Beast (Creatures of the Mafia Book 1)

by Eva K. More

  Kat swallowed, her throat suddenly dry like the desert, and her heart beating faster than ever. “What do you plan to do with me?”

  His dirty laugh shook her to the marrow. “That curious? Can’t wait to be damaged, slut? I promise Beast won’t recognize you afterward.”

  “We will make good use of you,” Lina said slowly beside her.

  Kat’s stomach revolted; she felt bile rising and fought to keep her vision from swimming into darkness. Kat remembered now what had only teased her brain days ago.

  If Ivo was working behind Kapov’s back to deceive him, Lina hadn’t been surprised to see Anton in the house.

  Of course, Gabriel had told her that she made it her business to know everything – but back at the mansion, Lina had played along, like it was her job to support Ivo. Was she set on keeping trafficked girls in line too? She was the head of the women of the brothel, after all.

  “Are you two working together against Kapov?” Kat addressed Ivo but kept her gaze on the other woman, whose wandering hands stopped, and she narrowed her eyes.

  “Ha!” Ivo exclaimed with a note of surprise. “What has that idiot been talking to you about? An outsider. You barely entered our world. What do you know of Kapov? And Lina is on my payroll, too. Of course, she works for me.”

  Lina’s grin returned, but this time there were tight lines next to the corners of her eyes. Kat’s brain worked hard to connect the missing dots. If Lina was also in on the scheme with Ivo, then why had she helped Beast at first?

  With the tension suddenly radiating off the other woman, Kat was pretty sure that Ivo didn’t know about Lina’s deal with Beast. Had Lina actually wanted her safe and gone, or was there an ulterior motive the woman possessed?

  And where did all this chaos leave Kat? Gabriel had an agenda, and he had told her that it would all probably end today.

  His primary goal was to bring Ivo and his accomplices down, and Kat had been just a girl he had tried to keep off the scene. But would he come back for her, now that things had gotten more complicated? If saving her again meant jeopardizing his mission from Kapov, would his so-called honor still kick in?

  Worse yet, what would happen if he came to get her? Could Ivo hurt him, maybe even kill him like he said he would? Ultimately, would it all be Kat’s fault?

  ***

  Motherfucker, Gabriel thought as he maneuvered the car onto the dark path.

  He had known that Anton had some mighty friends, but he hadn’t been aware of how deep the network of human trafficking was embedded in their society. Right at this moment, killing Anton would mean nothing. Except maybe a deep satisfaction on a personal level. He might have started abducting innocent girls, but he was now only a face. Behind him, his allies held all the ties.

  Gabriel’s grip on the wheel tightened. And what sick fucks they all were.

  Barely keeping the bile from rising, he recalled the conversation of the meeting. There had been talk about virgin auctions, importing exotic wares, and initiation rituals with drugs, and the worst part was that they made it all sound clinical, distant as if they were talking about cattle. Or something even less animate.

  Jesus, he ruffled his hair with a hand. People thought the Beast was terrible, but Kapov didn’t take from innocents; he made deals with people who came to him. Sure, they took lives, but they didn’t kill for fun. Unfortunately, there was only one way to deal with certain people- especially if one wanted to stay alive themselves.

  But the people in the meeting today? The allies of Anton and Ivo? Those were the real monsters. He had seen the glint in their eyes, showing him that they enjoyed hurting children and women. They didn’t care about the pain and agony they caused others for money.

  The chief of police. The secretary of the interior. Some international players.

  Damn it! He had informed Kapov. The matter had turned out to be a lot more complicated than they had anticipated because it meant that they had to deal with it a lot more delicately. And all Gabriel had wanted to do was to kill them all on the spot, but instead, he had sat as Beast, watching Anton and the rest with concealed hatred.

  Now he had to wait because it was Kapov against the whole damn state, and they needed a bulletproof plan.

  Ivo, however, was no longer needed. He would have dealt with him immediately after the meeting, but the man had vanished during it with barely a glance at him.

