Page 33 of Darkest Game (The Dark Mafia #3)

I fall to the ground and land hard on the marble. Everyone looks at me. Elaine sneers as she wrenches me to my feet. “Just a little bit of entertainment first.” She drags me into the living room and parades me around it. My legs falter again but Elaine’s hold on me keeps me upright.

I try to look for my uncle but I don’t see him anywhere. How ironic that I would seek comfort from the one man who kept me prisoner for two years.

Elaine makes me walk around the room, fully naked, as all the men gaze at me. It’s the most humiliating thing I have ever experienced. She wants me to suffer before I’m brutalized and killed.

There’s no point in begging to Elaine. She has shown me her true colors and I know there’s nothing that will get through to her.

“Just wait, men,” Elaine says. “In a few hours, she’s all yours. You can line up to fuck her. But until then, admire her.” She grabs my breast and squeezes it so hard, pain shoots up my body. I smack at her hands but Elaine doesn’t let go for a long moment. When she does, I slump forward.

“That’s just a taste of the pain you’ll experience,” she says into my ear, yanking my head back.

“I hate you,” I hiss. “You are not even human. You have no compassion.”

“I lost all my compassion when my husband was killed. And when you tempted him into wanting you. This is on you, Irina.”

She pushes me to the ground and I lay there, unable to get back up. Not because I can’t but because if I just lay here, maybe I can make all of this go away. Maybe I can forget about all of it. Maybe I’ll just cease to exist.

“Are you giving up?” she taunts me, kicking me in the back. “You weak, pathetic girl.”

That causes a surge of anger to shoot through me. No matter what happens tonight, I don’t want to give Elaine the satisfaction of knowing she beat me.

So, I push myself to my feet. The men all watch me with eager, hungry expressions, but I ignore them and keep my eyes on Elaine.

“I will not break,” I say to her. “I will not. No matter what you do to me.”

“Oh.” She pouts, clearly mocking me. “I think you will break. When you’ve had enough cocks inside of you, you will break.”

“No. You’re going to have to kill me, Elaine. I will not break.”

“Something will make you break and I know exactly what. If you’re not worried about fifty cocks inside of you, how do you feel about your sister getting raped until she dies?”

It takes me a second to understand what she’s saying. “My… sister?”

She waves her hand and I turn around to see what she’s doing. Denis walks into the room. Where was he?

His eyes don’t even look at me as he drags someone behind him. It’s Ana. Oh my god.

Her face is bruised and beaten. Denis did always love beating her the most because of her feisty attitude. Even though she’s seventeen, she looks like a baby. Vulnerable. Sad.

How did he kidnapped her?

It dawns on me. Liam and Nico must be distracted looking for me and Mikhail is still in the hospital. He must have somehow been able to grab Ana from Mikhail’s house. But what about my older sisters and mom?

“What did you do?” I hiss.

Ana jerks her head up at the sound of my voice. “Irina?” She looks my naked body over and blanches.

Denis tosses Ana to the ground at Elaine’s feet. “I got her like you wanted.”

“What are you doing?” I ask. “My sister has no part in this.”

“She’s related to you. She does have a part in this. I’m going to make your entire family suffer like how you’ve made me suffer. Anastasia is just the first.”

“How did you take her?” I ask Denis. “How?”

“I gave him some of my men,” Elaine explains.

“We shot down Mikhail’s guards,” Denis says. “After that, it was easy to find Ana and take her. I would have taken Sasha and Natalya too but they weren’t there.”

Sasha must be at her home with Nico and Natalya is at the hospital with Mikhail. That only leaves one person.

“My mom?”

“Tatiana, that bitch,” Denis hisses. “I would have killed her but she ran. I took Ana when I had the chance and came right here. That bitch didn’t even save her own daughter. What kind of mother is that?”

“My mom is a good mother,” I say. “Don’t you talk bad about her. Not you. Not after what you did to us for years.”

Denis sneers at me and kicks Ana in the stomach. Her scream of pain makes me drop to my knees.

“Ana, I’m here,” I say, pushing her hair out of her face. “I’m here. Ok? I’ve got you.” I look up at Elaine. “Leave her alone. It’s me you want to hurt.”

“And I am going to hurt you. But I know that seeing your sister raped is going to be the greatest suffering you can imagine. You’ll watch her be raped, and then you’ll be raped yourself. All the men in this room are eager to take you. Both of you. Now they just have extra. Right, men?”

I watch in horror as the men in the room only look more hungry as they gaze down at Ana. I can hear some of them murmuring amongst themselves, saying how hot it is that I’m crying or how hot it is that Ana looks as young as she is. I have to push back vomit from escaping my mouth.

Elaine is right. Torturing my baby sister is a surefire way to make me hurt.

But she has gotten something wrong. By giving me someone to fight for, I am going to make her pay.

