Page 60 of Embrace the Darkness
“No,” Stefan replied, and his eyes locked with mine, warning me. It was only for a breath. I almost missed it. My heart rate spiked as adrenaline surged through my veins.
“Are you sure? I had multiple witnesses say otherwise. Unless you killed him?” Sasha was fishing and he wasn’t fooling anyone. I was beginning to think that ourtruck being hit in Sasha’sbackyardwas a little too big of a coincidence.
“I think I’d know if we captured someone,” Stefan replied.
Sasha turned toward me. “Maura, it’s good to see you again.”
“You two have met before?” Stefan questioned me.
I opened my mouth to speak but Sasha beat me to it. “Yes. We met in my club the other night.” He reached toward me and grabbed a piece of my hair, twisting the ends around his fingers. “You have a beautiful daughter, Stefan. How have you kept her secret for so long?”
“I’m a lesbian,” I blurted, putting on a stoic mask. “I’m what you call the black sheep of our very Catholic and old-fashioned family.” I gave Stefan a pointed look and the corner of his mouth twitched.
“A lesbian?” Sasha repeated.
“Yup. I’m all about the pussy.”
Sasha shifted his attention to Jamie, who looked ready to lunge across the table. His eyes were glued to where Sasha held my hair. When he looked up at Sasha, his murderous glare spoke louder than words. Pain was in Sasha’s future.
Sasha returned Jamie’s glare with a knowing smirk and reached inside his jacket. My lungs seized as Sasha’s gun came into view and was aimed at Stefan. The rest of Sasha’s men mimicked their leader, pulling out their own pistols and turning them on our men. Jamie shot to his feet, reaching into his jacket, but froze when the barrel of a gun was placed to the back of his head. He was shoved back down into his chair by one of Sasha’s guards.
The sound of something plonking onto the table pulled my focus and I glanced at the man sitting next to me. He had taken out his pistol and set it on the table with his hand lazily resting on top of it. In the corner of my eye, I caught his other hand coming at me. I held very still. I was proud of myself for not jumping when he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He didn’t hurt me. It was a warning:Don’t do anything stupid.
Sasha’s men made quick work of disarming our security, including Jamie and Stefan. Our guards were pushed down to their knees and made to face the window walls with guns held to their heads.
“I’m going to ask again and let’s answer truthfully this time, Stefan. Your men took a man hostage yesterday, yes?” Sasha questioned.
“If you already know the answer, why are you wasting your breath?” Stefan shot back. He sounded so calm, bored even, all while staring down the barrel of Sasha’s sleek black pistol.
If Stefan’s challenging tone rubbed Sasha the wrong way, it didn’t show. “Where is he?”
Stefan’s mouth stayed shut. He wasn’t going to tell him. If he did, we were dead. As I looked from him to Jamie, I came to the gut-wrenching conclusion that there was a big chance we weren’t going to get out of this alive. We were outnumbered. Knowing all of that, a rush of determination surged through me.
“Maybe one of your children knows where he is?” Sasha moved his gun away from Stefan’s head and placed the barrel against my temple. “Would be such a waste,” he murmured. Next to me, the man’s hand dropped from my shoulder. Sasha’s free hand came up under my chin. His fingers forcefully turned my head to look up at him as his gun shifted to my forehead.
His eyes softened before he asked, “Do you know where he is?” Like my father, my mouth stayed closed. “Your father took someone very important to me. He’s my blood and I just want to get him back.”
He was trying to gain sympathy from me because he assumed I was a weak female. My unwavering silence made him see his error, which in turn angered him. The fingers cupping my chin tightened and the gun pressedharder into my forehead, causing my head to tilt backward.
“She doesn’t know anything,” Jamie snapped.
“I don’t know about that. I barely know her, but I can tell she’s clever and an excellent liar. If I hadn’t seen you two practically fucking outside my club, I’d believe she was really a lesbian. The women in our lives are not as naive as they appear. They hear things. She could have overheard where he is,” Sasha explained. “Your father has warehouses, homes, businesses. Where do you think he’s hiding my guy?”
The meanest smile I could muster slowly curled my lips. I could think of a bunch of places Stefan could have the man hidden and I’d die happily knowing Sasha would never find him.
Sasha moved the gun from my head and pointed it across the table. “I’m going to count to ten and then I’m going to shoot your lover…” He shifted the gun toward Stefan. “Or your father unless you give me what I want.”
“How am I supposed to answer something I don’t know?” I argued, finally breaking my silence. My heart was beating painfully fast, making my chest hurt. Helplessness and hopelessness were taking root in my soul, making me want to cry or scream out.Why is this happening?Ilooked to Stefan and then Jamie, the two strongestand most dangerous men in my life, to see if they could fix this, but with just one look, I knew they couldn’t. It wasn’t until that very moment I realized I was scared.
My darkness hummed within me, trying to coax me to let it out, but I felt frozen as I was being reacquainted with a feeling I’d long forgotten.
“One…two…three,” Sasha began counting as he swung his gun back and forth between Stefan and Jamie.
The man in the seat next to me chuckled like this was five-star entertainment. He reached in front of me, intending to take a fry from my plate. I eyed his tattooed hand grabbing the fry and then glanced at his other holding his gun loosely. My paralysis broke and my fingers twitched around the steak knife that was cutting into my inner arm from how tightly I was holding it. Sasha continued to count, up to six now. I only had an instant to strike. My darkness rushed to the surface and I swiveled the knife outward, fisting my fingers around its grip. As the man was pulling the fry back toward him, hovering over the table, I lifted the knife. I slammed it down, stabbing him through the hand and embedding the knife into the wooden table below.
He screamed out next to my ear and he frantically let go of his gun to grab at the knife. I scooped up his gun as I sprung to my feet. My chair fell backward and before ithit the floor, I had the gun pointed at the back of Sasha’s head. He froze with his own gun pointed at Stefan.
I sensed someone step behind me before something hard pressed into the back of my head. I shifted slightly, seeing one of Sasha’s guards behind me, who I assumed had a gun at my head.