Taken by the Billionaire (17 page)

“Sergei… I don’t have enough for what she’s worth to me,” blurted out Peter. “I’d give you my entire fortune for her if I could, but I can’t touch it any more than you can!”

“Oh really? Why’s that?”

“The company trust holds all of it, and the Board of Directors controls it, not me!”

“Sounds like a personal problem,” said Sergei as he played with his knife. “Okay… since you won’t name a number, I’ll name one: ten million bucks into my account in Russia. You know the account. You’ve got two hours.”

“I don’t even have ten million!” yelled Peter. “The company controls all of…”

“Well, you’d best get your company on the phone then, because I’m gonna kill your girlfriend otherwise,” interrupted Sergei with a vicious snarl, and he stood back up and started walking around the table in a circle.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said you looked fantastic, Sarah,” he whispered.

He ran a cold hand down my cheek, over my neck, and cupped one of my breasts, fondling me in the most unwelcome way I could have ever imagined. Even beyond me being tied down and still a little groggy, there was a major difference between him and Peter: even in Peter’s most unexpected moments of foreplay, like in the middle of the conference call, there was an element of desire, of uncontrollable longing to his actions.

Sergei didn’t care about me at all. He was toying with me because he knew I was powerless and uncomfortable. This wasn’t about pleasure at all; it was solely about causing me discomfort and humiliation. I was just an object to him, a toy for him to humiliate, fuck, or kill as he saw fit. This was Peter’s domineering personality taken to a psychotic, sadistic extreme. This was domination and submission without the desire, passion, or romance.

No, this was just pure sadism, I thought, focusing on the cold, uncaring gleam in Sergei’s eyes as he leered at me.

I looked away from him and tried not to whimper in fear and disgust as he ran a hand down my chest, down below my hips, and then reached out to lift my skirt.

“Let’s see what you’ve got under the hood, shall we?” he whispered, grinning cruelly at me. Just as I braced myself for the humiliation, Peter’s voice cut through the tension and Sergei turned his attention away from me again.

“Okay, I’ve gotten approval,” piped Peter’s voice. “I have ten million. I’ll start the transfer; just let her go!”

“Nah, the price has changed now,” said Sergei. “Fifteen million.”

“You’re insane!”

“Hey Peter, how’d you like it if I just started cutting her up right now?” asked Sergei, speaking loudly and clearly to make sure that no nuance of his voice was lost over the speakerphone. “If you’re not going to play ball, there’s no point in me keeping her around, now is there?”

Suddenly, he spun around and his knife sliced downward through the air. I screamed in shock and fear, as with one quick slit, the blade ripped cleanly through the fabric of my top. I was completely frozen in terror and didn’t even tremble as he grabbed my ripped top and yanked it open, exposing my red bra with black, lace trim.

“Nice tits she’s got, Peter,” called out Sergei, reaching down and squeezing them again. He ran a cold hand down my smooth, flat stomach and then added, “I’ve got a lot of things I’d like to do with them before I kill her if you’re not going to pay up.”

“Don’t be stupid, Sergei!” protested Peter. “I’ll get fifteen million. Let’s just talk through this…”

“The time for talking is just about up, I think,” answered Sergei, and he grabbed the knife again.

Oh god, this isn’t happening. This can’t be happening!

I whimpered in fear and closed my eyes as he pressed the sharp blade against my hip. With one quick slice, the rest of my dress fell loose around me. He grinned lasciviously at my body as he pulled the ruined dress out from under me.

“Holy Christ, you picked up a fucking
babe
, Peter,” he shouted, putting down the knife and leaning over me, enjoying the view. “Look at those fucking hips! My god, if you don’t pay up, I’m gonna fuck her all goddamned night long, you hear me? How’d you like to listen to that over speaker-phone? I’ll let you listen to her screams all fucking night if you don’t..”

“Alright! I’m paying! Another five is transferring right now! Don’t you
dare
hurt her,” shouted Peter over the line.

“Actually, price went up again,” said Sergei.

“How much?”

“You love her, don’t you?” asked Sergei, walking out of sight behind me again.

There was a long silence before Peter answered.

