Page 96 of Exacting Vengeance

Being a victim has to stop! Right here. Right now.

She raised her forearm, blocking his hand from connecting with her face. His hand only made contact with her arm, sending another shaft of pain, this time to her forearm and shoulder.

“Stop it, Yuri. Just stop!” Her body shook at the realization that, for the first time ever, she’d physically fought back. “What are you going to do to me?” she screamed. “Kill me like you and Nikki murdered those poor people?” If it were possible, more of the whites in his eyes showed, and his lips twitched as he glared at her with enough venom to poison every ounce of blood in her body. “That’s right.” She clenched her jaw, unable to stem the flood of resentment and rage that now flowed unchecked since he’d steamrolled back into her life. “I know you and Nikki kidnapped those people and put their bodies in that lake. That’s where all that money came from, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”

He took a step back, as if she’d slapped him. Verbally, she had, and damned if it hadn’t felt good.

Instead of hitting her again, which she fully expected, he narrowed his eyes. “How do you know about that?”

Uh-oh.

By telling him she knew about his and Nikki’s conspiracy, she’d just made a blunder with life-threatening implications.

“Your FBI lover told you, didn’t he?” Yuri cocked his head, his expression bland, as if he were only now realizing the importance of what she’d inadvertently divulged. “You told him about the lake property. Did you give him my money, too? Did you Vika?” he asked in a voice so calm it terrified her more than the threat of his fists.

She gulped.

The only reasons he was keeping her alive were to get his money and raise Kyle’s child as his own out of some twisted vengeance. Having her under his thumb again to use and abuse would have been the icing on the cake, but she’d blown her bargaining chip—the money—sky high. Yuri knew darn well if she’d told Kyle about the lake property, he would have interrogated her about the money and seized it. Which he had.

“Bitch,” he hissed, shaking his head and clenching his right hand into a fist. “I knew you were lying. Time has changed you. Not for the better.”

Anxiety and fear twisted her stomach into knots so tight they could never be undone.

Would stealing Kyle’s child be enough for him not to kill her? Or would he wait until she gave birth, and then kill her?

Either way, she’d just signed her own death warrant.

“It seems we will have to begin your training all over again.” He stepped to the bed, raising his fisted hand.

She shut her eyes tightly and gripped the headboard so hard her fingers cramped. This was going to hurt.

Yuri’s phone rang. Outside, she heard the low hum from a small airplane. She opened one eye enough to see him take the call.

“Are you finally here?” he yelled, then stormed from the room, slamming the door shut behind him. A moment later, she heard the front door to the house open and Yuri’s footsteps on the rickety porch.

She whipped her head to the door, staring at it. Between cringing against the headboard and tightening all her muscles as she waited for him to hit her, she could have missed it but didn’t think so.

He didn’t lock the door!

Now was the time. She had to get out of this house. If she stayed here, she’d die.

She darted her gaze around the room, searching again for something she might have missed.

Aside from cobwebs, the bucket, bed, and… The mattress.

Jumping off the bed, she flipped up a corner of the mattress to view the underside. Nothing there either, except rusty springs, some so old they were about to break off. The backside of one of the bedrails had rusted sufficiently to expose a piece of metal that might be sharp enough to cut through the plastic cuffs around her wrists. But she had to work fast. Sooner or later, Yuri would return.

Using both hands, she tugged the mattress off the bed and began rubbing the straight part of the plastic between where it curled around both her wrists, back and forth against the jagged metal. “C’mon, c’mon.” Still rubbing, she looked over her shoulder. The sound of the airplane grew louder.

Faster. She had to work faster.

After a minute, sweat beaded on her forehead, but she’d managed to make a deep gouge in one of the cuffs. When only a thin bit of plastic remained, she rubbed harder. The cuff finally gave way, separating in the middle. She stifled a cry, as the rusty metal dug into her wrist, drawing blood. A silly thought came to mind: When was my last tetanus shot?

Not that it would matter if she didn’t make it out of here.

With renewed energy, she got to work on the other cuff, rubbing even faster and doing her best not to draw blood this time. Minutes later, the second cuff split open and the chain fell to the floor in a clattering clump of metal. She gasped, swinging her head to the bedroom door, but as far as she could tell, Yuri hadn’t come back inside the house.

On her tiptoes, she crept to the door, putting her ear against it to listen. No sound came from the other side. Slowly, she turned the knob and pulled the door open an inch. She peeked through the crack. The hallway was empty.