and both men struggle to keep up as I make my way toward my office—where the best of my firepower is stored in the safe. The cold resolve is back, smothering all the fear and worry over Elena. I’ll allow myself to feel it all later, when this is over and Elena is safe. It’s the only outcome I can accept right now. I can’t fall to pieces wondering what Viktor might be doing to my wife; not right now. I’m going to need every bit of the cold ruthlessness I possess to get her back.
“Get every soldier and lieutenant over here now. This is an all-hands on deck situation. We’re going to get my wife back, and then I’m going to tear Viktor apart piece by piece.”
31
Elena
The splash of cold water hits me like a tidal wave, jolting me back to consciousness. Coughing and sputtering, I blink to clear my eyes of the water streaming into them. My entire body aches, but most of the pain originates in my skull. My forehead throbs where it crashed into the dashboard, and my right eye is swollen, making each blink scratchy and uncomfortable.
Through hazy vision I make out my surroundings—a dark, humid room with bare floors and brick walls, maybe a basement. Viktor stands over me with an empty bucket in one hand. He’s still immaculately dressed in a white button-up and gray slacks, every hair slicked into place. His expression is soft with humor and smugness as she stares down at me.
It isn’t until then that I notice my hands are tied and stretched over my head. My butt is planted on the hard floor, and as my senses come slowly back to me, I realize I’ve been stripped of my clothes. I jerk against the rope biting into my wrists, bending my knees to try to cover my exposed skin. Viktor left me in my bra and panties, but I can’t be sure what he might have done while I was out cold.
“Relax,” he croons, crouching in front of me. The bucket hits the floor and he raises a glass to his lips with his other hand while pinning me in place with his cold, frightening eyes. “I haven’t touched you … yet.”
I blink and struggle to hold my head up. It’s heavy and spinning with every breath I take, threatening to push me back into darkness. I gave myself over to it before, but I can’t bring myself to let go this time. That instinct to survive, even in a world where Diego no longer exists, keeps me awake and defiant.
“What’s your game here, Viktor?” I ask, both because I’m curious and because I need to stall for time. I need to know what he intends to do to me and whether there’s any way out of this.
“Come now, dorogoy. You’ve never pretended to be a brainless bimbo. I know you’re smart enough to figure it out on your own.”
Just now I feel like a bumbling idiot. I can’t tell up from down, let alone try to figure out what the hell he’s up to.
“If Diego’s dead, you have no use for me,” I mumble, my words drunkenly slurred. He smashed my head into that dashboard harder than I thought. “Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?”
Viktor takes a sip from his glass, and I smell the vodka on his breath when he speaks. Yezhov Platinum … the best money can buy. “Oh, you sweet little thing. I don’t want to kill you. That would defeat the purpose. You’re worth much more to me alive. I’ll give it another few hours before Diego and the rest of those Pérez pridurkis show up on my doorstep, guns blazing.”
I blink several times, my head lolling against my arm as I try to make sense of his words. Diego and the rest … but that can’t be right.
“Diego is dead,” I say, my throat burning and my eyes welling with tears as I say the words out loud for the first time.
“No, sweet,” he purrs, one hand cupping my cheek. He lets his fingers trail down my chin, my neck, my collarbone. Revulsion sweeps through me when he traces the edge of my bra, one finger slipping past the fabric and skimming my nipple. “I only said that to get you to cooperate. I have to say, my father was suspicious of your sudden romance and marriage, but I knew the truth all along. I told him