He left her in the chair for two or three hours while he rummaged around the cave out of her line of sight in an antechamber. She heard the sound of tools working, driven by lines run from a portable generator he’d fired up when the sun had gone down. Occasionally it would falter and he’d come out and, she guessed, put petrol in it before returning to whatever he was doing. Finally, when she thought she’d just give up and piss in the chair, he appeared and untied her, fisting her long brown and blonde highlighted hair and dragged her into the next chamber. She gasped when she saw what he had done, because it didn’t seem possible with a generator and a few power tools. He ripped the tape off and after spewing a few curse words at him in Spanish, she calmed and spoke, trying to stay rational. It would help if one of them did, because he clearly wasn’t. “You can’t have just built all of this…”
“Nyet, I did not. I have been working on it for weeks.” He smirked and she looked confused. “Oh, little American whore has been dead for ages. I took her out just after you left country. Did not want anyone who might remember me coming forward when Ivan and Yuri are murdered in most gruesome ways. And Aleksei…and you, of course. But, you are woman, and you were put here to please men, and you will do your duty before I send you to Hell with faggots and whores you love so very much.”
Oh Mother Mary, she thought to herself, feeling the color draining from her face, he thinks his purpose is religious. I am so fucked. Aloud, she said, “I don’t really care to tell you this but, I think you should know, you will never be even half the man Ivan is.” He spun and hit her so hard she twisted a full three-sixty before falling to one knee, but bouncing right back up. Instead of cowering, she turned and bolted for the opening at the mouth of the cave, though her steps did falter when she realized he wasn’t chasing her. As she neared the light, she realized there was a rusted but sturdy, she would soon find out when she clutched it in her hands, metal gate blocking her in.
“Rosa…” He called out, his voice carrying eerily, echoing almost demonically through the stone tunnel. To her left she saw an open hole, what she hoped was an antechamber like the one he had prepared for her, and she bolted into it, completely blind in the darkness. “Rosa…come back little Spanish fly or I will be forced to be pulling off your wings…”
She didn’t know what he meant and didn’t really want to stop to find out, so she moved as fast as she could, keeping one hand on the ceiling and one on the wall as she moved through the darkness. When he spoke again, she froze in utter confusion, as his voice now appeared to becoming from in front of her when it should have been behind.
“This is old silver mine, did you know? I found it and later bought it, many years ago. All tunnels are interconnected and if person knows which way to turn they can find their way out in no time.” He said, casually, and she heard paper rattling. “Of course, it helps to have night vision glasses and map…always helps. Now why do you not come back to antechamber I prepared just for you? I have heat there and food and bed for us both to share.”
“I am not sharing a bed with you.” She snapped and in an instant found herself suspended by her throat, his huge hand holding her against the wall. His body pressed in close and he breathed up the side of her neck, his unwanted closeness bringing cold-chills out on her skin. “I am Ivan’s woman.”
“For now. When I am done with you…if you even survive…no one will want you. Not even dog.” He ran his tongue across her lips and she snapped trying to bite him, earning herself a hard slap across the face. “Enough of that…you will find yourself missing teeth. As I told little American whore, I will pick them out one by one. But yours I will make into necklace and send it to Ivan. Little keepsake of our time together.” He dropped her to her feet, finally, and fisted her hair tightly in his hand before dragging her towards the antechamber once again.
Chapter 30
Ivan sat back by the bright campfire and pulled his hunting knife, now glowing red hot, from the coals, then shoved it back into the fire. He turned to the bundle hanging from the tree behind him and spoke, almost cheerfully. “Not ready just yet, but will be soon. Do you know that knife can remove appendages? Could be finger…could be toe…could be cock if you have one big enough to find.”
