Page 76 of Bought By Sin

“And how,” Adrik said with a serious frown. “From what we’ve seen of the images and recordings that Mila got, with how they operate at that compound…”

“Depravity at its finest,” Alexei quipped wryly.

Based on all the grisly scenes of torture there, we would be facing some deranged sociopaths in stopping Gregori’s network. He was scraping the bottom of the barrel and getting the worst of society to be his pawns in this game against us.

“But at least we have a tentative location to pursue for Yusef’s location,” Alexei reminded us.

That was the sliver lining in all of it. I’d never say that Mila’s injuries and capture were worth anything good, but they hadn’t been for nothing. It was ludicrous that she could think she’d failed simply because she’d been caught snooping and taken into a torture room.

“We can follow the maps and itinerary that were on that flash drive she swiped.” Adrik nodded, like he was in favor of where this conversation was headed. “We should be able to send out more spies and track where he’s moving through the region.”

“Taking out Yusef Antonov would be a hell of a strike against Gregori,” Alexei said.

“It’d be better if we were scheming an attack to take him out,” I muttered darkly.

Adrik shrugged. “Who says we aren’t? It’s just a matter of time.”

As far as I was concerned, it was too much time to wait. I wished we could just find Gregori and kill him right now. All his lieutenants and leaders that operated beneath his shadowy rule could try to take his place and face the same fate.

“Once we get a location on Gregori, he will wish he was dead,” Adrik promised. “And he’ll stay dead.” The narrowed slits of his eyes proved how vehemently he believed in that.

I did too.

And even though I was still aggravated about how Mila had gotten twisted up in a branch of the violence and ugliness that Gregori represented, I knew that I could still count on her to fit with me in this crusade to end them all.

28

MILA

For several days, my only “instructions” were to rest and relax. Lev stayed with me. If we weren’t in his room, we were in his house.

Only after I could prove that I wasn’t out of breath at all, near the end of the week after I had been captured at that compound, did he let me go for a “light” jog at the training facility.

“I’m not used to being idle,” I admitted to him when he questioned whether it was smart or unwise to exercise again.

I wasn’t used to being idle ever.

With the doctor’s all-clear, Lev didn’t have any room to stand on for insisting that I be bedridden or treated like an invalid. After that first day of being fully back on my feet, he seemed to relax and go easy on hawking over me and making sure that I wasn’t overexerting myself in any way.

Although I had been on something that could seem like light duty, he didn’t hide anything from me. He told me about what the two captives told them. He shared with me that the material from the drive I’d grabbed would allow more spies to track Yusef Antonov’s movements.

It felt like progress, but it was dimmed—or reduced—by how different my life was now.

Lev never had me go back to the safehouse.

Like he said, he’d had my things moved into his space. “My” clothes were placed and sorted next to his in the enormous walk-in closet. “My” shoes lay in a line near his.

And… that was it.

I didn’t have anything to really claim as my personal possessions.

All that I “owned” here were the garments he’d provided for me.

Seeing them in his personal space drove in the fact that he was my lifeline. He sheltered me, fed me, clothed me. And he didn’t hesitate to show me how to listen to his touch and kisses and let go enough to feel the bliss of an orgasm.

So when I showered after a mild workout and padded into the carpeted stretch of space in his huge walk-in closet, I had to honestly admit to myself that I enjoyed this experience. It was such a far cry from the hardships I tolerated in poverty as a Cartel slave, passed around as some unfuckable tool.

I looked forward to being here when I could dismiss the worry that it wouldn’t last.