Page 20 of The Bratva's Christmas Bump
Our eyes meet. “Thanks.”
“Sure thing. Chick?” she calls over my head. “Bride, you want a drink?”
Hollie’s answer is drowned out by my phone buzzing in my pocket and my heart sinks. The wheel never stops.
“What is it?” Rex appears next to me, hand on my shoulder.
“Trouble,” I sigh. “We gotta go.”
“Dude, when did you last sleep? Can’t it wait?”
“No.” Rising from my stool, I flash Xena a thankful smile then turn to the crowd. “Toto, take Hollie back to the penthouse.”
Whines rise up from the girls as if I’m taking their new toy away and Hollie steps away from them. “Let me call my parents.”
“No.”
She pulls her phone out of her pocket. “You changed the passcode, you fucker. Let me call my parents!”
I meet her angry gaze steadily. “After your display when I first brought you here? I’m not letting you call anyone until I know I can trust you.”
8
HOLLIE
Despite Maxim’s seemingly insistent request to have me taken back to his penthouse, Xena insists on not letting me leave until she’s seen me eat something, so we linger at the club for another couple of hours.
The entire place feels like a dream. I clutched at freedom but not a single person here cared to help me. Any concern anyone had melted away when they learned my captor was Maxim. What kind of man has this many people afraid of him that they wouldn’t do a single thing to help me? That they’d instead spend all their time and energy on helping him lock me into a marriage against my will?
Though for people who might be afraid of him, they all get along like the best of friends to the point that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the unreasonable one when Toto escorts me back to the car after a meal of chicken tenders and fries. I’ve lost complete track of the days, haven’t slept in so long, and I cling to the faint hope that someone I recognize will see me and give me the out I desperately need.
But I see no one.
I’m escorted into the car and the door closes, locking me in a bubble of silence with only my turbulent thoughts for company. Toto drives around long enough that exhaustion is about to pull me under when we finally make it back to the penthouse.
“Why’d you take so many detours?” I ask as I climb out of the car with Toto holding the door open.
“Policy.”
“Policy?” I meet his eyes. “What kind of organization has a policy like that?”
He squints at me while leading me toward the building. “You really have no idea who we are, do you?”
“Should I?”
He doesn’t reply. Instead, he walks me right up to the elevator but doesn’t follow me inside.
“You’re not coming?”
“My place is here.”
“What if I escape the elevator?”
“If you manage to bypass the biometric instructions and escape, then I’d let you go. Anyone who can do that deserves to have their escape.”
“I’m a woman of many tricks.”
“Then I’ll see you when you make it out.”
