m horrified, my heart racing as I realize the depth of their cruelty. Sobs wrack me as I realize the futility of my resistance. They’re not going to stop until I tell them something… and I honestly don’t know anything.

Sweet baby… I’m so sorry.

Tears stream down my face, not for myself, but for the little life that will never get a chance to exist. The tiny soul I already love so fiercely for that I would easily give up my own life to save it. And yet, there is nothing I can do. I am completely at the mercy of these men and there is nothing I can tell them.

They continue to press for information, their questions growing more specific and more threatening. I don’t know the answers, and they don’t believe me. They somehow think I’m holding out, that I’m protecting Kirill even now.

“She’s a tough one, I’ll give her that, Boris.” Aleksei has just hauled the bag off my head yet again. I hang limply from my bonds, too exhausted and drained to even fight back anymore. I can’t think clearly, my head pounding as I struggle for air.

Where did they even get the idea that I would know anything? What do they actually want from me other than to lure Kirill out?

Yet again, I’m visualizing cold blue eyes and platinum hair.

She did this.

Zoya sold me out to these people.

It’s all her fault.

“You know, Boris, I think we’ve been going too easy on her.” Aleksei is running contemptuous eyes over me. They’re toying with me, but I’m too far gone to care anymore. That is until his next words have me jolting in shock, horror pulsing through my veins. “Last chance, bitch,” he snarls, drawing a knife from a sheath at his hip. “Start talking or I’ll cut that baby out.”

“No!” I scream the word hoarsely, twisting and writhing. He grabs my hair, yanking my head back. The blade glitters evilly as he traces a pattern in the air in front of my face.

“Do you want to meet your child in person?” he roars. “I can make it happen right now!” The sharp point moves dangerously close to my eyes, and I cringe away, my lashes flitting. He trails the tip down my chin, my throat, my chest, and then down the valley of my cleavage. I’m not breathing again, but now it has nothing to do with having a bag over my head. I swallow convulsively, terrified that even this small gesture might have the razor-sharp edge piercing my skin.

“Have you ever seen what an unborn child looks like, Boris?” Aleksei twists his head to look at the other man.

“Not yet.” Boris gives an ugly chuckle. “But I’m ready to find out.”

Aleksei looks back at me. I’m paralyzed with fear, my body trembling as I stare into his cold, dead eyes. I don’t know what to do, how to save myself and my baby. If I’d hoped they’d go easy on me because I’m pregnant, I’d been dead wrong. It only seems to have given them more ammunition to torment me.

“Let’s get rid of this first,” he says, sliding the blade beneath the fabric of my dress and applying slight pressure. The blade is so sharp that it slices through the material like a hot knife through butter. The ruined garment falls open, exposing the lace of my bra and all the way to my belly.

“Ahh. Very nice.” Boris is leering at me, his eyes moving over my breasts and then down further.

I can’t breathe. Nor think. All I can do is feel the cold metal of the knife against my skin and hear the sound of Boris’s laughter. The blade presses into my stomach, and I feel a warm trickle of blood slide down my skin. I shriek as the shallow cut begins to sting as the cool air meets it. The sting turns into a burn as sliced nerve endings react.

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