Page 5 of Collapsed

Ivan finally steps away from her and back to his table. There are red and black colored markings covering her inner thighs. Her head sways from side to side, and I can’t believe she hasn’t passed out yet. She is showing so much strength after everything she has been through. I bet she really pissed off Ivan for a time, and that thought brings me a small sliver of satisfaction.

That satisfaction is short-lived as Ivan steps back in front of the woman facing me. “Ready for our next lesson?” he asks. I don’t respond to his arrogant tone. “Lesson two: pleasure is an essential part of life.” He moves his hand to his belt and undoes it, tossing the belt to the side before unbuttoning his shirt. For being a psychotic, murderous piece of shit, he was always dressed in nice slacks and a button-down shirt.Pretentious fuckhole.He removes his shirt, a smile plastered on his stupid face because I’m watching him.Don’t get excited. I’m not looking at you with any satisfaction.I’m purely fueled by hate right now and looking at the man that I will take pleasure in murdering.

Ivan sheds his shoes, socks, and pants, leaving him in only his black underwear. His fingers tuck into his waistband as he slowly moves his underwear down his legs. I use all my energy to hold back a laugh. This really explains the overcompensation. It takes everything I have to not make a smart remark. I don’t need to make it any worse for this woman. I know she won’t leave this room alive, but her suffering does not need to be greater just so I can get in a few jabs at our captor’s expense.I’ll save them for later.

He moves towards the woman still chained up and pushes a hand against her body, making her sway a bit. His fist grabs her hair at the back of her head, forcing her to look at him. “You are not the one I want,” he spits at her. “And now that I have the one I want,” he pauses, pointing to me, “this will be our last evening together. I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I have.” He releases his grip on her hair and her head slumps back down, but I could have sworn I almost saw a small smile on her face. She wants him to end it for her so she can be free of him.

Ivan moves behind her and grips her hips roughly. I refuse to watch and turn my head to look directly at the ceiling. He grunts, and I squeeze my eyes shut as though my eyelids being pressed tightly together could help me drown out the sounds.

I try to dissociate and think of King, Stryker, and Alexie. How life was so cruel to give me everything I could ever want, just to rip them away so quickly. My run-in with King in the elevator. The first time I saw him, I should have realized I was a goner. Our relationship didn't start off like a romantic fairytale, and it was never going to be that way, but the love we had for each other was fierce. Stryker had me from the jump. From the first day, when he had me pressed up against the vehicle as he took me with his fingers. It surprised me, but I craved him every moment after that. Being in his presence was always difficult because I wanted to tear off his clothes. Then there’s Alexie, the one I have loved the longest. I just got him back, and he’s already being torn away from me again. He has always been loyal, and our love for each other was intense in the best way imaginable. I love all of them so deeply, and Iwillavenge each of them.

Something wet hits my stomach, forcing my eyes to open. I look and see Ivan looking down at me. He has blood dripping off his hands and arms. I look past him to my ‘stand-in’, and it immediately feels like all the air has been ripped from my lungs. I try to not look at her body, but my eyes go to her face. Her head is hanging to the side, hereyes blank and unmoving.She’s dead!

Ivan places his hands on the bed, one on each side of me, as he leans down, his face hovering close to mine. I worry he might try to kiss me. “Every woman I have killed has been because of you. You are to blame for each of their deaths. How many more will die until you give yourself fully to me,moy ogon? Or should I sayMalyshka?”

The word drips out of his mouth like venom. I pull at the restraints as hard as I can, moving closer to him. Spit flies out of my mouth and lands on his face. “Never! I will never give myself to you or your tiny pathetic excuse for a dick.” I spit at him, letting my head fall back onto the mattress as laughter bubbles out from deep inside my chest.

His face contorts, and his usual controlled expression becomes menacing, bordering on scary. He pulls back his fist and brings it down against my temple. The side of my face feels like it explodes. Then the world goes dark again.

King

Wakingupinthishospital room a few days ago had me seeing red. I can’t believe that fucker knocked all three of us out and strolled from the building like he was on a walk in Central Park. I’m also still slightly shocked that Kruz is Ivan,or is Ivan Kruz?It doesn’t matter. Either way, he needs to die. There are so many questions I want answers to, once Luci is back where she belongs.

I think circling back to Ingram will have the answers to a lot of my questions. I have to know how he fooled all of us for so long. How did Kruz, or Ivan, get away with tricking the team without us questioning anything? We aren’t that easy to fool. Fuck! Luci forgave me, but the look in her eyes in that office before we went to join the fight. It told me everything I needed to know. Luci is it for me, but looking back now at how I treated her, I have a lot of making up to do.

