Unwanted Sacrifices (Russkaya Mafiya Book 3) (17 page)

MY SAVIOR

After I cool down,
I dry off and stroll back out into the main area. Tate and Viktor are both waiting for me.

“I apologize, I got carried away.” I put my hands up and explain to Tate.

“We’re not here about that, Niko, relax,” he answers and I breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t need to deal with him pissed off right now along with all the other shit that’s happening.

“Oh, then what’s going on?”

“We’re here to see if you’ve found out any new information.”

I share with them both everything my sister informed me about Chek and the process, and then continue with everything I found out here. It’s not much, but it’s more than we were privy to this morning.

“One step closer, just keep being patient Nikoli and we’ll find her.” Viktor pats me on the back.

“I appreciate you keeping him here. I hope you’ll get what information you need soon, so I’m able to kill him. He deserves to swim with the fish.”

“I agree. Keep focused on getting the information out of him and in time we will work on him about the rest. Sabrina is the priority right now. Elaina keeps searching the property looking for clues, but she and Spartak have come up with nothing.”

“She is good friend to Bina.”

“She loves her a lot Nikoli.”

“As do I.”

“Then you will wed when we find her. No more pining and waiting for her. Tate has told me how many years you’ve wanted her.”

“I agree.”

“Then it’s done! Go fuck this asshole up for Christ’s sake,” Viktor orders and I gladly oblige.

SABRINA

More time passes and
as it does, I get my strength back. I can finally shuffle around and eat more than one piece of bread at a time without getting a horrific stomachache. My back is still disgusting and hurting, but Beau was right, the superglue is helping it close up. God it burns like no other when he puts it on though.

Each time he helps me, he chinks away at the stones around my heart, gaining my trust. As I heal, my thoughts and memories of Nikoli come flooding back. While my body gets better, my mind is the opposite. I begin feeling even more depressed than before. I thought he would have come for me by now. I thought we had a strong love, even in friendship. I no longer feel kidnapped, but almost abandoned by my love.

Chek is yet to return and I’m still silently praying inside that I was lucky enough that he got eaten by crocodiles. It would serve him right and with his heavy Southern accent, maybe it will actually come true.

Beau interrupts my thoughts as he saunters back in. He checks on me every hour. It keeps me sane knowing he’s coming back. Sometimes when he leaves I’ll start counting so I know when he’ll be back. The few times he’s been late, I’ve freaked out, so now he sets an alarm on his watch.

“I brought you something mouse.” His term of endearment warms me and brings a smile to my face.

“Oh? What?”

“A brush and hair tie for that bird’s nest you have going on.”

Bringing my hand up to the back of my head ends up shooting a pinch of pain all over, stretching the skin on my back but I ignore it and feel my hair. It’s twisted and tangled in massive knots. No wonder he wants it brushed, I bet I look like a crazy person.

“I don’t know if I can even brush it out,” I mumble.

“It’s okay. Just try your best, or, well I could help you.” He hands me the small black brush and elastic band. My hair is barely long enough to be tied up, but I bet he doesn’t realize that.

“All right.”

“Good, now I have to go on my rounds, but I’ll be back.”

I nod and he’s out the door again.

I do as he says, trying to work it through my hair, lightly pulling through the knots. It’s no use, no matter which way I brush or try to fiddle with it in my hands, I get nowhere. My back aches, my arms are tired from the lack of movement they’ve had since I’ve been gone, and my hair probably looks worse now than it did before.

Before I know it, I’m sobbing. Finally hydrated enough and the tears come; they don’t drip, they fucking pour out. Crying not only for my hair but for everything—all of it. What a big fucking mess and all I ever wanted was to be free and live my own damn life.

Through my tears I watch Beau come back to check on me. I’m too upset to speak, so I just cry. And to my surprise, he sits, his legs surrounding me and holds me tightly to his chest as I weep brokenly into his shirt.

“Shhh, it’s okay Sabrina, just take a few breaths and try to calm down,” he mumbles and I concentrate on breathing him in. He smells good—strong, manly.

“I’m so-sorry.”

“Don’t be. Now talk to me, I thought you were feeling better.”

“I can’t do it. I tried to brush it, but it wouldn’t work.”

“You’re this upset over your hair?”

