Relentless Sinner

Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

Gabriella

I think I could be somewhere upstate.

From the locked windows of my new prison, it looks like I could be. There’s are lot of woods surrounding wherever I am .

I could be anywhere.

I tried to keep track of where my captors were taking me, but I lost my way the moment the car turned onto the country roads.

It’s funny how I thought I was a prisoner at Jaxon’s house. I wasn’t.

In his home with him was where I was safest.

Now I’m waiting inside this room.

It’s a plain bedroom with a basic design that reminds me of the dorms on campus. By contrast, the house we’re in is not basic. It’s an enormous estate with the same grandeur in design and elegance as Jaxon’s father’s home.

At first, I guessed it must belong to Eric, but I don’t think it’s his everyday home. Or somewhere many people know about. He wouldn’t take me somewhere like that where people could find him. Then again, who would suspect him of anything untoward?

There was no one around to witness his betrayal. Not even the cameras will pick him up because he had someone mess with the surveillance. That’s how he snuck my father onto the property so easily.

My bastard of a father greeted me with a slap across my face for daring to think I could escape him, and for my defiance.

Eric was not like Jaxon. He stood by and watched my father beat me, doing nothing more than watching me as if I were nothing but a pest.

Due to Eric’s new position in the Bratva, he had everyone who could have helped me running around like headless fools on missions that led nowhere.

The house staff had evacuated because he told them there was a bomb on the property. They fled with the regular guards to one of the other homes the Bortsovs own. Then he sent the Creed guards on a wild goose chase.

He told each group of people he’d take care of Jaxon’s father and me.

That’s why no one was around when I went downstairs and why no one was concerned about us.

Once I was brought here, I got the Cliff’s Notes version of the next steps from Eric.

I’m still going to Russia tonight. But with him. He plans to marry me in a month’s time when Jaxon is officially declared missing. He’s going to make it look like Jaxon was killed and plant evidence to suggest it was one of his enemies who did it.

Marriage to me will apparently keep him at a high rank at the table with the Creed. Jaxon never told me those parts, but it touched my heart that he was going to let me go and take nothing of my inheritance. It showed he wanted to be with me for me.

He’s in trouble now, but I don’t know what’s happening, and I don’t know if he knows he can’t trust Eric.

I’m also sure Jaxon’s father must be dead by now. Any hope of survival is long gone. His pulse was barely there when I felt it.

In my heart, I pray that somehow, someway, Jaxon will find me and save me again. We’ve both come so far to end this way.

The lock on the door clicks and I whirl around, my nerves buzzing, charged like they’ve been infused by lightning.

Oh God, who is that now?

I steel my spine, hoping I won’t crumble. No matter what, I have to stay strong. If I break, there will be no point in hoping.

The door swings open, and my father walks in with that cunning smile on his face. That’s not a good sign.

As if he’s touched me, the bruises he left on my face sting, the ghosts of his cruelty haunting me.

“I’ve just come to check on you, my dear daughter.” He spreads his arms wide, like he’s waiting for me to hug him.

“What for? Haven’t you done enough?”

“I guess I have, but what’s one more thing?”

“When did you start working with Eric?” It may be a pointless question, but I want to know. The whole thing is just so bizarre.

Dad smirks and levels me a curious stare. “When we started needing each other.”

“You mean when no one else would help you?” I’m right, but he’s never going to admit to that.

“He approached me just after you went to the Hamptons with Jaxon.”

That makes sense now, how those men were able to get to us. “How could you treat me like this? Why did you change so much after Mom died?”

“Because it was my fault she died. That night she was killed happened because of me. I made mistakes and trusted the wrong people. People who decided to screw me over.”

So all those rumors were true, and now that I hear it, I’m not as surprised as I would have been if I’d heard the truth years ago.

I now realize it wasn’t that my father changed—he was always despicable—but being with my mother mellowed him somewhat.

Now we’re here at the end of all things between us, and he’s confessing. That’s also not good. Not for me.

“With your mother gone, there was no point to anything anymore. Including you. You and your sister simply became assets to me. From this partnership with Eric, I’ll be able to fix all my problems just by handing you over to him.”

My father handed me over to Eric with the simple threat:

Comply or get sold.

Sold to people who would kill me or sell me on when I was no longer useful to them. So, basically, be tortured.

Eric would still marry me to get access to my inheritance, but there are some sick fucked-up people who would just love to get back at Jaxon Bortsov by fucking his wife, then probably sending her parts back to him in a box.

My throat clogs with tension. It flows down my body in vicious strokes like wildfire. “You are truly awful. I hope Jaxon gets to end you.” I have no love left for this man.

Dad laughs, a cruel sound of his pleasure in my demise. “Let’s take a walk, shall we, and see about that.”

Oh no. What is this now? “Where are you taking me?”

“I have a little surprise for you. Consider it a late wedding present.”

He beckons me forward and I move toward him. Dad grabs my arm the moment I’m near, and when we walk out the door, we’re joined by two hulking guards who flank us on either side.

I’m led down the hallway, then a wide staircase, and we descend until we reach a basement floor. But it’s not a regular basement. This place looks like a dungeon. Like the old ones you’d see in medieval castles, just slightly more modern.

We walk around a corner, then through a door into a lab-looking area.

My heart shatters all over again when my gaze lands on a large cage in the middle that holds a shirtless man inside with his arms chained above his head.

It’s Jaxon.

Before I’ve even seen his face, I know from the long black hair cascading down his back that it’s him.

Everything inside me stills, as if someone pressed the pause button on my life.

By the time we reach the cage and I see what they’ve done to Jaxon, I’m sobbing. He’s covered in blood and bruises from head to toe and has been beaten so badly that parts of his skin are raw.

My hands fly up to my cheeks as more tears come. Dad takes the chance to hurt me more by grabbing my neck and shoving me into the cage.

“This is what we do to beasts where I come from.” He laughs in my ear. “I told you this man will not be your savior. Congratulations on your oh-so short marriage.