Page 129 of Fractured Ties

Kolya pulled his favorite leather gloves out of his pocket and slid them onto his hands with firm tugs. Time to get to work. “Can’t think of a better place to die, no?”

Or rather, he couldn’t think of anyone other than Maya that he would die for at the end of the day. Besides, he’d been ready to die the moment Vadim put that fucking thieves cross on his chest—it seemed appropriate that he was probably going to die for the very woman he betrayed that cross for.

Yeah, why the fuck not?

17.

MILDEW HAD a distinct smell. Musty and wet. Maya could handle the smell of mildew without it turning her stomach if it was for a passing moment—two days, though? Her empty stomach was rolling. Add that onto the cold, damp pavement that had been her bed and her body was screaming for some kind of relief.

She would get none.

Her hands had been bound at her back, and her legs tied at the ankles. Not to mention, a gag put in her mouth because Vasily had gotten tired of hearing you make noise with that hole in your face. That was part of the reason she was in this stupid warehouse to begin with. Because she wouldn’t shut up and she pissed him off.

That wasn’t the only reason.

Far from it.

Maya’s gaze slid to the corner of the room and landed on it. A bomb the size of a small chest. A man she didn’t recognize had wheeled it into the room on a fucking cart that morning. Vasily followed behind with a grin that would rival the devil’s when Maya started shouting behind her gag.

The only thing he’d said?

“It starts counting down when the door opens. Let’s see how Vadim does when I take out a good portion of his men at once.”

He hadn’t lingered after that to listen to Maya hurl insults at him behind his gag. It wasn’t even Vadim that she gave a shit about. It was Kolya. Vasily’s words implied someone was coming for her and he knew it. He acted accordingly with the bomb because he expected people to show up here.

One of them would be Kolya.

Of course, it would.

Maya felt useless. She couldn’t warn anyone like this, but certainly not Kolya. She knew exactly why Vadim had put two minutes on the timer—it took far more than two minutes to get to where she was in this huge warehouse.

It was a maze.

There was no way they were getting out.

Maya rolled from her back to her knees, ignoring the way her wrists protested from having been pinned between her back and the cement for so long. She wasn’t sure how long she’d stared up at the cracking, peeling paint on the ceiling but she needed to do something—anything—different.

On her knees, she was practically eye-level with the bomb across the room. The small screen resting on top of the main components blinked with red numbers. 2:00. It wasn’t even counting down yet and already, it was taunting her.

And there was absolutely nothing she could do.

Nothing but pray.

• • •

Maya was in and out of a semi-state of consciousness when the noise started somewhere outside of the room that had become her cell. Despite not wanting to sleep, her body gave in after days of being awake nonstop. Not that it was restful, far from it. The slightest noise in the room or outside of it would have her jerking wide awake all over again.

She was more tired than ever.

But these new sounds …

Shouting.

Banging.

Russian.

“Maya! Govorit’, dushka!”