Hunted By The Bratva Beast: A Bratva Stalker/Captive Romance

by Jagger Cole

  17

  Nina

  When his eyes flutter open, I breathe a sigh of relief. Across from where I’m tied to a chair—bound by the wrists and ankles—Kostya slowly shifts his head, rolling from one shoulder to the other. But then he sinks back into a sleep as my heart thuds in my chest.

  The man standing between us chuckles. He turns to me, leering at me lecherously. I was dressed in a t-shirt in bed, thank God. But sitting here tied to the chair, the hem is edging up much higher than I’d like.

  The man’s eyes keep dropping to my bare legs. I squirm, trying to clench them tighter. He just chuckles again.

  “Close them all you want. If I want a taste…” he shrugs, grinning. “Then I will have a taste. Believe me.”

  I glare at him, gritting my teeth. “Touch me and you’re dead.”

  He roars with laughter. “Sil’nyye slova, malen’kaya devochka.” Strong words, little girl.

  I glance over at Kostya, then I narrow my eyes at the other man. “Who the hell are you?”

  “I am just like you, Nina. Just like Kostya here. Another broken soul from a broken system.”

  “I’m not broken,” I spit. “And neither is he.”

  He laughs. “Listen to yourself. You think just because Viktor Komarov made you his fucking secretary, you are any less fucked up?” He grins. “Nina, we come from the same world. You and I are the same.”

  “We are nothing the same,” I spit.

  He shrugs. “So you’re healed, da? Your childhood in hell is all mended now? That’s why you fuck broken, delusional motherfucker like this man?”

  He turns and shakes Kostya violently. “Hey! Wake up, Kostya! Wake up!” He slaps him, and I surge at the binds holding me back.

  “Leave him the fuck alone!”

  The man chuckles. He glances back at me. “Ahhh, so it’s more than just fucking him, da? You have feelings for the man who tried to kill your family? Who tried to kidnap you as a sort of vengeance?” He glares at me. “Do you ever ask yourself what his plans were for you? The night he was going to take you before you so nicely shot him in the chest?”

  I swallow, paling.

  “How do you—”

  “Do you wonder where he’d have taken you? What he’d have… done to you?” He leers cruelly, his lips curling into a lecherous smile. “Or does wondering how he’d have made you his little whore get you so wet that you fuck him anyways?”

  I shake my head slowly in disgust at him. “Who are you?”

  “Dimitri.”

  Behind the man, Kostya slowly raises his head. His eyes blink open. They quickly dart to me with worry filling them. But when I smile weakly at him, he seems to relax slightly. His gaze drags to the man standing between us with the gun in his hands.

  “You’re dead,” he growls. “I watched you die, Dimitri.”

  My jaw falls open. I stare at the man with the gun in disbelief. This is Dimitri? This is the other boy Fyodor trained and molded and abused. This is the one who “died” in the robbery that went sideways—the one that sent Kostya to prison.

  But clear, he isn’t dead. There are horrible scars on his arms, and another on his face that slopes it slightly. And he walks with a crooked gait. But he’s very much alive.

  “Surprise, little brother,” he hisses quietly.

  “How—”

  “Because I am strong, Kostya,” he growls. “I’m strong because our father made us strong—strong enough to survive anything.”

  Kostya’s eyes narrow. “He wasn’t our father, Dimitri.”

  “Yes, he was,” Dimitri snaps back. “He raised us, Kostya! He fed and housed us. He made us men!”

  “He manipulated us, Dimitri,” Kostya growls back. “He used us. We were cannon fodder—”

  “We were family!” he roars. “He was hard, yes. He pushed us, Kostya. But that is what family does! Just like family avenges each other!”

  He narrows his eyes at Kostya, shaking his head. “I had hopes for you, Kostya. When I heard you’d broken out and were coming here after those motherfuckers murdered our father, I was overjoyed. I followed you, to share in your triumph.”

  His face darkens as he shakes his head slowly.

  “But you failed, Kostya. You failed me. You failed Fyodor. You failed yourself. You were weak. You hesitated, just like he told you to never do!”

  He whirls and points his gun at me. “You had them! I was there, Kostya, watching you! You had the gun right on Viktor and that cunt Nikolai. You were going to kill them—”

  My eyes snap to Kostya. He’s looking right at me, his face pained.

