Eve started to shake on his shoulder, but he showed no sign of weakness, keeping his face emotionless.
“I have no quarrel with you. They call you a beast, but unlike my men, all I see is emptiness. I can’t tell if violence excites you or this is just a job to you.” McDaniel shrugged. “To each his own, I guess.”
“You still need me around?” he asked.
Vadim had no answer for McDaniel, because McDaniel hit a sore spot without realizing it. An empty vessel, perfect for corruption. His father had said that to him once, deeming him the perfect canvas. Maybe Maksim Solonik trained him too well.
“Nah. Clean-up can be done by Petrovich’s grunts. What are you doing to do with the bitch after you’re done with her?”
“Eve Valentin will cease to exist. Tell Petrovich that. Any one searching for her body will find nothing.” A partial truth, but good enough for McDaniel it seemed, because the other man nodded, turning to his own conquest.
Vadim left the Valentin house, sweeping past the dead guards at the entrance. The street emptied when their crew made their appearance, but Gustav had the nearest police districts under his pocket. No help from the local authorities would turn up.Perfect.
He opened the passenger door of his truck. His gift certainly made matters a lot more difficult. Once he laid her down on the leather seats, Eve tried to kick at him again. When that didn’t work, she clawed at his face. He gripped her wrists, using his body to pin her down.
“Behave,” he gritted the words out. They weren’t in the clear yet. One or two of McDaniel’s men probably still lingered in one of the corners of the street, keeping watch. Doubtless, they’d report any thing they saw to their boss. Eve spat out the piece of cloth in her mouth. He closed his hand over her lips, wincing at the feel of teeth on his fingers.
“I’m sorry,” he said in advance, then found the pulse point in her neck and pressed down.
Her blue eyes filled with terror, but he didn’t stop, not until she lay unconscious on the back seat. Eve didn’t know yet that there was nowhere in the world she was safe. Not for a fallen mafia princess. If Vadim hadn’t insisted she be the payment for the job, she’d be someone else’s new property to break and wreck apart.
Vadim couldn’t have that, because five years ago, he’d made his decision. Eve Valentin would be his, in every sense of the word.Soon.
****
Rough men with vicious looks in their eyes and hands that cut like knives held her down. No matter how hard Eve fought, they’d only beat her harder.
“Scream for me, bitch,” said the black-eyed man unzipping his jeans.
The fight went out of her for a second. What reason did Eve have to live? Her sister was dead, and so were her mother, her father, and the rest of the Valentin family. All she’d ever known, eradicated in a couple of hours. She’d never fit in with her perfect family, but they were her flesh and blood.
Now, they were all gone.
No reason to resist these men, these monsters who got their rocks off seeing her bleed, save one. Vengeance for the one man who Eve thought had been her friend, a killer whose hands had been stained with blood a long time ago, but had been kind enough to ask an awkward, shy, and chubby girl to dance at her sister’s wedding.
Eve jolted awake, with soft and unfamiliar sheets tangled around her naked body. Only a nightmare, except when she looked down, she saw evidence of the truth. Bruises colored her sides, her thighs, but they appeared to be tended to. She pressed a finger over one, sniffing, surprised to smell some kind of ointment.
Even the shallow cuts one killer had made with his knife across her stomach, had been taken care of. Eve fingered the gauze. No. What was she doing? She had no time for this, to wonder which good Samaritan had taken care of her.
The last she remembered, she fought Vadim tooth and nail. Her mother had warned her, lectured her all those years ago after seeing her and Vadim dance at Clarissa’s wedding. Men like Vadim lied all the time, and trust didn’t apply to them.
Contract killers didn’t understand the concept of loyalty, had no morals, and would agree to any job if the numbers were right. Payment. Eve recalled Vadim telling one of his comrades that. Vadim had shot one of the men about to rape her in the groin for forgetting that little detail. She swallowed, recalling how her body froze completely in place. She’d known what Vadim was, heard the stories of him, but seeing how easily he resorted to violence up and close and personal, was an entirely different matter.
Eve needed a plan, but first, she needed to know where she was.
She didn’t dare move, or make any noises but studied her surroundings. A plain looking bedroom, the furniture minimalist. The door remained open, revealing a hallway, a flight of stairs. She held her breath. Freedom or a trap?
Wind ruffled her hair, and she found its source. The bedroom also led to an open balcony. Eve’s heart started on an erratic rhythm. Standing there, with his back turned to Eve, was her captor.