Page 81 of Born into Sin

Alexei stands back up and Gleb walks over to grab me, moving me from the couch to prepare for the first video. It doesn’t escape my notice that the beating the shit out of me video is coming before the raping one. That tells me everything I need to know about Alexei Zolotov. There’s no reasoning with a man like him. He’s a psychopath, but he’s also a misogynistic asshole, and to be a woman on the receiving end of that combination means there’s only one way this is going to end for me, and knowing I’m about to die by his hands breaks my goddamn heart.

Gleb sits me down on the kitchen floor. My knees dig into the hard, white tile that’s about to be covered in my blood while Alexei takes off his shirt and shakes his hands out, preparing to beat the hell out of the bound, defenseless woman in front of him.

Andrik lifts the phone, positioning himself in the room so he’s in the perfect spot to catch everything on video. He gives me a wink, and I can see the excitement in his eyes. What the fuck is wrong with these guys? I’ve been surrounded by tough men my whole life, and every single one of them would cut off their own arm before raising it against a defenseless woman. I understand why my dad and uncles have been so strict with us now, and I’d give anything to be able to hug them all and thank them for all the bodyguards and constant text check-ins and the refusal to let us go out on our own no matter how hard we begged. I get it. I fucking get it, and if I make it out of here, I’ll never complain about any security measures ever again.

Alexei steps closer while his dad smiles at him from across the room. Like father, like fucking son. He cracks his knuckles and looks down at me. His chest is decorated with Bratva tattoos that cover every inch of his muscular body. I don’t stand a chance in hell, even if my hands weren’t bound.

“I wonder how long before you pass out,” he says, eyeing me like he can’t wait to cut me open to see what’s inside.

I desperately hope it’ll be quick, and in what might be an insane attempt to make that happen, I smile up at him, wanting to piss him off enough so that the first punch will knock my ass out.

“Probably a pretty long time since you’re such a fucking pussy. I’m glad my dad kicked your bitch ass. If you hadn’t tied my hands behind me, I bet I could kick your ass too.”

I have just enough time to see his eyes go dark with rage before he yells, “Start filming,” and pulls his arm back for the first punch. I don’t get my wish. I don’t pass out with the first punch or the next or the fucking next. I try like hell to not scream so my dad doesn’t have to hear it, but I lose that battle pretty early on. I can’t help it. He’s slowly killing me with each hit, and I can’t do a goddamn thing to stop it. I cling to thoughts of Dominic, wanting to die with a piece of him surrounding me, even if it is all in my head. I won’t let this bastard take that from me. He might be killing me, but I’m going to decide what to think about while he does it. He’s not going to take this from me. I fight like hell to ignore the pain and fill my head with the man I love until finally my vision starts to darken and I let go.

Chapter 15

Dominic

Ipace the floor of Lev’s kitchen, feeling my sanity slip a little more with each passing second. It’s been eight days since I last saw Natalya, and I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. All five of the Melnikov brothers look exactly how I feel. This isn’t easy for any of us, but we still haven’t been able to find Alexei or Adrian Zolotov. It seems the two men are just as paranoid as we are and they don’t tell their men anything they don’t absolutely need to know. The three Zolotov men we found and tortured for information were of zero help to us, and it’s put us all in a foul mood.

Matvey scrubs a hand over his face, one that’s still covered in dried blood from the fucker we just finished up with, and lets out a heavy sigh. “I miss my wife.”

If this were any other situation, I’d laugh my ass off at the sight of a bloody Bratva boss looking so devastated because he misses his wife, but the truth is we all feel the same damn way. The only difference is that Natalya isn’t my wife yet, and I have to hide how I feel about her.

“Tell me about it,” Vitaly grumbles. “If I have to jerk off over Skype one more time, I think I might cry. It’s so fucking depressing.”

Lev leans against the counter, and I’ve never seen him look so out of it before. The dark circles under his eyes make it clear he hasn’t slept in days. He looks like a man who’s about to snap. He starts to pour himself another vodka when one by one all their phones start to go off. My heart stops in my chest, and when I meet Lev’s eyes, I can tell we’re both thinking the same thing. Something is wrong. Something is very fucking wrong.

While they reach for their phones, I grab mine and send a text to Natalya, asking if she’s okay. It’s after three-thirty in the morning, and when I don’t get a response, I hope like hell it’s because she’s sleeping peacefully, but my gut tells me I’m wrong. My instincts are usually spot-on, and right now they’re screaming at me.

“What’s going on?” I ask when I see Lev’s face pale. Nothing fazes this man, and now he’s so pale he looks like he might pass out. When his eyes meet mine, reminding me so much of his daughter, I want to tell him to stop, that I’ve changed my mind and I don’t actually want to hear what he’s about to say, because I know the next words out of his mouth are going to break me.

“Natalya’s gone.”

His voice is barely more than a whisper, but I hear it all the same. I grip the edge of the counter, feeling the last of my sanity start to crumble. I can’t lose her. I won’t fucking survive it.

Roman is only a couple of feet away, but his voice sounds like it’s coming from another room when he says, “Andrik is missing, and Vitya was stabbed. Jolene said she and Natalya couldn’t sleep and made some tea a little after two, then she went and laid down. She woke up to Svetlana screaming and ran to see what was going on. She found her by the back door with Vitya. He must’ve been coming in for his sleep shift when Andrik got to him. That’s why no one noticed he was missing. The others were outside patrolling around the house like they were supposed to.”

“No one else is missing,” Danil adds, “and they found prints outside the house and on the path in the woods. Boot prints and then Natalya’s bare feet.”

I bite back a groan. All I can think about is how much my sweet girl hates putting her bare feet on the ground. She must’ve been terrified, and I wasn’t there to keep her safe. I failed her. I completely and utterly failed her.

Danil sighs and puts his phone on the counter so we can see the map on the screen. Small dots pulse across it, and when he scrolls into the spot with a large number of them, he says, “Her phone is at the house. We can’t use it to track her.”

“There has to be a way to find her,” I say. “I don’t care if we have to tear this goddamn city apart piece by fucking piece. There has to be a way to find her.”

They’re all too worried about Natalya to notice how badly this is killing me, but Vitaly walks over and squeezes my shoulder, and I swear I almost hug the fucker.

“We can track him,” he says, squeezing my shoulder again and silently begging me to keep my shit together.

“Fuck yeah we can.” Matvey smacks the counter and looks over at Lev, who’s now on the phone with a distraught Jolene and trying to calm her down. “Andrik has been with us for two years, and the stupid fuck decided to switch sides, but I’m guessing he didn’t ditch all his equipment when he kidnapped an unarmed woman and ran into the woods like a little bitch.”

I look at them, not understanding why they suddenly look excited. Vitaly smacks my back and says, “We put trackers on everything—phones, vehicles, their weapons. You name it, and we’ve probably put a tracker on it. That stupid fuck has no idea that he’s a giant beacon leading us right to him.”

Lev promises Jolene that he’s going to find their daughter and then promises to call her back as soon as he knows anything. Once he hangs up he waits while Danil pulls up the info on his phone.

“Fuck, brother, tell me you can track him before I lose my goddamn mind.”

---