Page 3 of Scarlet Sins (Yegorov Bratva #2)

Chapter Three

ERIN

Crying isn’t an option.

I tell myself that as I try to stave off the tears, as I dash away the ones that fall with my hand.

I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting here for. Sometimes I lie down, but I’m too scared to sleep, no matter how hard exhaustion pulls at me. The moment I close my eyes, I snap them open at the first wave of the edges of wakefulness unravelling.

If I sleep, what happens then?

My mouth is dry, and the back of my throat aches from the tears I’m holding back while also tickling with need for water, just like my queasy tummy turns and growls. If I ate, I’d hurl, but it doesn’t stop the hunger creeping in.

I long for my baby boy. And Demyan… Christ, how can I love a man who’s capable of marrying another and keeping me as a piece on the side? I concentrate on that wound because in the grand scheme of things, it’s small.

I know he said he wouldn’t, but his world is so vastly different from mine, so I don’t know if I believe him. And it’s a place of violence. I don’t want my child—children—exposed to that, to become that.

The fact Alina is good, and Demyan has a gentle side he rarely shows—except with me and with Sasha—it’s… I don’t know. It’s good. But is it enough?

Then again, could I even run?

The word run makes a sob rise and erupt and I lift a hand to press it against my mouth, the chains clanging, and that brings me sharply back to reality.

I’m a prisoner. I don’t know where I am or what this Niko intends to do with me. I don’t know if my baby boy is okay, and too much time being starved, left without water, and what will that do to the unborn baby in me? I don’t even know if Demyan’s alive.

I force myself to stop.

He’s alive. Niko said his beef was with Demyan. If he’d killed him, then why would I be here?

It hits me hard.

Am I bait?

Is Sasha?

And if Demyan doesn’t come, what will he do to my son?

This time, I can’t control the panic as it tears into me. I have to get out of here, escape, find my boy.

But how? My wrists are raw with trying to get free, a futile thing. The manacles are just that little bit too tight and even if I got out… No, even if I’m on the other side of the country, getting out is smart.

But how? I’m back to that again. I could wait for Demyan. If he knows.

Of course he knows. That’s the point of being taken the way I was.

The door opens. The only reason I know is I’m staring at it, and Niko comes in, looking fresh and clean, though there’s a film of dirt on him. The invisible kind. The dirt that comes with corruption and evil.

He’s holding a bottle of water in one beringed hand. “Thirsty?”

The taunt is laid open, bare. Of course I’m thirsty. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth and it hurts to swallow. In fact, the sight of the bottle makes my entire mouth throb.

I think I’d kill him for a sip.

I hate myself for wanting to beg.

“And drink your drugged water? I’m fine.”

It costs to say that. Costs deeply.

“Why would I do that?” Niko asks. “There’s a saying about cutting off noses to spite your face. Don’t do that. Tell you what, I’ll help your wager. If you catch it, it’s yours. If you don’t, no drink of water at all. Here.”

He tosses me the bottle.

The shock of his words makes me fumble. The plastic is cold and slippery with condensation and my fingers are clumsy, but I manage to catch it, hugging it close against me.

And now I have it…

Dignity up and leaves. Control and will with it.

I’m so damn thirsty, it’s agony.

Holding the bottle up, I check it over, ignoring the self-satisfied grin on his face. It doesn’t look tampered with and it’s still sealed. I finally twist off the lid and guzzle down as much as I can before he suddenly rips it from me.

“Careful,” he says in mock concern. “You’ll be sick.”

Niko takes the lid from me and screws it on, setting the bottle on the floor, just within reach.

I want it, even as my stomach churns with the sudden intake of liquid. But I’m not going to throw up. I refuse. I need that liquid, and so does my baby.

My gaze shifts past Niko to the door. What I need is to be on the other side of it, free. I need to get the fuck out of here.

My body steadies, the nausea passes, and I reach out and grab the bottle, staring defiantly at him as I finish it.

But Niko just laughs. “You should have made it last, Erin. That’s the last drink you’ll be getting today.”

Screw you are the first words that come to my head, but I push them away. Instead, I force myself to think. Drinking it all is good. Because a body usually reacts after an intake of water. Like needing the bathroom. I don’t need to go. Yet. But he doesn’t know that.