  “I didn’t know who you were, Nina,” he says softly. “I didn’t know who I was. I had hate in my heart—”

  “Save us the contrite confession, Kostya,” Dimitri laughs. “And stop pretending you aren’t the killer I know you are. The Beast! Kostya, you are a legend back home! A monster! And yet, you see this little whore, and you go soft!”

  “Watch your mouth,” Kostya snarls.

  Dimitri laughs. “Ten years, Kostya. I get it. You saw some sweet pussy, and you lost your nerve.”

  Kostya’s jaw grinds. His eyes blaze with a fury that almost scares me.

  “What is the point of all of this, Dimitri? Why—”

  “Why have I been following you?” He grins and turns to me. He licks his lips salaciously. “And her?” He steps towards me. Kostya roars and strains at his binds, but Dimitri ignores him as he leans close. “I enjoyed watching you shower, little whore.”

  I spit in his face. “Fuck you.”

  Dimitri bristles. His teeth bare, and for a second, I brace for the hit. But it doesn’t come. He whirls on Kostya instead, snarling.

  “This is what you abandoned your family for?! This is what made you ignore and forget your duty!? The revenge our father was owed!?”

  “He was not our fucking—“

  “He damn well was!!” Dimitri bellows. He winces, and his face ticks. With a snarl, he jabs a hand into his jacket pocket and pulls out a bottle of pills. He pops the cap and knock a few out into his mouth.

  “He was, Kostya. He was the only father we knew. And you failed him.”

  “He sent me to prison, Dimitri,” Kostya hisses. “He let you die!”

  “Nyet, little brother,” he growls. “He saved me.”

  Kostya shakes his head slowly. “You were shot so many times…”

  “Twelve,” Dimitri snarls. “Twelve fucking times by those sons of whores. But Fyodor, our father, carried me to a man who kept me from death.” He narrows his eyes. “It took me two years to walk again, Kostya. Another year to take more than two steps without collapsing for air. Another year after that to eat more than soup.”

  He sneers.

  “Cry to me about prison, Kostya, please. Cry to me about eating solid food, and being able to piss standing up.”

  Kostya shakes his head. “Dimitri, if I’d known…”

  “Maybe it is best you didn’t, da?” He bares his teeth. “You knew about these bastards shooting Fyodor in the goddamn head. And your response to that was to fuck this little bitch.” He swings the gun back at me, making me flinch.

  “So, Kostya. Maybe it is best you didn’t know I was alive. Or else maybe you’d have tried to fuck me,” he chuckles, then wheezes for air. When he catches his breath, he turns to me. He grins a thin, hard smile at me.

  “You went soft, Kostya. You hesitated. You choose our enemies over family. That is why I’ve been shadowing you. To fix what you would not. To finish what you could not.”

  “That was you,” I hiss quietly. “The night of the party.”

  He smiles at me. “Da, little bitch. It was. And the car. And the hospital. And yet this… this…” he whirls and storms over to jab the gun against Kostya’s temple.

  “No!” I scream.

  Dimitri laughs. “This little coward—this little pussy—he kept defying me. He kept saving you.” He turns to Kostya and drops to his haunches in front of him.

/>   “You chose the wrong team, little brother. You picked her over your own family.” He shakes his head. “That hurts me, Kostya. That hurts me a lot. So now?” He smiles and stands. He glances back at me with that same lecherous grin.

  “Now, I’m going to hurt you.”

  He starts to move towards me. His hand drops to his belt, and my heart stops.

  “You stay the fuck away from me!”

  Kostya roars and strains at his binds. “Get away from her!!” The chair creaks, but it holds, as much as he thrashes and bellows like a caged animal.

  Dimitri smiles as he comes to a stop right in front of me, looking down on me.

  “I want you to watch, Kostya. I want you to watch me ruin her. She’s a Kashenko whore, and I will treat her as such.”

  He chuckles darkly, ignoring the roars from Kostya as he leans down. I recoil, shuddering as I feel his breath on my neck.

  “I bet you will enjoy this, little whore,” he hisses into my ear. He leans even closer, and my stomach turns.

