Alexei steps into my line of sight. The photo disappears, and his hand lifts.
Another tiny injection. Relief hits me like betrayal. My head drops forward.
“You won’t,” he says calmly. “Because I won’t do it if you behave.”
The realization of what he is doing is horrifying.
She equalspain.
He equalsrelief.
“That reaction,” he says softly. “Fear without touch. Pain without impact.” He smiles. “Your body learns very quickly, boy.”
My stomach heaves. My hands shake uncontrollably.
Alexei presses the photo against my chest. This time, right over my heart. Another striking, stinging goddamn blow to my ribs.
I sob openly now, my nervous system in full collapse.
“You see,” he says, voice low and intimate. “I don’t need to hurt her to control you. I just need you to believe that I could. Because I can.”
Tears spill down my face.
He notices everything. “I could let my men have her,” he continues casually. “Once. Twice. Over and over and over again while you sit in this chair. She could cry and beg, but you wouldn’t be able to do anything. She’d get used for hours...days...weeks. Until she stops being…this.” He taps the photo. “And starts being an obedient little slave for Vlad.”
The photo flashes up again.
Pain.
I scream again. It’s a raw, angry, animal sound, stripped of everything human.
Alexei, that fucker,glowswith satisfaction. “Yes,” he breathes. “There you are.”
The photo disappears.
The needle and relief follow.
His voice hardens. “You will bow,” he says.
I shake my head violently. “No.”
Pain.
Then silence.
Then relief.
“Youwillbow,” he repeats, “and I will send you back to the hotel. Clean. Fed. Dosed.” A pause. “Waiting for further instruction.”
My vision doubles. My body is no longer mine—just stimulus and response, terror and relief wired directly into my nerves. “And if I don’t?” I whisper. "If I just fucking kill myself when I get there?"
Alexei leans close enough that I can smell his cologne. “Then I make a phone call,” he says gently. “And she becomes averyreal option to Vlad.”
A tear slides down my face. My body trembles, but it’s not from fear alone. It’s from knowing exactly what comes next. I’m hurting, starving, and...walking the fine line of dying, it seems.
“Bow,” he says again. “Show me you understand who owns you.”
For a moment, all I can see is her face.