“That’s how you ended up here when you were little?”
He nods again, pressing his lips into a thin line before finishing his story.
“My father sent us to the States while she was pregnant. We moved around a lot my first seven years, going to a new city every six months. Usually my father would come move us. His cover was that he came to meet with the captains here. This way, if anything should ever happen to Ivan, they already knew and respected him.”
“Did anyone catch on that your father wasn’t really here on business?”
Dante smirks. “He made sure to make an impact on the organization when he came. Either with the guys that worked for them, or by getting more people of influence on the payroll. It was like good cop / bad cop. My father, since he wasn’t here too often, was the good cop. Ivan was the bad cop. It ran the opposite back in Russia.”
“Oh. I thought he came to see you.”
“He did. But he couldn’t risk blowing his cover, or my mother and I would be dead. He’d risked too much to keep us safe. Even though he provided for us, those were the only times we got to see or speak to him. He always knew where we were, but contact was too risky. If Ivan found out my mother was alive, he wouldn’t think twice about killing her. If he found out about me…” He shakes his head. “That’s a different story.”
My heart breaks for the boy I knew as a child and the man I should be running from but am falling head over heels for instead. I lean in and press my lips against his. Dante closes his eyes and his fingers comb through my hair. I know whatever happens, I want Dante in my life. Forever.
“I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and this is all going to be a dream,” he says, reaching under my hair, pulling my face toward his. “I’ve waited so long to hold you, and now I can’t get enough of you.”
“Then why didn’t you come to me sooner? Why not pick up the phone?”
He answers with a long, deep kiss before he breaks away.
“When we moved into your town, she thought we were in the clear. Seven years had passed and no one suspected. It was great. We didn’t have to hide in the shadows anymore. We could have a normal life. She got herself a job working at the diner, and I finally had friends. You and Sammy.”
“They found you?”
“Eventually. One of the men in our organization went from my father’s side to Ivan’. I guess my father had him keeping an eye on us, but he hated working for Ivan and eventually left for another family. Ivan put a hit on him. When the guy heard about this, he came begging Ivan for forgiveness on his hands and knees. He offered my mother and I up in a trade for his own life.”
“Ivan accepted?”
Dante shakes his head. “He shot the guy in the head, then searched for us non-stop. My father didn’t know any of this, so he didn’t cover his tracks well enough to not be followed when he visited. They didn’t make contact or ask for anything at first. They waited a long time and tried to come in under the radar to get what they wanted.”
“They tried to kidnap your mother again?”
He shakes his head, and his eyes, his terrified eyes welled up. “No. Not her.”
“You? Oh my goodness, how awful!” I run my hands through his hair and down his stubble-covered cheeks. “I had no idea. I’m so happy they didn’t snatch you away.”
Dante bites his lip and takes a deep breath before answering. “They didn’t want me. They wanted retribution for what she did, for losing out on money because she was working here instead of on her back for them. They wanted her to pay for me, for the fact that I existed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out whose son I am. Ivan wanted to punish everyone involved.”
“Then what, or who, were they after?”
His face pales, his eyes piercing through me. I know I’m not going to like what’s coming. But knowing it and hearing the words are two very different things. When he speaks, my blood runs cold.
“You, Kiera. They wanted you.”
Chapter 10
“Fuck!”
I push up and away from Dante. I’m trembling. I think somewhere in the last thirty seconds, my heart froze and he smashed it to bits with a sledgehammer. My head is spinning like a fucking top. No, I heard wrong. He’s wrong. It can’t be. My whole body is covered in a thin sheen of sweat.
“Me? That makes no sense. Zero. Fucking. Sense. I have nothing to do with them.”
“Your parents helped us out. My mother worked for them. Ivan blamed them for losing out on what she would have brought in for them. He’s been hung up on the idea of using you as payback for the prime years he lost on her.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
I run my hands through my hair for lack of knowing what else to do with them.
“Kiera?” He turns so his legs are hanging off the bed and his feet are on the floor.
Ignoring him, I pace back and forth in the small area. My heart beats frantically, sounding in my ears, pulsing so hard I feel it in my gums. I’m so fucked, I can’t even fathom an escape. Not a real one. They’re going to chase after me for the rest of my life. The sudden weight on my chest makes it difficult to breathe. Fuck difficult, it’s near impossible.
“It’s never going to end.” I mutter under my breath. “Never. Until they have me exactly where they want me, or I’m dead.”
“That’s not going to happen.” He’s off the bed and standing in front of me.
“Yes, it is.” I struggle to find the words, to get the words soaring through my head out. I sound incoherent and hysterical. I am hysterical. “And the bitch of it is, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
“Don’t say that.” He doesn’t want to show it, but he knows it’s true. I see the fear in his eyes.
“The man that kept coming to the diner to grab me when we were kids, did Ivan send him?”
Dimitri’s eyes won’t meet mine. He won’t answer. He doesn’t have to. His silence is answer enough.
“Since I was eight? They’ve been after me since I was eight years old?” I shove at his rock-hard chest.
“Yes,” he says after releasing a long sigh. “We didn’t know there was a connection when it happened.”
