Threat: Follow up to Stranded but not Alone (Dragoslava Connection)

by Cora Blu

  Bethany

  Groggy, the last thing she remembered was Mark and a trap door under a rug on the floor.

  Inhaling to place her location, a dusty haze of dirt settled in her lungs squeezing a tear to roll from her eyes.

  Don’t panic, it doesn’t mean you’re in a grave in the ground. It could just be a dirty room.

  Yeah right…Impossible not to panic while she was stuffed under the shanty in the floor like a memento hidden by a child leaving a home they loved.

  You got through it once; you can get through it again. You’re stronger now. People will be looking for you, concentrate and find out what you can. Mikhail won’t sleep until he finds you.

  Bethany made out the sound of shoes scraping over a stone floor, the pungent scent of…vinegar…pickles. The cellar. She felt something around her wrists. Something was tied over her eyes, her other senses tripled in their awareness of her surroundings.

  She wasn’t alone. There was that personal space barrier she could feel being breeched by another person in the room. They stood to her left, breathing in short excited pulses.

  Under a haze, she continued to listen. Thankfully, she could feel her hands…tied above her head. Stretched out on a cold surface, Bethany tried to move her legs, and the same thing, they were tied down to whatever she was lying on. Panic tore through her.

  Figure out where you are there’s always a moment to escape if you’re ready. Greg’s words came to her. Focus on what you can’t distinguish and everything else will fall away.

  A burning sensation moved over her throat her neck then realized it was pulled back at an unnatural angle. She knew what it felt like to be tied down, to be vulnerable unable to protect herself.

  Lying there staring into her eyelids, putting all her strength into staying coherent, she could feel the length of her hair trapped beneath the ropes around her throat. The familiar scent of her coconut conditioner filled her senses.

  Silence was short lived.

  The sound of shoes scratching over stone echoed around the room, getting progressively closer. And there was no mistaking that spicy perfume only one person wore—Glenda.

  Before she could take another swallow, a sharp pointy pressure hit her skin.

  The hard tip of a blade separated the air against her skin as it touched her skin sending a fissure of nausea to pulse up to the bottom of her tonsils the sensation causing her to salivate with the need to scream.

  Please don’t cut me…please.

  She forced at the line of reality and strength that held her together and begged her arms to break free, but the blade ran along the rope a sawing motion tugged at her hair, and then the tension of her hair relaxed. Loose strands fell off her face, brushing over her ears. The weight of her thick hair was gone.

  They cut her hair above the rope.

  “Oh was that rude of me not to ask how short of a cut you wanted? Like you asked before you took Mikhail.”

  That was Glenda’s voice.

  Mentally Bethany shook her head. Glenda played her all year, pretending to be her friend and sitting up with her when she went through her breakup with Mikhail.

  Had she and Mark conspired to hurt her and Mikhail together?

  For what?

  She and Mark hadn’t dated long enough to Bonnie and Clyde up—so what was she missing? What had all of them missed between those two?

  “Bethany—poor little Bethany,” Glenda rasped her voice dripping with venom. “You were always so critical of Mikhail. Every woman in that office has had her eye on him. The wealthiest, handsome single man in Europe and Ms. Perfect comes along and no one else matters. He couldn’t see anybody but the uptight Bethany. The diversity savior. Did you know he hired you to replace me?” She laughed more of a cackle. “I know that’s ridiculous. There’s no one like me, or there wasn’t before the surgery, now I’m not even me. But that’s over.”

  What crazy loop is her mind on, Bethany thought.

  She got quiet. Too quiet. What was she doing? The minute clicking of someone, texting on a cell phone next to her ear, she recognized. Then the voice ‘you’re message has been sent’ followed.

  “When you broke up with him, he stopped dropping in at the bar after work. He stopped flirting with the women on the second floor in marketing. He wasn’t the same anymore, and you refuse to accept his apology as if you were so perfect. You killed his sexy, lively personality. He and I were a couple and when I left the hospital after my accident he’d replaced me with you, given you my position and status as his girlfriend.”

