by Amaya Black
Captive
Amaya Black
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to all my readers new and old. Thank you to my family, you mean so much to me. Short and sweet this time guys. Short and sweet. Thank you.
Prologue
Astrid
The sun was going down outside and it was painting some extremely brilliant colors. It was also starting to cool down because the temperature outside had been reading extremely high. A heatwave had been sweeping across the country and it hadn't left Chicago untouched.
knew I looked crazy for the way I was dressed. I had on a faded black Chicago Bulls crew neck sweatshirt that I had borrowed from my brother before he'd left for Afghanistan. I missed him a lot and I somehow felt protected by wearing it.
Starring off into space as I walked with my best friend Nova at my side, I shook my head. My future seemed so completely unsure these days and I wished that Alex was here to help me through what was going to come next. My little legs kept stride with Nova's as we headed to the restaurant where I worked on the weekends to pick up my last paycheck. The place was closing down because the owner was retiring.
Cars honked at us as they drove by and Nova flipped them the bird. "I swear, I hate Chicago sometimes."
"You ever think about just leaving and moving away?" I stopped us dead in our tracks and took her in. "My momma and daddy are moving soon but I don't think they want me with them."
"I think about moving away from this place all the damn time," Nova shrugged. "Things are gonna work themselves out. We're gonna be living in big houses and rich looking back on days like this and laughing."
I frowned, hoping she was right. "Maybe."
We continued walking and finally reached the restaurant. Nova opted to wait outside in the heat as this was only going to take a few minutes. This place had become the bane of my existence for more than one reason. There were a few cars parked outside and I took note that none of them looked like one in particular. Inside, I found the owner’s daughter at the counter. Svetlana smiled when she saw me and as I approached, she reached under the counter. The white envelope housing my final check was there. I gave the place a once over and checked one corner in particular.
"Hey Astrid," Svetlana smiled sweetly.
"Hi," I returned the salutation.
"Can't believe this might be the last time I see you," she frowned, and I think tears were threatening to spill over.
I didn’t want to cause a scene. She handed the check over to me and I opened it to check the amount. It seemed wrong.
"This is too much," I said.
"Dad gave everyone a little extra on their checks even the weekend people," she smiled again.
"Oh wow," I replied. "Is he around? I want to say thank you."
"No," she replied. "I'm running things for the night. I'll let him know."
We both looked around again and again my eyes landed on the booth where I usually served. It was eerily empty, and I couldn’t remember ever seeing this place not crowded with the Russian clientele that ate here hoping to get a taste of home. A taste of the Motherland, as they had told me while tipping generously. Damn, I was going to miss those tips. Especially, since I was going to need them more than ever.
"Well," Svetlana said coming from around behind the counter. "I guess this is goodbye."
She pulled me into a warm hug, smelling of vanilla bean and lavender. For just a few moments it began to calm my senses. I was slightly jealous of Svetlana though. In the fall, she'd be off to college somewhere and all of this would be a distant memory.
"I guess it is," I stepped out of the hug. "See ya around."
With my check in hand, I gave her a small goodbye. Taking one last glance at the booth in the corner, I exited back out into the warm night air. Nova was sitting on the curb but stood up when she saw me. Tears were threatening to overwhelm me, but I had to get away from the place first.
I didn't want anyone to see me crying.
When I was finally around the corner, and Nova finally caught up, I let it all go. It felt like a river was rolling down my face and I couldn't stop the tears from falling.
"Oh my God," Nova tried to pat my back but I shook her off. "You’ll get another job, Astrid."
I managed to compose myself just enough. "That's not it. You don't get it, Nova. I screwed up."
She frowned at me. "What do you mean?"
Still crying, my hand eased to the hem of Alex's sweatshirt. Slowly, like sand falling through an hourglass, counting down for some unknown event, I lifted it. When my stomach came into view, I saw Nova's eyes go wide as hell. For a few moments, neither of us said anything.
"Is this why you've been walking around in this heat with a sweatshirt on?"
I nodded. "My parents are going to kill me."
"What about the father?"
I bit my lip. "I can't get in touch with him. I've tried and I've tried but I can't find him. It happened only one time."
"Oh my God, Astrid....you're parents are going to kill you," she repeated my words back to me.
"Fuck!" I screamed.
"Have you thought through all your options?"
"I don't want to get an abortion. I decided to have unprotected sex..."
Nova cringed. "Why would you let someone raw dog you? I could seriously slap you."
Her words caused me to laugh as I dried my face on Alex's sweatshirt. If he were here, we would have come up with a plan by now. He would have told me how to break the news to our parents. Instead, he was in a war zone a million miles away fighting for our country.
"Shut up..."
"I can't believe little Ms. I'm waiting Till Marriage gave it up is all," Nova stated with bunny quotes and we started walking again.
