“Perhaps you should be on the ground withthem.”
Alexander stepped forward. “I have a betterplan for him, sir, if you will allow it.”
Kozlov turned his attention to Alexander.“And what would that be?” The menacing look he gave Alexander mademe shudder.
“He should be the one to administer thepunishment.” One of Alexander’s guards stepped forward and handedhis gun to Jericho.
Jericho immediately pointed it at me.
Kozlov stepped forward. “I don’t think so. Ihave a better idea for these sorry little beggars.” He picked meup, forcing me to stand. His eyes were hard as he stared into mine.This was Jeremy’s friend? Had he gotten himself assigned to thisship just to stop us from succeeding? Had our meeting backfired onus? Once again I thought of Jeremy and hoped he was watching. “Ibet she used her womanly wiles to get you to act tonight. Is thathow she tricked you?” His gaze landed on Carson.
He nodded.
“I couldn’t hear you.” He kicked Carson.
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” Carson’s face angleddown.
“Yes.” His hand held my chin up as heexamined my face. “She has a good face. A little scraped up at themoment. But that will heal.” He spoke as if to himself. “You avirgin, girl?”
My eyes involuntarily turned the size ofapricots. This was not good.
He squeezed my chin, hard. “Well?”
I spit in his face.
“I think that gives me my answer. Excellent.I’ll get a high price for her.”
“What?” I spluttered.
He let go of my chin and turned toAlexander. “Instead of you shooting her, we will send her somewhereher skills will be appreciated.” An ugly smirk fell on his face,and Alexander chuckled. An awful sound that sent a hailstormthrough my gut. “Don’t you think that is fitting punishment,Alexander?”
He nodded. “Yes, sir.”
He turned on Mikado. “And you. I won’t haveany trouble finding a place for a pretty boy like you.”
Mikado growled, showing his teeth. “I won’t.You’ll have to kill me. You may as well get it over with rightnow.”
Kozlov’s vengeance was swift and hard. Hishand sent Mikado flying back with an extremely hard blow to thehead. Mikado didn’t move from his awkward position on the ground.Only Carson remained to discover his fate.
But Kozlov turned to Jericho instead. “Andyou. You will accompany me on this journey to ensure my two newprized possessions arrive at their new home. Maybe I’ll be able toteach you how to inspire loyalty on the way there. We don’t haveany containers available for their shipment. They will need to bekept in the belly of the ship. You don’t have any plans for thenext two weeks do you?”
Jericho’s eyes narrowed at me. “No, sir.” Iguess he figured he didn’t have the option to say he did.
“It’s settled then.” Kozlov smiled. “And asfor this boy,” he swung his head toward Carson. “It’s unfortunatethat his parents didn’t teach him well enough to keep him alive. Ithink his parents need a little lesson too.” Kozlov nodded toAlexander, who nodded to Jericho and with the click of Jericho’strigger, and deafening bang of a gun, Carson slumped to theground.
I screamed, lunging toward his lifelessbody. A fist hit me in the side of the head. Stars and blacknessmet me.
Chapter 28
I woke to discover my body tied spread eagleon a bed in a small room with no window. Panic trilled through me.I was on the ship. My head pounded. I looked at the zip ties thatbound me to the bed. I tested them, they were tightened perfectly.Not too tight and not too loose. Because I was spread eagle, noneof the methods I knew for breaking the ties would work. I did spendsome time trying to slip my hand out, but the ties only dug into memore. I couldn’t shim them, and I couldn’t use brute force againstthem. I was a sitting duck.
Memories of Carson’s body slumping to theground hit me. There was no mistaking it. I was the reason he wasdead. Me and me alone. He’d tried to warn me about what happened topeople who got involved with Viktor, and now my actions had endedhis life.
Mikado. Where was he? I looked around theroom. He was not with me. I had to find him and save him. I couldnot let more blood be spilt on my account. I played with my bondsfor a little while longer and had to accept the reality that therewas no way to undo them without help. I would have to take mychances with the guards.
“Help me!” I yelled. “Help! I need to pee.Please. Please. Somebody! Anybody! I need to pee.” I had to havesomeone untie me. Once I was free, I would take them out. I hopedmy body would respond to my call and function as I needed it to. Icontinued to yell until my voice started to strain and gohoarse.
Two bulky men finally came.
“I’m so glad you’re here. I totally have togo. Untie me, please.”
“Not happening,” one of the guys said. “Icouldn’t care less if you wet yourself.” He turned to go.
The other guy said, “But that guy said hehad plans with her later.” He made a rude gesture when his partnerlooked back. “What harm would it do? It’s not like she could do usany damage.”
The other guy laughed. “You got that right.”They cut me loose. They pushed me toward the bathroom where Iactually did use the bathroom. There were towels and even soapwaiting for me to use. I did and then collected the ceramic coversfor the bolts that held the toilet to the floor, a body towel, thebar of soap, and the two-foot mirror that hung on the wall abovethe sink. These guards had totally underestimated me. I then stoodin front of the door and waited.
At long last, a guard knocked on the dooronce. I didn’t respond, I simply readied myself. When he knockedagain, I threw the door open, capitalizing on surprise. The doorslammed into the guard who’d knocked and sent him flying back intothe metal bed frame where he smacked his head hard and slid to thefloor. I didn’t waste a single second.
With speed and accuracy, I flung one of thehard ceramic bolt covers directly at the Adam’s
