Page 67 of Sinful Embers

Then—

“What the fuck?” His voice is raw, furious. He jerks upright, only to realize his hands are tied in super tight knot. “Radomir?” He glances at Sabrina. “Miss Craft I presume?”

“You presume correct.” Sabrina nods, watching him with suspicious eyes.

“Where are we?” Dimitri demands. “Leigh? Are you okay?”

“She is now!” Sabrina assure him. “And I sure hope for your sake it wasn’t you that bruised my friend.”

“I never touched Leigh,” Dmitri said, defensively. “But seriously. What are you two doing? Are you out of your fucking minds? When Carlos realizes we are gone…” I glance in the mirror and see fear flash in his eyes. “Jesus, Radomir turn around, you don’t know what you’ve done.”

“I could ask you the same thing, Uncle, because clearly you were out of your fucking mind when you snatched mywife.” I shake my head. “Did you think you were going to get away with it?”

Dmitri glares at me, eyes blazing and his nostrils flare. “You’re going to ruin everything.” His anger radiates through the car until his body convulses with violent coughing.

Leigh shifts, her expression tight with worry. “Do we have any water?” She looks at Sabrina. “Do you have a tissue?”

Sabrina, who is sitting beside Dmitri, nods and pulls out some water and tissues.

“Here!” Sabrina holds the bottle to his mouth and quickly dabs the dribble of blood on the side of him mouth.

“Do you have TB?” I ask, a little alarmed and I can’t help my eyes darting to Leigh stomach.

“No!” Dmitri hisses. “Thank you, Miss Craft for the assistance.”

“Sure.” Sabrina nods. “We’ll just leave this here for you.” She caps the bottle puts the tissue near it and then pulls out her hand sanitizer.

“I’m not contagious,” Dmitri assures her. “I was shot with a poison arrow and it’s affecting all my organs.”

“It’s not you,” Sabrina tells him. “I don’t like touching blood.”

“She really doesn’t,” Leigh backs up Sabrina’s statement. “If we were near a shower now, Sabrina would’ve gone and taken one.”

Dmitri nods and then turns his attention back to Radomir. “I know you have no reason to trust me and every right to be fucked off with me, but you need to go back.”

“Not a chance,” I tell him.

“Look, this is now what it seems. I hadn’t seen Carlos in nine years when he showed up two years ago,” Dmitri tells them. “He needed a job, and my wife employed him to coordinate shipments.”

“I don’t care,” I hiss.

“Look, Carlos has Wanda, and he’ll kill her,” Dmitri pleads.

“So you exchanged my wife for yours/” I roar.

“Radomir, watch out!” Leigh’s hands grab the dash board bracing for a sudden stop as we hit a road block of Black SUVs.

“What the fuck!” I hiss and another spurt of anger bursts through me—Oleksi and his new crew.

“I see Oleksi’s new crew of traitors has grown since we last saw him scurrying from the house like the fucking rat he is!” Sabrina’s voice vibrates with anger.

I glance in the mirror. “I presume they’re here for you?”

Knock. Knock. Oleksi raps on the window. “You need to get out of the car, Rad.”

I look at him. That at the group of SUVs blocking the road ahead. My hands tighten around the wheel. As I see Syd’s head pop up from the back of the vehicle where I presume she’s just rolled out a carpet of spikes.

Sabrina lets out a long sigh. “Well this is just fucking fantastic.”