Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 112736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
I’d much rather stomp on the damn thing like I’m stomping on his face, but fuck, he has Robert.
“Pick up the iPad or I’ll kill your fucking uncle right now!” Mikhail snarls.
Swallowing back a whimper, I slide down the door and somehow find the strength to pick up the iPad.
It takes even more strength to look at his face again.
A sickeningly beautiful face that’s haunted every sleeping and waking nightmare I’ve suffered the past two years.
Eyes boring into mine, Mikhail asks, “Where are you?”
My soul sinks with dread and I feel like I can’t catch my breath.
I can’t let him know where I am. I can’t let him hurt Levi or any of the guys…
“Please, don’t hurt Robert,” I try to plead with him.
Pleading with Mikhail rarely works. If anything, it only seems to encourage him to be meaner.
But I don’t know what else to do.
God help me, please, I don’t know what else to do.
Mikhail’s eyes light up with a psychotic gleam that promises violence. “Are you in Kentucky? I’ll come get you.”
I swallow down the bile rising in my throat and slowly shake my head back and forth.
“Allison,” he says, his voice sharpening. “Tell me where you are.”
Again, I shake my head back and forth.
I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.
Face contorting with rage, I know Mikhail would reach through the iPad to hurt me for refusing him if he had the power to do so. “Tell me where you are!”
When I shake my head again, the picture on the screen moves until it shows him standing beside Robert.
“Hand it to me,” Mikhail says to someone not in the picture as I stare into Robert’s frightened eyes.
I’m so sorry, Robert. Fuck, I’m so sorry for getting you into this.
“Hold this,” Mikhail orders and the picture shakes as whatever device they’re using is moved back to show more of him and Robert.
Taking a deep breath, Mikhail smiles tightly at me and says, “This is for not answering me.”
Mikhail’s arm slashes out and his fisted hand slams down on top of Robert’s left shoulder.
Robert immediately cries out in pain, his knees buckling. It’s not until Mikhail grabs Robert by the arm and yanks him back up that I can see what’s been done.
Sticking out of Robert’s shoulder is the handle of a knife.
Horror rolls over me and I have to bite my knuckles to keep from screaming.
“You did this, Allison. You did this,” Mikhail snarls as his face turns back to the screen.
“Don’t tell him, Allison! Don’t tell him where you are!” Robert groans through tears.
“Oh, you want me to cut your fucking tongue out, too?” Mikhail grins at him.
Snapping his fingers, Mikhail holds his hand out to someone. Another slim knife of some sort is placed in his palm.
“Please, Mikhail! Please don’t! Please,” I beg through gasping sobs and rock back and forth.
Weighing the knife in his hand, Mikhail takes his time considering my plea. He pointedly looks at Robert then back to the knife as if he’s actually weighing my request.
The fucker always does this shit. He loves to not only physically torture me, but also torture my mind.
It’s the mindfuck he really gets off on.
The night… the night he beat me so badly I ran away… I didn’t run just because he hurt me. I’m used to him hurting me.
I called the cops and ran because he went too far.
He went too far when he yanked my dress up in front of Levi and tried to…
Mikhail tips his head to the side and lifts the knife up to tap the point of the blade against his chin thoughtfully. “You know, Allison, maybe it’s because I miss you, but I’m feeling rather lenient right now…”
He walks in front of Robert and before I can get another please out of my throat, he slams his fist down on Robert’s right shoulder.
Dropping to his knees, Robert lets out this sound that’s a mixture between a groan and a scream.
Angrily Mikhail yanks Robert back up to his feet, and when Robert’s tear-filled eyes meet mine again, they still plead for me not to tell Mikhail.
He’s willing to die for us.
Just like my parents.
My parents who begged and tried so hard to free me from Mikhail once they realized the mistake they made when they pressured me into marrying him.
They ended up paying the ultimate price for that mistake.
Mikhail killed them by staging a fatal home invasion robbery gone wrong.
I know it was him not only because nothing was actually stolen from their house. I know because the fucker told me all about it a week later during one of his torture sessions.
Biting down on my knuckles, I taste blood as I choke on my screams.
Snapping his fingers, Mikhail’s eyes remain locked on mine as another knife is placed in his palm. He doesn’t bother this time to give me false hope. No, face lighting up with this sick kind of glee and madness, Mikhail grabs Robert roughly by the back of the neck and jabs the tip of the knife against the hollow of his throat.