Page 6 of The Bratva's Forced Kidnapped Bride
“Nothing or no one around for miles,” I said.
She didn’t answer, only glared at me. I felt her tugging on the zip ties around her wrists and understood how badly she wanted to lash out at me. Understood how desperate it made her that she couldn’t. It was a little disappointing that she wasn’t already begging me for mercy, but not surprising. Masha was strong and full of pride. She’d rather suffer than let me see her break, and that was something else I understood. This woman had tried hard enough to break me, after all.
The moment I cut the zip ties, she was on me, swinging wildly, swearing under her breath when her arms wouldn’t work properly after being tied behind her for so long. As she shook off her first failed attempt and lunged at me again, I only shook my head and quickly had her on the only piece of furniture in the shack.
Holding her on the rickety bed, I rattled the chains as I clasped the cuffs that were attached to them around her wrists, then did the same to her ankles. It might have been dramatic and was probably overkill, but this was Masha Fokin. Overkill still wasn’t enough.
“I’m going to kill you,” she hissed.
“I’m sure you’d like to try,” I told her, leaning close. There was the flash of fear again, as she once again tried to headbutt me. “But rest assured, you won’t get the chance. Not this time.”
I could have bathed in the intense, impotent anger that radiated off her in waves. I had been waiting for this moment for so long. Too long. And it was clear she despised me as I stood and glared down at her. A lock of hair fell across her face, and I reached to push it aside, risking getting bitten. Her cheek was soft as velvet, her lush lips twisted with rage.
Good. I left her to wonder what was in store for her while I put the finishing touches on my plan.
Chapter 5 - Masha
No matter how I thrashed, there was no getting out of the chains. They were more suited for a wild tiger than any human, and I had a feeling Anatoli was going overboard to really drive home the fact I was in the very position I’d had him in not so long ago.
It wouldn’t seem long to him, anyway. The days had dragged by to me, feeling like I’d never find him and make him pay. I rushed it, and now I was the one with the bill. And August and Vik had paid the ultimate price.
Tears burned my eyes, but I couldn’t fall apart with grief and guilt. We were Bratva, and our lives could be snuffed out at any time. They knew it as well as I did, but my throat still clogged as I struggled not to sob over losing them.
Fury that I’d been caught was easier than sorrow, and I had plenty of fury. Not just that he somehow figured out my every move, but that I hadn’t foreseen his trap. And that’s what it was. All of it. Showing himself in a place where he knew I’d get word that he was in LA, staying in a hotel instead of a safe house, leaving the damn hotel so many times in one day that there’d be no way I wouldn’t have spotted him. He probably knew what room I was in, the brilliant bastard.
No one knew I had headed to LA. The rental car might eventually be traced back to Vik’s fake ID, but how long would that take? Anatoli had eluded not just me, but my whole family and their network of spies for three months, and was only found because he wanted to be found. It made my stomach roll over to admit how smart he was and how well orchestrated everything had been for me to wind up chained in this shack.
No one was going to find me. This was it. I was going to die, and it wasn’t going to be nice and easy, either. Growing up in the Bratva, I’d been in some pretty tight scrapes. I’d had multiple broken bones, even been grazed by a bullet. I had worked hard to become an indispensable member of my family’s organization, and I had the scars to show for it. I always knew a violent death was a possibility, and it wasn’t so much death I feared, but regret that it would be at Anatoli’s hands.
Okay, enough. I had to stop the quitter mindset, or he’d get what he wanted before ever laying another hand on me. I wasn’t going to accept shit. When Anatoli came back, I’d go out with a fight. Maybe even gain the upper hand and see him dead at my feet at last.
That was a satisfying thought. Before all this, I planned to kill him relatively quickly, not give him a chance to disappear again. I wanted to right a wrong, not make it a big, drawn-out thing. Now I was going to make him suffer for this degradation.
I rattled the chains again, shouted again, though I knew both were futile. Even if I managed to get free from the bed, he took great pleasure in telling me he had the place under video surveillance and would know instantly if I left. He’d rigged a bomb at the trailer he took CJ to when he kidnapped her, so for all I knew, I’d be blown to shreds if I so much as opened the front door.
All I could do was lie there and think about August and Vik, which was worse than wondering what was in store for me. The best thing would have been to get some sleep and conserve my energy for any chance I might get to turn the tables, but my mind wouldn’t stop reeling.
Anatoli was my first shot at leading an interrogation. He had information we needed to make sure he was no longer goingto be a threat. I had my trepidations that I wouldn’t have the stomach for it, because it wasn’t something I enjoyed watching. I could remain calm and cold on the outside, but each scream had me inwardly jolting. The sound of bones cracking, of grown men sobbing, the smell of singed flesh. None of my cousins seemed to be overly bothered by these things. A few of them were alarmingly good at doling out pain.
Was I up to it? Did I even want the job? As usual, I wanted to prove myself. I might have gone a bit overboard. Or maybe it was Anatoli’s refusal to break. As much as I hated him for it, I couldn’t help but admire his strength. And I hated myself for that, and just went harder.
Now it was my turn, and there was no way I could convince myself he’d go easy on me. Not after what I put him through.
It was dark when he returned. The sound of the car door slamming jolted me upright, unaware that I had dozed off. I was jerked back onto the grimy mattress by the chains, and after a moment of disorientation, everything came rushing back.
This was it.
As soon as he entered, he snapped on the overhead light, a bare bulb that was much too bright for the small space. Blinking away the glare, I stared at him defiantly. Afraid? Hell yes. I wasn’t made of stone. But I’d be damned if I showed it to him. And I’d go as long as I could without making a peep, although I knew from experience that everyone ended up screaming eventually.
He stared back at me, then stepped aside to let some other people in. Oh, a party, was it? I thought better of him. But it wasn’t more of his guards. It was an elderly priest and a stout woman in a navy-blue dress. Neither one of them seemed theleast bit fazed by the woman chained to the bed in the middle of the room.
“This is the bride to be?” the priest asked in a low voice, glancing nervously at Anatoli.
“What?” I yelped.
Only Anatoli kept his eyes glued on me. The priest fumbled with his prayer book while the woman pulled some papers from a tote bag. Anatoli unchained me, keeping such a tight hold on my arm that I feared the bone would snap.
“You’ll both need to sign,” the woman said, keeping her eyes cast down.
