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I glance at Niko, but he’s not looking at me. He’s completely focused on his call. In fact, he’s turned partially away from me, clearly dismissing me as any kind of threat.

Good.

I seize my chance.

Elbowing Niko as hard as I can, I take off toward that ajar door with its ring of light, his phone clattering behind me.

“Fucking cunt,” he says.

But fear makes me fast and I streak for the door. I’m almost there when something catches my hair and jerks my head back, pain and agony flaring up in me.

I’m slammed against the wall, treated to the full strength and power of Niko.

His cologne is overwhelming as he pins me there, between him and the wall. “Decided to go play with my guards, did you? Because that’s not the way out.”

He steps back, my hair still wound around his hand, and he drags me back to my room, my cell. “Stupid fucking bitch,” he said, throwing me onto the floor, then kicking me in the back as I manage to twist to protect my belly at the last second.

“You’ll regret this, cunt.”

I sob, trying to control myself, but I can’t. I keep sobbing as he picks me up and throws me on the bed to restrain my wrists.

He grabs me by the throat and lifts his hand, forming it into a fist. Then he draws his arm back.

He’s strong and I quiver, trying to scream, to throw him off, but I can do neither because he’s crushing my throat withthe hand wrapped around it and the restraints only allow me to twist and kick fruitlessly.

Niko slams his fist down on the thin pillow, the bed shaking with the reverberations.

And his hand tightens.

Spots burst and dance in my eyes and my lungs burn and ache as I try and fail to breathe.

Niko leans in close.

“Next time you need to go, you won’t even be released to use the one in here. You can piss yourself for all I care. That’s the last time you’ll see outside this room. Ever.”

Chapter Four

DEMYAN

Sergio isn’t with me.But his men are. Along with mine.

I’m fine with that. He never takes part in this kind of action if he can help it, but the fact it’s the joined forces serves me—and him.

I look at Pavel.

“No lookouts, sir, nothing. I’m not sure they’re expecting us.”

The house is way out in the suburbs, a run-down part where half the street’s abandoned.

First glance says this isn’t a Niko-type place, but it didn’t take much of a dig to find out who bought up the street and got all the permits for development.

A company of Niko’s. A new, legit one that Sergio knows all about.

“Maybe he is, and maybe he isn’t. Which place would you choose, Pavel?”

The man shrugs. “The community center that’s closed down is so obvious that most would rule it out. He doesn’t strike me as subtle. And he seems like a man who gets off on the double bluff. That’s where I’d choose. If I was him.”

I nod, and I’d be smiling if this wasn’t about the safety of Erin.