She eventually wrapped her arms around me as we did so. "I know...but it felt right at the time."
"Well, who was it?"
I shook my head. "Just a guy, I thought I knew him a little better than I did but clearly not."
My feet stopped walking and Nova stopped too. We were under a street lamp starring at each other. She brushed my hair out of my face and gave me a small smile.
"I'm scared," I whispered.
"I know," she replied. "Your momma scares the hell out of me. But I think your father is the worst...his silent judgment."
"Will you stay there with me when I tell them?"
She nodded. "I got you, Astrid. We're the Cosmic Girls."
Her words made me smile. We had bonded in sixth grade when we realized that our names had to do with the cosmos.
Little Star... the thought sent a shiver down my spine as the words entered into my mind. I hadn't even thought them, but it was as though someone had whispered them to me on the wind. I never wanted to hear that fucking name ever again. It had dripped from his lips like sticky sweet honey.
Valentin Safaryan, from the moment he had entered into Moskova with his Russian gangster friends, had been a plight on my senses. Smiling that smile and flirting with every girl in sight until I landed in his orbit. He had made Dimitri, the owner make sure that I was the only one that served his booth.
Little Star...he had called me because of my name.
I had known better.
Men like that only wanted one thing.
Girls like me had only meant one thing.
Conquest.
Honestly, telling my parent that I was pregnant had probably been the easiest thing I had ever done. They had grilled me over and over again, but Nova had held my hand through everything. She had even held it as they revealed to me their plans to move to Florida even sooner and that I would be all by my lonesome. She held my hand when they told me that they would not be responsible for raising the child growing in my stomach.
I hadn't cried.
The entire thing had gone as well as I could have expected. I had sat and watched as my father's eye twitched and he gritted his teeth but said nothing. He was the silent type; he'd spent his time in the military and it had done something to him. Emotion rarely ran rampant across his face. His smooth brown skin unmarred by worry or frown lines because he chose to give no emotions with his face.
"Do you know what you're going to do with your life?" he asked finally.
I looked between him and my mother. She had stood there beside him while he sat, her hand on his shoulder. I took after her in appearance. My mother was petite and light-skinned. Her mother had been white and her father had been black and she had passed her skin color along to me.
"No, sir," I'd replied and swallowed still gripping Nova's hand.
I could feel the heat coming off my best friend but she never let go of my hand. She was my anchor in a sea of worry and fear.
"Life is coming fast, Astrid. I hope you figure it out but you can't come with us to Florida. My sister is still here and if you speak with her, I'm sure she can help you a little more."
"Aunt Kit?" I'd asked.
"Yes," my father said. "I'll call her in the morning.
He and his sister didn't see eye to eye. They rarely talked but for him to even mention her to me told me that he was trying to help. I'd nodded.
"Can I be excused?" I'd asked.
"Yes, but in the morning, we need to give you a timeline for being out of this apartment. The movers are coming this week."
I'd stood and nodded with Nova following me to my room. The breath I'd let out from between my lips as I closed the door, was one I didn't even realize that I'd been holding onto. Nova and I crashed on my bed. I don't know how I would have made it through without her there to hold my hand. Thoughts of my big brother drifted into my head.
Our father who art in heaven... I began to recite the Lord's Prayer and asked God to keep him safe and bring him home to us in one piece. Eventually, with a blanket draped around the two of us, Nova and I drifted off to sleep.
Around eight a.m., the next morning my mother came in and woke both of us. She gently stirred me awake and I came through, the morning light streaming through my curtains at just enough of an angle that it gave her a shining halo.
"Morning girls," my mother said.
"Everything okay?" I'd asked.
Her brown eyes immediately went to my stomach, but she held back any harsh words that she'd wanted to say and instead replied with, "Your dad has already talked to Kit. She wants you there within the hour, her and Rhonda will make a place for you."
"Mom are you sure I can't come to Florida with you guys?"
She winced. "No, sweetie."
I nodded, holding back tears. "I get it. Your favorite is away fighting a war. Don't worry about it, Momma. I'll never ask you or daddy for anything ever again."
Surprise flew onto her features as I stormed over to my closet. Nova looked between the two of us. I pulled down a pink suitcase that I had hardly ever used and started stuffing clothes into it. That was the last time I ever really had a conversation with my parents. It took me all of fifteen minutes to pack my life into a suitcase and never look back.
My Aunt Kit had her daughter Rhonda over to pick me up within forty minutes and that was that. Slipping into the car and driving three miles away to a townhouse that I had no idea how they afforded, I never looked back. I didn't allow myself to fall apart.
Even when Alexandra Rose Davis had come into the world howling, loudly, I didn't cry or wish for a different outcome. As we starred into each other eyes, I knew only a few things were for certain. That I was going to hustle extremely hard for her; that I would never fold, never break.
