Taken by the Thief Read online

  Turning on the engine again, I pulled up alongside him. In the dark he looked frightened at the sudden approach, but I rolled down the window and let him see my face.

  “You want another job like last time?” I asked. “Two packages, one to the guy who sent you last time and one to the same destination.”

  “It’ll cost you,” the kid said. I grinned and held out the notes. Double what he’d been paid last time.

  “I’ll know when they’re delivered. I’ll leave the same again with your mom for you, but the order is important.”

  “Got it. Start with the guy from the club, end in the same place as last time.”

  I nodded, handing him the address for the first one, watching him read it.

  “And don’t hide that I sent you. They’ll probably know anyway. You can tell them Konstantine sends his regards.”

  “Konstantine? The Konstantine?”

  Once more I moved my head in the affirmative. The kid’s mouth fell open, but I didn’t give him time to react, handing over both packages.

  “Which one goes where?” he asked before I could drive off.

  “They’re numbered. I’m sure you can count.” I grinned and wound the window up before pulling off. I couldn’t stay there any longer than necessary, and I needed to be in position to listen in to the bugs in each package as soon as they were delivered.

  Taking a roundabout route, I ditched the van and picked up a less conspicuous everyday car for Moscow, and then headed to a small road not far from the oversized residence the final surviving Petrushkov male lived at. Tucking up out of the way, I quickly applied a basic disguise and opened my laptop to pick up the audio feed from the bug I’d planted.

  The tracker on it said it hadn’t yet been delivered, but it soon was, and then the real fireworks began. I heard muffled angry voices as it was passed to Vasily. And then the voice became more clear.

  “Make sure no one disturbs me,” Vasily said, more serious and grumpy-sounding than I’d ever heard him. As Vasily clearly watched the video I’d created, the sounds of my abuse playing back at me, I started to feel sick again. I hoped he felt even half of what I did as he watched, and was rewarded with knowing some of it bothered him when he turned it off, the bug picking up the sudden scrape of a chair across a marble floor.

  “Fucking hell. I thought I was cold.”

  A grin spread across my face. Part one was a success. Vasily was affected, even if he’d never admit it in public.

  Not long after, Vasily called for his assistant and his driver.

  “Did the boy say he had another for Sokolov?” Vasily asked.

  “I think so, sir. He said the address you’d given him for a delivery.”

  “Yes, that was Sokolov. No doubt he’ll be watching this soon. But I’ve got no list of demands. Only a note informing me that if Konstantine can’t have Nadenka, then no one can. I have a feeling her father isn’t meant to see that.”

  “Possibly, sir,” the man replied, with evidently no clue what to say to his boss right now. A smug grin spread across my face. I’d discomposed the great Vasily Petrushkov.

  Focus, I told myself. It’s time to head to Sokolov’s and see what the pair of them have to say next.

  Hoping I wasn’t too far behind the messenger and got to hear her father’s reaction as well, I took a back route down and slightly east, parking not far from where Nadenka usually hid her car. Once there, I tuned into the second bug. The package must have already been delivered, the sounds of the torture already playing in the background.

  Gritting my teeth, I threw my head back and tried to imagine anything but what those sounds meant, each scream of hers intense and like a needle piercing my insides.

  Mercifully, Sokolov also couldn’t handle it, switching it off far sooner than Vasily had. A deep silence followed, almost making me wonder if the bug had stopped working or been found. But a strange sound soon followed. It took me a moment to realize it was the sound of a man sobbing.

  “Oh, Nadenka,” Sokolov said through his tears. “I just wanted you to be safe. Instead you’ve paid the price of my mistakes.”

  I winced, a part of me feeling sorry for Nadenka’s father, but equally, he’d been willing to give her away to the highest bidder on more than one occasion. Maybe going through this would show him he needed to let Nadenka make her own way in life.

  A knock on the door cut the crying short.

  “You have a visitor, sir,” a muffled voice said. “I believe it’s very important.”