I smack myself in the forehead to snap my thoughts out of this downward spiral I’ve been having and wince.Shit!I forgot about the bruising and the little cuts from the note that fuckwad stapled to my head.Who does that?Leaving it on the fridge or pinned to my shirt wasn’t good enough? He stapled the fucking thing straight to my forehead.

Conrad relayed what the letter said, then told us all the colorful creative things the Russian bastard has planned for Ivan. I have no complaints. My only request is to be there when he starts his torture. I’ll never forgive myself for being so weak, for getting tied to that chair and watching our girl be taken. The image of her over his shoulder, bouncing like a sack of potatoes, will haunt me ‘till the end of time.

Hearing Stryker shift in the bed next to me has me turning to look at him. He turns, smiling when he sees me. “Morning, King, I see that you haven’t slept once again.” I take a deep breath before responding to him. I love that we were able to get the staff to allow us to share a room, but I’m ready to have my own space again. We tried to get Alexie in here, so we would all be together, but he refused to move unless it was to go home.

The staff is terrified of him, so they’ve left him to be. I hear their whispers, gossiping about the insane guy in room 420. If only they knew that their fears are valid, that he would waste no time killing any of them if it got him closer to Luci. “Stryker,” I respond, turning back to stare at the wall.

“We get out of here today. That's exciting,” he says as he sits up. He grabs his phone, looking at it before setting it back down on the sliding table tray we each have.

“What will be exciting is when Luci is back with us, where she belongs. And not god knows where with that creepy fucking fuck,” I seethe, causing Stryker to wince. I’m not trying to be an asshole to him. I’m just so fucking mad that we are here and she’s not.

“I know, man. We’ll find her, but we have to make sure we’re good, and that drug is out of our system. What good would we have been if we found her only to collapse from something?” It sucks that he’s making sense. I know all that, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. So I just nod, letting the room fall into silence once more.

An hour later, the door to our room swings open. Conrad comes in with BJ carrying a bag of takeout. The former plops down in the chair beside Stryker’s bed. Then BJ throws a ball of something at me. Catching it, I open the wrapper, seeing a bacon and ham breakfast bagel sandwich. “Thought you two could use some food that didn’t come from the cafeteria before you get to blow this joint.” BJ giggles as she tosses a sandwich to Stryker, then walks over, handing one to Conrad.

“Thanks,” Stryker mumbles through a mouth full of food.

“Well, I’m going to go give Alexie his food. I’ll be back in a few,” BJ tells us as she pulls the door open and takes her leave. Once the door is shut again, I look to Conrad and Stryker to see them looking at each other before looking over at me.

“So, what’s the plan?” I ask.

“The plan is to go home and wait for Conrad’s fancy tech shit to catch Ivan’s trail,” Stryker informs me, and I snap my eyes to him in a glare.Is he for fucking real?

“That’s your big fucking plan? Wait for the computer to tell us. What if that doesn’t happen? We need to be on the ground, banging on doors to find Luci. Is she not important to you? Just a quick team fuck, and on to the next!” I roar at him, making Conrad flinch, but I don’t give a fuck. We are not waiting around for some fancy technology to tell us anything.

“NO! She’s not some quick team fuck. I love her, she knows that. But we have nothing! No way to know where he took her or anything. We need a solid fucking lead, King. I want her back just as much as the rest of you,” he snaps back at me.

“Then we need a better plan. When we get out of here, I want to hit the ground running to find our fucking girl.” At this point, I don’t care if I have to go without them. Maybe, I’ll just get Alexie, the crazy bastard, to go with me.

It’s been a long morning of arguing over what the next steps are and backtracking through where we went wrong. All we can figure out is that, somehow Ivan is always a step ahead of us. We don’t think we have another mole, but he just always knows what we’re gonna do before we do it. No one but us was aware of our plans, we’ve made sure of that. So somehow, he is just ahead of us, and we have to figure it out.

BJ came back and gave us a proper scolding for fighting with one another. Then she hugged us all goodbye, setting out to see Lane. I’m so happy for them. I hope that Lane remembers the little threat I gave him when they first started getting serious. One pinky nail out of line with her, and I’ll take his balls as punishment. However, now that BJ has gotten so close with Alexie, it’s him Lane needs to worry about. He might take his balls to wear as a necklace if Lane does anything BJ doesn’t like. Somehow, our little colorful teammate has become fascinatingly close with the unhinged Russian, and I'm not totally sure of my feelings on the matter.

---