  “Moan for him, yes? Moan like a good little whore when I fuck your—”

  I twist my head, I clamp my mouth down on his ear, and I bite hard. Dimitri shrieks, pulling away from me. But I sink my teeth in, and I twist my head. He roars, blinding punching me. But I don’t let go. I bite harder, until suddenly, he falls away. But not all of him.

  I almost throw up as I spit the huge chunk of Dimitri’s ear onto the floor. I can taste blood on my mouth. But I smile thinly as I watch him whirl, clutching at the side of his bleeding head.

  “You fucking bitch!” He snarls. “You stupid fucking whore!”

  He whirls again. I brace myself, but the first punch shakes me to my very center. I groan as he punches me again—in the side of the head, in the stomach. I cry out, gasping in pain as he lays into me. But I can take this. I had years of practice taking this.

  Kostya is roaring like an animal as Dimitri pulls back, gasping for air. He looks almost as pained as me as he clutches his chest. The older Russian staggers back, blinding shoving his hand into his pocket and pulling out his pill bottle. He flips the cap off and groans as he knocks back another mouthful of them.

  My head swims. I can feel my vision swaying in and out. I can take a hit, but the punches I’ve just taken are still ringing in my ears. They’re still making my head fuzzy.

  “I watched you, Kostya,” Dimitri hisses. “I hoped you’d see the light. But you kept disappointing me. And that hurts, Kostya.” He turns to smile at him. “Now, I’m going to hurt you. Keep your eyes open, brother. And your ears. I want you to hear her scream—”

  “You know why I didn’t ‘avenge’ Fyodor, Dimitri?” Kostya snarls.

  “Because you are weak—”

  “Because he was a piece of shit.”

  Dimitri stiffens.

  “Because he was a coward, who had children do his dirty work, because he was afraid of getting his hands dirty.”

  “Shut your mouth, Kostya,” the older man hisses.

  “He was a loser. A failure. A drunk who spent his days bragging to two boys about his exploits.”

  “I’m warning you, Kostya!”

  “I didn’t avenge his death, Dimitri,” Kostya says thinly, smiling. “Because he deserved it.”

  Dimitri roars as he whirls on Kostya. He storms over and slams his fist into his face, over and over. I scream, but he keeps going until he seizes his own chest again. He groans, knocking back even more pills.

  Then he pulls his gun out again. He raises it up to Kostya, and my heart wrenches.

  “No!” I scream.

  “You left me to die once, Kostya,” he says thinly. “Allow me to return the favor.”

  “NO!”

  The gun recoils with a deafening bang. Kostya grunts, and I watch in horror as he slams back in the chair. Blood immediately begins to soak through his t-shirt. He looks down, his face white. Then he looks up at me.

  “No!”

  Dimitri chuckles. He puts the gun down on the table and turns. He starts to walk towards me, loosening his belt.

  “I’m going to take my time with you, little whore,” he snarls. “This is not going to be fun for—”

  “One good thing.”

  The words wheeze from behind him. Dimitri frowns and turns to Kostya, who’s sucking in air, bleeding from the chest. But he looks up with savagery in his eyes at Dimitri. His gaze turns to me and softens.

  “One good thing,” he whispers.

  Suddenly, he lunges up. He roars as the chair creaks and wrenches. And suddenly, it splinters into a million pieces as his huge arms smash free.

  Dimitri goes white and lunges for the gun. He snatches it up, but Kostya is faster. He rushes the older man like a furious, wounded bear. He roars, leaving a trail of blood as he smashes into Dimitri like a train. The gun explodes, and I watch in horror as Kostya topples into Dimitri. He slams him backwards, toppling the older man off his feet just as they hit the wall of windows.

  The entire wall shatters, and I scream in horror as both men—Dimitri and Kostya—go crashing out and into thin air.

  “NO!”

  I lurch from the chair, sobbing as I crash into the floor. I claw at the binds on my wrists, finally scraping one free. I yank at the rest of the rope around my ankles and other wrist. When I’m free, I sob a wrenching cry as I rush to the shattered window. I look down, and my heart stops.

  Kostya and Dimitri both lie in a heap on the concrete factor floor, thirty feet below. My head is still spinning and fuzzy from the beating. I turn, staggering and almost falling as I lurch across the room. I look down, and suddenly, I feel cold.

