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Pain slices through me as I imagine Zenya, stricken by shock over my sudden disappearance, accepting a hot drink from Eleanor. Her expression is sympathetic but her eyes are lit with vile, vindictive delight.
I wrench again at the ropes, and Eleanor laughs like she’s never enjoyed herself so much in her life. She wants me to lose my shit and scream uselessly with this gag in my mouth. I can’t get out of these restraints.
I don’t have a weapon.
I can barely think with all the rage swimming in my skull.
Eleanor steps back and turns to Lenkov. “Hurt him. I want to see him bleed.”
Lenkov steps forward with a glower at her ordering him around again, but he can’t resist some violence. He grabs a handful of my shirt and raises his fist. I glare up at him and picture the blood pouring from his throat and the life draining from his eyes.
He did this. Eleanor might be unhinged from grief, but Lenkov has been the one pulling her puppet strings and feeding her misery for his own ends.
Lenkov draws back his fist.
A voice speaks from the darkness on the other side of the basement. “Touch one hair on his head and I’ll rip your balls off and make you eat them.”
Zenya walks out of the shadows, a gun in her hand pointed straight at Lenkov.
Her short cream dress clings to her small bump, and the sight of her, armed and pregnant, sends pride, love, and fear bolting through me. She shouldn’t be here. She’s in danger because of me.
She came for me.
My heart convulses in my chest and my throat burns. I was going to fight with everything I had, but for a moment there, I felt so fucking alone.
Zenya has her attention on Lenkov but there’s still Eleanor with that knife. She recovers from her shock and starts edging toward Zenya, hungry to hurt her. Too impatient to wait.
Zenya notices and gives her a withering look. “Bitch, please. Back the fuck down.”
As if on cue, Mikhail and several more of our men step out of the shadows behind Zenya, and I take a shaky breath through my nose. She brought backup, thank fuck, but I’m still tied to a chair while Zenya is in the same room as these assholes.
Lenkov stands back with his hands raised, his expression resigned. “I’m out, Eleanor. This whole thing is a headache and your pussy’s not worth it. I was having fun, but playtime’s over. Shut the door on your way out.”
He turns toward the door to leave the Belyaevs to what he’s decided is our family squabble.
Zenya levels the gun at him. “Take one more step and you’re dead. I haven’t finished with you.”
“I didn’t do anything to you, you stupid bitch. I was just having fun,” Lenkov seethes.
“Setting four men on me to kill my people and rape me? Yes, so much fun. Mikhail, could you please disarm Eleanor and untie my fiancé?”
Yes.
Fucking untie me.
Rage is boiling through me and there’s something I need to do.
“Da,Pakhanovna,” Mikhail replies. A few of the men have picked up on my honorific for Zenya and started using it. He twists the knife from Eleanor’s grip and uses it to cut away my gag and untie me.
I spit the rag out of my mouth, wrench the knife out of Mikhail’s grip, and stride toward Lenkov. Rage builds inside me with every step. He called Zenya a slut and an uncle-fucker. He tried to have her attacked in the most brutal way possible. He dared to plot behind the Belyaevs’ back and undermine our authority in this city for his own gain.
There’s only one way this can end for him, and it’s going to be my way.
Lenkov’s eyes go wide, but he hasn’t got time to do anything or say anything to defend himself. With a yell of rage, I plunge the knife straight into his throat. He grabs hold of me, and we hit the ground together. I go on stabbing him over and over in the neck and chest, blood spraying all over me until I know he won’t survive.
I sit back on my heels and fling the bloody knife into the corner, my chest heaving. Eleanor is a viper, but she wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without Lenkov. With my teeth bared in a snarl, I watch him bleed out and the light leave his eyes.
There’s a short silence in which the only sound is my ragged breathing.
