25
Isa
My mind spun through endless darkness, pain lurking at the edges of my brain as if a phantom memory. Cold grey eyes filled my vision as my stomach churned with nausea.
I jolted awake, my joints protesting the movement as I tried to propel myself forward. Metal rubbed at my wrists, stinging the already raw flesh as I peeled my eyes open. The pain at the base of my head made me groan, and I twisted my fingers to try to feel what had bound my wrists together.
It felt too familiar. Like the phantom of a memory I couldn’t quite grasp.
“Don’t move,” a quiet, feminine voice said. I glanced up from the floor, my eyes trailing up pant-clad legs and eventually to Faye’s sweet face. She’d abandoned the brunette wig she’d worn when she did my makeup in favor of white blond hair, icy blue eyes shining out of wide-set and angular eyes. “He tied you with barbed wire. It’s...better if you hold still.”
Her face twisted with regret as she met my eyes, and I resisted the urge to launch myself to my feet and force her to tell me why. I would never understand what I had done to warrant this kind of fate from a stranger. From someone I’d wanted to help.
“I know what you must think of me,” she said, huffing a laugh even as her eyes filled with tears. “What would you do to save someone you love?”
“Not this,” I said, wincing as I shifted my legs and met the same resistance that bound my wrists. Metal scraped against my ankles, tearing the skin apart and leaving me raw.
But the worst of the pain wasn’t my abused flesh. It wasn’t the memory of phantom shadows coming from me as barbed wire bit into my skin and held me beneath the water.
It was the hurt in my soul, the hollowness that settled inside me knowing someone had willingly put me in this situation. Someone had taken me away from Rafael, and she stared down at me with eyes full of regret. I wanted to hate her, to despise what she’d done, but even despite my words I had to wonder if there was anything I wouldn’t do to protect the baby when the time came.
And I knew without a doubt, the baby would be in danger just as much as I was, if not more.
“I just want my brother back,” Faye whispered, and I met her icy stare. Her eyes were filled with tears and she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. “I don’t...I don’t dothis.”
“Then what do you do that requires the skills to disguise yourself so effectively? I take it you aren’t just a run of the mill make-up artist,” I said, trying to shove down the empathy I felt for her. I shouldn’t feel bad for her, but the remorse on her face was genuine.
“I’m a thief: art, jewels, anything that will fetch a high price with my contacts.Neverpeople, Isa. I swear to you; I will do what I can to help you once I have Sacha back.”
Footsteps sounded from the other side of the door and Faye darted a nervous glance that way before bending down quickly. “Pretend to be asleep. The longer you’re unconscious, the more we can delay whatever he has planned.”
She sat up straight in her seat, fiddling with her fingers hurriedly in an effort to look bored as I forced my eyes to close. The breath wheezed in my lungs as I heard the door open. The steps that made their way down the plane walkway were unhurried and steadily paced. I felt him standing beside me, forcing myself to relax and hold as still as possible.
“I hoped she would be awake by now,” the male voice said.
“Sorry to disappoint,” Faye snapped, surprising me with the amount of vitriol in her voice. She was either very brave or very stupid to be so openly disdainful to a man who had her brother as leverage.
“That mouth of yours will be your undoing one of these days, Faye Rousseau.”
“Perhaps, but we both know I am worth far more to you alive than I am dead. Without me, who will find your precious diamond?” she asked, and I stored the information away for later. I wasn’t certain if Faye believed I would never live long enough to be an issue for her jobs down the line, or if she hoped to give me something to use against Pavel in the event I got free.
But at any rate, her full name and something Pavel very clearly wanted was worth remembering.
I would remember everything that happened, everything that was said, and hope that I could use it against whoever I decided needed to die for what they’d done.
“Hm,” Pavel grunted. “Eventually you will outlive your usefulness. This pretty face won’t last forever, and how will you find your way into art galleries and galas without it?”
“You underestimate what I can do with makeup, Kuznetsov. I could makeyoulook fuckable, and that’s saying something,” she snapped back.
Faye grunted as the sound of a hand cracking against skin erupted through the space. She fell silent, and it took everything I had to remain still. No matter what he’d done to her, I was in no position to help her.
I shouldn’t even want to.
The man shifted his weight, moving away from Faye as if he might walk back to the front of the plane. He stopped behind my back, pausing, and I felt his eyes on me.
Studying every breath as I fought for it.
The bottom of his shoe came down on the barbed wire wrapped around me, pressing my bound wrists into the floor and pushing the barbs deeper into my skin. I couldn’t stop the pained scream that tore free from my lips as my eyes snapped open, and the gleeful chuckle that came in response to my pain should have surprised me.