Page 34 of Defiant Devotion

“I’m not stealing anything!”

“Tough shit,” she snarled. “Convince the cops of that.”

No!

The cops wouldn’t do me any good. Nowhere was safe for me. I wasn’t safe with those Ilyin captors who wanted to force me to marry some Benson man. I wasn’t safe out here in the open, with the general members of society with their phones and Ubers andfear of going near the Mafia. And I wasn’t safe with the cops either. No member of any Mafia family wanted to deal with law enforcement. That antagonism was mutual, too. They wanted nothing to do with us, either.

If I were caught and taken in, there was no telling which corrupt cop could be in charge. My uncle Oleg used to have a few officers in his pocket, but so much time had passed. Uncle Oleg was dead. I had no knowledge of who could be in charge of the family and which men we could count on looking the other way.

But I was well aware of the possibility of any cops out there being friends with the Ilyins.

“No, please. I didn’t steal anything.”

The clerk scoffed at me as a pair of cops entered the shop. “Yeah, well with how nervous you’re acting, I’ll bet my paycheck that you’re hiding something!” She snapped her fingers and directed the cops closer. “This is the woman. Over here.”

“No. No.” I turned to run down the aisle, but the taller officer must have suspected I’d try to flee.

He was faster, catching me in no time. His arms circled me and didn’t let go, not as I kicked, flailed, and fought to break free.

“I didn’t do anything!” I wiggled and wrestled, not giving up for a second. I couldn’t give up. My last stint of captivity was too fresh in my mind for me to go easy on this cop. I would fight and resist until my last damn breath.

“Hold still!” the other cop said as he tried to slap handcuffs on my wrists.

“No!” I fought him too, but with how exhausted I already was, I had no chance of holding them both back.

They didn’t pause or listen to me, not letting up until they had me cuffed and ordered me to stop resisting and to settle down as they forced me outside the shop with them.

“Stop them! Let me go! Someone, stop them. Help me!”

But no one did. As I was roughly pushed into the backseat of their car, I clamped my lips shut tight and heaved out angry exhales through my nose.

No one would help me. I was, once again, all on my own.

And I was sick of it.

Panic swept through me, making my heart race and my breaths shallow.

They were taking me further away, and I had no doubt in my mind that they would ultimately deliver me right back to the Ilyins.

I’d be taken to my unwanted fiancé, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get away a second time.

14

BEN

I’d lost her.

Twice now, I’d lost Sonya. The first time, it was planned. We’d agreed that our one night of her losing her virginity would be a fling. A single incident. Although there was no way I could’ve counted on how much she would’ve left a lasting impression on my mind.

The second time, after our quickie at the strip club when she’d rushed through there, she bolted again. That wasn’t planned. While we got dressed, I prepared and mentally rehearsed how to bring up so many things—why she was acting like she didn’t remember me, why she’d been away from the Baranov family for so long, and how she’d ended up there at all.

Impatient and frustrated, I spent my every minute scouring the city for her.

First, I hacked into the surveillance cameras at Mancy’s and at the strip club. They didn’t provide me with much. It seemed like she’d gotten into an argument with Kelly and Irina at the table the women had been seated at for lunch, but the view ofthat section was too distant for me to understand what was said. Per Kelly’s explanation to the Baranov men, she was under the assumption that Sonya wanted to separate Eva from Irina, but she was too flighty to stick around and answer anything.

Then, I walked around near the two buildings to see if she came back. That was the bigger waste of my time, relying almost on luck to strike.

Looking for her online didn’t get me anywhere either. She was staying off the grid, with no cards being used at all. Interestingly, there was no death certificate filed for her. Some of the Baranovs, like Lev, seemed to have written her off as already dead. If she was, no actual document had been filed anywhere to claim that. Then again, the Mafia had their ways of getting around standard documentation protocols.

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