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“Am I allowed to pack some things?” I asked, hating being reduced to practically begging for simple permissions.
The gleam that appeared in his eyes was enough to send a dark shiver down my spine. “No,” he answered. “You’ll not be needing anything apart from what you are already wearing.”
I wanted to ask him about a change of clothing, basic hygiene, and toiletries, but I knew that his answers would damage my sister. If I didn’t need my clothes or anything else, then that meant that Avgust was going to lock me up in a cell somewhere, or else he was going to turn me into a whore for the bratva, and I wasn’t going to have a choice if I wanted him to leave my sister alone. While Masha believed that she’d be keeping me safe by not talking, I was actually going to be keeping her safe by paying whatever price that Avgust felt I owed.
So, instead of putting up a fight, I decided to save it for later, sparing my sister any more heartache. She was already going to struggle with having to live with a perfect stranger and going crazy with wondering how I was being treated, so I didn’t want to add to that. If Masha ended up losing it, then my sacrifice would all be for nothing, and I didn’t want that. I wanted it to mean something, and I wanted my sister to be happy if possible.
Giving Maksim a tight nod, I turned back to my sister, then gave her one final hug. “I love you,” I told her. “I love you so much, and I want you to know that everything will be fine.” I pulled back to look down at her. “I’ll be fine.”
Masha nodded at me with tears in her eyes, but she didn’t say anything as we followed Maksim back into the living room. All three men were still where they’d been when Masha and I had been allowed to say our goodbyes, and I had to tamp down the panic that was threatening to take over. My life was about to take a very dark turn, and I could only hope that I lost my mind sooner rather than later.
“Maksim, call Gosha and inform him of his new duties,” Avgust instructed. “Until then, Evgen can sit with Masha since he’s part of this fuck-up.”
“Of course,” Maksim answered evenly.
Then looking back at me, he said, “You will be taking your purse only. Understood?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
Turning his attention towards my sister, he said, “Masha, should you tell anyone what you saw here tonight, think to go to the police, attempt to help your sister, or escape your guard, I will kill you.” Masha let out a quiet sob, her eyes tearing up again. “However, I will kill you after I tie you to a chair and force you to watch your sister pay for all your sins. Am I clear?”
“Yes,” she choked out.
Still, that wasn’t enough for Avgust. Stepping to her, he grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look up at him. “If you step even one inch out of line, I will rip your sister apart, piece by piece, then make you eat those pieces before finally killing you as well.” Masha’s tears started falling again. “Trust me when I tell you that nothing would bring me greater joy than to tear her apart with my bare hands. You believe me, yes?”
Masha started nodding frantically. “Yes.”
Avgust let go of her chin, then with one last look my way, turned to walk out of the condo, Maksim right behind him, and I had no idea if I was supposed to follow or not. However, before I could say anything, Alexei was talking, and it was enough to make me want to vomit.
“Ivan will stay here until Evgen arrives,” Alexei informed us. “Samara, I will be escorting you to your new home.”
In the few minutes that Masha and I had been saying our goodbyes in the bedroom, Avgust had laid out his plans for his men, and wherever Alexei was taking me, I doubted that my purse was going to help me. The only things of value that I had were my wallet and phone, the rest of it just junk now that I no longer had a job.
I gave my sister one last hug before I followed Alexei out of the condo, my sister’s cries still ringing loudly in my ears. Even though I wasn’t in a place to make demands, I needed Avgust’s word that his guard wasn’t going to hurt Masha. However, I knew enough to know that I needed to request that in private and not in front of an audience. The one thing that Avgust Kotov would never show was any sign of weakness, and granting me any favors could give the false impression that he cared for me a little, though he clearly didn’t.
Lost in my own thoughts of misery, I wasn’t sure how long Alexei had been driving, but when we finally pulled into a deserted stone facility, terror finally crawled up my spine.
