Victor glanced back at her, and she froze.
“Oh, she will be useful. But only to me. Get out, I said. I want some time with my future bride.”
As Victor approached she pressed her wrists against her T-shirt, hoping he wouldn’t notice that one of the cords binding her to the chair was finally starting to fray.
She’d been praying that customs officials would discover her when they arrived in St. Petersburg, but Victor’s connections, along with a well-placed bribe, had allowed his private plane to arrive unmolested.
At least her baby was safe, thousands of miles away with Nikos. She’d bought her child’s safety with that horrible letter Victor had forced her to write. Would Nikos see her clues?
Maybe he won’t even care, she thought hollowly. He’d made it clear that he wanted her permanently out of his life, and this was about as permanent as it could get.
Victor pulled off her gag. “Here,” he said, sounding amused. “Scream all you want. No one will hear you.”
But she didn’t scream. She just pulled away from his touch, glaring at him.
He laughed, folding his arms as he looked around them. “I can see I need to renovate my so-called palace. No heat. No electricity. And all they’ve found in the kitchen so far are potatoes and tea bags.”
“I hope you starve,” she replied pleasantly.
“That’s not a very kind thing to say to your future husband, is it? You and I both need to keep up our strength. I’ll send one of the boys to the grocery store. And as for heat...we can supply that on our own, later.” He gave her a sly smile. “Any requests? You’ve been refusing food and drink for hours.” He ran his hand down her arm, making her shudder with revulsion. “You must eat something.”
“So you can drug me? No, thanks.”
“Ah, loobemaya,” Victor said softly, brushing back a tendril of her hair. “I wouldn’t go to so much trouble if I didn’t love you so much.”
“You call this love?”
“Until Stavrakis’s spell wears off, and you understand it’s really me you want, I need to keep you close. You will realize how much you want me.” His voice sounded threatening as, massaging her shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise, he added softly, “Very soon.”
Ignoring the loud sounds of crashing china and slamming cabinet doors in the kitchen, Anna pulled her shoulder away from his hand. “I love Nikos, and I always will.”
He yanked back her hair, causing her head to jerk back. Anna dimly heard men shouting from the kitchen, but all she could see was Victor’s sadistic face, inches away from her own. “Forget him. Forget his baby. I will give you others. I will fill you with my child tonight. You belong to me now. You will learn to obey my will. You will learn to crave my touch—”
He forced his lips on hers in a painful ravishment that was meant to teach fear. And it worked. For the first time Anna began to feel truly scared of what he would do to her.
When he pulled away, Victor smiled at the expression on her face. He ran a hand up the inner thigh of her jeans.
“You have no right,” she whispered, shaking.
“This is my country. I have half the police in my pocket. Here, you are my slave.” He reached to fondle a breast, and without thinking she brought up her bound wrists to block him. His smile stretched to a grin. “Yes,” he breathed. “Fight me. That’s what I want. Stavrakis isn’t here to save you. You’ll never see him or your precious son again. You’re mine. You’re totally in my power—”
“Let her go.”
Victor looked up with a gasp. Anna saw Nikos standing in the kitchen doorway and almost sobbed aloud.
Nikos’s face had an expression she’d never seen before—as cold and deadly as the gun he was pointing at Sinistyn.
Victor looked up with an intake of breath which he quickly masked with a sneer. “You’re as good as dead, Stavrakis. My men will—”
“Your men will do nothing. They barely tried. When they saw they were outnumbered, most of them gave up without a fight.” He cocked the gun, assessing his aim at Victor’s head. “Some loyalty you inspire, Sinistyn.”
With a single smooth movement Victor twisted behind Anna, using her body to block his own. “Come closer and I’ll kill her.”
He put his beefy hands around her neck. Anna flinched, then struggled, unable to breathe. As he slowly tightened his grip, the room around her seemed to shimmer and fade.
Nikos uncocked the gun, pointing it at the ceiling. “You really are a coward.”
“It’s easy to throw insults when you have a gun.”
