Page 61 of Nikolai

She doesn't answer, and the house is quiet. I cross through the living room and into the kitchen. She's not in there either. I also notice the sink full of dirty dishes. Something is not right. My father would never allow the kitchen to be a mess. Turning, I scan the living room. Several empty beer cans are littering the coffee table. Mom must be sick if the house is in such disarray.

Setting my purse down on the kitchen table, I hurry down the hallway to my parent's bedroom. I knock on the door. "Mom, are you in there?" When she doesn't answer, I push open the door. I suck in a sharp breath at what I see in front of me. "Mom!" I run over to the bed, where she lies motionless, the front of her nightgown covered in blood. I push the hair away from her face and cry out at the sight of her bloody and swollen flesh. "Oh, my god! Mom!" I nudge her a bit to see if she'll wake up.

"Leah," she groans.

"Mom, I'm here."

"Go."

"What? What are you trying to say, mom? Did dad do this to you?"

My mom wheezes out a ragged breath, "Go, Leah. Get out before he comes back."

"Hold on, mom. I'm going to call an ambulance."

Just as I turn to run out of the room, I'm knocked to the floor by a solid force striking me across my cheek, filling my vision with flashes of light. Blinking through the haze and the throbbing pain radiating through the whole left side of my face, I peer up at the shadow looming above me. "Dad," I croak. "Please."

"Shut up!" he shouts, grabbing me by the hair on my head, dragging me out of the bedroom.

"Dad! Stop! Let me go!" I kick and thrash down the hall and into the living room.

"I knew you'd come to see that bitch mother of yours. She thought she could grow a backbone and warn you. I fucking showed her, though."

"That's enough,James. She's no good to me if you mark her pretty face any more than it already is." A voice says, stepping out of the shadows and further into the room, joining my father. I look at the man and am suddenly taken back to when I was seven. His face is one I will never forget. The man standing over me is older, but there is no doubt in my mind it's him. The man who was with my dad in his shed all those years ago. The one who took that girl.

The guy looks me over in a way that makes my skin crawl. "You were supposed to hand this one over to me a year ago, James. You didn't keep a tight enough leash on her. That and she's no longer pure like you said she was. My buyer has already backed out."

Bile rises in my throat when I realize what the man is talking about. My dad was going to hand me over to him; he was going to sell me—his own daughter.

I look at my father when he starts sputtering. "Novikoff."

Novikoff holds his hand up, cutting my father off. "She's of no use to my buyer, but lucky for you, she's a great deal of use to me now that she is a Volkov."

Just as the guy continues to spew his plans for me, the back door opens and in walks Maxim. Walking in behind him is another man I don't recognize, and he has a gun trained on Maxim's head. My stomach clenches.

"No! Let him go," I pick myself up off the floor and lunge for the man holding the gun. The man known as Knovikoff grabs my elbow then backhands me.

Maxim growls and says something to Novikoff in Russian. "You just started a war."

"If a war is what Volkov wants, then a war he shall have." With that Novikoff, pulls out his weapon and shoots Maxim in the chest. I scream as I watch his body crumple to the floor, blood pooling beneath him. I start fighting against the hold Novikoff has on me as I scream at my father. "What have you done? I hate you! You're all going to die! Nikolai will come for me, and when he does, he's going to kill you!" For a moment, I see a small flicker of fear pass over my father's face, like he knows what I say to be true. That fear in his eyes is also the last thing I see before I feel the prick and sting of a needle in my neck, just before everything goes black.

21

Nikolai

"Fuck!" I punch the steering wheel repeatedly. What the fuck is she thinking? With the push of a button, I call Maxim.

"Sir."

"Get to Post Creek," I order.

"Already on my way, sir. I'm about twenty minutes out," Maxim tells me.

An uneasy feeling settles in my gut. Something isn't right. "Hurry," I add before disconnecting the call. Then I immediately put a call through to my brother. It rings several times before Logan finally answers.

"Hey, brother. How'd the meeting go?" he asks.

"Something terrible is about to happen to Leah," I convey to him and press the gas pedal further into the floorboard.

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