Page 96 of Marked (Russian Sinners 1)

I felt betrayed that he kept something like that hidden. I told him my deepest secret and he left me in the dark. Meeting Vlad’s eyes, my voice came out surprisingly calm.

“Please tell Dimitry I took his car and went home.”

I realized too late I said home, not his house. Fuck, this hurt. He felt like home. I didn’t lie when I told him he made me feel safe. I just needed to be alone now so I wouldn’t say or do things I’d regret.

I turned my back to Vlad and headed for the parking lot. Probably stupid since last time I left a party and walked across the parking lot alone I was kidnapped. But it was broad daylight and there were quite a few people standing around.

I rushed towards his car and didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I got into the vehicle and locked the door behind me. Pushing the key into ignition, the car roared to life and I shifted it into drive.

“Yeah, this kind of hurts,” I muttered under my breath as I took the road towards Dimitry’s place.

Was Dimitry working for Boris when my mom and I were kidnapped?I wondered.

I had no doubt in my mind Dimitry, Nikolai, and Sergei were nothing like Boris. And knowing the little I knew about their childhood, I couldn’t fault them for trying to survive. He said he never hurt innocents and I still believed him. But he should have told me. I should have heard this little detail from him, nobody else.

I held back my tears. My vision blurred but I refused to cry. I was hurt beyond words although if I thought about it, I only knew Dimitry for about a week. He shouldn’t matter that much to me. But he did. Everything about him spoke to me on the most basic level.

A memory lingered in the back of my mind and I desperately reached for it. I had locked so many memories from that time when mom and I were kidnapped then forced in that basement. It made me sick to remember anything from those days.

“Vlad,” I murmured to myself. “That name-”

The memory came rushing, along with the bitter taste of guilt. The guilt over my mother’s death tasted of ash, rust, and blood. I remembered Vlad from that basement. When the other guy came after my mom and me.

Vlad was the guy that punched the man that tried to come after me and he went tumbling onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

“Bring her upstairs,” Boris’ loud voice bellowed from the top of the stairs, causing my eyes involuntarily to immediately snap up. It was the man I spoke to yesterday. The man that I told where to find us; it was my fault we were here.

“Let’s go,” Vlad pulled my mom along, almost exasperated. He made the other guy leave the room too.

“Mommy, please,” I whimpered, begging her without words to stay with me. As if she had a choice in the matter.

The moment my mom was within Boris’ reach, he grabbed her roughly by her hair and pulled her into a rough kiss.A scream tore from my lungs, burning in my throat, making it raw. Then he slapped her across the face so hard, her head flew to the side.

“Anastasia, baby,” her voice trembled, her eyes on me. “Shut your eyes.”

Tears streamed down my face at the memory, my heart hurting like someone physically wounded it. I wanted to forget it all. Vlad was one of the men in that house that hurt my mother.

I never saw the other car. One second I drove down the empty road lost in those forsaken memories, the next second I heard a loud crash, and my car spun out of control as I gripped the steering wheel desperately trying to steady the vehicle. The world in front of my eyes kept turning as the vehicle rolled around, my head banging onto the windshield hard again and again.

I didn’t say goodbye to Dimitry,was the last thought on my mind before I blanked out.

When the world slowly started coming back, I couldn’t see anything. I was sure my eyes were open, I blinked a couple of times. But darkness was still all around me and panic followed.

Then I heard the voices. “Boris is going to fucking butcher us, piece by piece, if she dies.”

Oh my God! Not again.Why was Boris Jovanov so adamant about kidnapping me? What did I ever do to this guy?

“It was your stupid idea to drive into her,” the other guy responded.

“She was almost back at Dimitry’s. Once she was inside that compound, all alarm bells would have gone off if we even got the car close to her. So shut your fucking mouth and help me get her inside the van.”

If we are close to Dimitry’s place, I could scream hard enough and maybe they’d hear me.

My pulse racing, I lifted my pounding head. It hurt like hell. I tried to open my mouth to scream but only a painful moan came out. When could I finally get a break from being kidnapped.

“She’s moving,” one of them said. “She’s alive. Hurry, shove her into the van and get her to Boris.”

I tried to kick but I suspected it wasn’t much of a resistance. My hands were tied and each move made my body hurt even more. They threw me onto the floor of the van, and I heard the door shut behind me with a loud thump.

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