Page 84 of The Bratva’s Monster

LIZ

It’s like war broke out the moment he dragged me out of the car.

I can’t believe I didn’t notice him leaving the cafe. I guess I was too focused on Rikki and Alex that I just didn’t see him.

The moment I was outside, the shooting started. A rush of men appeared out of nowhere surrounding the cafe and running inside. Panic grabbed hold of me as the Rostovs reacted and a shootout began with Irkutsks on one side of the street ducking behind cars.

My instinct to run kicked in and I started resisting Josef, pulling at his grip on my arm in an effort to get away. I remembered some of what Rikki taught me, getting free of his grip and kicking him in the shins and taking swipes at his face, but he kept coming.

I made such a fuss that he eventually shoved his gun back in his waistband and grabbed me around the waist, dragging me toward the nearest vehicle.

Now, I’m trapped in the backseat as it speeds away from the scene. I have a moment’s despair as I realize that all the commotion and gunfire might actually mean that Rikki is dead and if that’s true, then I’m truly on my own here.

I can’t wait to see if someone comes to rescue me. If I want to live, I’m going to have to fight my own way out.

“I can’t believe you were here,” he says, a little laugh following it. “You know, when I went in there, Stefan already knew something was up. He’s a smart dude, my brother. Really smart. Who’d have thought that when he sent me out to signal our people, I’d spot you? My second chance.”

I don’t know what the fuck he means by that. I glance back behind me, hoping to see a car speeding up after us.

“You should have taken Stefan’s bargain,” he says. I can see the smile on his face from back here. It’s wide and maddening, like a Joker’s grin. “Whatever he was planning to do to you, I promise it would have been kinder than what I’ve got in store.”

I’m barely listening to him. I’m looking around the backseat for anything that I can use to hit him over the head with. There’s nothing. Not even an ice scraper.

I look up just as his eyes turn up to the rearview mirror to look me over. “You could have been a model, you know that? You are really fucking beautiful.”

I just glare at him. If I could dig my nails into those eyes right now, I would.

“Whatever,” he says as he looks back at the road. “Pretty ones are always stuck up, anyway…”

He trails off as I see him looking in his side mirror, then back up the rearview, but this time, he’s not looking at me. He’s looking past me to the back window.

“Goddammit,” he says. “Looks like we gotta take a detour.”

He turns the wheel hard, sending me flying across the back seat and into the opposite door, banging my elbow. I yelp out in pain and he goes, “Sorry about that. Hey, maybe you’d better buckle up.”

I scramble back to the other side of the backseat. I need to get him to stop the car before he…

Crashes it. Jesus, that’s insane. But I don’t have anything else⁠—

The car jerks again in the other direction and I tumble forward, but I manage to stop myself from slamming into the opposite door.

“I think I might’ve lost them,” he says. “I have to take you to a friendly spot. The heat is really on me right now⁠—”

I reach up and grab his head with both hands, digging my nails into his face.

“Shit!” he yells as the car swerves. I feel the threat of being pulled off him, but I hang on, clawing for his eyes. He reaches up with his free hand and manages to tear one of my hands away, but I’m already balling it up and pounding the back of his head with my fist.

“Fucking bitch!” He swings back at me, and his knuckle catches me right above my temple as I try to duck him. I see stars for a second, but I’m not stopping. If this car crashes, then there’s a chance he’ll be incapacitated and maybe I can get away.

The car is filled with the sounds of us both struggling, growls and grunts as he tries to grab at my hair while I dig my nails into his eyes.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you!”

He finally gets a tuft of hair and pulls hard. I’m hooking my fingers in and I feel one of them slip into the corner of his eye, right against his eyeball. He yells in agony. As the car starts to swerve, I dig in as hard as I can to hold into him.

Everything comes to an abrupt halt and I’m pushed forward hard, almost over the front seat as his head flies forward and the airbag deploys. It comes out in a forceful push, bouncing me back into the backseat as part of it slams into my nose.

The pain sends spots before my eyes and blurs my vision for a moment. I reach up and touch my nose to see that it’s bleeding… but I don’t think it’s broken.