  And after everything Gabriel just sat through, all he wanted was to wash off the dirt on his skin and find solace in Kat’s arms. The image was so appealing that it made his guts clench.

  He couldn't harbor any soft feelings for that girl, but she managed to break down his walls every fucking time. She was so different from the version he had imagined. She was direct, courageous, wore her heart on her sleeve. And she was sweet and sexy and beautiful, and he was a fool.

  He knew that once Maryan found out what he had done, he would surely castrate him. After all, Gabriel had no excuses for sleeping with her except for not being able to deny himself.

  His need for her was so significant that it was suffocating him, and yet he had to stop because there could never be a future between them. And she would hate him for sure. When this whole thing was over, there was no way that she would still want to be with him.

  He lurched the car to a stop, and the dread made a home in his guts. There was something wrong. The door was open.

  Gabriel quickly grabbed his gun from the glove compartment and left the car, giving fast but quiet steps until he reached the cabin. His search was futile.

  Everything was swallowed in darkness, and when he turned on the lights, he confirmed his worst suspicions. Kat was gone.

  He stood inside the empty house, his heart accelerating in a savage tempo. He clenched his hand until there was no blood flow anymore and then growled ferociously into the night. Had she run away again? That would be crazy stupid! He moved at a fast pace to his car, and when he was going down the steps of the front porch stairs, his eyes noticed car tracks.

  Someone had found her.

  If he hadn’t lost that damn slip of paper with the number, he might have known something was wrong earlier.

  Getting inside the car, he closed the door when he remembered Ivo’s sudden departure at the meeting with the force of a hurricane, so with a sudden panic, Gabriel grabbed his phone and checked the video footage of the house.

  He cursed loudly. He had come only mere minutes too late.

  If he didn’t know that he was the only one that could save her, he would have taken a bullet to his head right there because knowing he was the one to blame, Gabriel dreaded the call he had to make. He dialed the number while speeding away in his car.

  “Yes.” That one word alone oozed authority.

  “Maryan. Ivo has her.”

  There was a loaded silence on the other side of the line as gravel and dirt crunched beneath the fast circulating tires of the BMW.

  “I swear to-”

  “There was no sign of struggle,” Gabriel said.

  “If she is not-” He heard the pain and the fear in the other man’s voice, emotions he rarely showed and mirroring those feelings, Gabriel gripped the wheel tightly.

  “She must be. Ivo doesn’t know about her. He will probably use her as bait for me because that’s his best guess at the moment. I don’t know how, but maybe he knows I’ve been betraying him.”

  Had the Beast become negligent with his desire to end this farce? Had he been too preoccupied with thinking about Kat that he had somehow not noticed that Ivo had become suspicious? Had there even been someone tracking him and he hadn’t known?

  “Then find her. Now!” Strength was back in that dark, gravelly voice. “If he hurts her, I’ll see your head rolling. If anything happens to her, you’ll wish you were never born.”

  “I’ll do that. And this time, I’ll kill that bastard.”

  “See that you do, Gabriel.”

  The line disconnected.

  Fury settled deep
into his stomach, tying the knots he felt tighter. If Ivo laid even one fucking finger on her, he was a dead man already.

  aw nerves had kept her from nodding off in the now silent car. Ivo hadn’t talked anymore, and she had been relieved not to hear his vile words. Lina had remained sitting close but hadn’t touched her otherwise. Kat was grateful for what little distance she had at the moment.

  When the car lurched to a stop, she noticed they parked on a deserted parking area in front of what appeared to be a factory of some sort. The big brick building stood tall and unbreakable, ominously illuminated by two lamp posts, the big windows on the upper part of it mirrored the cold and starry night sky.

  It was still hauntingly dark outside and chill to the bone. Kat felt the rush of cold air when Ivo opened his door. How long had they been driving? Where was this place?

  “Get out!” he ordered while he smacked the car door with a fist. “We have some preparations to do.”

  Lina leaned over her and opened the door Kat had been plastered against. Briefly, she thought about struggling and running away, but she was sure Ivo carried a gun, and in the vast space devoid of anything that she might hide behind, there was no place for her to run to.

