My entire body is shaking, my heart beating so fast I’m afraid it’ll jolt right out of my chest. With labored breaths, I try to speak, but I don’t even know what the fuck I’m supposed to say at this point. Anything that comes out of my mouth will inevitably be a threat and I can’t make this even worse for my sister.
What the fuck am I supposed to do here?
The minion comes back with a whip, a singular long leather cord swinging with every one of his steps, and hands it to Viktor.
“Wait!” I have no fucking clue where I’m going with this but I’ll say anything to give her more time. “What do you want? Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you, but you let go of my sister.”
“You misunderstand me, Mr. Russet.” If my last name is never uttered again, it’ll be too soon. “She is no longer your sister. She is our lamb, and as such, she can never leave. God has chosen her path and brought her straight to us so as to find her salvation.”
Beside me, Kincaid curses under her breath while my mind is trying to make sense of this situation, of this strange parallel universe that shouldn’t exist outside of fiction. I mean, we know all too well about the sex trafficking happening in the world, and we’ve done our part in trying to eliminate it, but a cult?
What fresh Hell is this?
The first lashing burns Mia’s scream into my soul.
The second makes my entire body revolt with the need to throw up. I should turn away, save myself the agony of watching my sister being whipped raw.
The third lashing steels my resolve that when—not if—I get my hands on Viktor, I will make him pay tenfold for every scar he created.
The fourth streak of the whip changes the very fibers of my DNA and I vow to save every fucking woman in this place and kill anyone who has had a hand in their enslavement.
Viktor throws the whip to the cement floor, and just as he unties his linen robe, a booming crash makes the very foundation of the building shake and crumble.
Sirens are going off, men and women screaming somewhere above us, but Kincaid and I aren’t afraid. We know what’s happening. There was never any doubt.
“What’s going on?” The extra on this action movie that is my life looks confused, scared even, as Viktor takes out his phone and yells shit in what I’m guessing is Russian.
He turns to me, fire burning deep in his irises as he listens to whatever they’re telling him on the other line. All I can do is grin and I don’t need a mirror to know it’s evil. I’m evil. My intentions are as evil as they come.
“Who is it?” he asks, our eyes locked in a duel that he’s going to lose.
“That, you worthless piece of shit, is my wife coming for you.” Pride swells deep in my chest because I know, I can feel it in my bones that the chaos happening outside isn’t the club’s doing. We’ve always gone under the radar, but Parker? Yeah, she’s a big announcement kind of warrior in shining armor.
Rubble and dust fall from the ceiling, a crack forming just under the girl’s chair where she’s been sitting quietly this whole time.
The small fault runs beneath her and she jumps to her feet before running to the side just as the useless guy falls, hitting his head hard on the cement. She tries to help but he’s out cold. My attention, however, shifts to Viktor, who’s unbuckling Mia while avoiding the falling chunks of ceiling that could easily knock him out.
“Lamb! Go meet the others outside.” I don’t look at the girl, I’m too focused on Mia, who’s still unconscious as Viktor drapes her over his shoulder, ready to run and leave us here.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” At the sound of Parker’s Britishy sing-song voice, I grin, and this time, there’s nothing evil about it. This time, I’m as happy as a fucking clown.
Until the familiarrat-tat-tat-tatof a semi-automatic weapon kills my hearing and fills me with fear.
When I turn toward the chaos, I see the teenage girl filling her captor’s body with bullets. It’s obvious she has no idea what she’s doing, but Viktor does. Kincaid and I step back, shielding ourselves from the array of wild bullets as best we can, but my eyes are trained on Parker, who’s taking cover behind a half wall.
Unfortunately, this gives Viktor plenty of time to take out a gun and shoot the poor girl in the face. She falls, her trigger finger locked on the AR-15 now blasting bullets into the ceiling.
When Viktor turns his gun to Parker, she raises her gun at the very same time.
It’s like a bad Spaghetti Western and all that’s missing is the whistling music. Except there’s nothing fun about this scene. The two most important women in my life are being held hostage by a fucking cult leader or whatever the fuck he is.
“You wanna dance, motherfucker?” I growl, but Viktor doesn’t take the bait. Instead, he shoots Parker just as she shoots him.
“Parker! Parker!” I’m rattling the cage holding us prisoner, screaming for my woman. Her upper body is hidden by the half wall and Viktor’s shoulder is blossoming with red from where Parker shot him.
“She’s dead. Now shut the fuck up.”
Then he leaves, my sister in tow, and my fucking world is shattered.