The man in the bundle whimpered and writhed, his greasy brownish-blonde hair dragging the ground beneath him at its longest point. He was suspended by his ankles, and had been for some time, so Ivan knew he didn’t have long before death came. Drawing the knife, he shrugged. It wasn’t as hot as he would have liked, but it would have to do, so he bent and ripped the tape off of the man’s mouth before moving straight to his fly. He knew this would get what he wanted faster than if he started with fingers, and so he dug a gloved hand in and retrieved what, compared to him was very substandard. Almost non-existent.
“Not very impressive, as I had guessed. Do not waste time begging, you will die no matter what you tell me or do not tell me. What you can control is whether you die with balls still attached where they belong…or with balls shoved down your throat.” Ivan said, then let the hot knife touch one of the blonde-haired testicles and got a shriek of pain to tell him he had been heard and understood.
“I…I don’t know anything!” The man shouted as soon as he’d stopped bemoaning the tiny burn Ivan had given him.
“Okay, so, left one is bigger than right one, we will start with left.” He touched the man’s left testicle and was rewarded with another shriek. “Nyet? Then start talking. You know what I want to know. Where did man who paid you take my woman?”
“Mountains…up in the mountains somewhere. He said he owns land up there…near a town called Fonte Cereno…that’s really all I know, I swear.” The man was blubbering now, crying, and Ivan knew he’d reached the end of his usefulness.
“Funny thing about wilderness is, when man is not incapacitated, animals fear him. But you injure him or bind him so he cannot move they come from every direction.” Ivan, in one swift move, slit both of the man’s bound arms. Not the wrists, no, he didn’t want the man to bleed out quickly, he wanted him to see the creatures that would soon feast on him. Covering the fire with dirt to prevent smoke flaring and alerting anyone who might be in the vicinity, Ivan took one last look at his captive before departing. It had been surprisingly easy to get the information, but he suspected in his haste Dmitri hadn’t exactly been choosey over who he had hired.
He clambered into the very same van that had been used to kidnap Rosa, and in the forest he heard the van’s owner screaming for help. With a sigh, he closed the van door and then rolled down the window. He pulled his .45 caliber pistol and screwed on an illegal-as-shit silencer. He fired one shot, then watched and waited, patiently. The man moved no more, nor did he scream. Beyond him, Ivan saw several pair of glowing eyes, and smiled. “Dinner is served, boys.”
He returned the van to the man’s suburban address and slipped quietly into the night on foot, headed for a storage facility where he’d kept Dmitri’s motorbike, stolen so long ago and shipped to him by Oleg, safely hidden. On the way, he stopped by the apartment and found that the closets were cleaned out of all the clothing, his brother and Aleksei were safely on their way. Breathing a sigh of relief, he dropped the key in the mailbox on the front door along with a note thanking the owner and assuring them a check was in the mail, because he knew it would be. He started away, then paused and ran back up the stairs inside one more time, staring at the empty and unmade bed where he and Rosa had spent every night for the past few blissful weeks.
Rage, white-hot and all-consuming, rose in him once more and he took the stairs down two at a time, disappearing through the courtyard out onto the busy summer streets. His mind was a whirl of black thoughts of worry, hatred and despair as he entered the storage facility and fetched the bike, then closed the now-empty container. He did not lock it back, there was no need as he would not be returning to use it. Instead, he kicked the engine to life and roared away, stopping only to inform the attendant the unit would no
t be needed. After that, he was on the road, headed towards the mountains, and hopefully, the murder of his half-brother.
Chapter 31
“You know, is sad really,” Dmitri, he had now introduced himself though she’d known him from the moment she’d set eyes on him, said conversationally as he turned a steak on the small campfire in the middle of the antechamber. “We had really happy family until Yuri decided he preferred men…and Ivan our papa decided they did not mind.”
“I’m sure they were all still quite happy. It appears you are the only one now who is not. How old are you, forty? Fifty?” Rosa asked, staring down at the plate of food in front of her, which she was refusing to eat in case he had drugged it.