  “Come now, darling. You heard him; you don’t want to aggravate him.” Lina pushed her gently, and though Kat tensed, she still stepped dutifully out of the warm vehicle. Lina was close on her steps and gripped her arms tightly, rushing her to the door Ivo had already gone through.

  Inside, it wasn’t much warmer, and Kat disdainfully thought that she had been right with her first impression of the place. This was a factory, though there was nobody else inside.

  As they walked in, she saw big tanks scattered around an open space, and stains of various sizes and colors littered the floor, but what made her blood run cold was when she saw a dingy stool placed in the middle of it with a stark lamp shining down on it. On a table next to it were different tools, metal chains, and ropes – all meticulously placed like surgical equipment.

  Kat thought about bolting when Ivo led them to the lit area, but Lina’s grip prevented her from moving in any direction other than straight forward.

  Ivo’s slim figure stopped then, and he turned and quirked his lips into a lecherous grin. “I see your fear; I can smell it. Don’t you like our welcoming abode? But it’s so perfectly dramatic.” His bony hand moved to the objects on the table. “We washed these all for you. Well, not all of them. Some are for Beast; he deserves a bit loving care, too.” His maniac laugh spiked the panic in her nerves.

  When she started struggling again, and Lina’s grip was about to slip, Ivo backhanded her. Hard.

  “Stop that!” he barked. “And sit down like the good little slut you are. Lina, secure her!” When Kat still made no move to bend her legs, he forcefully pushed her down.

  “Now, darling, that wasn’t necessary,” Lina breathed into her ear as she knelt behind Kat and pulled her arms back. “You could have avoided that hit; you’ll hurt a lot more if you protest.”

  Kat scoffed at the other woman’s advice. Lina’s whisper had sounded almost sincere, but one look at the viciously grinning man in front of her had her doubting her motives.

  Kat felt the other woman bound her wrists behind her with the rope, and next, her legs were fixed on the stool, immobilizing her completely.

  “What are you going to do with me now?” Kat asked again with more flippancy than she was feeling.

  If there were any situation displaying her utter helplessness, it would have been this one-shackled to a stool in the middle of nowhere with Ivo ‘The Ugly Sadist’ leering down at her.

  “Now we wait for your knight in shining armor to arrive,” Ivo said.

  “What makes you so sure he would find me here?” she spat, trying to appear confident when in reality, she felt everything but that.

  “The GPS pin I just sent him.”

  The skin on the nape of her neck prickled when Lina scooped her hair from behind her back and laced her fingers through it, combing it.

  “Such lovely hair will make a lot of men crazy,” Lina mumbled as if talking to herself.

  Kat moved her head, trying to free her blonde locks, and the other woman chuckled. “It still doesn’t mean that he will come for me.”

  “Don’t you worry your little head about it,” Ivo replied.

  Kat knew she was repeating herself, but she needed to buy time. Everything had happened so fast that she barely had time to process it, but if Beast came for her, she would do everything to help him. This time she would not give up without a fight.

  “What then? Will you kill me? What do you plan to do?” Kat’s restlessness gave way to her anger, and she glared into Ivo’s thin face, the hollow cheeks and the dim light making him appear even less appealing, less like a real human being and more like a reptile. “You plan on luring Beast with a mere nobody? Why don’t you just kill me now? You dis-”

  This time he hit her other cheek, and she felt a trickle of blood pool in the corner of her mouth.

  Her head roared, and her face stung, but she calmed her nerves. That had hurt, but it was a sign that he was becoming agitated, and she knew from previous experience that anger made him careless. If only she could survive the pain, she hoped she could free herself. She would not hide behind her tears like that first time in the cellar. She would show that despite everything, Ivo could not break her. She knew now that she was made of a stronger material than glass.

  “Shut your mouth!” Ivo screamed as he gripped her sweater and pulled it upward, paying no heed to her bound wrists and the strain of her arms and shoulders as he eased it above her head and down her shoulders. The material gathered around her hands eventually and kept her arms more firmly secured behind her back. “And let me give you a taste of what I will do to you.”

