Mafia's Devil part 35

I beg and curse to high hell until Luciano binds my mouth shut. My only mode of communication is my eyes, which scream terror.

Is this the man who feigned an injury for my attention? Who felt vulnerability for me when he hadn’t allowed it for anyone else? Who told me with those usually frowning lips of this what he feels for me? Who allowed me to paint him with makeup for my entertainment?

I look up with frightened eyes, and I am answered. Yes, this is Luciano. He says nothing. His eyes are as dead as the night he clashed into my restaurant many months ago.

Did he find out about my earlier plan of robbing him blind? Was that his breaking point?

I whimper behind my gag, because I don’t want to end up dead in a ditch.

I’m picked up and tossed over a broad shoulder. My bags of clothing are left behind in the room. I got to wear many of my outfits when Luciano took me on dates— ice skating, a helicopter ride, a winter festival, the movies, walking around Canada’s cozy towns. I got to wear my makeup, too, which I often joked looked better on him than me.

Will I die in a nightgown?

I can only beg that someone sees me as Luciano carries me out of the backdoor of the latest motel we’ve stayed at. His four men follow us, but remain loyal to Luciano. They have no concern for the Russian mafia princess that’s being hauled against her will.

Luciano sets me in the back seat and gives me no explanation as he sits beside me. I kick and wiggle, but one pin of his heavy arm renders me immobile.

“Please.” I continue to plead like a worm, but the word is unrecognizable.

Why is this happening? Why, when things were going so well?

The SUV’s door is shut, but we’re alone.

“Stop,” Luciano commands me and sets a hand on my hip, which is bare from my nightgown’s shifting.

My sex clenches, because it remembers the last time that commanding tongue was flicking my clit.

Luciano’s large hand settles on my loose hair. “I’m not going to hurt you, but this was the only way.”

The only way to what? Scare the fuck out of me?

“I keep wondering how I’m going to keep you, Karine. The answer seemed so simple. I would haul you around the world, taking you on new adventures and putting a bullet in whatever crossed my way. It’s unrealistic. Eventually, you’ll start missing your father. Eventually, we’ll want children, and I can’t put your pregnant body under the stress of constant transportation. This is the only way.”

Oh, my God. He’s handing me to Maksim, and he’s turning himself in. He can’t! Maksim will end him.

Although we never ran into my bloodthirsty, older cousin, I know that he’s looking. Luciano is constantly on phone calls tracking Maksim. Whenever the other mafia tycoon gets wind of us, Luciano re-locates us.

It’s been a never-ending dance, but I was getting used to the tempo. I’m not ready to return to my normal life.

“I’ll take my punishment like a man. I took you from Maksim. You are legally his in the eyes of the mafias, at least until you’re my wife and carry my name.” He pins me down with more force when I fight him again. “No, baby. You’re not changing my mind. I’ll find you again. It will take much more than Maksim Kuznetsov to end me.”

It’s then that I realize I haven’t been kidnapped for a long time. I’ve been with Maksim out of my own free will. I’ve snuck glances at him during our dates, I’ve brushed my fingers against his whenever I got a chance, I’ve touched myself in the shower as I thought about the throes of pleasure his kingdom of a body can bring me.

I don’t want to leave. The only arms I want to be in are his, not Maksim’s.

“I’m going to do this right.” He sounds so sure of himself, like he has planned this for a long time.

The final nail is put in the coffin when he taps on the window twice. One of his men settles into the driver’s seat and the car begins rolling.

I push and wiggle until I’m an exhausted, sad sag of bones and flesh against Luciano. He refuses to look at me because he knows my tears will feel like bullets to the gut.

I’m transported twice more. A coat and thick socks cover me. I have no energy left to fight, but I still try when the airport comes into view.

Luciano strokes my hair, and the last thing I remember is the prick of a needle. It’s nothing like in the movies. Instead of slipping into a peaceful, embracing sleep, I free-fall into a nightmare.