“I am barely one year older than Ivan, so therefore, I am thirty-eight.” He snapped, then put his own steak, woefully undercooked in her eyes, on his plate. Maybe if they waited long enough he’d get botulism, she hoped, though it was not much of a hope, really. “You certainly do have sharp tongue for one who is in such predicament. Would be much wiser for you to be polite to me, as American whore found out, I am not pleasant when angry.”
“Yeah, well you’re not all that pleasant when you’re not, either.” Rosa said, seemingly unable to control her words. Dmitri looked at her contemplatively across the table before breaking into a round of chuckling-laughter and then reaching across the small table-for-two and backhanding her right out of her chair onto the stone floor. She did not bother to get up this time, just stayed there. Finally, he got up and dragged her back to the chair, plopping her back down roughly on the hard seat. She had a myriad of bruises, most from him hitting her and knocking her down, but thankfully she was still clothed, which from the looks of this veritable feast was likely to change soon.
“I cooked American her last meal, too. At least she ate. Very polite, even under duress, she tried little bit of everything.” Of course, Rosa did not know, he had threatened Crystal, but it really didn’t matter. “But it appears I will have to…entice your appetite little bit. If you do not at least try some of each thing, then you will meet my little friend on this table as soon as I am finished dining.”
“Oh, how adorable, you even have a name for it. It’s nice that you have accepted you’re not even half the man Ivan is. I bet it was hard for you when you found…” She didn’t get to finish, because he hit her close fisted, straight to the jaw and really sent her sprawling. The chair, which was rickety at best already, broke apart from the impact with the hard stone floor. “Would you stop doing that? I won’t be pretty at all if you keep hitting me.”
Dmitri stared at her in disbelief. Most women would have been sobbing after a hit like that, all of the women that he had ever known in his life would have at the very least been cowed. He was silently impressed, and could see why Ivan loved her so much, but there was no way he was going to let her know. “I find that bruises only make woman prettier with time because she learns to hold her goddamn tongue and mind her fucking manners. Now get your fat ass back in what is left of chair and shut your fucking mouth unless you are taking bite of food.”
Rosa climbed stiffly to her feet, kicking herself for her comment. She knew all too well he wasn’t underwhelming below the belt just by his height and build, and of course, his genetics. Her hope was that she would fluster him so much it would keep sex off of his mind, but instead it seemed her snide comments were only driving him to that much more of a frenzy. “I don’t eat Russian food.”
“For love of God, woman. Is it impossible for you to shut fuck up? Just fucking eat what is fucking in front of you before I come over there and cram it down your fucking throat with my cock.” Dmitri roared, and finally, she acquiesced, knowing she had pushed him too far. It was one thing to annoy him, but she did not want to push him into doing her permanent harm. Chewing was going to be difficult enough, her jaw was beginning to swell from the punch he’d given her, but she did as he ordered though she ate only a miniscule amount. She did, however, drink plenty of water. Later, when the drug he had laced it with kicked in, she would be thankful because it numbed her through some of the torture.
Chapter 32
Ivan found the small town that had been mentioned within an hour and a half, but there was one small problem. It was a ghost town, dried up since the war. No restaurants, no petrol stations, not even a checkpoint where he might inquire whether or not anyone had seen Dmitri. It wasn’t like he was easy to forget. Dismayed, he stopped by the side of the road and stared ahead of him into the moonless night. Soon, to his surprise, he saw a flashlight coming from within the small town, moving towards him cautiously. He checked the .45 at his hip, loosening the strip of leather that kept it firmly in the holster until it was needed, but otherwise made no aggressive moves.
The man approaching him said something in Italian and Ivan breathed a sigh of relief because he knew it wasn’t Dmitri, but then he didn’t have a clue how to communicate. Finally, he tried English. “I am looking for my brother…big man…has eye-patch, you know?” Ivan covered his right eye and the man lit up immediately and started jabbering and pointing on up the road Ivan had traveled to get to the village. He caught something about eight kilometers, that much he understood, and he also heard the word ‘left’, but then the man looked frightened and turned and headed quickly away as if he’d said too much.
