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“At least you’re not bleeding profusely this time,” I said as I held onto Ivan just a little tighter as we were speeding through the streets weaving our way back to the building.
He chuckled, patting my leg. He slowed to make a turn onto a new street and we were suddenly surrounded. There was an SUV in front of us, blocking the turn, and two more quickly blocked us from behind and the side. Ivan made a move to drive down the sidewalk to get away, but the vehicle in front of us moved at the same time, blocking our path. It gave them just enough time for two guys to jump out of the SUV behind us and catch up to us. One of them grabbed me from behind, ripping me off the bike.
“Ivan!” I screamed as they grabbed me. He stopped immediately and jumped off to try and get to me. I had screamed on purpose, to make the guy that grabbed me think I was helpless. I felt his grip on me relax slightly as he assumed he could easily manage me. I was still wearing my helmet, so I leaned forward as far as I could, then crashed my head into his as hard as I possibly could. He stumbled backward, his grip on me completely loose now. I got free, turned to face him, and promptly shot him in the face.
There were more guys on us. I turned to see Ivan fighting three guys. I pulled my helmet off to see better, but I couldn’t get a clear shot of any of them without risking shooting Ivan. I did consider trying it, since I knew he wouldn’t feel anything, but I decided against it. I ran toward him to help. Two more guys rushed me when I got closer to Ivan. They both slammed me into a parked car. One of them put a gun to my head, which made me freeze. The other guy grabbed my gun. The guy that had the gun to my head whistled loudly, which caused Ivan to look toward me. He stopped as soon as he saw they had a gun to my head. He’d still managed to kill two of the guys that were on him though.
“Hands where I can see them or she dies,” the guy with the gun said to Ivan. He put his hands up immediately. They searched him, taking his weapons from him. “Get in,” he said, motioning to one of the SUVs. They picked me up off the car and searched me as well. They found the tracker in my pocket and took it. They threw me in the SUV with Ivan; they zip-tied both of our hands in front. The guy that held a gun on me looked at me and said, “You try anything and he dies.” He then looked at Ivan. “You try anything and she dies.” They all got back in their vehicles and started driving. Once we were moving, Ivan reached over and pulled me closer to him. He looked over at me, saying quietly in Russian, “We’re going to get out of this. Don’t worry, princess.”
I felt strangely calm when I looked at him. I could see the look of surprise on his face and raised an eyebrow at him. I was confused as to why he would be surprised.
“Your eyes are almost black, princess. Keep that. It’s going to prove useful,” he said, winking at me.
Game on, motherfuckers.
I held onto Ivan as best I could, with our hands zip-tied, as the vehicle we were in sped through the city. While Ivan had been driving south, toward the penthouse, we were now driving north. I wasn’t sure whose part of town we were headed to, but I was sure it wasn’t going to be good. The vehicle made a stop several blocks from where they had grabbed us. One guy got out and left our bike helmets on the ground. I saw him toss the tracker Viktor had given me before we left the building in between the helmets. We continued our way north.
Despite our situation, I was still able to remain calm. I wasn’t sure if it was Ivan’s doing. He looked almost happy about getting grabbed. I knew he would be able to withstand whatever they put him through. I also knew that Adrik would not stop until he found me and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would find me. I didn’t know how. I just knew he was coming for me, along with the other four guys. Whoever had made the dumb decision to grab me was going to regret that life choice.
We eventually pulled into a parking garage of an older building. It was nondescript. It looked like every other building in the city. The garage was mostly empty, which likely meant the building was mostly abandoned. This doesn’t bode well for us. It would take Adrik a year to search every abandoned building in the city to find us.
They pulled us from the vehicle, ushering us to the elevator. Well, at least that still works. We went up to the fifth floor. It looked like it was an office building in a previous life. They took us across the floor to a room on the opposite side of the elevator. I saw Ivan taking mental notes of our surroundings as we walked. He was silently calm beside me. He made sure to stay close enough to me that I could feel his presence as we were led through the maze of desks that had been left behind.
They opened the door to the room and I instantly recognized it. Shit. It was the same room, exactly, that I was in when I had the nightmare my first night at the house. It felt like a lifetime ago. I was afraid I knew what was going to happen. Ivan glanced at me, noticing a change in my expression, but he said nothing. I knew he would wait until we were alone to ask me anything.
The only difference between the room before us and the one in my dream was there were now two chairs, instead of just one. They put each of us in a chair and cut the zip ties off our hands, only to zip-tie us to the chair instead. Ivan watched everything like a hawk. I knew he was looking for weaknesses. If anyone could find a way out of this, it was him.
The men that had grabbed us walked out of the room, leaving us alone. Ivan scooted his chair closer to mine. “What is it about this room, princess? I saw the look on your face when we walked in,” he said quietly, in Russian.
“I’ve been here before,” I said. He raised an eyebrow, shocked. “No, not like that. I had a nightmare the first night I was at the house, after Anthony choked me at the restaurant. It started at my uncle’s house, then faded to this room. I was tied to a chair and everything. Anthony came in. Of course, I said something smart to him and he punched me. That’s when he told me he was going to use me as bait. I screamed and woke up, so I don’t know anything past that.”
“Well, at least we know who grabbed us,” he said. “I should be able to grab a knife when they come back, if I can get them close enough to me. Princess, look at me.” I turned my head to look at him. “They’re going to use me to scare you. To intimidate you into doing whatever they want you to do. They’ll likely torture me to try and break you. I’ve been in this situation before. I’m going to have to pretend that I can feel what they’re doing. They can’t know that I don’t feel pain, so I have to put on a show. It’s just a show. Got it?” he said, winking at me.
“This is why you’re my protector, Super Squish,” I said.
“Just like you screamed when they grabbed you, we need them to continue thinking they have an advantage over us. They’ll get sloppy at some point. We just have to outlast them. I can handle whatever they’re going to do to me. I need you to do the same, princess,” he said.
I felt my anger getting stronger. I looked over at him again, only to see surprise in his eyes once again. I laughed. “How dark are they now?” I asked.
“You look scary, princess. Keep it up.”
They left us alone for what seemed like forever. Ivan and I talked quietly to pass the time. Ivan picked ridiculous subjects to help me stay calm. We still inevitably ended up talking about how long it would take the others to find us.
“I realize we have no whiteboard here and we really don’t even have a way to tell how much time is passing, since they took your watch. Dick move, by the way, but how long do you think it’s going to take them to find us?” I asked. We kept our conversations to Russian only, even though it didn’t really matter at this point.
Ivan chuckled. “I say no longer than a day and a half.”
I contemplated his answer. I would’ve liked a shorter prediction, but I decided to take the over instead of under. “I say three days.”
Ivan clicked his tongue at me. “Princess, you’re not being pessimistic on me now, are you?”
“I like to call it being realistic. It’s a big city and they have no way to find us.”
“You underestimate your bond with your goddamn prince. He’ll find you.”
As I was about to answer, the door to the room opened. I kept my mouth shut, now feeling nervous to see who was going to walk through the door. I fully expected Anthony to walk through the door, just like he had in my dream. Two of the guys that had grabbed us walked in and closed the door behind them. Given that we’d killed three of their buddies, they didn’t seem to be terribly happy with us. They didn’t say a word, they simply leaned against a table across the room and watched us.
Ivan said, in English, “Are you boys going to stare all night or are you going to tell us what you want with us?”
