Page 46 of Hers to Control

“What are you doing here, Anya? You shouldn’t be down here.” He sounds more than a little displeased, but Anya meets his gaze steadily.

“I came to visit you, father.”

“Then why aren’t you upstairs in my office?”

My head feels woozy, and I miss Anya’s answer as I try to take deep breaths. Nausea still roils in my stomach and I know this is merely a brief interruption to my torment, so I take what time I have to collect myself.

“Leave.” The command in Tsepov’s voice is clear, and I look up to see the young woman walk out of the room without a look back. Something about that sight damages what little hope I’d been holding on to.

Victor enters a moment later, and the nausea I’ve been working so hard to suppress overwhelms me. I retch up some stomach acid that mixes painfully with my blood when it runs down my body and into the cut that has my skin gaping open.

Tsepov gives Victor a cursory glance. “Where were you?”

Victor looks uncomfortable as he answers. “Anya told me to get some water so the bitch doesn’t pass out before she can talk to you.”

At that, Tsepov’s eyes land on me, trailing my breasts and the cut that is still oozing blood.

“Fine. Give her some.”

Victor opens the bottle as he comes closer, and I open my mouth in anticipation. My tongue tastes disgusting from throwing up, but instead of letting me sip on the water, Victor pours it into my open mouth, making me choke. As he steps back, I see a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Now, let’s return to our conversation,” Tsepov says, clearly impatient. I look up at him because right now, talking to him is the smaller evil.

“What do you know about my son?”

“He’s with Gianna.” I offer, knowing that he already knows this, but unable to think of anything else.

Tsepov tilts his head in my direction, and in the next moment, Victor slaps me across the face. The pain that explodes in my face is blinding, and I allow myself to keep my eyes closed, just for a moment embracing the stinging burn as a distraction from my fear.

“Don’t waste my time. What do you know about my son?”

I try to think of something I can tell him. Gianna doesn’t share much, so I’m not scared that I could betray her with the little I know. “They’re engaged. He helped her find out who killed her father after she suspected it was you at first. He lives at her villa now.”

Tsepov grunts in annoyance, and I realize it’s not enough, but there is nothing else I can think of. Nothing I can bargain with at all.

“Go get the stuff,” Tsepov orders Victor, and then he turns his back on me and we both wait while Victor leaves the room.

When Victor walks back into the room, he is holding a syringe.

“Do it,” Tsepov orders, and Victor nods, before reaching out for my arm to inject me with whatever is in that needle.

I lose it.

With all my strength, I throw myself away from Victor. The chair still doesn’t tip, but I don’t care. All I care about is keeping that syringe out of my arm, so I keep moving around as frantically as possible with my legs and wrists still taped to the chair. Victor’s hand wraps around my arm painfully, but I keep struggling, not caring about the bruises his grasp will cause if it helps me avoid that needle.

“Tie her back up, for fuck’s sake.” Tsepov snarls. “Don’t make me think you’re useless.”

Victor puts the syringe aside and grabs duct tape from somewhere behind me. In the next moment, he is wrapping it around my upper body again, immobilizing me against the chair. He adds more than the last time, running some just below my shoulders and more over my elbows, pressing them against my body so I’m unable to move my arms.

Where the tape presses against the bleeding cut below my breasts, the pain increases, but it’s nothing compared to the mental agony. Fear has me in its grip and for the first time today, tears sting my eyes, making me realize that I was terrified before, but now I’m utterly hopeless. Not for me, but for Peanut, because whatever drugs they are about to give me, I know they will hurt my baby, and that just kills me.

All I can do is watch as Victor pierces my skin with the needle and slowly injects me.

Tears run down my face, but it’s too late to fight.

It’s over.

Eric

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