Page 101 of His to Own

I guess it was time for me to be kidnapped too.

I follow the guard through the house. My eyes flick to the front door when we pass it but I know I can’t make a run for it. I wouldn’t get far in my evening gown and heels. I’m still wearing my high heels even if they hurt my feet. I need some form of dignity.

The guard brings me to the kitchen where Aleksander is. He’s calmly eating his breakfast like he didn’t just participate in kidnapping me.

Aleksander takes a long time to chew before he looks at me. My heart is pounding. He motions at the chair across from him. “Sit. Eat.”

Slowly, I sit down and stare at the food. A typical breakfast. Meat and eggs and some fruit to make things more healthy.

“It’s not poisoned,” Aleksander says. “If it were, I wouldn’t be eating it.” He nods at his own plate with the exact same food.

I still don’t eat though.

He shrugs. “Have it your way. Now.” He steeples his fingers together and stares at me with his intense eyes. I feel myself buckling. Fight Elena, I remind myself. Fight. “You’ve had time to sleep. I’ve offered you food, though you rudely didn’t eat it. Now it’s your turn. Tell me about your husband.”

“Why?” I whisper. My lips are cracked and dry. He nods at the water glass and I give in and gulp it down. I’m alive. No poison.

“Because he’s now my enemy. It’s why I kidnapped you. I figured his wife could provide me with good information on him.”

“Maxim and I have only been married for a little while now. I don’t know much about him.” Except that he likes to keep me in the dark. I flinch from the pain of it.

“Yet, your eyes tell me that you do want to know more about him.”

“My eyes?”

He wags a finger towards my face. “It’s all in there. I can easily spot it. Anyone could. Surely you know some things about your husband that I can use against him.” His eyes narrow. “Because if you don’t, we’ll have to resort to drastic measures.”

“Drastic measures?” I gasp.

“How do you feel being without your head?”

My body goes still as fear overtakes it.

Aleksander smirks. “I don’t want to kill you right now. Not until I see how useful you can be. So I would suggest you be useful to me, Elena.”

“I don’t know what you want.”

“I want to know anything you know. Where does your husband go? What does he like to do? Who does he spend time with? Anything I can use against him.”

“You have me. Can’t you use me against him?”

“Of course.” He leans back in his seat and taps his pocket watch against the table. “It’s why I took you. But I need to know if your husband actually cares about you or not. A wife is usually a good person to use against a mafia man.”

“Why do you want to hurt him? He told me he came to you to make a deal.” Keep talking, I remind myself. I have no choice but to use my voice in this situation.

“He did. And it was presumptuous on his part. I didn’t like it.”

“So you shot him.”

The gleefulness that enters Aleksander’s eyes makes me shiver. “I did. And I want to do it again. But I also like to torture people. It makes the actual act of killing much more fun. Makes the meat more tender.”

I gasp. “You… you eat the people you kill?”

“Does it frighten you more to think that?”

I can’t tell if he’s admitting to being a cannibal or if he’s just trying to scare me into giving up information.

“I don’t have anything to tell you.”