I felt him punch me with such force that it knocked my chair backward. I was now on my back, still tied to the chair, and unable to get free. It didn’t stop me from trying to get free, but my attempts were unsuccessful.
Think, Sephie. You’ve been in this situation before, and you got free. Keep your head in the game.
He pulled my chair upright again, leaning on the arms of the chair, so that he was eye level with me.
“You’re so pretty. It’s a sh*me to ruin that pretty face.”
“What do you want with me, Anthony? Like seriously. You said it yourself. You can have any girl you want. Why me?”
He laughed. It was not the laugh of someone who was amused, however. This was the laugh of an in*ane person. His smile didn’t reach his cold, dead eyes.
“It isn’t just you, carrot top,” he said, picking a knife off a table against the wall. “You belong to Ghost now. I saw the anger in his eyes when I smacked your a*s in that restaurant. I want to hurt him, but I can’t get to him.” He was trailing the knife down my neck to my chest. He stopped just above my heart, pressing the knife into my skin in a way that felt oddly familiar to me. “So, I hurt you to get to him. And when he comes for you? I k*ll him.”
I’m not sure what came over me at the thought of Adrik being killed, but I screamed as loud as I possibly could.
I was suddenly not in the chair but lying in bed covered in sweat. Where was Anthony? How did I get away?
My bedroom door swung open, and Adrik rushed to me.
“Sephie! What’s wrong? What happened?” He went to grab my shoulders to pull me to him. “Jesus, Sephie, you’re soaking wet. What happened? Did you have another nightmare?”
I was still trying to comprehend what had happened and why I wasn’t dead. I looked at him and said, “you can’t come for me. If Anthony gets to me, he’s going to k*ll you if you come for me.” I burst into tears, grabbing onto him.
“Solnishko. Oh, solnishko. He won’t get to you. I promise. I will protect you. We will all protect you,” he stroked my hair and ran his hands down my back. “You’re okay. You’re safe with me. I promise.” I s*cked in a breath and looked up at him. “He wants to use me to get to you.”
His blue eyes looked at me intensely, “tell me what happened. How do you know this? I just found this out a few hours ago.”
“He was in my dream. I was in my uncle’s house. He was yelling at me again like he did the night…. but then I wasn’t in my uncle’s house and it was Anthony instead.” I s*cked in a breath, trying to not sob as I relived my nightmare. “I asked him what he wanted with me. He said he noticed how angry you got when he smacked my a*s at the restaurant. He said he wants to k*ll you, but he can’t get to you, so he’ll use me to hurt you instead.”
Adrik swore under his breath, in Russian so that I couldn’t understand. “Sephie, did he say anything else? Can you remember anything else about your dream?”
“I was in a room that I’ve never seen before, tied to a chair. He punched me and then threatened to stab me in the heart. When he said he was going to k*ll you, that’s when I screamed and woke up.”
Sephie
As if on cue, my body started shaking uncontrollably. Sometimes it was just my legs, but this time it was my entire body.
“What’s happening? Do you need a doctor? Are you having a seizure? What do you need?”
I grabbed onto his arms to try and steady myself. “I…I’m okay… This…happens… trauma…”
In one quick motion, he stood up and picked me up. He carried me to the bathroom and stepped into the shower. He turned the water on overhead, making the temperature hot enough that steam quickly began filling the bathroom. He sat on the floor, with me in his lap, holding me while I shook uncontrollably. He gently rocked me back and forth as I tried to gain control of my body again.
Slowly, the shaking stopped. Adrik’s arms around me helped to calm me down. I looked up at him, asking, “what did you mean you only just found out about Anthony’s plan a few hours ago? How did you know about my dream?”
He smiled, wiping my wet hair from my forehead. “I didn’t know about your dream, solnishko. It seems your dream knew about Anthony’s plans.”
I scrunched my face. “I don’t understand.”
He sighed, pulling me against him again. “We managed to capture one of Anthony’s closest associates. He slipped up and my men caught him. When pressed for information, he finally gave up Anthony’s plan, although he was unsure of the specific details. It was just as you said in your dream. He wants to use you to hurt me.”
“Oh,” I said, folding my arms to my chest and curling up more in between his legs on the shower floor.
“I won’t let that happen. He can make as many plans as he wishes, but he won’t get to you. I promise you.” I just nodded my head against his chest, suddenly very tired again and not wanting to think about any of this. I sighed.
He grabbed my shoulders to sit me up slightly and moved so that he was sitting more in front of me. I felt his fingers under my chin, lifting my head so that I would look at him. “He will never lay another finger on you,” he said with such intensity in his eyes that I couldn’t help but believe him.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.