by Box Set
When I escaped the cell in Maksim’s mansion, I thought I would never have to go through this again. I should have realized that once the monsters have staked their claim, they will never let you free. Tasting freedom for the first time, after so many years, only to be snatched away and imprisoned again is the worst form of torture anyone can live through.
The last of my resolve is shattering into fragments, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I’m breaking. I don’t know if I’ll be able to survive this again. All I can do is try to protect the small ray of hope, flickering in my heart. The desperate hope I won’t have to spend another four years as a plaything for monsters.
Despair sends the first wave of tears down my cheeks, and through my tears I search out the light of the camera, which is still staring at me like an eerie red eye, peeking through the darkness. I don’t know who is on the other side of the camera, watching my fruitless attempts to free myself, but no doubt they’re reveling in the tears flowing freely down my face, and the sobs wracking through my body.
I’m so tired of this. I’m exhausted by this endless nightmare, which is a constant in my waking life and forever encroaching on my dreams.
“HELP ME!” I scream into the darkness before I dissolve into broken sobs.
There is nothing but blackness surrounding me, and no one to keep me company except within my own distorted memories. The cold concrete floor I’m awkwardly curled up on presses uncomfortably against me, sapping the last vestiges of warmth from my earlier struggles.
“Help me,” I whisper. My tear-filled eyes fix on the camera as the burning plea that echoes in my mind, escapes from my lips.
14
LUKA
Guilt is an emotion I very rarely give credence to, but right at this moment, I feel it in abundance. Seeing Evelina breaking on the screen at Maksim’s, and now having handed her over to the boss’ men, knowing I’m partially to blame for what happens to her here, will probably haunt me forever.
“In spite of your initial, appalling handling of the situation, you’ve done well. Did you manage to extract any intel from the girl before you brought her to me?” The smooth, cold voice of my boss washes over me.
“Ma’am, I did as you asked, but the girl was reticent and wouldn’t respond to my interrogation,” I answer, not able to keep the annoyance out of my tone, as I tear my eyes away from the screen in front of me to look up at her.
“Well, for her sake, let’s hope my men have more success. You’re welcome to observe their questioning. Usually you’re an accomplished interrogator, but in this case it seems not to be the case,” she says with a strong hint of disapproval seeping through her words.
I’ve worked for Tatiana for eight years, and when riled, her anger sets even the hardest of men trembling. Her smooth demeanor barely conceals how cold, calculating, and intelligent she is, and her position at the head of her organization will never be usurped. Any fool daring to try would end up in an unmarked, shallow grave, after her men had finished playing with them of course.
I’ve seen enough to know I’ll never be able to make amends for what I’ve done. Standing, I follow her out of the room, down the hallway, and into her office. No doubt this is where I should’ve come to first, but the draw to Evelina led me astray. Tamping down the guilt until it settles uncomfortably in my gut, I push aside all thoughts of the beautiful girl I’ve thrown to the wolves and focus on what will happen next.
Walking into Tatiana’s office, I come to a sudden halt when I see two men standing there with their arms crossed and grins on their faces that turn my stomach. I know exactly why they’re here, and that knowledge sends the guilt bubbling back to the surface. My own fucking weakness held me back, and Evelina is going to pay the ultimate price for my hesitation.
Tatiana doesn’t react to their presence; she simply walks around her desk and takes a seat. But the look in her eyes tells me she noticed my reaction to them, and I realize I’ve made things ten times worse than they were before. Evelina is not only going to suffer for her continued silence by being brutally interrogated for any and all information on Maksim and his associates she can give. She’s also going to be punished for her attempt to escape, for my failure in letting her and then not bringing her into line after her recapture, and now for my reaction to her impending fate.
“Wesley, Bernardo, you know what you need to do. Whatever means necessary. Oh, and the girl needn’t remain unharmed,” she addresses them, the corner of her mouth tilts upwards, and her eyes don’t leave mine the entire time.
Fuck. I’ve heard of these two, and I know what these men are like. Even if Evelina does talk, it won’t stop them from continuing whatever sick games fuel them. I glare at the one nearest to me who doesn’t bother to hide the excited smirk spreading across his features. I don’t give a fuck. There’s no point now in hiding the fact I want Evelina, they already know it.
The click of the door shutting behind them seems to echo around the office, and I know it’s only a matter of time before they reach the room where Evelina is being held.
“You had your chance, Luka, and you failed to deliver anything more than the girl. Your first mistake was letting her escape you in England. The second mistake was not gleaning any intel from her when you were on your way here. The third, well, it’s written all over your face. Her punishment is about to begin, and yours will be to watch as they slowly destroy the remnants of her light.” Tatiana laughs, and rises from her chair. Standing, her heels give her enough height to meet my gaze head on.
“Enter,” she calls out, and Pavlo walks into the room.
Fucking traitor, that’s how they know everything; it’s written all over his face. I’m aware he didn’t make any promises to keep our interaction a secret, but he clearly didn’t bother to hide it. I bet the fucking ubludok squealed as soon as he sent me the intel on Evelina back in England. That’s why he was in Moscow only I was too fucking distracted by Evelina to question his presence there. I’ll kill him the first chance I get.