“Let her go, damn you!” Nikos threw the gun on the floor, then straightened with a scornful expression. “Even now I’m unarmed, I know you won’t fight me. I’m stronger, faster, smarter than you—”
“Shut up!” Victor screamed, releasing Anna’s throat. She took a long, shuddering gasp of air and felt the world right itself around her.
Victor stormed toward Nikos, lunging for the gun.
Nikos kicked it into the roaring fireplace and threw himself at the other man’s midsection. The two men fought while Anna watched in terror, desperately struggling with the cords that bound her to the chair. Victor lashed out wildly, hitting Nikos’s jaw with his knee. Nikos’s head snapped back, but he fought grimly, as if he were in the battle he’d trained for all his life. With a crunching uppercut to the chin, Nikos knocked Victor to the floor.
Gasping for air, Victor slid back, scuttling like a crab. Reaching into the fireplace, he picked up the gun with his sleeve and pushed himself up against the wall, panting.
“Now you’re going to die.” Victor shot a crazed look from Nikos to Anna. “And you’re going to watch. After this, only his ghost will haunt us.” He cocked the gun, pointing it at Nikos with triumph.
“No!” Anna screamed, desperately struggling with the cord. By some miracle it snapped open against her wrist. She threw herself from the chair, flinging her body in front of Nikos as Victor squeezed the trigger.
She closed her eyes, waiting to feel the bullet tear through her body.
Instead, she just heard a soft click.
The gun was empty!
Victor shook the gun with impotent fury.
Nikos turned to one side, tucking her protectively behind him as he faced Victor. “Guess I forgot the bullets. Sorry.”
With a scream of frustration Victor threw the gun at him, but Nikos dodged it easily. It clattered to the floor.
Nikos glanced at it with a derisive snort. He raised an eyebrow, giving Victor the darkly arrogant look that Anna had once despised. But she appreciated it now. She knew he used all his arrogance, all his strength and power, to protect the people he loved.
“Fight me, Sinistyn,” Nikos demanded coldly. “Just you and me.”
Victor swore in Russian, shaking his head. He looked straight at Anna, muttering all the sadistic things he’d do to her if Nikos wasn’t there to protect her.
Anna felt her cheeks grow hot with horror. Nikos didn’t speak Russian, but when he saw the effect the man’s words were having on her he strode forward grimly.
With a yelp, Victor turned and ran in the other direction. But Nikos caught up with him, grabbing his shoulder and whirling him around.
“Like scaring women, do you?” He punched Victor in the face—once, twice. “Too much of a coward to fight someone your own size? Fight me, damn you! Or are you going to just let me kill you?” Nikos’s eyes narrowed and he looked dangerous indeed. “Don’t think I won’t.”
Victor started fighting dirty. He tried to knee Nikos in the groin, to trip him. When Nikos blocked him, he stumbled back to the fireplace and grabbed a sharp iron poker.
“I’ll stab you like a pig, you Greek bastard,” he panted, swinging the poker at Nikos’s face.
He blocked it with his right arm, but Anna heard the crunch of bone and saw the way Nikos’s right hand hung at a strange angle.
Victor had broken his wrist. She trembled with fury. She started to run at Victor, to fight him two to one, but Nikos stopped her with a hard glance.
With his left hand he wrenched the poker away and threw Victor to the floor. He held him to the ground with one hand against his neck. Anna watched in horror as he tightened his grip.
“How does it feel to be vulnerable?” Nikos demanded.
“Nikos, let him go,” Anna sobbed.
“Why? Do you think he would have let you go?” he demanded, not looking at her. “Did he ever show mercy to anyone weaker? Why should I let him live after what he’s done to you?”
Slowly she put her hands against his shoulders, feeling the hard tension of his muscles. “Do it for us. Please, my love, let him go so we can go back to our son.”
Abruptly, he released his choke hold on the other man and rose to his feet. She had one brief vision of his face, and she thought she saw tears in his eyes as, without a word, he took her in his arms and held her tightly.