  “A man like you would need to use force; nobody would touch you voluntarily,” she spat at him and watched his eyes blaze with a manic glint.

  One of his hands closed around her throat. “You think I want women to enjoy my touch?” He squeezed hard, slowly robbing her of air. For a second, she remembered Gabriel’s hands on her throat, but his passionate caress couldn’t possibly have been compared to Ivo’s punishing grip.

  “Bitches like you deserve to be hurt. I hold power here, and I don’t care even one bit about your feelings.” Ivo moved his face close to hers, and his disgusting breath fanned on her skin, making her want to retch. “I love it when they look at me like you are now, eyes wide with fear, knowing that with another squeeze of my fingers, you could die.”

  Gasping, she managed to lift one corner of her mouth. “You… are… pathetic.”

  “Bitch!”

  When her vision started to blur, she heard Lina’s raspy voice. “Ivo. You’d want her alive for a while, at least.”

  “Shut up, Lina. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Of course, you do.”

  He eased off her then, and Kat gulped a lung full of air, choking on her eager breaths. She knew that she would probably have marks in her neck after all of this was over, and trying to put her thoughts in order, her face fell forward, and she let her hair shield her for a moment.

  That had been a close one. The look in his face had been borderline insane, and she hoped never to become one of his more intimate victims. Angry tears fell down her cheeks as his hollow laugh resonated in the big hall.

  “Not so spunky anymore, huh?” he teased her.

  She watched his black leather shoes pace in front of her until she heard a metallic sound and jerked her head upward.

  “Lina’s right. I won’t kill you now, but I can hurt you. This beautiful thing here is my favorite toy.” He said while he looked at the blade in his hand as in a trance. The object was sharp and thin, like a scalpel, but he paid no mind when he closed his eyes and brought it close to his nose, giving it a sniff with a disgusting smirk in his face. No doubt, it had cut effortlessly through the skin of one or more of his victims.


  Slightly nauseous, Kat observed him open his eyes and move forward, knife directed at her chest. She was afraid; she would admit that to herself, but she knew that she had to throw Ivo off his course more. If Gabriel came, he had a better chance of winning against Ivo if the man had lost control of his emotions.

  “I bet you are as inept with that knife as you are with everything else.” She said and laughed at him, making Ivo’s arm surge forward.

  “I’ll show you.” He hit her with the tip of the knife so quickly that at first, she didn’t feel anything. Then the sharp pain at her cleavage came full force, and it made her dizzy.

  A sound - like metal heavily hitting metal - resonated in the big hall, and Ivo’s sneer turned into a morbid grin. “That was fast.”

  He crouched down behind her and put the sharp knife against her throat, not using enough force yet to break the skin even though the blade was no doubt tainted red now. She felt the warm liquid moving down her chest and soiling her shirt.

  “It’s Showtime,” Ivo said.

  From the corner of her eyes, Kat saw Lina move into the background but did not dare turn her head in that direction, afraid of the blade because when she swallowed, it still nipped her skin.

  Heavy footfalls in front of her alerted her and from the darkness emerged the Beast, not her Gabriel, as the posture of his shoulders clearly showed he was ready for a confrontation. A rush of warm air left her lips as the light of the single light bulb bathed his figure. He had come for her, he really had.

  The mask obscured his face, and the hood shadowed his eyes, his stance was proud and rigid as he pointed a steady hand with a gun directly at her. No, not at her, but at Ivo, who used her bound body as an effective shield.

  “Hello, Beast.” Ivo’s voice sounded cheerful. “Missing something?”

  “Let her go, and your death won’t be painful.”

  Ivo laughed haughtily, and the blade pushed against her skin, cutting it open again, this time on her neck. Beast - for that is who he was now - was standing like death itself in front of them and didn’t even flinch as he watched her blood trickle down the fair skin of her throat, mingling with the wet spot on her chest.