“More than anything, and I fucked it all up trying to keep you away from Mother,” answered Peter.

Had I been slightly less of a nervous wreck—or slightly less tied to a table—at that moment, I may have swooned. Instead, I just shook in fear and filed his words away for later.

“Sarah, I’m sorry,” called out Peter, his voice cracking as he continued. “I’m so sorry I got you into this. This is my fault, and I swear I never meant it to turn into this. I’m a greedy fucking pig, and I don’t deserve you at all.”

“Aww, ain’t that just the cutest?” interjected Sergei with a cruel laugh.

“What’s your price, Sergei? I’ll pay anything.”

“Fifteen million in my account, plus your half of the inheritance. Sign it over to me, and she’s yours.”

“Done,” answered Peter without even a moment’s hesitation.

I exhaled a sigh of relief, but my heart was still pounding in my chest. The apology was what I’d been waiting for—though I’d have preferred to receive it under better circumstances—but he’d just gone above and beyond anything I’d have imagined. In the back of my mind, I’d always believed that Peter would choose his fortune over me if he had to, and I was wrong. He’d chosen
me
.

I actually mattered to him. He really loved me after all.

That made us both idiots, didn’t it? Yes, I thought… it really did. His plan to use that fake engagement really
was
that idiotic, and for my part, I’d ignored his warnings about his sadistic brother.

As I stretched my aching wrists and tried to get a little more comfortable on the table, I felt the table wobble around me. The legs of the table securing my hands were loose.

“Alright, my dear brother! Now you’re talking,” said Sergei excitedly, and he clapped his hands together. “I’m going to be watching for that transfer, so get it started. If I don’t see that fifteen million in my account in an hour, your little sweetie still gets it. Start that transfer!”

Sergei bolted for the door, and I saw a brief, orange glow through it before he slammed it behind him and left me alone on my table. His knife lay out on the table by my waist, glittering as the bare, harsh light bulb swung back and forth overhead.

I shifted my weight and the table wobbled again. Sergei started talking to someone in the next room. Judging by the lack of responses, I assumed a phone call.

"Hey, just wanted to let you know it's going through. Yep. Transaction's processing, and I'll get you your share as promised," he said, his voice booming through the cinderblock wall. "Our partners are playing ball, so we're still on for tomorrow. I'll letcha know if anything changes."

Maybe I could really do this. Sergei was talking so loudly that I doubted he could hear me in here; maybe I could break the table and free myself! I pushed against the table with my shoulders and hips, moving my body as best I could, and I felt the table creak and wobble beneath me.

"Nah, just do your part and we're all good. Don't worry yourself about any other details, okay? Leave that shit to me. I'm not paying you to worry, dude. You'll get your money," continued Sergei, paying no mind to my efforts in the next room.

I shook back and forth, finding a rhythm as the table wobbled more and more. I rocked back and forth, back and forth, feeling more and more sway to the table with each motion. The table legs made tiny cracking sounds as they began to splinter, and suddenly, the legs attached to my wrists snapped loudly and the table plummeted to the ground.

My head slammed against the wood surface and ached from impact as the table collapsed, but I didn’t care. I quickly slid the ropes around my wrists up and over the broken table legs, grabbed Sergei’s knife, and then cut my feet free.

“What the hell are you doing in there?” shouted Sergei, his voice muffled by the metal door. I heard his footsteps coming closer as he stomped toward me, and I quickly hid the knife behind my back in the waistband of my red underwear.

The door burst open and slammed against the cinderblock wall with a loud bang as he barged into the room. His outstretched shoe immediately told me he’d kicked the door, and his wide-eyed stare from across the room told me just how surprised he was to see that I’d broken loose.

He stood in the doorway, grinned and shook his head.

“You’re not getting away from me that easily, Sarah,” he said, and then he turned his head toward the speakerphone on the folding table in the corner and called out, “Hey Peter, you still there?”

There was no answer.

“Good,” he said, turning back to me again. “I’m going to keep my word on that whole not killing you thing… but I’ve got some time before I have to give you back to Peter.”

“Stay away from me,” I hissed, knowing exactly where he was going.

“Oh shut up, you stupid bitch. Not like you’re in pristine condition or anything after fucking my brother. You’re already used goods.”

