Timeout
Valentina unlocked a small opening in the cell bars and slid the tray onto a wooden platform. I lifted it and carried it back to the cot and placed it on my lap. There was a steaming bowl of soup in a white crock with a handle, a couple of slices of brown bread, and a glass of water. Valentina turned to leave, but I called out to her.
“Can I please have a cup of milk? Not for me. It’s for the baby.”
Valentina scoffed. “I am not waitress.”
“Please. I’m worried he isn’t getting enough calcium.” I placed my hand on my stomach and glanced at Dmitri to get him to help me out.
“She’s pregnant. Give her milk.” Dmitri’s authoritative tone summoned a disapproving scowl to creep across Valentina’s face.
She flicked her bony hand at Yuri and instructed him to grab a pint of milk from the bar fridge in the common area. When he left the room, Valentina took his place in the chair. The time had come for me to summon all the courage I had and make my move.
“If anything happens to me, tell Vladimir I love him,” I whispered just loud enough for my words to reach Dmitri’s ears.
“Why do you talk like that?”
I took a deep breath, held on to the lip of the tray with both hands, and counted down in Russian. Odin, dva, tri…I flipped the tray onto my chest and dumped the hot soup all over the front of my dress. The tray and its contents crashed on the floor, sending echoes of chaos bouncing off the barren concrete walls. Valentina cursed at me and ordered me to clean it up, perplexed as to why I would do something so ridiculous.
“What are you doing, Carter?” Dmitri asked.
“Winning.” I picked up the soup crock by the handle, closed my eyes, and whacked myself in the cheek with the heavy stoneware bowl. I groaned from the pain of my self-inflicted wound and lay down on the cot. As Valentina fumbled with the keys to open the cell, she cursed at me in Russian, aware my swollen face would reflect poorly on her. Maksim had warned her to keep her hands off me, and now she would have to answer to him for letting me get hurt under her watch.
I curled into a ball and screamed for help as Valentina stormed into the cell. “I’m sorry I was ungrateful,” I wailed. “Please stop. Izvinite!”
Valentina towered over the bed and glared at me like I was a lunatic. She grabbed my arm, buried her nails under my skin, and yanked me off the cot. I scrambled to the corner of the cell and wailed, expecting Yuri would hear the ruckus and rush back to rescue me. I hugged my knees to create a protective barrier for the baby, and Valentina kicked my thigh with her pointy leather shoe. Not a punishing blow, more like a hard warning tap to get my attention.
Dmitri fired off threats aimed at Valentina and tried to struggle free from his restraints.
Footsteps thundered on the stairs. Yuri burst into the cell and pulled Valentina away from me. “Maksim gave orders the girl is not to be harmed.”
“I didn’t do this.” Valentina shrugged off Yuri. “Crazy bitch dumped tray on herself and hit her face with bowl.”
“She kicked me.” I lifted the hem of my dress and revealed a red mark on my leg with a light blue bruise imprinted on my skin.
Yuri’s gaze zeroed in on the mark on my thigh then drifted to Valentina’s pointy shoes. The timing couldn’t have been better. I have a witness. I heard the strum of an incoming text from Valentina’s cell. She retrieved her phone out of her bra and announced, “Boris has arrived to inspect the girl. Maksim wants her at the loading dock.” She latched onto my arm and dragged me out of our prison.
“What about Dmitri?” Yuri had followed us out of the cell and was locking the door, leaving my bodyguard shackled inside.
“Maksim has honored Dmitri’s request to stay with Vladimir until the end. Once the pakhan is dead, Dmitri is free to go.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Dmitri’s eyes were rimmed in red, and the anguish on his face nearly stopped my heart. “I won’t let my brother die alone.” Dmitri shot an accusing glare at Yuri. All of Vladimir’s blood relatives were deceased, but his family consisted of the bravest and most loyal men and women I had ever known. I drew strength from Dmitri’s courage and bottled up my tears. Even though Vladimir’s future seemed grim, our family had a secret weapon that Maksim could never possess—loyalty.
Vladimir didn’t command respect from the men in the Bratva, he earned it. Maksim’s crew followed orders, but they did so out of fear. Vladimir was brilliant and had too many people fighting for him to walk willingly into a death trap. There had to be a way to defeat Maksim that I hadn’t thought of yet.
When they led me back upstairs, there was a small army of soldiers aiming assault weapons at the loading door. Maksim was at the center of his crew, leading his men like a general. On his order, the heavy garage door opened and revealed a black Range Rover parked next to the loading dock. The driver’s door opened slowly and a pair of huge tattooed hands lifted out of the vehicle, and then Boris stepped out of the Rover. Although he had to be stressed at the sight of an army of bad dudes aiming their weapons at him, he appeared calm and unfazed as if this type of hostage exchange situation was commonplace in their line of work.
“Show me the girl.” His deep, authoritative voice used to make my blood run cold, but now that Boris and I were family, the domineering vibe comforted me. He raised his hands slightly to avoid Maksim’s army from seeing him as a threat, but even without a long, black gun in his hand, he was an intimidating sight. He was dressed in an all-black ensemble that covered up the old-school prison tats that littered his body and announced he was a dangerous man with a sordid past.
