Deadly Desires

Plot twist

I take ragged breaths as I look over at Ivy for the tenth time, her eyes are shut as she sleeps. The only indication she's alive is the steady rise and fall of her chest. 

Her skin is a greyish colour, and her dark brown hair is matted. Her wrist is covered in blood as is her leg. My stomach churned at the sight of her, she was beautiful. Ivy would always be beautiful to me but I could admit she looked dead. 

She soon would be, I gathered she thought we'd only been here for a day but the truth was we'd been here for five. She'd just remained unconscious for days due to the gunshot wound on her leg. Damien had called me and told me he'd caught wind of my father headed our way. 

He'd called far too late. 

I took another ragged breath as I shook off my tiredness. I'd slept maybe three hours across all five days. I couldn't sleep, my eyes had to be on Ivy to ensure nothing happened to her. She was in a thin slip dress that exposed almost everything to the men coming and coming to treat her wounds. 

I thought it was insane my father was even bothering to treat her so that he could kill her. Better to let her succumb to her injuries than heal her to snuff her out again. She was only being kept alive to prolong my suffering. I shook my head, and my temple was pounding. 

I'd been kicked, punched, smacked, electrocuted and then some. It wasn't typical torture, my father wasn't trying to gather any information from me he was just punishing me for the men I'd killed, the fact I'd killed Anya and the fact I'd been free of him for ten years the moment I left Russia at eighteen and took Damien with me. 

I would survive this, he wouldn't kill another child of his my father was unable to. He needed an heir to hand down his business to, he'd worked so hard to establish connections with the Russian Mafia and various Russian gangs. And Damien was a fucking FBI agent, he couldn't give it over to him. 

No, my suffering and punishment would be concluded when he killed Ivy. I glanced over at Ivy and my eyes focused on her bandaged wrist. I doubted anything could compare to the pain I felt when I heard Ivy scream when they ripped her tracker out. It was animalistic, pure agony and devastation. 

I knew the sound of it would haunt me for the rest of my life, every time I closed my eyes it was all I could hear. The pain she'd been put through just because she was collateral damage to my father enraged me. Part of me wished he'd just get it over with and kill her. We weren't going to get out of this, no one was coming for us. Ivy was going to die, I'd rather she go out now than have her suffering be dragged out to get at me. 

"Nikolai..." A faint voice called out and I raised my gaze to her face. She was looking at me but I avoided her eyes. She couldn't sit up because of her restraints. 

"Here, Poison," I said to her, letting my voice carry. 

"Are you alright?" She asked, weakly. 

"Nothing I can't handle," I reassured her. It was the truth, I could take these beatings. I'd survive them. I had to. 

"I know...Nikolai about what you said..." Ivy said, her voice was soft. Weak. 

"Don't, I'm fine." 

Bile clawed its way up my throat, searing through my trachea as I tried to drown out her words. I couldn't talk about it, especially not with her. She was never meant to know about Anya or what had happened. I had told my father about what was happening and he'd told me to take it and shut up. 

That was all I needed to know about how people were going to react. I suspected Damien knew but he never brought it up, he knew better. And so did Ivy, which is why I needed her to forget everything I had said. I wasn't interested in dumping all of my problems on her, she already had enough going on. And it's not like I cared about what had happened. I couldn't have.