Page 75 of Savage Love

It makes me see red with fury.

“I’m here.” It’s all I can do to keep my voice even. “You can do with me as you please. Let her go.”

“Levin, no!” She gasps my name, but I don’t look at her. Ican’t. If I do, I’ll lose control, and all of this will be at risk. I need him to let her go.

Diego smiles, and I know that the other outcome, the one I feared, is going to be the result. “No,” he says simply, and the guards grab me.

“Levin!” Elena shrieks, yanking against her bonds, and I hear one of the guards groan at the sight of her naked body twisting in the bed. It makes me furious, my vision narrowing as I fight the guards holding me, knowing even as I do that, I’m not going to get free. Not until there’s a distraction.

Liam and the others need to hurry.

“Well.” Diego looks pleased. “Hold him, men. This will be in two parts,” he explains to me, as coolly as if he were reading me an instruction manual. “First, I’m going to let these two guards enjoy her while we watch. They’ve been promised a reward for exceptional service, and this is it. When they’ve finished with her—and I’ve promised they can have her as many times as they can manage it—then we’ll begin the rest of the night.” He smiles broadly. “I’ve been very well-informed as to the manner of your first wife’s death, Volkov. I think we’ll be able to do quite the reenactment of it tonight.”

I can’t describe what I feel. The rage, the horror, the helplessness, and guilt all roaring through me until all I see is red, my blood pounding in my ears, and I hear myself make a nearly animal noise, fighting against the hands holding me as I lurch towards Diego, lunging for him in a fury that feels as if it comes from some part of me I’ve never fully let myself access before.

I’ve lost my mind, and I don’t fucking care.

They drag me backward, two more guards coming to assist, pulling me back against the wall and hemming me in. One puts a hunting knife to my throat, and I feel the warm trickle of blood as I jerk against the men holding me again, seeing the two guards by Elena’s bed starting to unclip their belts, setting their guns aside in preparation to fuck her.

“I’m going to kill all of you,” I snarl. “Every fucking one of you.”

“No, you won’t,” Diego says simply. “You’re going to watch your wife be violated in every way a man can, and then you are going to watch her be torn apart. And then, just before the life leaves her eyes, you will die. Just as you should have died twelve years ago when you failed your first wife, you useless piece of shit.” He smiles broadly. “Oh, have I done my research on you, Volkov. And I have played you like the finest of violins.”

The guards are flipping a coin to see who gets what part of her first. One has his pants halfway down his hips, his cock in his hand, and I’m no longer a man. I’m a slavering, furious beast, twisting and snarling in the hands of the men holding me back, the knife at my throat drawing blood, and I don’t feel it. I don’t feel anything except a blind, burning rage.

It’s a nightmare playing out in front of me, and I can’t fucking wake up.

There’s no physical torture Diego could have devised that’s worse than this, and he knows it.

And then, just as I realize that I can’t get free, that I’m about to watch two other men touch my wife in ways no one else besides me has—I hear gunshots from downstairs. Rapid fire, a volley of them, and I have only moments to react.

There’s a brief second where everything comes to a stop in the room, the occupants startled by the gunfire from below, gunfire they hadn’t expected. Once again, I’m endlessly thankful for my training, because it kicks in instantly.

I lunge forward, breaking the hold on me, grabbing the wrist of the man holding the knife and twisting it, hearing it crack and his sudden, shocked cry of pain as I turn his arm unnaturally and drive the knife into his throat. Blood sprays over me, and I leave the knife there, grabbing for his gun and disarming him as I bolt to one side, dodging the other guards drawing their weapons and blocking Diego from my view.

There’s confusion. They don’t know what to do—whether to go down and help or stay here and protect him. I take full advantage of it.

The first two to die are the ones who were about to touch Elena.

I shoot them both in the groin. The one who already had his cock out loses it in a spray of blood and flesh, and the other falls to the floor, moaning and clutching himself. Elena screams, blood spattering her skin, and I want to tell her that it will be alright, that she’ll be free soon, but there’s no time.

I leave the two on the floor to bleed out, rapidly firing at the guards surrounding Diego. Two of them fall, and the others return fire, narrowly missing me as I drop to the floor, rolling and getting up again, snatching the gun from the man whose dick I blew off and firing again, dropping the remaining guards one after another. The bodies fall,thud, thud, thud, blood spreading across the floor, and I stalk toward Diego.

His weapon is drawn, pointed at me. Mine is leveled at him. I walk straight up to him, until he’s nearly touching me with the muzzle of his pistol, and I smile.

“Do you think you can shoot before I do?” Diego asks, his eyes gleaming, and I shrug.

“Who the hell knows?” I look at him, wanting to savor this moment. “But I don’t have to shoot you.”

He has a knife at his hip, too. I saw it when he came into the office. He hadn’t expected me to go for it. But I do, snatching it free as I knock his hand holding the gun away. His shot goes wild as I shove him with my entire body backward and against the wall, driving the knife into the hollow of his throat.

“I wish to god I could do this slower,” I tell him, rage coloring every word as I twist the knife, hearing the guttural, bubbling noise as blood froths from his lips. “I wish I could take you apart piece by piece in every way I know how. But at least you’re going to die like this, far from home, knowing that you’ve been outwitted yet again. And there’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it.”

I jerk the knife free, and then drive it lower, into his gut, and again, into his groin. He coughs, gargling blood, and I grab both of his hands, pinning them over his head against the wall as I drive the knife through both of his palms, pinioning him there while he bleeds out.

“Go ahead and die,” I tell him, and I rear back, spitting in his face.

I don’t know how long it takes. I would have liked to watch, but what I want more is Elena to be freed from the bed and in my arms. I cross to her, sawing the bonds holding her free, and she sags against the bed as she’s released, just before I gather her into my arms.

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