  “Two minutes,” Sokolov yelled back, his voice not its usual steady self. Wiping a tear from my own eye, I imagined Sokolov doing the same.

  “It’s Mr. Petrushkov, sir,” the voice came again, far sooner than two minutes later. “He says you really need to talk to him, and it can’t wait.”

  “I’m aware why he’s here,” Sokolov said firmly but evenly, all traces of emotion gone again. “Show him in.”

  “I came as soon as I could,” Vasily said, his footfalls light on the wooden floor.

  “How dare you,” Sokolov replied, interrupting whatever Vasily was intending to lead on to. “You promised me that my daughter would be safe under your watch as head don.”

  “I believe I said she would once she had taken her seat at my side.” Vasily’s tone lowered and his words came out crisp and clear, the man obviously less than happy about being admonished. The whole argument made me smile even more. They were completely lost for what to do, so angry and hurt they wished to argue more than decide how to handle the situation.

  People were truly incredibly easy to manipulate.

  “That vile street rat has her locked in some dungeon, doing God knows what to her.”

  “Yes, and you’re the idiot who let him into your home to get close to her.”

  “She was already close to him, heading off to that club to avoid you.”

  “Then maybe she asked for all this herself. Nadenka knew how to flaunt it, but not how to actually let a man have a taste.”

  There was a pause, and I tried to imagine what might be happening. I was more than a little stunned that Vasily dared speak so. It was a well-known fact among the dons that Nadenka was pretty much all Sokolov had cared about since his wife had died.

  “May I remind you, that’s my daughter and your fiancée you’re talking about.”

  Fiancée? When had Nadenka become his fiancée? I gripped the steering wheel, ready to hit something.

  “Forgive me,” Vasily said a few seconds later. “This whole situation has me feeling rather sick. I couldn’t even begin to watch the entire video. I’m not thinking straight. It is important I channel my anger where it is due, at Konstantine.”

  “Yes. And whatever don it is behind him. I still cannot discover who is pulling the strings behind this all. This vile creature cannot be working alone. To position himself perfectly to be invited into my household and to seduce my daughter the way he did… Someone put him up to it.”

  Nope, I thought. But keep looking. Maybe you’ll realize Vasily began all this.

  “What was the demand?” Vasily asked, the sound of his feet as he walked closer clearly picked up by my bug.

  “The same as before. That a certain section of my territory is transferred over to Konstantine to run for this other don.”

  “Same as before? This isn’t the first threat?”

  “Getting the first threat appears to be what has triggered all this. The one at breakfast this morning. I had no idea Konstantine would move so fast.”

  There was an almost-silence, the only sound the crackle of paper as something was read and passed between them.

  “I see,” Vasily said, no doubt beginning to put two and two together. Of course, he couldn’t tell Sokolov he’d been behind the original threat. All he could do was realize he was being played on a far deeper level than Nadenka’s father.

  “I have no intention of giving this man what he wishes, however,” Sokolov said, doing exactly what I expected him to,
and what others had often done in the past.

  Although the father usually reacted in a similar way to Sokolov on viewing the video, once they thought about what was being asked of them, and their mind began to blank out what they’d seen, they forgot what their child had been put through and how deeply affected they would be by it. The empathy fades when the object of it is absent. A combination of subconscious self-preservation and deliberate self-preservation.

  “You don’t?” Vasily didn’t hide his surprise.

  “No. We’re going to find Nadenka before this brute can do anything further to her,” Sokolov said. “You’re going to find Nadenka before anything else happens to her.”

  “Of course. But I can’t imagine she’ll be easy to find.”

  “It sounds like you’re making excuses. You told me you were falling in love with Nadenka and wanted her as your wife. Yet you seem to be more concerned with the demands this brute has made and whether I’m going to give in.”

  “I want the quickest resolution to the problem so Nadenka does not suffer more than necessary.”

  “Then I suggest we waste no more time with these words and go find her.”

