Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“Okay,” I said, turning to Jen. “Tell me what’s been happening.”
“A delivery came,” she said, and pointed. “It’s in the back.”
I followed her into the back room. “I can unpack it,” I told her. “You sit down, eat one of those pastries and get some coffee inside you, you look—”
I stopped in shock. Jen had moved aside, and I could see Baba sitting in an armchair. “What—”
The door slammed closed behind me and I spun around.
“Hello, Mrs. Aristov,” said Spartak Nazarov.
62
BRONWYN
I froze, staring, while my stomach plummeted. Spartak had a gun pointed right at me but it was him, the huge, muscled mass of him, so close, that terrified me. His hands looked as if they could crush my neck like a soda can.
“I’m sorry!” croaked Jen. Now I knew why she’d looked so pale. “Baba came to visit, she was going to surprise you. Then he walked in. He said he’d kill her, if I let you know he was here!”
I nodded quickly. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.” I looked between Jen and Baba. “Are you both okay?”
“Don’t worry about me,” said Baba. Her voice was weak, but she was glaring at Spartak, her eyes diamond-hard.
Spartak motioned with his gun. “Take out your phone,” he told me. “Unlock it and give it to your friend.” I did it and passed it to Jen, my hands shaking. “When we’re gone, call Radimir,” Spartak told Jen. “Tell him to call me. He has my number.”
Oh Jesus. I was so scared I thought I was going to throw up. Spartak knew he was going to lose the war, and this was his last-ditch attempt to turn things around. He was going to use me as bait and kill Radimir when he came to rescue me.
Spartak pushed me towards the rear door that led out to the alley. My mind was spinning. Run? He was right behind me. Scream, and hope the men at the front of the store hear me? Spartak could kill all three of us before they reached us. Fight? I had the switchblade Radimir gave me, but it was no match for a gun.
I opened the rear door. A car was parked in the alley, with two of Spartak’s men keeping watch. Spartak opened the trunk and then gestured to it mockingly.
I looked around frantically but there was no one passing by the alley, no one looking out of a window. No one to see what was happening. Fuck! What should I do?
Spartak leaned close. “In,” he rasped, his lips almost touching my ear. “Now.”
Heart racing, I climbed into the trunk. He smirked, staring at my thighs where my skirt had ridden up. I tugged it down, shuddering.
The trunk slammed shut, trapping me in a black, airless box. Then the engine started, and we roared away.
63
RADIMIR
I got the call when I was in a meeting with a city councilman. Bronwyn’s number, but it was her friend’s voice. “He took her! Come to the bookstore, quick!”
I didn’t have to ask who he was. I stood up and walked out of the meeting, leaving the councilman staring. I was only a block away and the traffic was barely moving: it would be quicker on foot. The instant the elevator hit the lobby, I ran.
The rain was pounding the streets, and I was soaked before I’d gone ten feet, but I barely noticed. Chyort! You fucking idiot! How could you leave her, even for a few hours? Where is he taking her? What is he doing to her, right now?
When I marched into the store, the guards I’d left were waiting for me, their heads hung. “He was already inside when we got here,” one of them told me. “He took her out the back, we never even saw them. I’m sorry.”
I stalked over and stood chest-to-chest with him, my breath coming in huge, shuddering pants. I wanted to smash something, wanted to hurt someone, and he stood there stoically, waiting for his punishment. But hitting him wouldn’t solve anything. And this was on me, not him. I was here! I was right here, all I had to do was check the fucking back room!
I looked around at the bookstore—her bookstore. A wonderful, magical place that was nothing without her in it. She was gone because I failed utterly to protect her, I let him just walk in here and take her—
I roared and upended a table of books, sending it crashing to the floor and scattering paperbacks everywhere.
Baba walked over, careful and shaky on her twin walking sticks, but determined. “Not your fault,” she wheezed. She looked me right in the eye. “Just get her back.”
I panted, the rage still pounding through me. Then I nodded and pulled out my phone.
As soon as Spartak picked up, the words spilled out of me. “If you hurt her, if you touch her, I will hunt you down and break your fucking neck. I don’t care if you run back to Russia, I don’t care if it takes me my entire fucking life, I will find you and I will cut. Your. Fucking. Throat.”