Page 79 of Solemn Vow

Viktor Petrov is my boyfriend.

I have a boyfriend.

A committed boyfriend who has my back, and I can trust him.

I wait a moment after having that thought, expecting the dark ghosts from the past to swoop in and destroy the content feelings. They don’t.

I lean back in my seat, and taking a deep breath, I give over to this strange feeling I’ve had for days.

I’m happy.

Truly happy with Viktor.

Maybe I’ll actually get to have a happily ever after.

“Shit! Hold on!” Mikhail bellows as bright headlights from the passenger side blind me and keep getting brighter. A splitsecond later there’s a crunching sound and the headlights crash into the passenger side of the SUV.

There’s a scream.

Glass shatters. Metal crunches, squeals, there’s a burning smell coming from somewhere in the distance. Everything spins. Are we spinning?

Finally, the noise stops. The screaming ends, and the metal scraping across asphalt is silent.

Mikhail groans from the seat in front of me. We’re upright. I could have sworn we flipped to the side. I slowly sit up, looking out my window. We’re crunched against a building.

The passenger door opens and the metal creaks as the headlights pour in. Something warm runs down my forehead, and I wipe it away before it pours into my eye.

“Mikhail?” I try to call for him as a dark figure climbs into the car with us, but my voice barely registers.

Hands grab at me. My seatbelt is cut away and I’m lifted from my seat, dragged over the passenger seat. My head aches; the grip of this person tightens when I try to pull away.

“C’mon, sweetheart, you don’t want to make things worse. You’re already bleeding pretty bad,” an unfamiliar voice says as I’m pulled out into the cold. I’m lifted off the ground and carried.

I blink, but it’s too hard to keep my eyelids open.

My head hurts so much.

A sweet smell fills my nostrils.

“What is that? Who are you?” I ask, but the words come out slow and dragged out. I force my eyes open, but all I see is a swirling face.

“Just sleep,” the voice says and I stop fighting my eyelids.

A few minutes. That’s all I need.

Just a few minutes.

“I toldyou she’d be up.” The speaker hits the lights, flooding the room with light, and two figures appear in the doorway. I squint against the brightness, trying to see them clearly.

My wrists burn. The ropes tying me to the chair dig into my skin when I start tugging again. I’ve been awake for a while. I’m not sure how long. Maybe an hour or longer. The moments tick by at a strange pace when you’re tied to a chair and locked away in a dark room with only your thoughts and fears to keep you company.

Now that I can see the room I’m in, I realize it’s just a bedroom.

A normal bedroom with a full-size bed, with a dark blue comforter on top. Posters of cars and bikini models are hung on the walls. A high school letterman jacket hangs off the closet door.

“Hey. Hey.” Fingers snap in front of my face, dragging my attention back to my captor.

My stomach squeezes.

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