  Bethany’s head pulled back at a severe angle hung off the edge of whatever they’d strapped her to, her arms tethered painfully above her head. The ropes burned the tender skin of her wrists and…and…oh hell…her feet too. They’d spread her out like an offering on a cold hard slab.

  Something moved…touched her…played over her skin in slow spiraling circles.

  Don’t scream you’ll tip her off that you can hear.

  “I’ll save your hair as a memento and give it to my hair dresser. Mikhail seems to love this color. I think he’s tired of blonds and my natural red wasn’t his favorite, but that was years ago.”

  Glenda was certifiable.

  “If you’re awake in there, Bethany, you’re going to feel a little prick or maybe you won’t.” Her cackle set Bethany’s blood to boil. “Botox, I think, is the greatest invention the medical community has offered in the last twenty years. You’re a pretty woman; plain, but pretty so I’ll let you keep it forever. Too bad forever isn’t what it used to be—for you anyway.” The tip of something pointy prickled her skin around her navel. “No I should wait until we get you in the truck so it’ll last longer. Don’t worry it’s just a little Novocain, Botox concoction I put together. Mikhail and I will be the next mogul couple running Heinemann and Heinemann, like he promised two years ago,” Glenda prattled on to herself.

  Bethany had to stay focused. Not falling asleep was crucial to her making it out alive.

  “Don’t worry Bethany, I won’t hide your body the way Greg hid Yannik’s in the truck before he sent you the text message that your little friend couldn’t make it. We’re just waiting for Mark and the SUV. We’re going for a ride then I’ll come back for Mikhail. Oh, did you not recognize, Greg…my cousin the man who held you in the computer cabinet? He’s been watching you all summer at the office. Working one floor down, you never saw him, but he has a thing for American women.”

  You’ll survive.

  You’ll survive.

  You’re strong, you’ll survive.

  Chapter 24

  Mikhail

  Mikhail leapt from the chopper, bolting across the driveway to the chalet. Heart pounding he scanned the grounds searching for Greg. Snow fell thicker blurring his vision, but he had to find him and find Bethany.

  Running full out over the snow, he tore through the chalet, the great room, everywhere, and charged him coming out of his shanty. Seth came up behind him.

  His anger broke loose sending him tearing over the grounds, vengeance fisting his hands to plow into Greg. Greg bounced over the ground. Mikhail pounded his face mercilessly.

  Caught off guard, Greg threw wild punches to protect himself.

  “I’ll break your fucking neck for scaring her. Did you think you’d get away with it? Huh punk…did you?” Wild arcs of his arm carried each blow into Greg’s face and kidneys. “Where is Bethany!” he yelled, hearing something crunch under his fist.

  Greg got an arm between them shoving him off, blood rushing from his nose.

  He rolled onto the snow. Getting to his knees, he charged again. Greg on his feet, slamming Mikhail in the jaw, sent him flying backward. He hit the ground then got up ducking his head before charging and butting Greg in the gut sending him to the ground.

  Bright hot blood colored the layers of snow under the moonlight in blotchy of red. Shouts and screams filled the air.

  Mikhail felt hands come around him. Seth pulled him off. “G
o find Bethany. I’ll take care of him.” Seth shoved Greg to the other side as Crazy sprinted up from his horse and took the handoff.

  “Did you find her? Is she okay?”

  “Greg stalked Bethany for Mark. I have to go find Bethany,” Mikhail said swiping Greg’s blood from his face.

  Crazy yanked off his hat waving it at Greg. “Mikhail hired the stalker to watch his girl.” His face tensed. “…damn that’s messed up.”

  Greg shouted, “You don’t deserve, Bethany, treating her like a tramp…your whore. She needs a real man.”

  Crazy strangled the words to a moan with his hands around Greg’s throat.

  Mikhail knew there was an ounce of truth in those words, but not enough for him to walk away from his woman.

  “The chopper is going back to get the boy’s body. Go help Mikhail find Bethany. He’s in the far back barn. There’s a trap door in the floor. I’ll take this trash out.”

  “Mikhail…go find her,” Seth urged.

  He stumbled toward the barn pointing at Greg. “You tied her up like an animal. You sick bastard. I’ll see that you rot in prison for this.” If he went to prison, that wouldn’t help Bethany.