I straighten up, glancing away from him toward Tatiana whose expression is cool, almost impassive, as she watches.
“Luka, you…” he starts, but my fist flies at him, slamming into his jaw, and Pavlo grunts at the impact.
Ignoring a groaning Pavlo, and the feel of Tatiana’s eyes on my back, I storm out of the office and aim for the room with the security cameras where I can watch Evelina. Before I can reach it, I’m blindsided by a blow to the side of the head, and just before everything goes dark, I realize it’s one of those fuckers from Tatiana’s office.
When I come round, I’m alone in an empty room similar to the one Evelina is being kept in. The only differences are the chair I’m sitting on, which has been fixed to the floor, and the small, black screen in front of me. The screen flickers and comes to life, and I can see Evelina, crying and helpless in the dark, waiting for her fate. I wrench at the ropes, fastening me in place to the frame of the chair, and I growl in frustration while I fight to break myself free.
All I can do is stare furiously at the screen in front of me, watching as the door to Evelina’s room opens. When Wesley and Bernardo walk into the room, my blood turns to fucking ice in my veins. Wesley smirks up at the camera, and I can’t stop the animalistic roar of fury, which escapes from me and bounces around the small room, mixing with the screams that start to flood through the speakers.
15
EVELINA
Darkness and pain seem to be the only constant in my life, and I can feel myself losing my ability to see a light at the end of it all. Right now, there’s nothing but the endless stretch of black in front of me, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to see a way out of it. The sounds of a bolt being drawn and a key turning, draw my attention to where the door must be, and I squint my eyes in the direction the noises are coming from.
It opens, scraping over the floor, and light pours through. It’s blinding after the suffocating darkness, but I welcome the burn in my eyes as I
greedily soak it up. Momentarily distracted, I don’t notice the two figures standing in the doorway until one of them moves into the room. The casual way he saunters toward me tells me he’s not here to rescue me, and I shrink away from him as far as the length of rope will allow.
The man laughs at my feeble attempt to back away from him, and when he crouches down to look at me, I turn my head to focus on the camera instead. A rough hand grips my jaw, forcing me to look up at him. The shadows cast over his face don't quite mask the evil I can see in his expression, and the lecherous grin aimed at me as he looks me up and down, makes nausea bubble in my stomach. This man is going to hurt me, and the other will either look on or join in.
Bound and helpless to do anything but wait and watch the man directly in front of me, I’m entirely at his mercy. Out of nowhere I think of Luka, and I wonder whether these are the men he spoke of, and all I can do is wish for him instead of them. Luka may have scared me, hurt me, and even threatened my life, but he didn't have that aura of cruelty, which seeps from these two men.
The second man enters the room and walks over to us, and the first man releases my face, drawing himself up to his full height. The door is open, and the bulb throwing light into the room from behind them sends shadows dancing over my body as the men tower over me. I want to cower away from their overwhelming presence, but I’m being held in place by the rope and by fear, which is keeping me just as much a prisoner.
The first man, lifts his foot and brings it down on mine, and I can feel the bones scream as the physical sound of it leaves my throat. I try to roll away, and the second man kicks me, winding me for a moment and knocking me onto my back.
They look at each other, and the first man speaks at last, “Bernardo, hold her. It’s time for me to have some fun.”
He draws a knife, and presses the tip of the blade to my thigh, hooking it under my shorts.
I whimper, “No, please. Don’t do this, no, no, no.”
He nods to Bernardo who clamps one of his hands over my mouth while holding me in place with his other hand on my stomach. I continue my pleading even though Bernardo’s hand muffles my voice. He grabs the material of my cotton shorts, slicing through it easily with his knife, and the tip of the blade pricks my skin, shallowly piercing it. Cool air kisses my bare skin, and tears trickle from my eyes at how exposed and so damn vulnerable I am to these two monsters.
When he stops and stands, Bernardo looks up at him.
“Wes?” he asks, and I shudder at hearing such an ordinary and unassuming name.
Wes chuckles, and goes over to the door, watching my face as he pulls it shut. The thud of the door hitting its frame feels like the last beat of my heart, yet I can feel its frantic thumping in my chest from terror. Wes has a predatory glint in his eyes, which are fixed on me the whole time he slinks across the room towards me and kneels down. Before I can blink, a thick strip of coarse material is bound around my eyes submerging me in darkness.
The muffled wail that vibrates through me is trapped by the hand covering my mouth. The sound of Wes’ and Bernardo’s heavy breaths echo all around the room, and are magnified by the darkness, sounding louder to my ears than when I could see. I try to pull away from Bernardo, but his hands squeeze even tighter, warning me to stay still. I open my mouth to try and bite at his hand, but he digs his nails into my wrists, and the raw skin there burns beneath the sharp pressure.
Hands touch my legs, and I flinch, my blood turning to ice as they move slowly up my thighs; my heart fucking stops when they touch between them. His foul fingers are at the entrance of my pussy, and I gag against Bernardo’s hand. The darkness, the unwelcome touches, and the threat of violation is too much.
