Page 12 of Collapsed

“Don’t touch me,” I snarl at him.

He looks at me but continues to move his hand. I hear a hollow click sound, and he holds up a bag with yellow liquid in it. “Changing your bag. Maybe if you stopped acting like a cunt, this wouldn’t be needed.” The man then pulls a clear bag out of his back pocket, and it disappears at the end of the bed. He says nothing else but leaves the room.

A catheter, really? Actually, that clears up the questions I had about why I hadn’t had to pee yet and the discomfort I felt when wiggling around to free my hand.Eww. That lackey just took a bag of my pee.I really need to get out of here now.Wait! Who the fuck put that thing up there? I definitely have not seen a doctor or nurse around here.It had to have been Ivan, that sick fuck.

My hand goes back to my right one and finds a spot one of my fingers can use to slip in the knot. I move my finger back and forth, slowly loosening the knot. Getting myself to a point where the knot feels loose enough to start pulling with my wrist. I do just that, and shortly after, my wrist pulls away from the knot, creating a large loop that allows my wrist to slip out easily. Both hands are free.

I start to sit up but instantly get light-headed and lie back down.Take it slow. Don’t fuck it up now.Trying again, I move myself to relax on my elbows. After I rest for a few moments, I rise to a sitting position. The room sways slightly, but I take deep breaths and focus on one spot on the wall in front of me. Once my vision and head stop spinning, I transfer my focus to my ankles. The knots are the same, and I easily get out of them.

Another sound outside the door has me slamming myself backward on the bed while reaching up, desperately trying to find the ropes and get them looped around my wrists again. The door opens, and the same lackey walks in. He is carrying a tray with him as he walks to the bed. Setting the tray on the ground beside the bed, he moves to a part of the room behind me that I haven’t seen yet. When he returns, he is carrying a chair that he sits in next to the bed. Sitting a little too close.

This is my chance.

Escaping before Ivan returns has to be my plan. When he gets back, I need to be ready to destroy him, bit by tiny bit.Haha! Tiny.

I glance over at the soon-to-be-dead man as he sets the tray down, balancing part of it on his lap and the other part on the bed next to me. There is a spoon and fork.There’s my weapon. Thank you, overconfident lackey.The tray has mashed potatoes and what looks like diced-up ham. I’m not even sure the last time I ate. He scoops some potatoes on the spoon and moves it to my mouth. I automatically open my mouth without him having to tell me.

Once the potatoes are in my mouth. I pretend that I’m having a hard time swallowing them. My head turns to the side, and I spit the potatoes out onto the edge of the bed, down the leg of his pants.

“You disgusting bitch. What Umbra sees in you is beyond me. Better off killing you, I say,” he snarls at me.

“I’m so sorry,” I say in a sweet-as-pie voice.

He presses the tray further onto the bed and grabs the napkin from the tray. He leans forward and starts wiping potatoes off his pants. I carefully move my right hand out of the now larger loop without him noticing. He’s still wiping his pants and cursing me out. In a flash, my right-hand shoots forward and grabs the handle of the fork. The man’s head shoots up, and his eyes go wide as I thrust the fork into the front of his neck. I roll my body towards him as far as it will go, straining my legs and swinging my left arm across my body to grip the front of his shirt, pulling him towards me. Yanking the fork out, I jam it back into his neck a few more times while trying to hold him in front of me by his shirt. His dead weight lets me know it's over, but I make sure to stab him a few more times for good measure before letting him collapse on the ground.

All I have to do now is get my legs free, and I can get out of here. Ivan said he will return, and when he does, I’ll be waiting for him.

Ivan

WalkingawayfromNatalianever gets easier. When I exit the room, I look to my left to see the man I have on guard outside her door, sitting in a chair with his legs kicked up, relaxing.Idiot.I slap him on the back of the head and say, “Get your ass up, go get her some food, and clean her up. We need to make sure my love is taken care of. Do you understand your orders, Idiot?”