Chapter 9
Avgust~
Though we had lots of empty warehouses, buildings, and cabins where we conducted our ‘interviews’, only a couple had holding cells for the long term. So, since the plan was to keep Samara until she found a way to kill herself, I’d instructed Alexei to take her to the empty facility on Webber Street. It used to be an old animal testing facility that the government had shut down when the research company had gone bankrupt. As soon as that had happened, we had purchased it for our own use. So, the factory had come with its own cages and cells, and it was my most favorite place in the world. The leftover research equipment had also come in handy when questioning our enemies.
At any rate, the facility was going to be Samara Andreev’s home for the foreseeable future, and if she was lucky, her mind would snap soon, allowing her to live out the rest of her days insane, yet happy.
Walking into the building, the scent of desperation hit me hard, but I was used to it. Currently, we had two people housed here, though they weren’t living in the cages. They were strung up in one of the operating rooms, both men having been caught trying to steal from us. Now, while there wasn’t much of them left, there was still enough to play with for a few more days, something that could keep Damir busy enough. I also planned on housing Samara next to the operating rooms, so that she could see and hear exactly what she’d created when she’d left me fifteen years ago.
Though it was hard to imagine children of the bratva going to public schools, we did. Of course, we were learning loyalty and traditions at the same time that we were learning math and history, but we’d still been required to attend school, which we’d had. While my parents could have easily afforded to send us to private school, public schools were where you learned to assess different kinds of people, cultures, and characters. The world was a melting pot of all kinds of different troubled minds, so the only way to learn how to navigate through all that mess was to put yourself right in the middle of it. Public schools prepared you for the world in a way that private schools didn’t, and my parents had understood that.
Public schooling had also been what had brought Samara to me. Her parents had moved to our side of town because her mother had gotten a job as an art teacher at our school. Her father had been a security guard, and though he’d mostly worked at a bank, I’d seen him at school whenever he’d been working some overtime. Samara had been a freshman at our high school while Masha had still been in grade school, and I’d be lying if I’d said that I hadn’t fallen in love with her at first sight.
Samara had walked into my second period class with her chin held high, her books hugging her chest, and she had smiled at the teacher in a way that had blown me away. She’d also kept that smile on her face as she’d found her seat, and when she’d finally put her books on her desk, that’s when I’d seen the rest of her, and though I’d already been seventeen at the time with a few kills already under my belt, I’d been prepared to slaughter the entire male population at school to ensure that she’d be mine.
Her five-foot-five frame had been nothing but curves for days, and though most people would have called her chubby, all I’d seen was perfection. She’d had a mouth-watering chest, dick-hardening hips, and a face that’d been created by God himself. Her smile had also been enough to nearly drive me to my knees every time that she’d flash it. Samara had looked like the most exquisite goddess with her platinum blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and doll’s face. She’d been the most beautiful thing that I’d ever seen, and at the age of thirty-three, she still was.
Now, of course, with our age differences, it’d been a problem at the time. So, for two years, I’d been her friend and nothing more. However, when she had turned sixteen, I’d been eighteen, though close to turning nineteen, and that’d ended up being another problem. Nonetheless, I’d been prepared to wait for Samara for however long that it’d take, and for four fucking years, we’d straddled the line between friends and something more. Luckily for me, she had cared for me enough not to date other boys, which would have resulted in their deaths, though she hadn’t known that at the time.
When Samara had finally turned eighteen, I’d still been twenty, and we had ended up spending her birthday together. I’d already spoken with her father, and though he’d known that I was a Kotov, there’d been no denying how much I’d loved his daughter, so he had given me permission to wait for her, court her, then marry her. That had led me to spending the entire night with her on her birthday, and Samara Andreev had been worth the wait. She’d bled all over me, then had begged for more, and love did something to a man that it didn’t do to women. Women were capable of having many great loves in their lives, men weren’t. At least, I wasn’t capable of such a thing. I was created to love only once, and Samara Andreev had been that for me.
