Lying and Kissing(79)

Olaf pulled out a knife and my blood turned to ice water. But then he crouched down and cut the zip-tie that bound my ankles. I looked up at him in confusion and hope.

Olaf grinned. “She’s going to have to open her legs,” he explained.

I remember screaming—a single, long wail of horror that left my throat raw. Then I started shuffling away from him across the filthy concrete floor.

Someone behind me put their boot against my shoulder, stopping me from moving any further.

“Don’t you touch her!” screamed Luka. For the first time, there was fear in his eyes. He hadn’t cared what they did to him. But this...I knew this would tear him apart.

I tried to struggle to my feet, but my hands were still bound behind my back. Olaf grabbed the front of my dress and pulled it away from my body, as if he was going to lift me up by it. Then he slashed with the knife again, cutting it all the way down the front. My bra strap was sliced through and then I felt the cold of the knife against my groin and my panties were cut.

I writhed in disgust, trying to hide my nakedness from him, trying to turn over. He put his shoe on my bare shoulder and slammed me back down onto my back, then hunkered down over me. He stared into my eyes, but spoke to Luka.

“First,” he said, “I’m going to fuck her. Then my men will fuck her. Then we’re going to take her to one of our places—you know the sort, Luka. The ones that made you so angry. We’ll chain her up and let the suits play with her. They’ll like a nice American girl. We’ll get her some new dresses, so they can rip them off. Again and again.”

Luka thrashed and pulled at the men holding him, almost tearing his hair out by his roots. But they held him fast.

I stared up at Olaf. This wasn’t anything like the games I’d played with Luka. All I felt was sick, cold fear.

Olaf unfastened his belt. “Hold her down.”

The room suddenly burst into light and noise. It was as if dawn had broken in fast-forward, a slice of light sweeping across the floor until it filled the whole room. It was so bright, after the darkness, that I couldn’t see a thing. There was a rumbling like the end of the world and the roar of car engines. I twisted and tried to cover myself, screwing my eyes closed and pulling myself into a tight little ball on my side. For long seconds, all I could hear was gunfire. I prayed for death. That would be better than what they’d been going to do to me.#p#分页标题#e#

Running footsteps and shouting in Russian. Then a voice I recognized.

Yuri.

Something soft dropped over me. I opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw was a man I didn’t recognize—one of Olaf’s men, I presumed—lying on the floor just a few feet away. He’d been shot through the head.

I turned away from him, trying not to throw up.

Yuri was standing behind Luka, cutting him free. The last time I’d seen the head bodyguard had been in the car, after the crash. “I thought you were dead,” I croaked.

Yuri grimaced. “Death would have been less painful,” he said. He was bleeding from a cut on his head and I saw that he was using only one arm, the other hanging at an odd angle. Somehow, though, he’d managed to pull off his suit jacket to lay over me.

Free at last, Luka got to his feet and ran to me, sweeping me up into his arms. I looked around, blinking in the sudden light.

We were in a warehouse, as I’d suspected. But now the huge door at one end was open, letting in daylight. Two black SUVs were parked just inside. The whole place was swarming with men in black combat fatigues. Vasiliy had sent an army.

I looked back to Yuri. “How did you…?”

Yuri snorted. “Idiots think I’m dead in car and don’t put bullet in my head. I wake up and you and Luka are gone.” He nodded at Luka. “I track his cell phone and call Vasiliy for backup.”

I looked up at him in wonder. I’d always thought of Yuri as just a big, dumb lunk. I was just realizing he was a superb bodyguard, something he hid behind his dour manner. Probably deliberately.

Yuri caught my look. “Is not—how you say it?—is not my first rodeo.”

Luka looked down at me and tenderly stroked my cheek. He didn’t ask if I was okay—I think he could see that I wasn’t. He just stared into my eyes, his own full of guilt and pain.

One of Vasiliy’s men staggered up to us. “Olaf got out the back.”

Yuri swore and kicked one of the dead bodies. Then he nodded us towards the SUVs. “We go. Before police arrive.”

Luka carried me towards one of the SUVs. I looked around at the devastation as we went. Six dead, two of them Vasiliy’s men. I started to shake in Luka’s arms.