  There was silence for a moment, neither man talking. I imagined the two of them squared up to each other.

  “You’re not leaving, Vasily. I’m starting to wonder if you’re scared of this fixer.”

  “I’m not scared of any man. And I’ll find Nadenka. Then I’ll make him pay for taking my fiancée.” Vasily hissed the last word before the sound of boots stomping away echoed through the mic.

  Having heard enough, I switched the device to record, put it inside a watertight box and found somewhere nearby to hide it. Once it was safely tucked into the base of the perimeter wall, several loose stones shielding it from view, I drove back towards the house where I’d left Nadenka.

  They always thought they could find their loved one, but it was always much harder than they expected. For now, however, I needed to lie low. It wouldn’t help if I led the dons right to me or Nadenka. She was relying on me to make this worth her sacrifice. I needed to make her father’s territory safe from Vasily.

  Sorry, Mitka, you’ll have to wait a little longer to see me. I couldn’t go back to my apartment. It was too big a risk. Instead I went to the river hut Yazov had shown me, grabbed a disguise I hid there, and then traveled to the club.

  Although it was dangerous, I went inside and dropped off the money for the kid, along with a note asking him to be around the following day. There was a small chance he’d betray me, but the look in his eyes when he’d learned who I was had said otherwise. I was a hero in his eyes.

  For a while I’d been able to avoid thinking of Nadenka and what I would still have to do to her, but now I had no choice. I needed to go back, and I needed to plan what came next.

  11:23pm

  Rolling over yet again, I sighed. It was no good. I couldn’t sleep.

  I had tried to put Nadenka from my mind, but I couldn’t. Every time I closed my eyes I saw her body suspended in front of my eyes, helpless and at my mercy. My cock was hard, desperate to screw her. Before today she’d loved it when I took control of her, and my body hadn’t forgotten that. I wanted it. I needed it.

  But I also knew I couldn’t screw up what we were doing. Both her father and Vasily had to believe this was all true. They couldn’t think Nadenka had volunteered. And they definitely couldn’t suspect that I’d let her go if she asked me to. That meant no tenderness, no love-making, and definitely no enjoyment on her part.

  Everything was planned out. I’d spent most of the evening deciding what I’d do tomorrow and how it would all play out, but I couldn’t do any more tonight. Yet it was no good; my cock was too hard and there was a naked woman in the basement. One who usually loved it when I fucked her.

  No, Kostya. This isn’t right. Only a monster would use her when she’s hurting so much.

  Was I a monster? I already knew the answer to that question. I was always a monster.

  May 1st – 1:21am

  Nadenka

  Time became meaningless, the pain my body felt fading in and out as my mind did. Sometimes I thought I might go insane, the different smarting points on my body making me feel so helpless, so overwhelmed. Kostya had gone beyond even the worst concepts my mind had been able to deliver, abusing every inch of me, and all without making me feel like he’d drawn blood in any major way.

  More than once while I’d been alone I’d cried, the tears cathartic and needed, but even when I’d gently called for Kostya, my voice almost gone, I couldn’t bring myself to feel regret. This was getting me what I wanted, even if it was the worst thing I’d had to live through.

  His words as he left had dashed my hopes that it was all over, but he’d already been gone a long time. As each half hour drew on, I began to wonder if he’d ever return. Maybe something had happened to him? Could Vasily have found him and attacked, and now no one knew where I was? Or was he avoiding me until he was done?

  Just as I was beginning to feel like crying again, imagining the worst possible scenarios that could have happened to him, I heard a sound. There was a scraping, and then the sound of feet as they came down the steps. I tried to look towards it, forgetting my blindfold, but I was too exhausted to lift my head properly.

  A moment later I felt fingers as they gently touched my cheek, stroking as they cupped the back of my head and lifted, so I was supported.

  “Kostya?” I tried to ask, my voice breaking.

  “Yes,” he replied. “I couldn’t sleep. Or eat. Or anything.”

