Page 94 of Merciless Desires

“I asked you a question,” he growls through clenched teeth.

I wrench my head away. “Go to hell,” I snap.

His eyes flash dangerously. In one quick movement, his hand cracks my cheek. Pain explodes across my face. I cry out despite myself, tears springing to my eyes.

He clicks his tongue. “Such language from such a pretty girl. I can see Viktor hasn’t taught you any manners.”

He twists his fingers through my hair and yanks my head back roughly, forcing me to meet his sinister gaze.

“You will die regardless. Answer my questions honestly and I’ll make it quick. What have you told Viktor about your father’s death, and have you told anyone else about what you saw fifteen years ago?”

The moment I answer, he’s going to kill me. He’s admitted as much. As I contemplate what the consequences might be for spitting in his face, I hear a cell phone vibrate.

He pulls his cell out of his pocket and stares at the screen. His face falls.

Tucking the phone back in, he seizes my arm and drags me across the warehouse. I struggle against his bruising grip, but he’s strong. We pass through a grimy kitchen and into a back room. Inside is nothing but a soiled mattress on the floor and a broken toilet in the corner. He hurls me down onto the mattress and cuffs my hands to a pipe along the wall.

As he’s leaving, he pauses in the doorway. “Make yourself comfortable. You might be here a while.” His laugh sends a chill down my spine before the door slams shut behind him.

Alone in the dim room, my fear overwhelms me. Tears leak from my eyes and I let them fall, too exhausted to hold them back.

Viktor said I was his. He said he owned me. Does that mean he will come for me? I have to believe it does because that belief is the only thing that will get me through this. I can’t lose faith. I have to believe in Viktor. Believe that he’ll find me.

You belong to Viktor Ivanov, I remind myself fiercely.

I repeat those words like a mantra, using them to push back against the dark thoughts trying to creep in.

Such a strange, unexpected thing to have flourished between us. He was supposed to be my enemy, my captor. And yet he’s become my unlikely salvation. My protector.

He’ll find me. He has to.

I cling to that hope with everything in me.

CHAPTER 10

Viktor

A cold rage simmers inside me as I stare down at Timur's lifeless body sprawled on the grass. Natalia is gone. Taken from right under my nose, on the grounds of my own estate. Un-fucking-forgivable.

I kneel and press two fingers to Timur's neck, just to be certain, but I already know it's hopeless. The pool of blood soaking into the dirt makes that clear. Gently, I close his vacant eyes. He was loyal and didn't deserve this end.

"Find out how the fuck this happened," I bark at Dmitri. "I want the security footage scoured and every guard who was stationed nearby interrogated. Someone must have seen something."

Dmitri nods grimly. "We'll get to the bottom of it, boss."

I straighten and rake a hand through my hair, barely restraining the urge to put my fist through something. Rage wars with icy fear inside me. Whoever took Natalia was bold enough to breach my estate's security right under the noses of my men. Which means they are either extremely reckless or extremely confident. Neither option bodes well.

Most chilling is that this was clearly a targeted abduction. They came for Natalia specifically. I dismissed Boris’s warning that she posed a threat if our enemies learned of her presence here. And now my arrogance has put her directly in harm’s way.

"Ready my car," I tell Alexei, one of my most trusted vory. "I'm going to conduct my own search. Starting with Badawi." That upstart Chaldean motherfucker has been encroaching on our territory for weeks, growing increasingly brazen. If he's taken Natalia...

Alexei catches my arm as I turn to leave. "Viktor. We'll get her back, but you can't go off half-cocked. We need information and a plan."

I shake him off roughly. "I don't need a fucking plan. I need my woman back before whoever took her decides she's disposable."

The thought of Natalia being hurt, or worse, guts me. Fuck!

"We don't even know for certain who's responsible," Alexei argues.

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