But that I would always protect her no matter what.
And the man that had helped to give her life; he would remain a shadowy figure as he had always been.
He would never know about her.
Never.
Chapter 1
Valentin
My father was still out there somewhere in the streets of Chicago, with wounded pride and revenge etched into his heart. He was going to do everything in his power to take what he deemed as his birthright.
He wanted the Bratva and he didn't mind killing his own flesh and blood for it.
I swirled the razor around in the sink and watched as the water turned bubbly. The shaving cream dispersing into a foamy white matter that seemed to float. Quickly, I dried it on the towel that was slung low on my hips and then placed it on the counter.
Everything was neatly organized and in its spot. Despite the chaos going on around me, everything in my bathroom was organized and in its own spot. Even my cousin Liam's housekeeper knew to be careful when moving things.
I didn't like it and she liked her job.
She was a sweet old lady though. I just didn't want her throwing off my day because it my toothbrush was facing the wrong way. Or because the mouthwash bottle was to the left instead of where I'd placed it on the right.
Everyone one possessed quirks about themselves. My own was containing chaos and I did it very well. It was what made me effective in my job as the underboss of the Bravta. Chaos was like a virus but if contained, things could run smoothly.
My father was chaos.
He was a virus infecting everything he touched.
He would be dealt with.
Currently, I was dealing with his wife.
Katia Derevko Safaryan, was the second wife of my father Viktor. She had been a mastermind in the plot to kill both Liam and me. My father hadn't been smart enough to pull off stealing the family jewel and trying to take an entire organization like it was candy.
Turning off the light to the bathroom, I entered back into my bedroom. It was decorated in golden hues with splashes of silver. Despite the fact that I was dark and moody and most of the time, I couldn't allow the space I lived in to be dark.
Laid perfectly across my bed was an Armani suit. Black dress pants with a crisp line down the middle, along with a with collared shirt and a black silk tie. It was pretty much the same outfit I wore every single day. My closet was full of them.
Once it was on my body, and my shoes were on my feet, so shiny you would have thought moonlight was streaming from them, I left my room and knocked on the door across the hall. The door had a lock on the outside, which I popped open and entered to find my new stepmother sitting in a chair wearing a negligee waiting with a martini in her hand. The tv that she had on the wall had been turned down as some morning talk show host talked and made background noise.
Fuck, I thought to myself.
I could see why Viktor had married her. Her legs, that were crossed elegantly, went on for forever. The hem on the negligee threatening to spill all of her secrets. One dainty strap had slipped off her shoulder and her thick strawberry blonde hair was tousled.
She smiled when she saw me, "Good morning, Valentin."
Her voice always managed to send chills over my spine; it felt like a wicked mambo was being danced all along my backbone. Katia didn't fool me though. She was every bit the pit viper I suspected her to be, dressed up in a beautiful package.
"Morning," I replied and kept my gaze level with her.
It would be too easy to rake her body over with my gaze. Albeit, I wanted to but I wouldn’t allow it. It would be giving into what Katia wanted and I couldn't do that. Behind those eyes was a woman who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.
Power.
"So...what's on the agenda for t
oday?"
"I have a few meetings to attend to," I leaned against the door intentionally not giving much information.
"And what else...it's not like I can plot much," she crossed and uncrossed her legs.
Fuck, my brain groaned again.
She lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip, the green of the olive spinning in the bottom of the glass. Katia tipped it until it all disappeared down her slim throat. God, I needed to get out of here. I was having the most impure thoughts about this woman and her body and from the look on her face she could tell.
"I thought," I shifted my stance. "That you might like to go out tonight."
A smile graced her face making her look like a cat that had caught a canary in its paws. She was a predator; I'd give her that. "Wouldn't you be worried I'd make a break for it?"
I smiled, "You'd be dead before a sound ever escaped your pretty little throat."
Her smile lingered and she got up and came dangerously close to me. She reached out and touched my chest. "I'll say it again, I should have met you before I met your father."
"I'll take that as a yes," I looked down at her hand and then casually peeled it away from me.
"What time should I be ready?"
"Make it eight," I replied. "Liam will be bringing breakfast by in a bit."
She looked down at her hand that I had removed, a thought already making its way through her mind. As her body sashayed back to where she'd been sitting, she replied, "I've already drank my breakfast, but I am running low on vodka. Be a good stepson and have more brought up to me."
"Will do," I nodded and turned to leave, but not before seeing her cross and uncross those stems of hers on more time.
Slamming the door behind me, I popped the lock back on. I adjusted the tie around my neck and headed downstairs. I had somewhere I needed to be. Instead of going into the kitchen to see if Liam was there, I shot him a text with instructions for Katia.
I wasn't just letting her out to play tonight for fun.
I wanted to see how she would react, what she would do.
Maybe my father would come and try to reclaim her.