  Something tense on the inside of me relaxed, relieved by his words. If he was so bothered, then I wasn’t just like the other women. I was special. He’d never wanted to treat me like this.

  I heard and felt the slow clink of metal as I was lowered and my limbs were allowed to come closer together until I was lying on something that felt so soft I couldn’t quite believe it was there. A moment later, I felt the gentle wipe of a damp cloth as he cleaned me up, bit by bit.

  The soft tenderness with which he went about the task, each stroke deliberate and mindful of the damage he’d done, overwhelmed me, and tears dampened the blindfold I still wore.

  Not long after, he pressed a drinking bottle to my mouth, letting a slow trickle of water run between my lips.

  “Drink it slowly,” he said. “Or you’ll be sick.”

  I obeyed, every second he was so tender removing the fears and worries until I was calm in the aftermath.

  “I’d offer you painkillers, but they’ll only make round two feel even more extreme, and this has to be more realistic than that. They have to believe this is real.”

  “Do you think they will so far?” I asked, not sure what else to say.

  “I...” he trailed off, before I felt him reach for a particularly nasty welt he’d given me and trail a finger along it. I hissed in pain.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s not fair of me to come to you seeking comfort now, when you must hurt so much.”

  Not knowing what else to do or say, I lifted my arm, still attached to a loose chain, and reached for where I imagined his chest to be. My fingers found his shirt and shifted until I was fairly sure it was above his heart.

  “You have a bigger heart than you know,” I said, still finding it hard to speak but managing enough. Suddenly I wanted his arms around me.

  “Make love to me,” I asked. “I need you.”

  “Princess, I...”

  “Please,” I begged. “I want to feel you inside me.”

  Slowly I moved the hand on his chest, lowering it down his torso, undoing buttons as I went. It must have melted the last bit of resistance he had as he leaned in closer, pressing another kiss to my mouth and finally placing a hand on my exposed breast.

  Immediately I groaned, his touch both igniting the pain again and sending currents of desire through me. This was my Kostya. A man who knew when to be gentle and when to be tough, but most importantly, wh
en to listen to his heart.

  Slowly I moved my hands lower on him, as much as to ignore some of the pain I felt as to discover exactly how in the mood he was. He let out a long, pained-sounding groan as my fingers found his manhood. It felt like it throbbed underneath my hands. I’d expected him to be aroused, but not so desperate.

  Not wasting a moment of time and ignoring the aches that protested my movement, I shifted closer and went to take the blindfold off so I could see to take him into me.

  “No,” he said, catching my hands and keeping them from giving me back my sight. “You don’t want to see, and I need to still control you in some way.”

  The breath caught in my throat, my mind imagining the way he’d pushed himself down my throat earlier. Now, however, nothing was forcing my mouth open, and it was entirely my choice.

  I quickly undid his trousers and freed his erection, stroking it as he squirmed. As I heard him suck in his breath and go to ask me to stop, I did the opposite and lowered myself down onto him, taking him so far into my mouth he touched the back of my throat.

  “Oh God, that feels so good. Take it deeper, princess. Take it all the way for me.”

  I tried to obey, fighting my gag reflex, now even stronger than normal after he’d stolen my ability to breathe earlier.

  My throat was sore still, and my neck ached, but I took a moment to compose myself. Swallowing, I pushed him down my throat, going deeper and deeper until my head was buried in his crotch and I was practically choking on him again. Quickly I moved back and forth, concentrating on the way he moaned and gyrated beneath me.

  Not long later I felt his hands reach for my head, sliding through my hair until he had a firm grip. Whether I wanted it or not, he took control of the pace, keeping himself so deep inside me I was slowly being suffocated again. It took all my concentration not to panic, a small voice in my head telling me it would be over soon and that both he and I needed something more consensual even if he was clearly very much in control.

  Almost with no warning at all, he yanked my head back, my hair pulling as he filled my mouth with burst after burst of hot salty liquid. I quickly swallowed, having gone so long without food I’d have eaten anything.