“Yes…No. It’s the whole point, I can’t even brush my own hair out, and how do I expect to ever make it out of this place?”

“You want to leave?” He leans back, asking seriously and makes eye contact.

I stay silent but nod. Serious repercussions could come with me asking to leave. Chek made it very clear that I only go where he wants me to when he wants.

“You concentrate on getting better,” Beau rasps and hugs me softly before standing and leaving.

My heart races when he shuts the door.

Did I upset him? What if he tells Chek what I said? I’m so stupid. Dumb, dumb, girl, my mother used to say, and she was right. How will I ever dig myself out of this one?

I cry myself to sleep instead of trying to save my strength, so I miss Beau coming to check on me again.

six hours later…

I awake disoriented from hearing a noise and instantly I’m on alert. I feel like I’ve slept longer than usual. I’m used to waking up each time Beau checks on me, but I feel like a long time has passed.

“Shhh, it’s me.” At the sound of Beau’s voice, I breathe deeply. He places his hand on my forearm and I bring my sleepy eyes to his hazel gaze.

“Do you trust me yet?”

“If I say yes are you going to kill me?” I ask and he chuckles.

“No death threats or plans over here.”

“Okay, then yes, although I probably shouldn’t. My mother always told me I was ignorant growing up.”

“She’s wrong, there is absolutely nothing dumb about you,” he compliments and my cheeks heat at his kind words. “Hold this, right here.” He turns on a huge flashlight and positions my hand so it points at my hair.

He pulls out a small electric shaver and plugs it into the wall beside us.

“Why the shaver?” I whisper.

“They’re hair clippers,” he replies absently and brings them close to my hair.

He works at shaving the knotty clumps off. I watch as they fall to the floor and I can’t help but giggle. At this point, losing my hair is just another thing to chalk up to this fucked up mess I’m stuck in. Maybe it will make me ugly and Kolya will be finished with me.

“What happened to Kolya?”

“You know his name?”

“Yes, I know him. I think he’s the reason I was stolen from my friends and brought here.” There’s a chance me confiding in him could be the wrong move and it could kill me, but he’s the one who asked me if I could trust him.

“He had an accident,” he mutters and turns the clippers back on. My mind races with what that means exactly. Please let him be dead. But what if someone else even worse takes me? Hopefully this hair cut will repulse them.

It feels like I hold the flashlight for ages as he randomly stops to position my hand in a new direction to give him light. Once he’s finished, he sits back, takes the light away, and shines it all over to inspect.

“I like it. It’s different, but it looks ten times better.”

“Only ten? It must look bad then.”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “I didn’t realize you had so little hair. I was able to cut through the knots, so you still have some length.” He takes the brush and lightly combs through it all. It still hurts like hell, but nowhere near when I was trying to rip through the tangles. When he finishes, I reach up, feeling my hair in a choppy cut, coming to the bottom of my ears. It was to my shoulders before, so this isn’t the huge change I was expecting, thank God. If I’m going to be stuck in here, then it’ll be easier to deal with.

“Okay, now you need to change.” He pulls a duffle bag next to us.

“I’m allowed a new set of clothes?” I gasp excitedly, hoping for a pair of sweats to ward off the cold that seems to be getting worse with time. Any more surprises and I may actually hug him. Though, I’m sure I smell terrible.

“Yes. It’s nothing fancy, just some things I was able to get easily at the nearby store.”

“I’ll happily take anything!”

Beau pauses, looking at me sadly, before mumbling, “You didn’t deserve to go through this.” He shakes his head and digs out clothes.

He lays before me a black pair of children’s sweats, black socks, black ski mask, black gloves and a pair of sneakers a size and a half too big.

“Are we going on a robbery?”

“Something like that. Now get dressed.”

I pause briefly, and then peel my clothes off, too excited for the warm sweats to care that he can see me naked. He turns his face away, showing me that not only is he kind, but has manners as well. The cold air hits the rest of my skin, bringing on chills and my back protests, but I grit through it, eager for the new things.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. Put on the ski mask.” I do as he says and he pulls me to my feet once I tie the sneakers and get the cheap cotton gloves on. I have no freaking clue what he’s up to, but I’m game.

“Okay.” I stand, watching as he puts his own mask on and loads himself down with an abundance of weapons.