Now Ivan knew where he was headed, he wasted no time in cranking the motorbike up and heading on into the mountains. When he had counted out the aforementioned eight kilometers, he found a narrow dirt road that led up into the mountains. Just a few hundred yards in, he found that there was a locked gate and knew he was on foot the rest of the way, which was better. The motorbike, while definitely faster, would make too much noise. He only hoped Dmitri hadn’t already heard him and turned his rage loose on Rosa. That thought only spurred him to move faster, and soon he was running swiftly and surprisingly lightly up the steep, curving path.
As he ran, his phone rang and he dug in his pocket, trying to slow his breathing so as not to tip off Dmitri, and as it was a call from the same number that had been ringing Yuri’s phone, he knew that’s precisely who it was. He slowed his pace to an unwilling and restless walk, then pressed the answer button and listened.
“Ivan, good to see you still have your phone. I wonder, does that mean little fag has his…” he groaned slightly, then grunted before continuing. “Has his phone. Sorry, brother, you would not believe what your woman is doing for me and let me tell you, I can see why you want to marry her, she is fucking delicious. And damn good with her mouth, if you know what I mean.” When this failed to get a verbal response, mainly because Ivan was wiping blood off of his lip, which he’d just bitten to keep from exploding in rage and inadvertently revealing his location, he continued. “Just listen…she does gag lot more than I am used to, but then I am willing to bet you have not pushed her limits as I have…as I will.”
After a few seconds, he heard Rosa whimper and then gag violently, almost sounding as if she had aspirated it was such a strong sound. “Dmitri…I will find you and when do…maybe I will let Yuri have your ass before I cut your balls off and feed them to you.”
Perhaps that possibility hadn’t occurred to him, or maybe it had, either way he exploded into a violent volley of Russian curse words before Ivan heard the sound of a hand hitting flesh and Rosa giving a small squeak of pain and surprise. From the games they had played in their bedroom he knew she was tough, and if she was making any sound from pain then Dmitri was really hurting her.
“I was done with her for moment anyway. I have ridden her until I just cannot get it back up…but fortunately, that will pass.” Dmitri said, idly, and Ivan heard a lighter flick and his half-brother inhaling deeply. “She is not as…responsive as American-whore was, but she is still sweet little Spanish fly. I suggest you hurry up before I pull her wings off and ruin her forever…for you, for anybody…”
Ivan hit the end call button. There was little to be said, and now he tore off at a spr
int through the deep dark of night. The thin sliver of a moon had hidden behind the mountain range, throwing everything into almost total darkness so, when the path curved and wound downward, suddenly, he did not see it coming and ran right off into the darkness. As he fell, he did not make a sound, just reached up and pressed a locator beacon on his chest. The beacon would summon his Uncle Oleg’s chopper, it had been his plan to send Rosa running with the beacon and have her picked up. For himself, he had no need. He would either make it out alive, or he wouldn’t make it out at all.
Fortunately for him, the first ledge he hit slowed his fall, unfortunately, it was a sloped ledge covered in small, sharp stones, so not only did his right shoulder break on the hard impact, but he then slid along the stones, rending his flesh, until the second drop came, and then the third. All he could think, the entire way down, was that he had failed Rosa and that he did not want to survive. Now he had nothing whatsoever to live for.
Chapter 33
Rosa twisted her head, trying to escape the two fingers crammed down her throat to make Ivan think she was sucking on something a little more personal. Her honey-colored eyes stared up at him poisonously and finally, when he managed to get her to gag violently, she clamped her teeth down on his fingers, hard. It earned her a slobbery smack upside the head, but at least his fingers were out of her mouth and for that reason and that reason alone, she was grateful. So far, he hadn’t done anything but a few touches here and there, testing the water she was sure, seeing how she would react when the time came. Perhaps he was even teasing himself, because he seemed overly and easily excited by the slightest of things.
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