Page 11 of The Devil’s Escape (The Devil’s Soldiers #7)

CHAPTER TEN

HULK

I need a way to get out of here.

“What did you talk about with the nurse?” Nikolai demands coldly, stepping right into my face, blue eyes hard and unyielding.

The morphine wore off hours ago, and everything in my body is screaming for relief.

My ribs are stretched tight in this strung-up position, and the wounds on my back have started oozing again.

Not that the fucker in front of me cares.

I can see it clearly on his face that he wants me to die.

If he had the option, he’d put a bullet in my head and be done with it.

I’m almost at the point of telling him to, but not yet. Not fucking yet. My club will find me. Soon.

“Allergies,” I breathe out. I don’t have the strength to say much more. They’ve left me in here so long without water I’ll die of dehydration instead of infection.

He punches me in the gut, making me gag and groan painfully. “You might lie to Vlad and he believes, but you won’t get away with that with me. I saw the cameras. She was talking to you while she worked. Did she offer to help you get out of here?”

I rasp out a laugh. “How the hell would she get me out of here?” I sneer.

“Do you see the size of her? She told me she was going to give me good shit for the pain and told me not to whine and cry while she sewed me up.” At least now I know that they have a camera in here, but not audio. If they did, he’d already know this.

He stares at me, and then turns and walks to the door.

“Bring the nurse,” he yells out. Nothing about him changes, but I can feel it.

The excitement over what’s coming next. My stomach sinks to my feet and I pray that this isn’t going to end in her death.

Not my angel. The only one who’s given me any kind of relief and hope since I got here.

When she finally arrives, my angel is spitting mad.

“What the fuck?” she snarls at Nikolai. She never once glances my way.

She’s traded her trademark blue scrubs for something dark green, her hair is in a braid that sits at the base of her skull, and she’s wearing a bit more makeup today than she did before, but I can see her exhaustion and feel her fury.

“I don’t give a flying fuck who you are, you don’t ever fucking touch them,” she spits.

“That was the deal with Vlad, and I’ve held my end of it up. You will release them. Now.”

Wait. What? Did they grab her kids? Dread fills me.

Nikolai moves to strike her, but she easily and swiftly dodges, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Nikolai’s expression change.

It goes from cold to menacing, like he’s battling the urge to kill her then and there.

I can tell from the stiffness in her body that she knows it too, but my brave, and incredibly stupid, angel doesn’t back down.

“Let. Them. Go.” The words are succinct.

Nikolai doesn’t move. Instead, he simply pulls his gun and aims it right at her head. Rage and panic fill me. I’m too weak to struggle, to try and get his attention. “What did you tell him?”

“Tell him?” Her expression goes from one of mild concern to incredulity. “I haven’t been in here in over six hours. How can I have told him anything?”

“Don’t get smart with me. Last night when you were patching him up, you talked. What did you say? And if you dare to lie to me, I’ll kill you now and then I’ll order my men to do the same to those two brats.”

She blinks at him once, then twice. “That’s what this whole thing is about? Me doing my job? I asked if he had any allergies, and told him not to be a baby.”

Nikolai doesn’t react to her saying everything I did, but I know he doesn’t believe her. Not yet. He presses the barrel of the gun against her forehead. Her body tenses, but she holds herself rigid, unyielding.

“You said more than just that. What else did you say?”

She throws up her hands and I want to shake my head at how reckless she’s being.

She’s acting like she doesn’t have a care in the world, despite facing down a man who has no qualms about making her kids orphans.

“He has a concussion. I asked him if he was nauseated or seeing double. He said no to both. Then I asked him a couple of questions like I’m trained to do.

I cleaned up his face and explained the process.

If you have a video, you have audio, so you should already know this. ”

She’s calling his bluff because we both know that’s not what she said. Why is she risking her life for me?

Nikolai holds her stare, almost like he’s expecting her to break, and like the badass she is, she refuses to look away.

Finally, he lowers the gun but doesn’t put it away.

Instead, he orders, “Do what you need to do for him, and then you can go and take the brats to school. Anything out of line, and I’ll kill them first.” The door flies open to reveal two terrified teenagers standing there, gripping each other’s hands tightly, two men behind them, guns trained to the back of their heads.

Avery’s expression changes instantly. Fury to fear to determination. “Everything will be fine,” she promises them. Then she looks at Nikolai with a barely contained fury. “I need supplies. You didn’t exactly let me stop to get anything.”

“Go and get what she needs,” Nikolai orders one of the guards.

The one behind the boy steps away, and I see the desperate look on the teenager’s face.

He’s thinking of doing something stupid.

I want to scream at him, but Nikolai’s already seen it.

He grabs the boy by the arm and puts the gun to the center of his forehead.

“You do whatever you’re thinking, and both your sisters will die, and I’ll make you watch.

Then I’ll rip you apart, just like this fucker. ” He nods his head back toward me.

Shit, they’re her siblings, not her kids. How the hell did they all get wrapped up in this mess?

The boy’s face goes ashen as he swallows hard. “Let him go!” Avery orders. “He’s not going to do something stupid, are you, Sawyer?”

“N-no,” he stammers out.

“He stays here until you do as ordered,” Nikolai tells her, refusing to relent.

The tension in the room is so thick that I can practically taste it. The girl looks like she’s on the verge of tears, but valiantly holds them back. The boy’s eyes move between both women, nervous.

Finally, the other guard comes back and tosses a bag full of items at Avery. “Grabbed everything,” he pants. “Fucking bitch has so much stuff.”

She simply grabs the bag, roots through it, and grabs what she needs.

She doesn’t talk to me this time. She gives me another shot of antibiotics and morphine and changes out some bandages on my face and back.

The back is the worst, making me curse, and a sweat breaks out over my body with the pain.

She checks my eyes again, nods, and turns to toss the items back in the bag. “He’ll live another twenty-four hours.”

“He’d better, or you’ll be in his place, and you already know what will happen then,” Nikolai threatens so casually that at first, my fuzzy brain doesn’t compute it.

Then, to drive the point home, he turns his head and nods toward the girl.

“And then it will be your sister’s turn.

We have plenty of our men that will love her. ”

Avery’s face flushes furiously, but she hisses, “We’re leaving. They need to get to school. Now.”

Nikolai simply lowers his gun, shoves the boy back, and nods at them to be hauled out.

The moment they’re gone, Nikolai turns to me, and says, “If you think that you’re going to get something out to your club through her, I’ll kill her.

” It’s the only warning he gives before he slams his fist into the right side of my ribs, turns, and storms out.