— • —

Time becomes a deadbeat parent. I’ve been abandoned by it. I don’t know if five minutes, five hours, or five months have passed by. Whatever Luciano injected into me has destroyed my reality.

I jerk up, and don’t recognize where I’m at. All I know is that this isn’t another cheap motel. I’m back in luxury.

Gathering my strength, I roll off the bed and stumble to the double doors. My quick scanning of the room reveals that I’m in the possession of a Russian family. The priceless paintings on the wall belong to my country.

Fuck. I’m at Maksim’s mansion.

Where is Luciano? I need to get him out of Maksim’s clutches. Those men are brutal, and if Luciano turned himself in, then Maksim is juicing him of every drop of blood he’s worth. Luciano is a 6-foot, two-hundred pound man, so that’s a slow death.

I wrench open the door, and a startled Raelynn gasps and drops her food tray.

“Rae!” I take her hand.

She dismisses the two guards that show up with a wave.

“You should be in bed,” she frowns and tries to tug me inside.

“Forget that. Forget the food. I need Maksim, please.” I squeeze her hand. “Please.”

She hesitates. “Karine. You look thinner. Why don’t you eat and speak with your father instead? You could play with the twins, too?”

I shake my head so fast my dizziness worsens. “Where is Luciano? Is he downstairs? Does Maksim keep a torture chamber here?”

She silences, and her eyes scan me wildly.

“Rae, please. God, I know I’ve stressed your family out because Maksim has been turning every rock around to find me, but I need to stop him from hurting Luciano. He’s not a bad man.”

“I— I—”

She’s cracking. She’s falling apart under the heat of empathy because her husband’s nature is very much like Luciano’s— possessive, morally problematic, criminal, selfish, but rawly protective.

Karine has been through a similar storyline. She fell for a man who is bad to the world, but protects what’s his more than he protects himself.

Maksim and Luciano are mortal enemies but could pass for brothers.

“Luciano is not a bad man. Just like Maksim. He’s white disguised as grey. Please. I need Luciano safe. I forgave him for the kidnapping, but Maksim is too hard-headed to do the same.”

“Oh…” she sighs. “I don’t know where Maksim is keeping him. He’s been secretive.”

“But you can find out, can’t you? You’re Mrs. Kuznetsov.”

Raelynn has unlimited access to this labyrinth. No one can deny her access to any room in this mansion, or any riches, because she’s the mother of Maksim’s heirs.

The same power will extend to me if I marry Luciano, but that’s not what I’m after. Not anymore. I just want him. Safe and sound.

“Okay,” she sighs. “I’ll sort through his office computer.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

I owe this woman the world, because she’s going against her husband for this.

For three hours, I pace in my room. I nibbled on the sandwich that was brought in for me, but then I hastily changed into jeans and sneakers. I’m still groggy from the drugs, but I’m ready to plunge into action to save Luciano.

I’m tugging my hair stressfully when Raelynn finally returns. On one hip, she carries one twin. On the other, she has a slip of paper with an address scribbled on it.

This was too easy to obtain, but Maksim probably didn’t foresee his wife agreeing that I’m right.

“Thank you, Rae!” I take the paper and kiss the baby on the head. “Time to go kick your daddy’s ass.”

“Be safe, Karine. You’re sick. I would go with you, but…”

“Nonsense. The babies need you,” I argue.

“I prepared a car for you. It’s outside.” She leads me down the hallway.

When we reach the grand staircase, three suited men circle us. “Mrs. Kuznetsov, you are not to leave your room.”

He’s speaking to me, not Raelynn.

“Step aside.” That command comes from Raelynn, the queen Mrs. Kuznetsov.

The men hesitate. “He will hurt us for this.”

“No, he won’t. I’ll talk to him,” Raelynn says. “Come on, guys. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

They part and communicate via radio that I’m on the move. The word will reach Maksim in no time, and when he retaliates a command to keep me locked in, Raelynn will have a much harder time freeing me.

I sprint down the stairs and order my driver out of the car. I'm tired of being driven around. I’ll get there my damn self.