The only visible tattoos were the rings on each finger and the dagger on his neck. Each tattoo had a specific meaning, and he earned every single one by spilling the blood of his enemies. He had some seriously disturbing ink on his back and chest that he’d earned in prison—I’d seen his creepy tats while we were in Russia. Out of all the men in the room, Boris was a hundred times more menacing than every one of those losers holding guns combined. I wasn’t proud nor did I condone the violence Boris had dished out over a lifetime, but I welcomed his experience of seeking and destroying anyone who threatened his family.
“Good to see you, big papa,” Maksim called out. “Vladimir is with you?”
Boris gave him the look he used to make when I said something he regarded as stupid. “If you have followed the rules and she is unharmed, then I will deliver the pakhan. Otherwise, no deal.”
Maksim’s jaw clenched in response to Boris’s demand. He seemed anxious for Vladimir to arrive. It occurred to me there was more in play than what he was leading me to believe. If this were purely about revenge, Maksim would be enjoying every moment of controlling his enemy, but he seemed nervous, like something horrible was going to happen if Vladimir didn’t get there soon.
Maybe it has something to do with the hard drive.
“Do we have a problem?” Boris widened his stance and lowered his hands, pouring on his badass enforcer persona. His deep voice boomed, and he asked the question again, but this time in his native tongue. “U nas yest problemy?”
“Nyet.” Maksim snapped his fingers at Valentina and instructed her to bring me forward. She followed orders, maneuvered me through the line of soldiers, and brought me within a few feet of Boris for inspection. “As you can see, Mrs. Ivanov is in perfect—” Maksim cursed when he caught a glimpse of my battered face and trembling body.
Boris shot an accusing glare at Maksim.
“Vladimir spoiled her. She has no respect for authority.” Maksim had no way of knowing what had happened, but he downplayed my abuse, eager to get on with the exchange.
Boris stared into my eyes and aimed his thick finger at Maksim. “He did this to you?”
My plan is working. Maksim was on the defense, and my swollen cheek became Boris’s bargaining chip. I lowered my gaze to the ground. “No.”
“I kept my end of the deal. I didn’t hurt her.”
“Are you injured anywhere else?”
I shook my head.
“Who hit you?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Um, no one.” Back in America, Boris had alerted me to the fact that I always said “um” before I told a lie. He knew all my quirks, and I could never get away with even the tiniest bit of deception. He was a master at lie detection. “I was carrying a bowl of soup and I tripped.” Playing the part of a submissive victim, I side-eyed Valentina and then glanced away quickly. “It was an accident.”
Boris cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “Where was your bodyguard when you tripped?”
“Yuri locked us up together in the prison, but Dmitri was restrained.”
Maksim pointed at Valentina. “Bring Yuri to me.”
The sea of gunmen stepped aside and allowed Yuri to join the circle.
“Did you witness what happened to Mrs. Ivanov?”
“Nyet,” Yuri said.
Maksim lifted his chin and scowled at Valentina like he was about to snap her neck. “I gave orders Mrs. Ivanov was not to be hurt.”
“I didn’t hurt her, Maks. Crazy bitch did it to herself.”
I rubbed my thigh and winced in pain.
“What’s wrong with your leg?” Boris asked.
“Nothing.”
Maksim lifted my skirt and scowled when he spotted the bruise Valentina had imprinted on my skin.
Valentina rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively. “She wouldn’t stop screaming. I barely touched her.”
Boris’s face burned with condemnation. “You let this happen under your watch, Maksim. You failed to keep your end of the deal. The pakhan will demand retribution.”
“Maks, believe me,” Valentina said. “She’s lying—”
“Quiet,” Maksim snapped at Valentina. “You want retribution? Then we use eye-for-an-eye justice. Since Carter was mistreated, she can even the score by taking a swing at Valentina. Go on now, let’s get this over with. One good blow to her face and we’re even.”
As much as I despised Valentina, I was not on board with this type of barbaric violence. Valentina widened her stance and held out her arms in a take-your-best-shot ready position.
I held up my hands and shuffled back. “No way. That’s nuts. I’m not going to hit her.”
“I’ll do it.” Boris stepped up to Valentina and towered over her, scowling with so much hostility, he could’ve leveled her using just his ominous glare.
Valentina hadn’t so much as flinched since this whole punch-in-the-face debacle started. My father-in-law was a beast of a man, and one blow from him would knock anyone out cold. Taking her down had to be a good thing, but my conscience wouldn’t allow it. The blow to my thigh was the equivalent of a love tap compared to the violence I’d suffered at the hands of the Bratva. If she had actually hurt me, I would’ve cheered Boris on, but I wouldn’t forgive myself if I allowed this to happen.
“Timeout.” I made a T with my hands. “Maksim, please. More violence isn’t the solution. Can I choose something else?”
“What do you want?”
“Let me say goodbye to Vladimir. Just for a few minutes. I can’t walk away and leave him to die.”
Boris shot me a death ray.
“As you wish, love. When your husband arrives, I will let him hold your beautiful body in his arms one last time. You will have two minutes with your husband, and then you leave with your father-in-law. Are we in agreement?”
He shot his gaze at Boris, who reluctantly accepted the terms.
“Good. Make the call, big papa. Let’s put this unpleasant business behind us.”