Page 67 of Call Sign: King
“I’d be dead if Vlad hadn’t been blown up in that bomb. He beat me so often, I have lasting scars of his abuse.”
The new information was confusing. On the one hand, she felt like she might have an ally in Irena, although to be fair, she was an ally with zero power to assist, which only meant the woman’s insight into the violence coming into her future was even more chilling.
“What is he going to do to us?” She wasn’t sure she wanted a truthful answer. Would she feel better just burying her head in the sand about what lie ahead?
“Whatever horrific thing you can think of… it will be worse than that.” Irena added, “The best thing is to pray for a fast death.”
“I can’t do that. Not yet,” Khloe confessed, holding back the truth that she still believed in her heart that Ryder would come for her. She just needed to hold on long enough for him to get there.
If not for herself, then for their possible child.
With a bitter chuckle, Irena scoffed. “I used to have hope too. And then I thought I’d been saved when all three of the brothers were killed in that bomb blast. I’d actually learned to be happy again… something I didn’t think was possible. Now I see even that was a lie. What a fool I’ve been.”
“That man who was just here. He seems angry at what is happening. Maybe he can help us,” Khloe said, hoping for good information on that front.
“Yesterday, I would have said he was a good man. Today… knowing he has lied to me… used me for years… He is no better than the others. Volkov blood runs in his veins.” The contempt in Irena’s voice doused Khloe’s hope.
There was a story there, but before she could delve into it, the click of the door unlocking stole her attention. The guards pointed their weapons, prepared to take down an unwanted intruder. Her hopes that it might be Ryder and his men were dashed when the man who’d kidnapped her from the Hyatt stepped into the room.
He’d showered and changed from the black suit into jeans. The bandages on the gunshot wound on his shoulder peeked out from the short sleeve of his black T-shirt, but it was the angry red splotches of puckered skin full of pockmarks and silver scars covering both arms that drew her attention. The long sleeves of the shirt he’d worn on the plane had hidden the extent of his injuries from Khloe. Seeing the hard evidence of Ryder’s previous work made Khloe shiver, knowing that this man’s hatred had been well earned.
Khloe felt lucky, then guilty when Vladimir ignored her, choosing to approach his wife first.
“Vlad?” Irena questioned, still unsure of the newcomer’s identity.
“If it isn’t my unfaithful wife,” he said in English.
For the first time since her arrival in the hellish place, Khloe found herself wishing the other occupants of the room would speak Russian. At least then she could try to delude herself into thinking things weren’t as horrific as she knew them to be.
“How could I be unfaithful? I didn’t know you were alive,” she answered, although fear made her voice quaver.
“That should not have mattered. You took your vows. That vow was for life.”
“Exactly. Your life was over.”
Vlad’s backhand to Irena’s face was instantaneous. Having been on the receiving end of that painful strike, Khloe’s heart went out her fellow captive.
“Do not play this game with me, wife.”
Khloe closed her eyes to keep from witnessing the continued violence, but that only made the sound of Irena’s pitiful whimpers that much more prominent.
The sound of Vlad’s boot stepping forward came a split second before the sound of ripping fabric.
“You have too many clothes on, my pet. I’ve missed your perfect body,” he said, taunting her as he pulled the clothes literally off her back. “It looks like you’ve missed my dietary guidance. You’ve put on too much weight, but never fear. Now that I’ve regained my own health, I plan on resuming our rather rigorous marital exercise routine.”
His words were laced with an ominous warning of the horrors to come. Irena’s blood curdling scream made Khloe scrunch her eyes closed tighter. Whatever Vlad was doing to his wife’s body had to be painful to wring out that kind of reaction.
Next to her, Irena had started gasping for sips of air in between her panicked sobs.
“I’ve missed the sound of your screams,malysh.”
The man’s words were straight out of a horror movie script. Who said things like that, especially to the woman they had married?
“Vladimir please. I beg you. Don’t do this.” Irena pleaded.
“What? Correct my wife’s poor behavior? That is my duty, is it not?”
Khloe bit her tongue to keep from calling the asshole a lunatic.
