Page 99 of Essence of Fear

“I know more about him than I want to know about him!”

“But he has people who are loyal to him … he didn’t waste the years he spent controlling the Bratva. We know personally how manipulative he is. We dealt with several men who were loyalists for him, but that didn’t mean some didn’t learn, Konstantin. They could have learned to sit down and shut up unless they wanted to die. Who’s to say they weren’t working with him? He knew what was going to happen.”

“Men like Vadim always know,” Pav murmured.

Konstantin let out a harsh noise. “I would have known. If he were planning something, I would have known about it.”

“Not if he found a way around us, and you.”

“Viktoria has always been his favorite. He’s not going to sacrifice her a second time when—”

Kolya’s gaze slid to his brother, silencing him instantly. “So was I, for a time.”

Konstantin’s stare dropped to his brother’s chest, and then quickly snapped back up to Kolya’s face. Pav didn’t need to know what Konstantin was remembering. Zhatka had been there that night in true form when Vadim literally had the flesh burned from his oldest son’s chest to remove tattoos he no longer felt Kolya was worthy to wear.

If he could do that to his heir … and they already knew what Vadim had been willing to do to Viktoria before, then what would stop him now?

Nothing.

“Can we find her now?” Pav asked quietly. “I think we’ve talked enough.”

All eyes turned on him again. He wished he wasn’t so quiet. He didn’t know any other way to be.

Not now.

17.

DARKNESS.

That’s what Viktoria woke up to first. Complete and utter darkness surrounding her. It was too close, and it felt too fucking tight. Her first thought was to roll over and seek Pav out in the bed next to her. That was the last thing she remembered immediately. That they’d been in bed together, her in his shirt and tucked in close to his side, and his fingers gliding over her body as she drifted off to sleep.

But she couldn’t turn.

Her hands wouldn’t move.

Why were they at her back?

Attempting to straighten out her legs did nothing for her, either. The harder she tried to kick, the more it pulled on her arms. That was when she realized her ankles were tied to her fucking wrists at her back.

Like a hog.

She’d been hogtied.

Holy fucking shit.

Don’t freak out. Just breathe. Relax, Viktoria.

Her inner thoughts really didn’t do much to calm the situation. Maybe because a part of her knew something was very wrong here, or it could have been because the memories were starting to flood into her hazy mind.

Loud noises—boots against the floor. People yelling, and mask-covered faces looming over the bed. The sound of Pav’s pain and his last threat before he’d stopped talking altogether, and everything else went dark around her, too.

Had they hit her?

Given her something to knock her out?

She didn’t know.

Despite remembering that someone—several people—had taken her, a part of Viktoria’s mind was not actually willing to believe it. That part of her still wanted to pretend like she was in the bed with Pav, and nothing was wrong.