on top of me and cradling his abused balls while gasping for air. Coughing and gagging, I get to my hands and knees, trying to gather the strength to run. The light from the top of the stairs calls to me, offering freedom. I know there are other men in this house, lying in wait. Viktor wouldn’t be stupid enough to isolate himself without protection. But I can’t give up. I can’t just lay here and let him finish me off. If I have to die, I’ll do it fighting.
I manage to crawl up the first few steps, my throat and chest burning from being strangled, but Viktor has recovered faster than me. His swift footsteps are my only warning before a tight grip seizes my hair, wrenching me to my feet. I scream at the sting in my scalp, certain I feel a few strands tear free.
“I wanted to take my time with you,” Viktor rasps, swinging me around and shoving me into the closest wall. My bruised face slams into the brick, sending a bursts light and agony through my head. “But now I see I’m going to have to break you sooner rather than later. You need to be taught a lesson, dorogoy, and you’re going to get it right now.”
His fingers tighten on the back of my neck, pinning me in place and adding more dizzying pain to the agony pounding in my head. His body comes against my back, and the motherfucker is aroused, turned on by beating and strangling a woman half his size. Viktor pants in my ear like a beast, rubbing his erection against my ass and slipping a hand around my body to cup my breast. He squeezes until I cry out, squirming and trying to buck him off me.
“That’s it,” he says with a deranged laugh. “Fight me, Elena. I like it better when they put up a fight.”
Despite knowing my struggles only turn him on more, I can’t let go of the need to resist. I twist and try to angle my most vulnerable parts away from him, but I’m too weak, too battered and broken.
He cups between my legs, fondling and trying to press into me through my panties. Tears spring to my eyes and roll down my face, each drop hot and searing. I clench my teeth to keep the pitiful cries muffled, and push away the words to beg him to stop. If he likes it when I fight, he’ll only enjoy it more when I start to beg.
I press my forehead against the wall, defeated. There’s no more strength left within me, and Viktor will have his way. My shoulders shake with choked sobs, my body trembling so hard I can hardly stay on my feet.
My blood roars in my ears, so loud and insistent that I almost don’t hear the gunshots firing off from somewhere in the house. Viktor goes still behind me, tension coiling through his body and telling me that I’m not crazy. I heard the staccato bursts of semi-automatic weapons, and now I can hear raised voices calling out in both Spanish and Russian.
Thank God.
I suck in a deep breath and throw my head back to scream, knowing it’s impossible for me to be heard over the commotion, but too desperate to care. Diego is here, close enough to intervene. I’ve fought as long as I can, and now I need him.
“Help! Somebody help me! I’m down here, please!”
Viktor claps a hand over my mouth and jerks me away from the wall, taking me to my knees on the ground. I jerk my head back and forth, creating enough space to bite down on one of his fingers. He howls when my teeth sink in, my jaw clamping until I break skin and the taste of his blood fills my mouth. I hold on tight, refusing to release him as he tries to pull his hand away from the steel trap of my teeth. I’ll gnaw this thing down to the bone if I have to. Letting go isn’t an option. Bits of flesh tear away and Viktor’s blows across my shoulders rattle me to my core. But I snarl like an animal, feeling like one as I tear at flesh like a rabid dog. Viktor’s screams are smothered by pounding feet on the stairs, and then the oppressive weight of him falls away, leaving a piece of him clenched between my teeth.