Chapter 124 Chapter 124
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Four
Dimitri
The knife trembled in my hands.
"Drop it," Alexei ordered.
I did not move.
"DROP IT!" Alexei roared.
One of the guards stepped forward and slammed his rifle into my stomach.
I doubled over, gasping. The knife clattered to the floor.
Alexei picked it up and examined it.
"A kitchen knife," he said. "How pathetic."
He looked at me with contempt.
"Did you really think I would not know about your little escape plan?" Alexei asked. "Did you think Lucia would not tell me?"
My blood ran cold.
Lucia. She had betrayed me.
"Where is she?" I demanded. "What did you do to her?”
"Lucia is fine," Alexei said. "She came to me yesterday and told me everything."
He smiled cruelly.
"She is quite loyal to me, actually," Alexei continued. "Everything she told you. Every piece of information. I told her to give it to you."
No. No, no, no.
"You are lying," I said.
"Am I?" Alexei asked. "Then explain how I knew exactly when and how you would try to escape.”
He could not be telling the truth.
Lucia had been helping me. She had risked everything.
Except... she had never been on my side. She had been Alexei's spy all along.
"I have to admit, you are predictable," Alexei said. "The moment I told you about Irina sharing my bed, I knew you would try something desperate."
He gestured to the guards.
"Take him to the punishment cell," Alexei ordered. "And make sure he understands what happens to prisoners who try to escape."
The guards grabbed me and started dragging me away.
"No trial for you now," Alexei called after me. "You just lost your last chance at mercy."
They dragged me down into the depths of the villa. Below even the regular cells to a place I had never seen before. A place that smelled of death.
They threw me into a cell so small I could not stand up straight and lie down fully. Just darkness and stone and the smell of decay.
"Three days," one guard said. "Then we kill you."
The door slammed shut.
And I was alone in the absolute darkness.
I could not see. I could not move properly. I could barely breathe.
The punishment cell was hell.
I sat huddled in the corner, shivering. Every bone in my body ached.
Time flew by.
Then I heard the sound of the door opening.
I tensed. What do they want now?
"Dimitri?" A familiar voice called.
"Irina?" I groaned.
A torch came on and I squinted. It was too bright.
We talked. Before the guards dragged her away, saying her time was up.
She had given me options.
Die or live in this cell forever.
She wanted me to choose life.
But what kind of life was that?
I would go mad here. I could feel it already.
Maybe death was better. At least death was an ending.
At least in death, I would not have to know that Irina was with Alexei every night.
The door opened again. Light flooded in, blinding me.
I shielded my eyes.
"Get up," a guard ordered.
I tried to stand. But my legs would not cooperate.
The guard grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet.
"Boss wants to see you," he said.
They dragged me out.
My eyes slowly adjusted to the light.
We reached Alexei's office. They threw me inside.
I collapsed on the floor, gasping.
"Dimitri," Alexei said from his desk. "You look even worse than before."
I did not respond. I just glared at him.
Alexei said. "You know your wife came to me and begged me to spare your life, right?"
Rage filled me. So he brought me here just to rub it in my face.
"You bastard. You are using her to torture me."
"Yes," Alexei agreed. "I am."
He stood up and walked over to me.
"In three days, I will enter Moscow's underworld." Alexei said. "Without you. I have decided a dead martyr is less useful than a living prisoner."
He grinned. "You will spend the rest of your life in that cell. Knowing that Irina is mine. That Nikolai calls me father."
"I will kill you," I growled. "Someday, somehow, I will kill you."
"No, you will not," Alexei said calmly. "Because you will never leave that cell."
He gestured to the guards. "Take him back."
"Wait," I said desperately. "At least let me see them. Irina and Nikolai. One more time."
"No," Alexei said. "Irina has already said goodbye. You will never see them again."
"Please," I begged, hating myself for it. "Please, Alexei. I am begging you."
Alexei smiled cruelly. "I like seeing you beg. But the answer is still no."
The guards grabbed me and dragged me away.
"Irina!" I shouted. "IRINA!"
But she did not come. She could not come.
They dragged me back to the punishment cell and threw me inside.
The door slammed shut. Again.
I curled up in the corner and put my head in my hands.
This was my life now. Forever.
In this tiny cell. In the darkness.
While Alexei took everything from me.
I screamed. A long, agonized scream that echoed off the stone walls. But no one came.
I was alone.
And I would be for the rest of my life.
I let out a sad sigh.
What would Mikhail have done if he were in my shoes?
That man was smart and calculative.
I shut my eyes, thinking back to all the physical and mental training with Mikhail.
Then something clicked.
When a guard came earlier with the light. I noticed a crack in the wall. There were tiny stones with sharp edges.
If I was careful and determined, I could end this.
My hand went to the sharp stone, feeling the edge.
Just one deep cut. And all this would all be over.
This isn't what Mikhail would do. But I was too tired to think.
I picked one stone, and pressed its sharp edge against my wrist.
"I am sorry, Irina," I whispered to the darkness. "But I cannot do this. I cannot live like this."
I started to press down.
Then I heard a voice. It was faint and distant.
"Boss! Can you hear me?"
I stopped and listened.
"Boss!" The voice came again.
It was not coming from the door. It was coming from... the wall?
I pressed my ear against the stone.
"Boss! If you can hear me, tap twice!"
I grabbed a rock and tapped twice against the wall.
"Thank God! It is me! Petrov!"
Petrov? The spy who had been caught?
I tapped again.
"I am in the cell next t
o yours!" Petrov's voice came through. "They caught me weeks ago! I have been here ever since!"
I tapped frantically.
"Listen carefully!" Petrov said. "I have been digging the ground. There is a tunnel that leads out!"
My heart started racing.
"It will take time!" Petrov continued. "But I can reach your cell! Maybe a week! Can you survive that long?"
I tapped yes vigorously.
"Good!" Petrov said. "Stay alive! I am coming for you!"