  Don’t kill him.

  “Mikhail, I got this, go find your woman.”

  ~~~CB~~~

  Simone came barreling from the kitchen sliding into Seth at the end of the walk. “Honey, everybody stop,” she announced, waving a picture frame through the air. “Glenda’s not who we think she is. Look at this old picture of the winter games.” She held a framed shot of the patrons from years ago and one from today. “Glenda came in saying she was getting something of Bethany’s for a search dog. She lied. Everything’s gone.”

  “Talk fast Simone, I have to go,” Mikhail forced dancing on the balls of his feet.

  “Can you wait a second? Guys it’s important.” Mikhail vibrated and waited. “On her bed was an empty syringe marked Botox, a satin bag with needles and a vile of Novocain. Also here in the picture, the woman next to Mikhail a few years ago?”

  “Nina…my ex, she moved to Switzerland…was in an accident and left the company. She never came back.” He stretched his neck to look after the truck getting away. “Simone come on what am I looking for?”

  “Just look…I took this the other day. Those eyes and those eyes,” pointing to Glenda and Greg. “They’re family. Now look at your ex Mikhail… same eyes.”

  “She had plastic surgery,” Seth announced what everyone else was thinking. “Glenda is Nina, the woman Mikhail dated two years ago.”

  Mikhail felt blood drain from his face that he couldn’t see her under all the changes. Those eyes…her red roots she kept bleached…how did he miss it? “I bet she’s working with Mark. We dated for a few weeks and when the diversity program started, she asked if I could send her back to Switzerland where her family’s from. She thought I was going to propose when I sent her out there.”

  Seth gave him a hard stare. “You couldn’t see it was the same woman?”

  He didn’t need this right now. “Don’t start with me on this. This is about me screwing around with a new woman every week. I gave that up, Seth.”

  “Brother I got your back, but you went through women like paper towels for a while there. Maybe that’s why you didn’t recognize Nina.”

  Reality was a bitch in ski jacket.

  Mikhail pushed back the truth then said, “I see Bethany and that’s all I want right now. Nina resigned after the car accident, and we lost contact. She left all her clients in a lurch; I had to deal with the backlash. Mark contacted her to do an exit meeting and that was the end. I never heard from her again.” He hesitated, thinking back on the year. “That’s when the animosity from Mark started after my rank change when grandfather went into semi-retirement then a few months ago when the program started to show a profit.”

  Seth said, “Nina, Glenda whoever she is wants Bethany dead. Let’s find her before it’s too late.”

  At the sound of a truck’s engine, every head turned to see a black SUV roar down the mountain road, snow spewing from the back tires.

  Mikhail shouted, “Forget the barn. That’s Mark’s truck, and I’ll bet Bethany’s in the back. Crazy get the horses on the trail. Go—go—go.”

  “He won’t get away with your woman,” Crazy shouted slapping him to rush to the horses, getting on the back. He bounded over to those still standing with their horse. A thundering cloud of hooves and snow poured down the mountain.

  Inside the chopper, Mikhail put on his headphones directing the pilot. “Follow that SUV down the mountain.”

  “Roger that,” he answered, and the chopper rose off the ground in a whirl of snow. It cleared the trees and followed the mass of horses thundering down the road.

  The night grew darker as they left the lights of the chalet. The truck came into view.

  Mikhail waved a hand manically through the air.

  “Get in front of the SUV and make it stop. I don’t care if you set in on the roof, my woman’s in there,” he shouted, clutching the microphone strapped to his face. What were they doing to Bethany? Pain cracked through him, flames burning up his heart. He had to find his woman.

  Seth tapped his shoulder, getting his attention.

  He followed his hand indicating snow flipping through the air to his left. Crazy’s big horse walked down the SUV hugging the curves of the mountainside, snow, like white fire burning through the forest, clearing a path, jumping over berms and hills. Mikhail’s heart thudded a merciless pressure behind his chest. The SUV bent the air, hurdling off through a narrow path the chopper would never find, ducking between the pines. Crazy followed.

