Page 8 of Deadly Knight

The bald one grins again, turning for the mattress. Silently, he crouches by Katya with his back to me, and I picture stealing my blade back to stab it through his spleen. He reaches for Katya’s chin, forcing her to face him even when she jerks away, her frazzled eyes finding me.

“Shh, shh,” he hushes like she’s an injured animal. “It’s okay.”

“Don’t touch her.”

He sneaks a sly grin over his shoulder before murmuring to her, “Seems your boyfriend doesn’t like what he’s seeing. But we’re going to be amping up the show real soon.”

Her expression falters at the exact second his statement lodges into my heart, my soul, and I go mindless trying to get free. Every attempt is useless and only drains me of energy, but it’s fucking worth it. Anything I can try will be worth it.

He stands, facing me. “There is nothing I want. This is simply a job we were paid to do, Volkov.” His hand drops to his fly. “Let’s play, boys.”

If only Ilistened to Dimitri when he urged me back to the party.

“Let’s play, boys.”

Play.

My stomach rolls. I can practicallyfeelmyself disassociating, letting go of my mind and creating a safer place far away from this moment.

Everything around me is a blur of disbelief. This isn’t reality. This isn’t happening. Four grown men aren’t standing above me, where I’m tied to a mattress, stripped bare. Dignity robbed, peace gone…and soon, if assumptions based on their hungered gazes are correct, so much more.

The bald one undoes his pants, and that’s when I stop looking up, wrenching my gaze to the other side of the room where Dimitri is tied helplessly to a chair.

I love him so much.

I hate how violent he looks at this moment. Like if he could, he would rip all four men apart. Like he’d protect me.

But he can’t. Because they’ve made sure of it.

The mattress dips as the man kneels between my bound legs. Heat brands my thighs as he repositions me for hisconvenience.

I tried to fight them in the woods, tried to scream for help. They never knocked me out like they did Dimitri, clearly thinking I was too weak to fight all four of them. Sadly, they were right. The punches I managed to land didn’t do much.

I was bound and shoved into the back of the van, sobbing and pleading for Dimitri to wake up. That was when my mind wanted to drift away and not consider what was coming, but with Dimitri unconscious, it was on me to remain present.

We arrived at a nondescript warehouse, where they tied Dimitri to a chair and me to the mattress before cutting away my clothing. No matter how much I tried to fight, I was one against four, and lost easily.

They left us alone for hours as I pleaded for Dimitri to hear me and wake up. Whatever they stabbed him with was too strong, taking him to a place my voice couldn’t pull him back from.

With every passing second, I felt our future slipping away.

The man’s hand moves between my legs, and my eyes slam shut.Don’t feel, don’t feel, don’t feel.

Seems like such a silly thing to hope for. How can Inotfeel this? No level of disassociating will save me or makeanyof this make sense. Why me? Why Dimitri? Why did these men take us? Why didn’t I go back to the party when Dimitri asked me to?

So many whys without answers.

His hand moves away, and then there’s something else touching me. Another part of his body. One I can unfortunately place.

My eyes tighten, my mind surging to a better place than what it’s about to experience.

Thrust.

Blinding, red-hot pain scorches through me, and no matter how hard I try to fight it, tears come. My plea is unheard beyond the disgusting cloth they tied around my mouth.

His body comes down on mine.

I open my eyes and find Dimitri. He looks savage in a way I’ve never seen before. Murderous.