Page 51 of Escaping the Bratva

Sasha

There are no clocks or phones or anything in the room that could tell me what time it is. The only way I knew that a few days had passed was by the sun going down every night. After the incident with the big guy who ended up dead on the floor, I was kept handcuffed to the bed most of the time. Every few hours or so, my kidnapper would come and unlock the handcuffs so I could go to the bathroom or eat, but he stays in the room the whole time, and as soon as I was done, he’d lock me up again. I’m not stupid enough to attempt to run. After watching that man kill one of his own, I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to me. I cooperated and waited, though I wasn’t really sure what I was waiting for. V? Had he seen the pictures that were taken of me and this monster at the art gallery? The entire time, the man more or less had a knife to my back, telling me to smile and act like I wasn't being held against my will. We were only there long enough to get pictures taken, and that’s when I realized his plan. He wanted everyone to see that I was on the arm of another man…or he wanted V to see. Either way, it didn’t matter because I was still trapped.

The sound of doors slamming brought my attention back to present. Shouts filled the hallway outside my door. Something was wrong. I yank on my handcuff, but it won’t budge. Fuck. I scan the room for the thousandth time since I was thrown in here, trying to find something, anything, to free myself, but there’s nothing. The yelling gets closer and then I hear the sound of gunfire, but it's not loud like I’d expect a gunshot to be. Whoever is shooting must have a silencer on their gun. The door to my bedroom bursts open, and a man I haven’t seen before stands in the doorway. He’s heavily built, like he lifts weights for a living. He comes towards me, and on instinct, I let out a scream. The man rolls his eyes but doesn’t stop walking.

“V didn’t tell me you were a screamer.”

I stop screaming as I digest his words. “V?”

The man looks at the handcuff and lets out a curse. “Do you know where the key is?”

I shake my head. “How do you know V?”

He turns away from me, searching the room like I had so many times before. Coming up empty, he tightens his hold around the wooden headboard that the handcuff is attached to.

“Hold on,” he says. I don’t have time to react before he uses both hands to break the wood apart. The wood splinters, and he pulls one side of the handcuff off of the open top. I wiggle my arms and relief washes over me. The handcuff is still around my wrist, but at least I’m not tied to anything.

“Thank you.”

The man nods. “Now come on. We need to get you out of here.”

He pulls me along out of the bedroom. I try to look down the hall, but the man quickly steps in front of me. “You don’t want to see what’s over there.”

I swallow and nod. He’s probably right. After seeing a man get killed in front of me only days ago, the last thing I want to see is another dead body. I follow behind him as he opens a secret door that blends in the wall. My body feels weak, probably from the lack of sleep and nutrition over the last few days. He leads me down an old staircase, and I realize I’ve been in a sort of small office building. The building must be abandoned if they took me here. When I make it outside, a sense of relief washes over me. My legs itch to run as far away as I can, but when I turn, I hit something hard. I look up to see V’s face.

“Kitten,” he says his voice, filled with pain. I want to tell him everything. How scared I was, how I fought back, how I loved him. But exhaustion hits me like a freight train now that my adrenaline is wearing off.

“We need to go,” the man says from behind me.

V bends down and scoops me into his arms, bridal style. “Let’s get you home.”

*****

My eyes open as my body vibrates with my cough. It takes me a minute to figure out where I am. I’m in my own bed. That should feel comforting, but instead, it all feels foreign, almost as foreign as that room I’d been kept in. Memories start to come back to me, and I reach to the other side of the bed, expecting to find V, but it's empty. I sit up straight and moan as I’m reminded how sore my body is. Teddy lies in his dog bed on the floor next to me. He stares at me but doesn’t get up and wag his tail like usual. That’s when I realize he has bandages wrapped around his middle.

“Oh, Teddy, what happened?”

I run a hand over the top of his furry head, and he lick my hand as if reassuring me that he’s okay. I swing my feet over the side of the bed and head to the bathroom. After taking care of business, I go out to the living room area, expecting V to be in there, but it's also empty. The apartment is back to how it originally was before it was broken into and destroyed. I check the kitchen. There’s a piece of paper on the table. It’s not V’s handwriting, and I realize it’s instructions from the vet clinic detailing Teddy’s medicine. It says he can go outside to the bathroom by himself, but he shouldn’t walk much. If that’s the case, then why didn’t V take me to his house? It would make it easier for me to let Teddy outside.

I go back to the bedroom and grab my phone. I dial his number, but I’m met with an out of service automation.

Something isn’t right.

My phone vibrates in my hand, and Alyssa’s name flashes across the screen.

“Where the hell have you been?” she screeches into the phone before I’m even able to press it all the way to my ear. “I’ve been blowing up your phone like crazy. I called Haley, and she said she got an email from you that you were sick and needed some days off…”

Shit. V’s computer guy must have hacked into my email.

“It’s a long story,” I say.

“It better fucking be. I almost called the cops and filed a missing person report.”

I’m glad she didn’t consider V is on parole and we’re rumored to be dating.

“And then I see a photo of you with some new guy at the gallery. Are you having a midlife crisis?”

“I’m not in midlife.”

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