  The crowd of his employees right behind him rushed down the snow-covered forest in a mad rush of hooves. Then he saw it. He felt it. Felt his common sense slipping from his mind and terror grinning over his shoulder standing at his back with a rifle ready to carry him into the fire for his woman.

  He shot a look as Seth now pointing to the ground, began cursing out into the air. “Dammit Sim…what are you doing?”

  Simone tore up the landscape plowing through the snow hunched over her horse, passing the others coming up alongside Crazy.

  Pride crushed Mikhail’s heart. His family was fighting by his side.

  Snowmobiles flooded the forest in a rush of hums and buzzing and glowing lights.

  A threat of an avalanche loomed from the surrounding mountains.

  “Get me down there, now!” he shouted, struggling with his seatbelt. His baby was out there. Visions of Simone being tortured last year filled his mind, blinding him to right or wrong. All he knew was he had to get down there. He couldn’t survive without his Bethany.

  The chopper swung around and got in front of the SUV.

  The forest opened. The chopper dipped, hovering closer to the SUV, blinding it with a tornado of white.

  “Stop that truck, hurry up!” Mikhail shouted. “I don’t care how.” He couldn’t breathe. Didn’t need to. He just needed to get to Bethany.

  The chopper rose high above the grove of trees and settled in the air low enough to make the truck swerve. He shone his flood light over the SUV. It glowed through the haze of flurries covering it now.

  The truck swerved, banking hard to the right, and Mikhail’s heart hurt. Black metal rolled and bounced over on its side, the sound of glass blowing out of the windows and metal slamming against the ground echoed through the mountains.

  Tires in the air covered in snow and grass. Glass shattered, spraying out over the blanketing snow. Tumbling, it rolled to the edge of the ravine, rocking on its side precariously close to the river. Any minute it would slip into the icy water drowning Bethany.

  No!

  “Down—down—down—now!” he shouted taking off his seat belt. He bolted from the chopper. Pulling the gun from his waistband, he started down the slope digging his heels into the snow for purchase. Seth followed and chased a large figure limping out of the driver seat, ducking into the shadows.r />
  “Go get your woman. I got this,” Seth tore off into the forest, pulling the gun from his back.

  Darting glances around the truck, Mikhail shrugged off his coat to lay over the broken glass in the window. He swung around hearing a familiar voice. Simone

  “Bethany okay?” she said eyes bright in the chopper light slicing through the darkening forest.

  He slung a hurried glance in her direction. “Simone get out of here! It’s not safe on the edge.”

  “Like hell I am. Where’s my husband?”

  A shadow filled in behind her. “I got her covered,” Crazy’s voice filled the air. “Mikhail I got this. Come on Simone, he went after the driver.”

  She took off running.

  Mikhail crawled over to the window closest to the ground, rocks stabbing him in the hands and knees hidden in the snow.

  Soft moans hit his ears, but they weren’t Bethany’s.

  Glenda!

  The SUV swiveled on its roof. At the back window, he peered inside. Bethany lay unconscious between the door and the seat. Mark on top of her and Glenda slumped against the window...moaning, blood splattered over her face.

  He climbed over glass on the driver’s seat that was tearing into his legs through the jeans and his hands through the gloves. With each step the truck rocked, the back end rising off the ground.

  “Mikhail, I knew you’d come for me.” Glenda squeezed out dragging herself over to him at the door. The truck rocked back and forth.

  “Stop moving. The truck could slide over.”

  She kept crawling. “We don’t need her Mikhail. You and I were going to be the next mogul couple for Heinemann’s. We were going to be rich.”

  Dismissing Glenda, he kept after Bethany to wake up. “Bethany wake up, baby. C’mon, get up,” he shouted.

  Glenda came closer. The truck rocked.

  Mikhail reached in shoving Glenda to the side. He had to get Bethany out before it slid any further. He got a hand under Mark while Glenda was still tugging on him to get out.

  The truck slid.

  He halted. Mark’s eyes opened.

  Someone pulled at his leg. He shot a look around to see one of his instructors. “Hold my feet. I have to get Bethany out. When I tell you pull me out.”