Another contemplative silence fell. Then Pavel nodded. “Agreed. You ready to do this, Adrik?”
“Yes, boss.” I wouldn’t let them down.
Several minutes later, I headed down the road in one of the Bratva’s vehicles with the full support of the Popovs. Though I was heading out on my own, I wasn’t completely alone in this. I knew they were watching, waiting to assist if necessary. They were stationing soldiers everywhere. Lev, Dominik, and Sacha were all participating, even though they were no longer part of the Bratva. Even Pavel and Alexei, who rarely, if ever, involved themselves in Bratva dealings, were prepared to help in this mission. One of their own had been taken, so they wouldn’t let anything stop them from getting her back. They were entrusting me to not let them down. My job was to try to reason with Damien, talk him down from whatever revenge plan he had in mind.
Would he listen to me? Would I be able to reason with him? Could I convince him to let Annika go?
Could I somehow bring back the Damien I’d once known?
Or was he too far gone to save?
I didn’t know. All I could do was try.
My speedometer turned over one mile, so I stopped the car and picked up my phone to call Damien.
This was by far the worst mission I’d ever been on.
I had the sinking feeling tonight I was going to have to choose.
Damien or Annika.
Because I couldn’t possibly have both.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Annika
When Damien lifted that knife toward me, I couldn’t look. I couldn’tseewhat he was about to do to me. So, I closed my eyes and screamed.
To my utter shock, and relief, he only chopped off a chunk of my hair, then snickered and left, slamming the door behind him. Moments later, a loud scraping noise came from out in the hallway. Was he hauling a chair or some other piece of furniture in front of the door?
Then, his quiet footsteps echoed down the hallway, leaving me in silence.
I tried not to dwell on the fact that the man who’d attacked me at my concert, viciously stabbing me over and over in an attempt to kill me, now held me captive in a small cabin in the woods. I tried not to think about the fact that this psychopath was Adrik’s younger brother.
Pushing those thoughts aside, I used my bound hands to push myself into a sitting position.
I might not be the bravest person in the world, but I wasn’t about to sit idly back and wait for Damien to come back and kill me. I had no idea what kind of sick game he had planned. I had to get out of here.
Now that I was alone, I could plan my escape.
As a Popov, I’d been trained in different methods of escape in the event I was ever in such a situation. Most people didn’t know how to free themselves from duct around their wrists or that it was actually quite easy if done right.
Raising my bound hands above my head, I yanked them down hard and pulled my wrists apart at the same time.
The tape snapped, freeing my hands.
Rubbing my sore wrists, I grinned.Thank you, Papa, for showing me that trick when I was a little girl.
Using the edge of the tub, I pulled myself up and spilled over the side onto the floor. Carefully maneuvering to my feet, I hobbled over to the sink. Opening the cabinet, I searched for a weapon.Anyweapon. But there was nothing useful in the cabinet.
I might not have a real weapon, but I could scrape my fingernails over Damien’s face if he got close enough, and that might startle him enough for me to slip past him. I had elbows I could jab into tender areas. I had teeth I could use to bite. I would use anything I could come up with to escape this creep.
Nodding to myself, I hobbled back to the tub and settled onto the floor. Leaning against the tub, I waited. He would never expect me to leap up and attack him.
While I waited for him to come back, I forced myself through a series of physical therapy exercises, mostly to keep my mind occupied, but also to try to remind my leg that it wasn’t dead and needed to come back to life soon. The tingling that had begun when Adrik first assisted me earlier in the week returned again, filling me with hope that I would walk again someday soon.
Adrik.