  It’s not the punches that have me lightheaded and spinning. It’s the bloom of blood seeping into the shirt from my side.

  I topple sideways onto the floor. I groan, tears falling from my eyes as I claw my way across the floor. I grab my phone from the bedside table. My vision is fading into darkness as I dial the number and bring the phone to my ear.

  “Nina! Where—”

  “Viktor,” I whisper. “Viktor, I—I—”

  The phone falls from my hand. The room spins as I lurch to the side, dropping into nothing.

  18

  Nina

  Slowly, my eyes open. Everything hurts; all of me. My head throbs, my body aches. There’s a stinging, stiff feeling in my side. I blink as my vision starts to blur back. But it stays blurry.

  “I—hello?” I croak through a cracked, dry throat.

  “Nina!”

  It’s Fiona. I feel her rush to me, sobbing as she throws her arms around me. I wince, and she pulls back.

  “Oh my God, I’m sorry, I—”

  “It’s okay… water…” I croak.

  “Here.”

  I feel a straw at my lips. I drink, wincing in pain. But the water cools the burning in my throat.

  “I—everything’s blurry.”

  She chokes a sobbing laugh. “You might need these.”

  She slips my glasses on. I blink, suddenly able to see again. Fiona is standing next to my bed. When I look at her, her hand fly to her mouth, and she starts to cry.

  “Fuck, Nina,” she sobs as she wraps her arms around me, gingerly this time. “I thought—we thought—fuck, hang on.” She pulls back and rushes to the door of the room. “VIKTOR! VIKTOR! She’s awake!!”

  I wince at the yelling, but it’s okay. I look around and realize I’m in my brother’s house, in my old room from when I lived here. I hear pounding footsteps. Then suddenly, he’s there. Viktor chokes, fighting back tears as he rushes across the room and grabs me into a hug.

  I groan in pain. But when he swears and goes to pull back, I keep him tight to me. He leans back into the embrace, holding me close as I suddenly start to sob into his chest.

  “Viktor…”

  “I’ve got you,” he whispers fiercely. “I’ve got you, Nina.”

  “What…”

  He pulls back, his face grim. “You were shot. Not badly, but it grazed you
pretty deep and broke a rib.”

  It all comes rushing back in a horrible blur. I remember the leering face of Dimitri. The smashed chair, the gun going off—

  My heart wrenches in two as I suddenly pale.

  “Kostya!!”

  Viktor and Fiona glance at each other. My panic rises.

  “Viktor, where’s Kostya!? Where is he?!”

  “Nina—”

  “Where is he?!!”

  “He’s here,” my brother growls quietly.

  “I need to—”

  “He’s in surgery, Nina,” Fiona says quietly. “He’s…”

  “He was in bad shape when we found you,” Viktor says, his mouth thin. “But I’ll be honest, Nina. The only reason we took him with us is because I want fucking answers.”

  I frown. “What?”

  “Nina, he kidnapped you.”

  “He saved me. Multiple times.”

  Viktor frowns. “I don’t think you’re seeing this through clear eyes. Nina, he took you—”

  “To save me, yes!” I snap. “Vikor, I need to see—”

  “You’ve heard of Stockholm Syndrome, right?”

  I roll my eyes. “That’s absurd—”

  “Is it?” Fiona says gently, coming to the side of the bed. She puts her hand on my arm “Nina, you’ve been through a lot. And it can be confusing when you’re so tied up and close with the person who’s taken you—”

  “Is it confusing for you, Fiona?” I snap furiously. “Is that why you’ve married my brother?”

  Her lips thin. “Nina, come on, that’s not—”

  “That is exactly what this is!” I glare at my brother. “I’m sorry, but how is this different? You took her,” I nod at Fiona. “In case you’ve forgotten that little meet-cute of yours.”

  “Nina, you’re under a lot of—”

  “I’m fine,” I snap. “And I don’t need to be lectured or treated like a child. Vik, you took Fiona. I understand you two are amazing and soul mates and all that happy shit. But it started with you taking her. Kostya didn’t even do that, he pulled me away from danger. He saved me, Viktor. From Dimitri, the other man you probably found at the warehouse.”