Page 1 of Hold On

Prologue

Ren’s cover was blown. He’d die today and it was his own fault.

“Who are you working for?” Levan snapped in Georgian.

“No one.” Ren said in English.

“You speak Georgian! You read Georgian! You’ve been listening to everything that’s been said. You’re the reason things have been going wrong.” Levan paced as he yelled, spittle flying from his lips. “Those losses… That shipment… You fucking… Don’t make me ask you again. Who are you working for?”

Ren was on his knees, his hands tied behind his back. He was bleeding from his mouth and breathing heavily, though the beating had been light by Levan’s standards. Tengiz, Levan’s second, had worked him over, with Badri’s help, but carefully. Sooner or later, Ren would tell them what they wanted to know. Levan only had to threaten to hurt one of the women and Ren would open his mouth. So… Why suffer more than he needed to?

“London Metropolitan Police.”

Levan’s face turned puce with fury as a flood of Georgian expletives poured out of his mouth. Being glad he’d managed to cause this amount of anger gave Ren another burst of strength. He wouldnotshow fear in front of this monster. All this time he’d had to pretend to like him, admire him, pretend he found him attractive… At least he didn’t have to do that anymore.Oh, there’s a plus in dying. Who’d have guessed?

“Strip him,” Levan ordered. “Take him into the bedroom and tie one of his wrists to the headboard. I want him face down.”

Uh oh.Ren struggled because he couldn’tnotstruggle but it didn’t take long for him to be secured in the way Levan wanted. His heart was beating out of his chest. One last fuck? Was that what Levan intended? Or something worse?

When he felt the gun trailing up his leg to his backside, Ren stopped breathing. Every muscle clenched.

Levan lay beside him and pressed his face right up to Ren’s. “You’re going to die.”

“Hurry it up. I’ve got something to do later.” How he managed to make those words come out of his mouth he did not know.

Levan laughed.

He didn’thurry it up.He took his time and Ren wanted to die.Right now.Press the fucking trigger on the gun.

But Levan didn’t.

Ren was beaten again and rolled onto his back so Levan could stab him in the chest, over and over.

“I like to see your face when I push the knife in.” Levan leered at him.

Each time the blade slid into his body, Ren thought maybe that would be it, the knife would hit some part of him that stopped his heart or made him bleed out. But death would only come when Levan wanted it to. The pain was…like nothing Ren had ever experienced before. He was cold with it, hot with it. He didn’t feel as if any part of himwasn’tdamaged. There was blood everywhere. It was dripping out of him, pooling in his mouth until he coughed it up. And coughing made him spasm in pain.

“Not such a smart mouth now,” Levan said.

His family would never know what had happened. Levan would get rid of his body. Maybe that was a good thing. Ren wouldn’t want his mum to see him now. He said a mentalsorryfor fucking upto his parents and brother and grandpa. Not to his boss. Foster could fuck off.

Let me die now.Ren kept dropping in and out of consciousness, and every time the world disappeared, he thought it was the end, then he’d wake again and the agony returned like an old enemy, invading every part of his body, wrapping him in its embrace.

He was dimly aware of being dragged from the house and thrown into the back of a vehicle. His body was giving up on him, everything but his heart, which somehow was still beating, and his lungs that took in just enough air to keep him alive, and his brain that he sort of wished would shut down. A tarpaulin landed on top of him and he bounced beneath it as the truck went off road.

Ren wondered where they were taking him.Don’t bury me while I’m still alive. Hadn’t he suffered enough? It took all his remaining energy to keep breathing.Why am I not dead?Ren wanted these last moments of life to be filled with happy memories, not fear and pain, but that was all he felt.I’m scared.

Death was coming.

He was barely conscious by the time the truck stopped. The tarpaulin was pulled off but he was too weak to open his eyes. Rough hands hauled him out and he was carried a short way. He had no idea what time it was. Through his eyelashes, he could see it was still light. He made no sound when he was dropped on the ground. His voice had deserted him.

“Is he dead?” Badri asked.

Even when he was kicked in the ribs, Ren stayed silent. He wasn’t sure if he was unable to make a sound or his survival instincts had seen a ray of hope. If they thought he was dead…

“Pick him up,” Levan said. “Get rid of him. He’s done.”

Ren felt them lift him, swing his body, then he was falling.So this is it. Let go now, heart and brain and lungs. Thank you for—He hit the water hard and went down, kept going down. The water was so cold it was somehow reviving him. But for what? He didn’t have the energy or muscle coordination to pull himself to the surface, but one arm still worked and he tried and kept trying. He was running out of air.Fucking do something!He was being dragged on by the current but for a moment, his head broke clear and he snatched a mouthful of air.

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