Page 45 of The Bratva's Forced Kidnapped Bride
I pointed to one of the guns in the trunk and gave him a hopeful look. For a second, I thought he might cave and let me have one, but he looked away with a twitch in his jaw.
“Svet is armed,” he said. “You’ll be fine.”
The driver patted the side of his jacket and nodded at me to go ahead of him toward the store, with an air that I should get on with it if I wanted to go. I did, and I also wanted a cold drink. Being on the run was thirsty work.
“It’ll take too long to wait in those lines,” Svet said, sweeping the snaking queues. “I’ll take care of it when you’re done in the restroom.”
“You can’t shoplift a bottle of water,” I hissed.
As we moved toward the back, he deftly slipped a couple of candy bars into his jacket pocket to prove that he could, all while raising a brow at me. “Weren’t you born and raised in the Bratva?”
I made a point of looking at the cameras posted all over the store and shook my head at him. “Says the man who won’t go one mile over the speed limit.”
He made a gruff noise, which I took as a laugh, and posted himself outside the ladies’ room door. With a sigh, I was once again joking around with one of my captors. I went in. It felt like a lot longer than a couple of hours since I woke up wrapped around Anatoli’s hard, muscled body. I waited in line for my turn at a stall, looking around the large, remarkably clean public restroom.
A stout woman stood sentinel near the sinks, making sure no one left behind too big a mess, and the other women either consulted their phones or chatted in low tones amongst themselves while we all waited. I could almost feel Svet’simpatience permeating the walls, and found myself worrying about Anatoli getting caught breaking into one of the cars out in the lot.
What the hell was I doing? I was free of prying eyes and outside of the desert prison. This was my chance to escape. Was I going to take it or go along meekly like a lamb to slaughter? I looked over the restroom again with a keener eye. There were windows, but they were high on the wall, and there was nothing I could hoist myself up on under them. Even if I could, I’d make quite the spectacle of myself, but I doubted any of the other women would raise a fuss.
I didn’t dare risk any of them by asking for help, even to sneak me out of the bathroom and past Svet. I was on my own, and while it seemed like I might have a shot, it was only a mirage. I was as trapped as ever.
Pissed off at myself for giving up, I kept eyeing my surroundings, wondering if any of the women might have a pair of small scissors I could ask to borrow. Picturing myself stabbing Sven in the neck made me want to laugh out loud in the lineup, and made me queasy at the same time. Anatoli wouldn’t have to do anything if I tried something like that. Some hero in the crowd would tackle me, and the place would be swarming with police in minutes.
While I was wondering if that might actually work, since at least I’d be away from Anatoli and my family would bail me out and get the charges swept under the rug, it was finally my turn in a stall.
Something I didn’t want to examine kept me from asking anyone for scissors or a pen knife; hell, even a sturdy pen might be useful. Something that seemed too much like I was growinga heart where I should have had a lump of coal, and also suspiciously like I didn’t want to leave Anatoli.
When I emerged from the restroom, Svet was no longer at his post, and the narrow hallway was surprisingly empty of any other people. This had to be a sign that I should head out the back and just start running. I began to turn when a cold chill washed over me.
This was too easy, too convenient, too much like an answer to a prayer I didn’t really make. Svet wouldn’t have left his spot outside the door if an earthquake had split the store into pieces. Something was wrong.
I turned to run, but not out back. Toward the front, toward Anatoli. To the known entity and away from that overwhelming sense of danger prickling the tiny hairs at the back of my neck.
I was too late. In the deserted hall, with my eyes on the hubbub just beyond the passage, a hand clapped over my mouth from behind. I should have been looking behind me. My desire to get back to the safety of Anatoli had momentarily put me off my game. But I was back in it, swinging my head back with all my force, hearing the satisfying crack as I felt the sharp pain of my head connecting with my assailant’s face.
He made a low grunt, wrapping his other arm around my chest and heaving me off my feet. Not for the first or even hundredth time, I cursed my smaller size, always putting me at a disadvantage. I kicked, digging my heel into his shin, but my soft sneakers didn’t make him pause as he yanked me back towards the exit at the end of the hall.
I couldn’t make a sound, not even a murmur. His hand was so tight over my nose and mouth, I began to panic at the lack of air. All I needed was one person to come out of one ofthe restrooms, just one person to see I was being dragged away against my will and raise the alarm. Where the hell was Svet? Out stealing sodas? He’d come running if I could make a peep.
And Anatoli would tear this son of a bitch to shreds, but he was somewhere out in that vast parking lot, completely unaware that I needed him.
I tried jerking my head back again, furious that I needed anyone. He only wrapped me tighter, making it more difficult to breathe since he was nearly collapsing my ribcage with his burly arm. At least I was making his retreat difficult. I twisted and kicked and managed to get a handful of his flesh and dig my fingernails in until I heard the pop of skin breaking. Now he grunted out a low curse, and I felt cold steel jam into my side.
“Better,” he said when I went completely still. “My orders are dead or alive, and the reward isn’t that much bigger for bringing you in alive,” he said.
I heard the clank of the heavy emergency exit door behind us and prayed a massive, screaming alarm would go off, but he would have been prepared for that and already disarmed it if there was. Nothing and no one was going to save me because then we were out the door.
The back of the place was completely deserted, the sun a shock after being in the overly air-conditioned store. The man whipped me around, never breaking his hard grip from my mouth. A black car waited in the wide alley, with a driver standing beside it, a heavy cloth bag and some rope in his hands.
He started toward me as I realized I was completely out of breath. Everything went dark.
Chapter 34 - Anatoli
It was a nice day; the sun was bright and hot, but the air was cool, with a slight breeze. The perfect kind of day, making it easy to forget Masha and I were on the run and not on a road trip. Having to steal a car so I could send the guard off in the opposite direction to throw off our tail should have been enough to keep me from forgetting what kind of real danger she was in.
I tried to keep a watchful eye on every car that entered the rest area, but there seemed to be a constant stream going in and out. There wasn’t much time, and I needed to find a car, and it would be best if it were one that wouldn’t be missed right away. I wandered up and down the aisle, my attention torn from the entrance to the shop, where Masha and Svet were just entering, to finding a new ride to get us over the border. All while trying not to look like I was about to steal a car.
A few rows over from where we parked, I hovered near a shiny new sports car that I rejected because the owner would surely have a high-level alarm system set up on it. I also rejected the next one because I feared it wouldn’t last another fifty miles before overheating. Then a family got out of a nice, subtle sedan that looked fairly new, loudly discussing what they wanted to order from the restaurant. Perfect, they’d be in there for at least half an hour, maybe more if they went shopping, giving us plenty of time to be well on our way.