No longer the shy girl I once was. In the past couple of weeks, I have changed drastically and I can thank Elaine for that.

There’s no way Ana and I can fight our way out of here. We have no weapons and we’re only two women in a room full of men. But I am going to take Elaine down with me.

There’s just something I have to try first.

“Denis,” I say. “Uncle. Leave Ana out of this. You know it’s wrong. She’s innocent in this.”

“Is she?” He sneers. “She would snap back at me all the time. Out of all of your sisters, she was the one I hated the most. I’m not angry to see her get hurt. You can’t appeal to my nice side, niece.”

“I’ll be your prisoner again,” I offer. “If you help me. I’ll stay with you. You can act as my father. I always know you wanted to be my father. I’ll even call you ‘dad.’ If you just save Ana. I’ll go with you. You know I will.”

Denis stares back at me with curious eyes. “You’d really do that?”

“Denis,” Elaine barks.

“I would,” I say, keeping my eyes glued to him. “I will do all of that. And I won’t complain. You wanted me and my sisters as your actual daughters. You can marry me off to someone else for political gain. I will let you. Just save Ana.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Elaine says but I can see Denis wavering. I’m giving him all he’s ever wanted. To be my father. To be better than my father.

Ana sobs as she curls into a ball. I run my hands over her head, shushing her. I wish I had the strength Natalya and Sasha have as big sisters. But they’re not here right now. Ana only has me.

And I can’t be weak. For her. For myself.

“I will go with you,” I say to Denis. “Right now. Just kill her.”

In one fast move, Denis pulls his gun out but before he can fire it off, another man runs at Denis and tackles him to the ground. Elaine flinches back.

“You idiot!” she screams and kicks Denis in the stomach. His gun is laying on the ground. “You would turn on me? I have all the power you will ever need. All the people. And yet, you would choose your pathetic niece over me?”

I lunge for the gun and pick it up, pushing myself to my feet. Everyone goes still.

“I will shoot,” I warn Elaine. “I will kill you. Bringing my sister here was your mistake. If you had wanted to break me down, you should have just ended me when you had the chance. But you gave me a reason to fight.”

“Then do it,” Elaine taunts. “Kill me. But I don’t think you have the guts. You’re a weak little girl. You can’t run with the big dogs. So set the gun down.”

“And what? Just accept my fate? Roll over and let you torture me? No. I have had enough, Elaine. Enough.”

I put my finger on the trigger…

But before I can shoot, another man runs into me and pushes me to the ground. The gun skids across the floor and ends up at Elaine’s feet.

She picks it up and places the gun to Ana’s head. The whimper that leaves Ana breaks my heart. I try to fight against the man holding me down but he’s too strong.

“She will die because of you. This will break her down.”

I inhale as Elaine puts her finger onto the trigger. Ana is going to die. I couldn’t save her.

Ana meets my eyes and doesn’t look away. I try to silently tell her that I love her but I’m not sure she understands.

“Say goodbye,” Elaine taunts.

“Goodbye,” another voice says. A voice I recognize. A voice I know well, despite having only first heard it over a week ago.

Liam has shown up.

He rushes into the room, followed by multiple men. His men start shooting down Elaine’s men before they can even react.

Elaine takes off running, but stops when she yanks Ana off the floor and drags her behind her. Liam hesitates to shoot at her since Ana could get hurt which gives Elaine the chance to run out a back door with Ana.

Liam shoots the man on top of me through the head. His blood splatters onto my face, coating me in red.

He kicks the man off me and helps me stand up.

“Ana,” I gasp. “We have to save my sister.”

“What about him?” Liam asks, nodding down at Denis.

“Leave him. We have to save Ana.”

“I need to call Nico,” Liam says. “He needs to know we’re here. Jimmy! Call Nico. Now.”

One of Liam’s men nods and pulls out his phone.

Liam takes my arm. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Save Ana.”

He runs out the backdoor where Elaine went. I follow more slowly behind. Liam’s men have killed a lot of Elaine’s men, though some of them manage to escape. The death and destruction is sickening.

We make it out to the back yard where Elaine is. She has a gun pressed to Ana’s head.

“Let me go,” Elaine orders. “And I won’t kill the girl.”

“Lower your gun,” Liam growls.

Elaine turns her gun onto me. “I am going to take you down with me.” And then she pulls the trigger.

I’m expecting pain to radiate through my body but it never comes.

Because Liam dives in front of me and takes the blow. He staggers back as blood blooms out from his stomach. I watch in horror as he falls to the ground.

Elaine stares at both of us in shock, which gives Ana the chance to jam her elbow into Elaine’s side and force Elaine to let her go.

Ana punches Elaine right in the nose. Elaine drops her gun and stumbles back before she takes off running into the night.

I don’t have time to be impressed by my baby sister’s fighting skills. Not when my husband has been shot. Not when the man I know I love could be dead.