Caterina swallows hard, her eyes darting to me. She’s shaking now, but she starts to sink to her knees.
“Caterina, no!” I start to call out, but one of the men drives the butt of his gun into my stomach, making me double over coughing. “Cat—”
She sinks down, and Alexei cackles again, his hand wrapping tightly in her hair. “God, you must fucking love him. Or else he knows how to give you his cock, to inspire such devotion. But don’t worry, mama bear.” He tips her chin up, grinning down at her. “I’ll fuck you until you can’t remember any cock but mine.”
Alexei tightens his grasp in her hair then, hauling her up to her feet. “Alright, stand down,” he says, almost carelessly, waving at the men. “Keep an eye on them, though, and keep them restrained until the women are loaded up. When we’re on our way, you can release them. Or—” he amends, “leave them bound, so they can’t follow. Make sure every other member of security is dead. Do a sweep.” He waves a hand, and some of the men break off obediently. “They can figure out their own way loose. Gives us time to get away.”
Then, he looks at me, his blue eyes piercing as his gaze fixes squarely on mine. “Be careful, Viktor Andreyev. If you come after me, the price your family pays will be dear. Don’t make your wife’s sacrifice for nothing. And don’t even think about going back to Manhattan and picking up where you left off. You have no home now, no business. Beg your Italian or Irish friends for help, if you can. But you are finished.”
He grabs Caterina then, shoving her towards me. “Say your goodbyes while we load up your friends.”
“Let them say goodbye too—” she starts to say, and Alexei’s hand comes up in a flash, striking her hard across the cheek.
“No more,” he grinds out. “You’ve bargained all you can,tsarina. You get goodbyes. No one else. See how much your friends care for you after that, since you already bargained with their lives too.”
“Max—” Sasha’s mouth is swollen, but she manages his name, looking over at him with eyes filling with tears. “Max, I’m sorry—”
He strains against the men holding him, his face going from crumpled to fierce in a matter of moments. “Stay strong, Sasha!” he calls out. “You’ve survived this long. You can survive until we can come for you.”
It’s difficult for Alexei’s men to keep ahold of any of us now. Liam is trying to see Ana, twisting past the men who have blocked him in. “Ana!” he calls out, but there’s no answer. She’s passed out cold, from pain or fear or both, and one of Alexei’s soldiers hoists her unceremoniously over his shoulder, carrying her out towards Sasha.
“You despicable fucks.” Luca is trying to get free, too, his gaze desperately searching out his wife’s. “She’s pregnant, I swear to god if she loses the baby—”
“What does it matter to you?” Alexei laughs. “You’ll never see her again, Romano. Who knows what will happen to the child if it’s born. Perhaps I’ll keep her until she gives birth and find a use for the baby once it's old enough to turn a profit.”
Luca’s face is red with rage, and he jerks hard against the hands holding him. Alexei lets out a long-suffering sigh.
“Get them under control,” he snaps. Luca lets out a grunt of pain as one of the men holding him punches him hard, another delivering a shot to the kidney that has him nearly falling to the floor in pain. I want to do something, to stop what’s happening to him and what will certainly happen to the other men soon, but Caterina is being pushed towards me, and I know I only have moments with her.
“Viktor—”
“You shouldn’t have done this,” I tell her, shaking my head. “Alexei will hurt you. He’ll do terrible things to you simply because you’re my wife, and the others—”
“It’s okay,” she breathes, her eyes fixed on mine, her voice low to keep him and the other soldiers from hearing. She reaches out, gripping the front of my shirt, bringing me closer. “You’ll save us. I know you will. I have faith in you, and in Luca, and Liam too, even. Whatever I have to endure until then, it’s worth it to keep you alive.”
Her words stop any that I might have been on the verge of saying. I look at her, my gaze searching her face. “You mean that.” It feels unbelievable, having left things as we did. Without her knowing that I’ve had a change of heart, or how I feel—
“We don’t have time, Viktor,” Caterina whispers, her voice low and desperate. “We don’t have enough time to say anything, really. But yes, I mean it. Whatever we’ve done, whatever we’ve said to each other, I couldn’t watch you die in front of me. You saved me once. You’ll do it again. I know you will.” She breathes in sharply, her hands tightening in my shirt, and then my Caterina, my wife, lurches towards me with a wild look in her eyes that I’ve never seen before.
She drags me to her, her mouth crashing down on mine. She kisses me as fiercely as I could ever have imagined she might, her tongue plunging into my mouth as she kisses me like it’s the last time, like she’s memorizing my lips. And I know that she is because it very well could be.
I want to touch her, to hold her, to gather her in my arms and never let her go. I want to feel her body in my hands, her hair, her face, but my hands are bound behind my back, and during this last kiss with my wife, I can’t touch her at all.
“Caterina, I l—”
“Shh.” She pulls away, shaking her head. “Tell me when we’re free of this, Viktor. Not here, not with them.”
“What if—”
“No.” Her voice is firm, and she reaches up, clasping my face in her hands. “You’ll save us. I know you will. We’ll be waiting for you.”
“Hurry up, bitch.” Alexei’s voice cuts through the air. “Enough of this shit. You have ten seconds.”
“I’ll take care of them,” Caterina whispers hurriedly. “The girls. I won’t let him hurt them, whatever I have to do. I promise. I—”
His men stride forwards, grabbing her, pulling her off of me. I try to lunge forwards to go to her, but there are hands on me too, dragging me back towards Luca and the others. Luca is slumped on the carpet, bleeding from his nose and mouth. Alexei grins cruelly at me as he grabs Caterina by the chin, forcing her to look at all of us as Yelena and Anika are carried out to the waiting vehicles.
“Remember this when I’m fucking you,” he says, his lips near her ear but his voice loud enough to carry. “This is the last thing I want you to see.”
He nods to his men, and they surge forwards, all of them descending on us at once. Luca is already beaten to the point of passing out, but the rest of us—Max, Liam, Levin, and myself, are instantly their focus as if Alexei has flipped a switch. I hear Max’s grunts, Liam’s groan of pain, and then I catch one more glimpse of Caterina’s pale, tearful face before a fist drives my face sideways, and I lose sight of her.
When I manage to dodge the blows long enough to look again, she’s gone, and so is Alexei. The door is hanging open, but I can’t see her or any of them.
They’re gone.
I might never see them again.
The next blow knocks me to the floor, and I know the one after it will knock me unconscious. But at this point, I don’t care.
When it comes, I welcome the darkness.