“Let go of her mouth, I want him to hear her screams,” Wes says, and the sound of his rough, ugly voice sends shudders rippling through me.
Bernardo releases his hold on my mouth just as one of them, I think probably Wes, pushes his fingers into me, and a high pitched scream bursts from my lungs while he violates me with his filthy fingers. I’m sobbing weakly… unable to do anything more than take what he’s doing to me.
“You going to talk for us, blyad?” Wes growls, pushing deeper.
I let out a squeal at the agonizing pressure and the friction as he forces them into my dry and unprepared body. This is unbearable, and I can’t think beyond the pain that dominates me, flooding through my nerve endings and beating at the remnants of my already battered soul.
“You listening Luka? Hear your blyadscream while I stick my fingers in her cunt,” he shouts, and I suck in a ragged breath at his words.
Luka? He’s listening to this? If there’s one thing I'm certain about, it's that someone is watching on the other side of that camera… Could it be Luka? I clench my eyes closed. The warring emotions I’m experiencing throw my mind into disarray. The fingers withdraw, and I’m left panting, trying to catch my breath between the sobs that wrack through my entire body and rattle in my soul. The blindfold is removed, and I blink rapidly as my eyes adjust to the sudden brightness. Wes is kneeling between my legs, looking at me with a disgusting smile on his face.
“Talk!” he barks, and I cringe away, noticing for the first time that Bernardo is no longer holding me.
I scramble away, curling up into a ball to shield myself from his eyes. He grabs my hair and uses it to pull my head back, so I’m looking up at him once again.
“Tell us everything you know about Maksim. We don’t care if it’s something as in-fucking-significant as what flavor toothpaste he used. We want it ALL,” Wes orders.
I flinch at the bite in his tone, feeling some of my hair tear from my scalp at the sharpness of my involuntary action. I want it all to stop, and I don’t know any other way to make that happen apart from giving them what they want. I close my eyes, feeling both of theirs on my body, and my skin crawls. I swallow back the bile in my throat, the acrid taste burning my tongue and making me cough.
“Now!” Bernardo shouts.
Even though he lacks the authority Wes seems to wield, it sends a jolt of realization through me. These two men are monsters and while one has all the power, both of them can destroy me.
16
LUKA
I'm absolutely fucking livid, and I’ve almost done everything but rip my arms out of the sockets in my attempts to get out of this damn chair. I need to get to those bastards, so I can tear them to fucking shreds for touching her. My Evelina.
Even though they're hurting her, Evelina still doesn't fucking tell them anything, and I'm torn between frustration and admiration for the beautiful, yet fiercely stubborn young woman.
When I watched the security footage at Maxim’s house, there were blank periods of snow filled space during the times he’d held his get-togethers, so I was unable to glean any new intel when I watched through the footage. I'm no fool, I know what often happened at those little get-togethers, but I also understand that powerful men think themselves omnipotent. Powerful men like to brag, and bragging often carries small seeds of truth within the exaggeration. Evelina, having been present at these events, must have gained a great deal of information that could be invaluable to our organization.
Names, faces, even the smallest of their lies would give us weapons against them, but right now all I see is Evelina. All I see is the woman I want being touched by hands that aren't mine, by men whose days are now fucking numbered.
I can't look away from the sight in front of me, and the sounds coming through those speakers will fucking haunt me forever. The whimpers and blood-curdling screams leaving Evelina’s mouth as Wesley violates her body reverberate off the walls of this room, drumming into my skull until I can't hear anything else.
When I hear my name spoken, I fucking lose it. Desperate to get to them, I focus all my strength on escaping from the chair, bloodying my wrists as the rope twists and cuts into them. The creak of the metal as it bends, and the rattle of bolts as I attempt to use force to get my arms loose with everything I have, spur
me on to try harder. The cacophony of Evelina’s cries acts like a shot of adrenaline within my bloodstream, pulsing through me, and feeding the white hot fury that drives me.
No matter what I do, the chair and the ropes won't fucking give, but I keep fighting against my restraints until I'm a panting, fiery mess of sweat and blood. I can't get out, I can't shut off the screen, I can’t make the gut-wrenching sight of the two men torturing Evelina disappear, and I can't stop them from hurting her.
I hear the door open behind me, but I don't care enough to turn and see who is standing at the threshold. If I weren't tied to this fucking chair, I'd smash the skull of whoever it is until they're a bloody, unrecognizable mess. They can do whatever the fuck they want to me because I fucking deserve it for handing Evelina over to be fucking tortured like this. Somewhere on the journey here, I started to see her as something more than a toy, more than my fucking prisoner.
I still want to hurt her, though, to make her cry, so I can lick the tears from her soft, porcelain skin. Nothing has changed regarding my desires, but the final outcome would be the complete antithesis of my original intent to kill her. I no longer want to kill her… I want to claim her for myself.
A voice speaks, and I grit my teeth as the familiar tone reaches my ears. Fucking Pavlo.
“Isn't she a stunning sight, Luka?” he says, coming up behind me and placing a hand on my shoulder.
I jerk away from him. Too fucking angry that after everything we’ve been through, he turned around and stabbed me in the back, the first chance he could.