“I said
stay away from me
!” I screeched, but he just laughed and slowly crept toward me with a disgusting sneer on his face.

I backed away from him almost to the opposite wall, my heart pounding in my chest in terror, and he grinned cruelly as he came closer still.

Suddenly, he leapt forward to grab me and it was as if the entire world went into slow motion.

I felt my arm reaching back behind me, grabbing the knife, and pulling it forward just as Sergei reached for my throat. My arm slowly came forward, and Sergei’s eyes widened as they panned down to focus on the knife in my hand, glittering in the light.

Time suddenly returned to normal speed. My arm shot forward and plunged the blade deep into his stomach.

Sergei snarled in pain and staggered backward away from me. I looked down to see the blood-soaked knife dripping deep red in my outstretched hand as he collapsed to the ground and cupped his hand over the wound.

“You stupid
whore
,” he gasped through the pain as he crawled away from me toward the door. “I’m gonna fucking kill you for that.”

He forced himself to his feet just in time to stare into the face of the tall, dark-suited man with black sunglasses who was blocking the doorway.

Sergei stared in disbelief for one long second as the man leveled a gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

I screamed, turned away, and covered my eyes as the deafening blast filled my ears and left a loud ringing in its wake.

I didn’t want to see it, but even with my eyes shut I couldn’t escape the mental images. I remembered the shooting in the parking garage, the pool of blood, the sound of the gunman’s lifeless body hitting the pavement.

Sergei’s body made the same sound as he fell to the concrete floor.

The dark-suited man was staring at me when I opened my eyes, and he grinned and flashed me a thumbs-up. Was there anyone in New York who
wasn’t
going get to check me out in my underwear tonight?

He stepped to the side, and my brain went even deeper into shock as Anneke hobbled after him into the room, holding herself up by her wooden cane. She paid no attention to me at first, but instead walked around Sergei’s body in a circle, peering down at it. I couldn’t even begin to read her emotions as she stared down her son’s body. Was she upset? Was she sad? Was she inspecting the corpse to make sure he didn’t need another bullet or two? I couldn’t read her face at all.

She nodded to her dark-suited bodyguard and then looked up at me.

“See? I told you everything would be okay,” she signed to me with a tight-lipped smile. “Now get that idiot son of mine on the phone and tell him to cancel that transfer.”

"A
nneke’s bodyguard gave me his coat to cover myself, but the short black coat did little to make the limousine ride any less uncomfortable for me. Coat or not, I was still fully conscious of the fact that I was in my underwear. Sergei just
had
to rip my dress to shreds, didn’t he?

I’d really liked that dress, too, but I admittedly liked being alive even more.

I felt numb, cold, and disoriented now that the terror of my kidnapping had passed. My mind was slowly beginning to wrap itself around just how close I’d come to being murdered, but the reality of it hadn’t sunk in quite yet. My mood kept circling around from fatigue to fear, fear to fury, and fury right back to fatigue again. Was I going into shock? I knew that people always harped on how important it was to take care of someone who’d just gone through a traumatic experience, but I didn’t know what real shock even felt like!

I nearly jumped out of my seat from surprise when Anneke tapped me on the shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she signed, and I nodded and did my best to make a convincing lie of it. I didn’t fool the sharp old woman for even a second. She shook her head and then put her thin, bony arms around me, hugging me as tightly as her frail little frame could handle.

“How did you find me, Anneke?” I asked, leaning my head on her shoulder. I needed all the comfort I could get, and her grandmotherly hug fit the bill nicely.

“You can thank Peter for that, really. He called me up and turned Sergei’s ransom demands into a three-way conference call,” she signed. “Sergei didn’t even think about phone tracking. To be frank with you, it’s a bit disheartening to know that I raised such stupid children.”

Anneke opened the crinkly wrapper around a hard strawberry candy, popped it into her mouth, and then offered me one as well. I sat up straight again and shook my head. My stomach felt uneasy—most of my body did, really—and the last thing I wanted was food.

“So anyway,” she signed, “I told Peter to haggle with Sergei for as long as possible without getting you hurt, to buy time for my people to track the call.”