“Oh my God!” I turn away because I can’t look at him the same way. He’s the reason I’m here. The reason I’ve always been in danger, and he didn’t even bother to warn me.
“My mother never saw the man before. Ivan didn’t want to risk doing it himself or sending someone she’d recognize because we would’ve gone back into hiding.”
I wring my hands. “Wouldn’t it be poetic justice if they have you do it?”
“What?”
I know he’s close, he’s almost touching me. I feel his body heat covering me, smothering me. Bile rises in my stomach as I say it. “Kill me.”
“No one is going to kill you. I promise,” he says, grabbing my shoulders and turning me to face him again.
“You promise? Sorry if that doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. If your father couldn’t keep your mother safe, what chance do you have?”
“Things have changed. Sammy and I, we’ve been buying time. That’s the main reason I’ve kept away from you, and why he’s on you all the time about not going out and partying—”
“Whoa. Wait a minute. Sammy?” I ask, struggling to find a weak spot in his unbreakable grasp. “My brother was in on this? No fucking way. You’re lying. You have to be because he’d never team up with the enemy. And, you’re…you’re the enemy. You’re one of them!”
“Kiera!” he pleads as he pulls me close, desperation coloring his tone. “You need to stop!” he orders. “Right now! Do you understand?”
“Fuck you.” I twist and turn trying to break free, but his fingers dig harder into my shoulders and bite into my skin.
“You need to calm the fuck down, or you’re going to get us all killed,” he growls.
I shake my head. “Don’t you dare pin one bit of this on me.”
“Don’t make me do this, Kiera. I don’t want res
train you.”
I fight harder. Son of a bitch is threatening me again. I can’t believe I’m so stupid that I let my guard down with him. I’m such an idiot.
“Please,” he pleads one last time.
Not about to give in, I pound at his chest.
“Blyat!” he curses as he turns me around and pushes me facedown on the bed, bending me in half at the waist.
I elbow him in the ribs, as retaliation, but miss. Instead he’s able to grab my hand easily. My other arm is trapped under my chest, and he’s using his body as a weight to hold me in place. His legs are on the outside of mine, with his feet hooked around my ankles. He’s so fucking strong, I can’t do anything. I’m pinned to the bed, unable to pull my other hand free. He restrains the free hand first, then the other before wrapping my feet up together and once again tying me to the bed.
Loud angry sobs rip through me. My body convulses from anger and sorrow.
“I didn’t want to do this,” he yells. “You need to stop.”
I don’t answer him. Instead I cry harder.
“I hate you!” I scream over and over until he leaves the room. “I fucking hate your guts!” If he does care, if any of what he said earlier is true, then maybe my words are hurting him. Maybe. I hope they are because they’re the only weapon I have, and he deserves it. He should’ve been honest with me from the beginning. He should’ve told me everything the moment I woke up.
I cry and scream until my throat is raw and hoarse. Until my head is pounding harder than a jackhammer. I cry until darkness surrounds and comforts me. As I close my eyes and drift off, I hope I never wake again.
Chapter 11
I wiggle my fingers. They’re tingling to the point that it’s painful. I need to change the position I’m in. I haven’t moved since I fell asleep, and everything hurts. As I try to move my hands, I’m stopped. I forgot I’m restrained. No wonder why I feel so crappy.
I wish I had some way to tell how long I’ve been asleep. Or how long I’ve been trapped in this room.
“I’ll free one hand and the opposite foot if you promise to behave.”
I turn toward Dimitri’s voice. He’s lying on the air mattress, staring up at me.
I wish someone else were here. Anyone but him. I know better than to trust the other animals. But Dante…it hurts too much to even think about him as Dante, as the boy that took up so much time and space in my heart and mind over the years. Now I know why my parents and Sammy wouldn’t let me talk about him.
I understand why every time I mentioned the friend I missed so much, my brother would tell me “Dante doesn’t exist.” He doesn’t. He was a lie. Everything between us then and now, it was all a fucking lie. One lie piled onto another. I was just too gullible to believe what was right in front of me, what even he himself tried to tell me.
“You’re not talking to me?” he says while releasing my right hand from the restraint.
He sounds hurt, but how do I know that’s real? When so much between us was make believe, how can I trust that anything is true?
I don’t answer him. I just stare, wishing I could burn a hole through him with my eyes.
“If I can’t trust you, I can’t untie you. I can’t risk you doing something stupid that will get us all killed.” He sits on the side of the bed and leans forward while stroking my hair. I can swat him away, but all that will do is get me tied up again.
“Sammy’s off the ventilator.” I feel myself lighten up in spite of my anger with him. “He’s awake and doing well. He’s still weak, but he’s able to be moved now.”
Dimitri reaches over for a bottle of water on the table next to the bed and unscrews the cap. “Drink,” he says, lifting my head with one hand while bringing the bottle to my lips with the other.
I shake my head in protest.
“It’s not a request, Kiera. You need to be healthy and strong when we leave tonight.”
“Tonight?” I ask, my interest peaked.