Moy ogonis so feisty. It’s her fiery spirit that drew me in when we first met. That gave me the idea for her nickname. She was a girl, but Andrei raised her with the values and brutality of the Bratva. The fight she has riles something deep inside of me, causing me to want her even more.I love her.Natalia’s spirit calls to mine. She belongs to me.Some think she is just an obsession of mine, but under that hard exterior she puts on for everyone else, she knows who owns her soul. She has shown me her attraction from the very beginning with all the rude comments, the cat-and-mouse games she plays, and the effort she put into avoiding me. Despite these challenges, I have always found her, and she rewards me with sassy insults and looks filled with fire; both of these gifts always harden my cock.

Lost in my thoughts of how she looked strapped down on the bed, I walk up the stairs and onto the main floor of the house.She was begging for me to touch her. She insulted my manhood as I made my exit. It pissed me off, but now that I think on it more, I know it’s her way of showing interest in me. She asked about my past, about my family, and how I became the glorious man I am today. We are getting somewhere, I just know it. A sly smile creeps across my face, then I hear footsteps behind me.

I quickly return to my cold, intimidating look before turning toward the noise. “What?! How dare you disturb me,” I growl out to a man, who stops in his tracks and looks down at the ground instead of looking me in the eye.Weak.The men who stay in my home know they are to be scarce. If I need them, I will go to them.

“Sorry, Umbra, my apologies. I did not know that you were in the middle of something. I can come back, but I came to share some news,” he stammers out. He glances up at me before looking back down at the ground.

I wait a few moments for him to end the silence by telling me what news he has. When he doesn't, I yell, “Well, out with it, you pathetic little worm!”

“Um, oh. Umbra, we just heard that the team Natalia was with in Chicago has landed in New York. We didn’t want to make any moves without your approval, sir. I was told to locate you immediately.” He takes in a deep breath, still looking at the ground.

“Blyad, I will handle that in a moment, but first, come closer,” I instruct him. He looks at me reluctantly but takes a few steps closer to me until he is within reaching distance. I strike out, grabbing his arm and yanking him closer to my body. He starts blubbering into me, saying, “Sir, please don’t be angry. I was told by the Brigadier to come find you so you can give them orders. Please, have mercy.”

“Worm, you are weak, must I teach you a lesson? I do not tolerate weakness in my men, so… you must die,” I whisper into his ear just as I shove the dagger that was strapped to my leg up into his gut. Pulling it upwards to make sure I tear through his bowels and stomach, I let him drop to the ground. His eyes are frozen wide, blood leaking from his mouth as he coughs it up. I kick him to the side, saying, “Bye, Bye, Worm.” Men like him have no place in my ranks.

Storming out of the house, I go straight to my car without stopping to tell the men here that I'm heading to my warehouse. This is where I’ll meet the rest of my men, plot the takedown of Natalia’s men, and the full takeover of the Bratva.

“I must find that defiant Volkov son, to put him to shamein the eyes of all my men,” I say out loud to myself while driving.

None of this is going to plan, they found us far too quickly. This is no good,moy ogonwill somehow catch wind of her men being alive. I knew one day she would find out, but by then, she would’ve willingly been mine, married and pregnant with my spawn. My plan was to teach her one last lesson with those men, letting her kill them herself to prove her loyalty and love for me. This future plan was my only reason for keeping them alive, I could have ended them so easily when they were weak and helpless after I injected them. But that would have proven to be no fun, I like when they fight back. She is taking too long to give in to me with them interrupting my timeline. I’ll have to find a way to work with this new development. I know that little redheaded bitch will crack at some point and admit she is falling for me. It’s infuriating but exhilarating at the same time. She is too resilient. Since we have been found so quickly, I must break her, then we can rebuild together. Maybe I’ll capture her men again and surprise her with the fact that they are, in fact, still alive when I have already made her believe they are dead. Then I can torture them in front of her, making their real deaths slow and painful. That should surely break her down in no time.

Once I handle those Elite scum, I will come back, with or without them, and send her into a real-life nightmare she could never have dreamed of. Then, she will be mine.

Conrad

One day prior

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