Page 98 of Ties That Bind Us

“I left in a hurry,” I said sheepishly.

Vince put his arm around me. “Let’s get you home.”

Vince dropped me off in the front of our apartment building. I waved good-bye, thanking him again for the talk, and went inside. There was a crowd of people waiting to take the elevator and I didn’t feel like seeing any of our neighbors with my blotchy and tear-stained face.

I ducked into the stairwell, deciding I could use the exercise anyway. At about the fifth floor, I started to slow down a little bit. I heard the sound of a door open and someone stepped into the stairwell. Seconds later I was slammed against the hard concrete wall. One arm was pressed against the back of my neck so I couldn’t move while another held the cool tip of a knife to my neck.

“If you scream, I’ll slit your throat,” a gritty, male voice whispered in my ear. “Nod if you understand.”

I nodded, frozen with fear.

“Good girl. Now, we are going to walk back downstairs and to my car. If you do anything to tip anyone off, I’ll kill you, and then I’ll go upstairs and kill Nick. Nod if you understand.”

I nodded again and the man pulled me back from the wall and twisted my arm behind my back so I couldn’t move away from him. The knife was still pressed firmly against my neck.

“Walk.”

Chapter 40

Ava

When I woke up next, I was lying on a paper-thin mattress in a dark room, completely disoriented. The last thing I remembered was the face of Alek Asnikov as he shoved me into the trunk of a car, and the sharp stab of a needle and burning sensation in my arm. He must have drugged me so I wouldn’t know where he’d taken me. All I knew about Asnikov was that his organization was at odds with both Nick and my father. And somehow, that had landed me right in the middle.

I wasn’t tied up, but there was still no way for me to get out of this room. The door didn’t even have a handle on the inside. The walls were cement and crumbly, and the only light came from a dim bulb in the corner. It was musty and the air felt heavy in my lungs. For a second, I considered breaking the lightbulb and using a shard of glass to defend myself, but my plan was interrupted by a jingling of keys in the door and I scrambled back against the wall.

Alek jerked the door open, and his face twisted into an evil grin when he saw me cowering. “Oh good, you’re awake. I was worried I had given you too much. You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t normally handle the dirty work.”

Words were lost on my lips as Alek chatted away as if this was completely normal. He reached for my hand but I pulled it away, trying to crawl farther away from him. It was no use, I had backed myself into a corner.

Alek gave me a condescending smile. “Aw, don’t be like that, Ava. You and I are friends, and I’d hate to have to tie my friend up.”

He kept his eyes locked on mine as he reached for my hand again. This time I froze, letting him grab it. “That’s a good girl.”

He turned my arm over, inspecting it closely. There was a needle mark on the inside of my elbow that I assumed was from when he had drugged me. It was tender and bruised, and as he inspected it, Alek noticed too.

“I’ll get some cream for that.” He stood up again.

“Why are you doing this?” I whispered, confused by his kindness. I had never been kidnapped before, but I had seen enough crime shows to know this wasn’t generally how it went.

“Your father and I had a deal. He didn’t follow through, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

“Nick isn’t going to let you get away with this. He’s probably looking for me right now.” I held back my tears as best I could, not wanting to let him get to me.

“Now, you and I both know that’s not true, Ava. He thinks you left him, remember?” Alek chuckled. “He’s drowning his sorrows in a bar and whining about it right now. By the time he even realizes you’re gone, you’ll be dead. I promise I’ll make it quick, though—I’m not into the torturing innocent people thing. Get some rest, you’ll need it later.”

He knocked once on the door and then disappeared out of it. Once he was gone, tears streamed down my face. He was right. Nick thought I hated him; he thought I’d left. And with the way I had treated him, I wasn’t even sure he would come if he knew.

Nick

My fist collided with Alessandro’s face again and a fountain of red blood splattered in all directions. I had hit him so many times that I’d lost track, and he wasn’t even reacting anymore. I had thought this would make me feel better, but the more I hit him, the more angry I became. I had waited months for this moment, and now that it was here, it was much less gratifying than I’d anticipated.

He was completely broken, disheveled, and looked like he hadn’t slept in days. It was the first time I had ever seen him show any semblance of emotion. It served the bastard right. I hoped this was eating him alive and keeping him up at night, like it was me and like it was Ava. If it wasn’t, I was going to make him hurt all the same.

“I’m not the enemy here, Nick,” Alessandro finally said, hardly audible.

I scoffed, landing my fist on his jaw. His head snapped back and then fell forward; he was motionless, but still conscious. “Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear your excuses for one more second. I know everything, Alessandro. I know you only wanted me to marry Ava so you could weasel your way into our organization. I know you tried to use her to control everything and feed information to the Russians, and sold yourself out to them when you couldn’t. I know you caused the accident.”

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out then.” He gave me a smug smirk, mustering all the strength he could. “What do you need me for? I know you’re going to kill me, why don’t you do it already?”

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