“If something happens to me, you take my gun and shoot anyone who approaches you, even if he has a badge on. Don’t stop until they’re dead. You get to a phone and call Tatkiv, tell him you are in the UK and to pick you up. The street in front of here is Bollington. He’ll know how to find you. You just have to stay alive until he does.”

“O-Okay.” I repeat again, floored that he’s giving me a chance to escape him if something happens. But who the hell is Tatkiv? And how do I reach him? I nod my head to Beau, but inside I know if I get away, the only person I’m calling is Nikoli.

Beau leaves the big duffle bag, shoving things into his side cargo pockets and grabs my hand, pulling me to the door.

“Be as quiet as humanly possible, even if you see someone.”

“Got it,” I whisper and we’re through the door.

We race through a long, cement hallway filled with doors on each side.

NIKOLI

Heading back into the
warehouse, I pat my overstuffed stomach. Viktor sent Lev to pick us up some lunch, and now it’s time to get back to work on Chek.

I have to admit, I’m impressed. I’ve been beating him off and on for twenty-six hours and he hasn’t cracked. It’s been a struggle, not punching him in the face as badly as I want to, but I know he needs to be able to speak. I’ve broken many bones though and that’s been entertaining. I can’t wait to tell Vishna that he’s dead and can never harm her again.

I’ve gotten him to admit he knows Sabrina. He’s given up information on another shipment of girls he broke at the same time as my sister. Chek has even been kind enough to let me know that yes, Kolya is a part of all the sex trading; he even went as far as telling me where we may be able to find him in the UK. I’d mark it as a success, but I’m still not any closer to finding Bina. I’m at the point I just want to kill him, but I’m starting to believe that he may really not know where she is and it’s heartbreaking.

“What next, Boss?” I turn to Tate and he huffs.

“How can you still have any energy?”

“I have to. I’m what she has against all these fuckers that want to hurt her. I’ve already eliminated Kristof, now I’m going through Chek, once we are able to secure Kolya, he’s next. I’m going to make sure that once I finally find her, she will have no one to hide from.”

“I get it, this anger you have inside, but it’s tearing away at you. You’re no longer the happy man I’m used to. Now you’re like an animal, always on the hunt. You need to take care of yourself also, Niko. You don’t want her to come home to the wrong man.”

Tate’s grown into a wise friend. I wouldn’t have thought of myself changing so much that she wouldn’t recognize me. Not my looks, but the inside that she knows so well.

Being in this life, we’re all a little jaded in one way or another. Me with the emptiness left behind from losing my family, and Tate has had some serious shit happen with his father betraying him. Viktor’s been put through hell, damn near dying in his love’s arms. Add in all of the shit the women we adore have gone through and we’re one group of fucked up people. I think that’s what makes us all so close though, our demons we’ve beat and dealt with, we always support each other if needed.

“I agree, Tate, but if me changing so much that she will no longer love me saves her, then so be it. I love her enough to let her go if it comes to that, but it won’t be because I haven’t done everything possible.”

“Then let’s see if we can get anything else out of him before you kill him.”

“I’m glad we’re both in agreement that I get to finish him,” I grumble and follow him back over to Chek.

“Chek!” I bark and pick up the cup of lemon juice next to him, splashing the juice on his face.

He lets loose a roar of pain and a string of curses at the burn from it getting in all the little cuts I’ve inflicted.

“You’re out of time. You must talk now, because the agony has only begun. You decide how much it will hurt.”

Viktor smirks and hands me a pair of special steel cutters.

“I promised to take your fingers, and I’m a man of my word. Now where is Sabrina?”

Viktor holds Chek’s hand still so I can cut his middle finger off. It takes a strong grip, the resistance from the bone not wanting to break, but once I get it to snap, Chek leans to the side, expelling his stomach contents down over his good shoulder.

“Please Nikoli, please st-stop this. I can tell you that I knew your other sisters, they were sent to me, but ba-back then, I couldn’t do it. Those women were just too beautiful and innocent. It was different with the old whores that they brought to me to try and fix. It was when they brought the stolen girls I couldn’t do it. Th-the Master put me through hell at the time, threatening to kill me if I didn’t suck it up and break the new girls. Your oldest sister was in the first group. I failed at hurting her and they killed her for standing up to them. I-I’m so sorry.” He hiccups and I feel sick myself.