“I was just too thirsty.”

“Too fucking bad.”

My lip quivers and I make myself smaller than I am, weaker. “Please let me go. I know you’re a reasonable man.”

Niko looks to the roof and lets out a hoot of laughter. “Me? Oh, I am, and reason says you stay here. Don’t worry, Erin. It’ll soon be over.”

“When? I need my son, I?—”

“That’s too damn bad. You’re my guest until I say otherwise.”

“Prisoner, you mean.”

“We’ll just differ on the interpretation. But once I get certain things in order, I’ll have someone alert Demyan you’re here and…” He smiles. “The prick will walk right into my trap.”

This time when the nausea hits, it’s got nothing to do with the water. I’ve no doubt that if he kills Demyan, he’ll kill me. After all, I’ll be able to identify him. Or maybe he’ll kill me and then Demyan. It doesn’t really matter.

If that happens, Sasha won’t have anyone.

There’s Alina, Kara, but it’s not the same. I know that.

I wanted Demyan to come and save me, but if he does, Niko will kill him. At least if Demyan rescues Sasha and decides not to come after me, Sasha will have a parent.

It’s insane, thinking that way, because Demyan’s the type to come after someone he thinks of as his. Even if he no longer wants me and his words of love were nothing but a lie, I’m the mother of his child, and to a man like Demyan, that means something.

To save Demyan, to give Sasha the chance at having at least one parent, hopefully two, I’m going to have to try and get out of here myself.

And all that water is the perfect excuse. At first, I thought maybe it’d give me a chance to see where I am, but now, I’m going to have to make a run for it.

I made it out of Demyan’s fortress; I can make it out of here.

I hope.

“Niko,” I whisper, trying to be as weak and small as I can be, “please, I need to go to the bathroom.”

“I’ll send one of my men. He will take you, and he’ll watch.”

His words of where the bathroom is in here come back on a wave of horror and I shake my head. “No! No, please. You must have one where I can go in private. Please…”

He looks at me for a long moment, then mutters something under his breath. Niko closes in on me and unlocks the restraints.

I try to control the surge of adrenaline.

Niko grabs me roughly by the arm and yanks me to my feet, hauling me, stumbling across the room, and out into a hall.

It’s dark and we pass the guard at the door.

Niko drags me up a few stairs and left to another hall.

There’s not much to go on. I think, with the low lighting, that we’re underground, but past me, as I look down the hall, is a door with a rim of bright light around it .

My heart starts to thump hard. An exit?

To me, it sure looks like it. He shoves open a door to my left and snaps on a light. Then he basically throws me in. “Hurry up, I don’t have all day.”

I nod and go to close the door. He puts a hand on it.

“I’m not peeing in front of you. Please move.”

For a moment I’m not sure he will, but he steps aside and lets me shut the door.

It stinks in here and I’m about to look around to see if I can escape when the door bangs open and Niko appears again.

“Get out.”

He grabs me by the face and squeezes, hurting my face, the bruises. “Speak to me like that again and peeing will be the least of your worries. I changed my mind. I’m letting you use the nicer facilities, but you’re going to be watched.”

Shit.

He lets me go and humiliation burns through me. But I’m not giving up.

I fight the urge to throw up as I stare at him, right in the eye, as I use the toilet as quickly as I can. Then I get up and wash my hands in the small dirty basin. The entire time, I keep one thought in my head to stop myself screaming at him, watching me relieve myself.

This is the nicer bathroom?

Christ, what’s the one like in my cell?

But as we head out, I keep myself on alert. If I get any chance to try and escape, it’s going to be in the walk back to my cell.

Niko’s phone rings and he answers it, his gaze cutting to me a moment, and he stops, so I do as well. As he speaks in a low, urgent voice in Russian, I steady myself. This is it. My one chance and I have to catch him off guard.

He’s distracted, but his gaze is on me, so I take that moment to take stock. I sweep my gaze up and down the hall. The man at my door’s not there, and now that I’m used to the low light, I can make out a couple of other doors, all of them shut. But the door up ahead is cracked open.

Now, every instinct whispers. Now.

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 with the 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.”