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“I’m going to get dressed and then head out. I love you both.” I press a kiss to both of my girls’ foreheads and head upstairs. I get changed into one of my typical suits and head back down the stairs, say my goodbyes to my lovely girls, and then go to the address Ruslan told me to meet him at. Emily did tell me she might invite Amelia and Karim to go shopping with them today, and I told her that was a great idea. It’ll mean another guard is with them as well since Danill watches over Amelia and Karim.
We’re in some old, abandoned butchery building, and Ruslan’s in the basement, as well as Nazyr and Eset. Artos is in the center of the room. His face is swollen, and he has scabs, scars, and cuts covering his body. In the last couple of weeks, I can see my brother has been very busy with him. Not that I blame him one bit. Artos deserves everything that’s happened to him and what’s coming.
“Artos, it would be best if you answer my brother’s question,” Eset speaks up as she walks around him in a circle with an electric cattle prod in her hand.
He glances at my sister for a second before spitting at her feet. “I won’t tell you anything, bitch!”
Eset wastes no time pressing the cattle prod into his side. He jolts with every volt of electricity going through him, and when my sister takes the prod away from his skin, the aftershocks are still going through him.
“I take it he’s been difficult to deal with these past couple of weeks?” I question my brothers.
Ruslan grits his teeth while Nazyr nods.
“Where is Kirill’s daughter?” Ruslan roars at Artos, and all Artos does is laugh.
“Where is she?” Eset asks, jamming the cattle prod between his legs. Fuck, even watching it hurts. He screams and tells her to stop, and finally, he gives her something.
“I don’t know where the fuck she is. For all I know, she could be dead by now.”
“You know what I think? I think you’re a lying, desperate bastard who’s trying to stay alive. I think you know exactly where she is, and you’re holding out on us,” Eset snaps, then jams the prod against his skin again.
I never once thought my sister would be so ruthless, but I think the times have changed us. I think our mother choosing Anzor over her children changed us all, and I believe Ruslan going missing affected us all greatly. In a momentous way, actually.
“How long will you keep this up? I thought you wanted to kill him,” I whisper to Ruslan, and my brother turns to look at me.
“For however long we must… but I want him dead. First, we have to find out what he knows… and he hasn’t given us as much as we wanted in the first place.”
“So, this patience he’s wearing thin on… it’s attached by a measly string?”
He scoffs without hesitation. “Exactly, and until we get what we seek… mainly Eset, he will continue to draw breath.”
“He’s still breathing, brother, which means you can continue what you’ve already been doing to him. He deserves far worse, really. After everything he’s done… he deserves no mercy.”
“And he won’t get an ounce of it from me. I said I was going to make this painful for him, and I plan on keeping that promise.” Ruslan’s eyes deepen with anger, and a part of me thinks my brother wants him to keep holding back this information because the longer he doesn’t tell Eset what she wants to know, the longer my brother can get back at the man who nearly cost him his life.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Emily
I don’t know what caused Lom to come home that night in such a foul mood, but the man had me singing his praises all through the night. He took out every bit of aggravation on my body, and I couldn’t complain if I wanted to. So far as I’ve been walking around today, I still feel him inside of me, and that’s something I’ve always enjoyed. A kind reminder of the pleasure he brings me every time we’re together sexually.
Lom’s at home with Sierra right now while I’m spending time at Amelia’s condo. Emily has picked out a paint color for her room, and she actually wanted to paint it herself. Lom suggested to me that he could help her with it—after some painters came out and put the leakproof tape around all of the trim and baseboards—so they could have a unique bonding experience. Ludvik is here with me, but he’s in another room in her condo.
“You seem like you’re distracted,” Amelia states, pulling me out of my own thoughts. To say I’m not would be a flat-out lie, so I’ll tell her whatever she needs to know.
“I am. There’s been so much that’s changed over the last couple of weeks. I guess, in a way, it’s weighing me down.”
“But they’re not bad changes, are they?”
I shake my head. “No, not at all. They’re good changes. I have my daughter back, and I have a man who’d give me the entire world if I asked him for it.”
Amelia smiles from ear to ear. “You have no idea how hot it is to have a man who would do it for you until you experience it yourself. These Umarova men, they’re a different type of man. I’m sure you see that now.”
I nod because Amelia’s right. I never understood how she was so attracted to Ruslan, especially given the circumstancesabout how they got together, but now I understand completely. “Lom’s the type of man I could see myself spending the rest of my life with, Amelia. I mean, the way he treats me and the way he treats Sierra. Did I tell you she thought he was her father, and he didn’t correct her? She’s been calling him Dad, and he’s… he’s going along with it.”
Amelia presses a hand to her chest. “That’s so fucking beautiful. It seems like he’s completely prepared to be the man who is her father, don’t you think?”
He’s doing everything a dad normally would for their daughter, and it really makes me wish I had met Lom years and years ago. If I could replace the idiotic sperm donor who got me pregnant in the first place with Lom, I’d be a much happier woman. “I know he is, and what he’s doing for her is making me so much happier to be with him. I love Lom, and I ended up telling him the other day.”