His lips curl up, not into a smile, but it softens the harsh look on his face. “I told you we had to wait for Sammy to get strong enough. Once he’s taken out of intensive care, we can move him. And once he disappears, we have to disappear as well. We have to go together, at the same time. There can’t be any delay. Now drink.”
I do as I’m told. I want to get the hell out of here. I wonder though, when we’re deemed safe, what are Dimitri’s plans. Is he going to continue to hold me as his prisoner, using my brother as leverage over me, or will he let me go?
I don’t ask, because I’m not ready to hear the answer. Even if he does try to control me, once Sammy is strong enough, we can double-team him if necessary.
When Dimitri’s done forcing the water on me, he sits at the edge of the bed, holding his head in his hands.
“I’m sorry you’ve been hurt by my family and all their bullshit.”
“This isn’t hurt. This is what betrayal looks like.”
“At least you’re talking to me.” The corner of his mouth ticks up and hope shines in his eyes.
The silent treatment worked. Good. I look away and fall right back into it.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. That’s the one thing I never want to do.” He takes my free hand and massages my wrist and then my palm and fingers. “But once we leave, we have a clean slate. We get to start over, and I’ll be able to keep you safe because we’ll be far away from here and no one will find us. And then, I’ll never lie to you or hurt you again.”
I don’t answer him. I can’t even look at him. I turn my head.
“I promise, Kiera. I’ll make it all up to you. I’ll give you everything you deserve.” He waits and watches me as an awkward silence fills the air around us. I know he wants me to say something. I think he’ll settle for anything, as long as I speak to him, but I don’t give him the satisfaction. I’m not willing to give him one bit of reassurance.
“You rest up. You had a restless night. I have calls I need to make, some final touches that need to be arranged,” he says as he gets to his feet and kisses the top of my head.
I feel the ache in my chest as he leaves the room. I hope he’s only going to the other room and not leaving me alone. It’s not that I’m afraid to be alone, even though I am. As hurt and angry as I am, I don’t want him too far. Especially not now, with the promise of escape so close.
I hear him on the phone in his mother tongue and reach over to my still-restrained hand. I have no leverage over the knot and find it difficult to even reach it. Now that I’ve had some time to absorb what he said, I have more questions, but they can wait. Right now, I’m excited to think I’ll be reunited with my brother.
Frustrated, I stop trying to free myself. I decide to wait for him to get off the phone, then I’ll assure him I won’t do anything stupid. At least not until I’m out of here and back with Sammy. Maybe not at all. I don’t know.
It sounds like he’s had a pretty fucked-up life. I think of Dimitri as a child, always on the run. Did he even know? Or did he believe he was Dante and his father was a political ambassador like he told me?
If he did know the truth, that’s even worse. I can’t imagine always going by a false name, never having a real family celebration, or needing to have secret meetings with your father. It’s not the life any child should lead.
Sudden pounding on the door breaks through my thoughts. It’s hard and heavy. Angry. Fear strikes my heart as I catch a glimpse of concern on Dimitri’s face as he passes the room. Whoever is on the other side isn’t only unhappy, they aren’t expected.
“Open the fucking door before I shoot through it.”
“Yuri?” I hear Dimitri’s voice. “What’s—”
He’s cut off, and instead of hearing words, I hear grunts, and a scuffle, and other voices. I can’t tell how many of them are here. It’s more than Dimitri and Yuri though. My throat tightens and it’s hard to breathe. This is it. Dimitri didn’t make good on his promise. He didn’t get me out of here on time.
“Mot
herfucker,” I hear Yuri yell. “It was you. You’re the reason he was shot. You’re the reason he’s dead. It’s time you get what you deserve.” I make out the unmistakable sound of something being pounded. Tears prick my eyes. It’s Dimitri. I struggle once again to free my hand from its binding.
“Come on Yuri, you don’t want to do this.”
“Fuck you!”
Something clicks into place. It’s a gun, I know it. I feel it in my bones, in the terror coursing through my body. Shit, I need to get the hell out of these bindings. I thrash around on the bed frantically.
A loud crack sounds from the other room, like a firecracker just went off indoors.
“NO!” I scream. The sound comes out of my mouth before I realize what I’m doing.
His unmistakable cry of pain wrings my heart.
“Dimitri!”
My throat is raw from screaming. He doesn’t answer. I don’t know what’s running wilder inside me, fear or panic. I only know I need to gather every bit of strength I have to free myself.
Yuri comes stalking through the door with a smug smile, gun in hand.
“Now I get to have some fun.”
“Get away from me!” I shout as he encroaches the bed and licks his lips.
“I see you’re ready for me.” He opens his pants and lets them drop around his ankles. “Decisions, decisions. What do you think I should do? Have you blow me first then fuck you? Or fuck you first then have you blow me while my friends in the other room fuck you?”
Anger burns in my eyes. They’re tearing up, and I hate that I look weak, like I’m crying. I yank my bound arm to no avail. Damn Dimitri for being so good at tying knots.
“Are you scared?” Yuri taunts. “You should be. I’ll do my best to make sure it hurts,” he snickers.
He reeks of alcohol.
My Russian Nightmare Page 9
