Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 536 -

*Natalia*

I woke to the sound of unfamiliar voices speaking Russian around me. My shoulders screamed in pain as I regained consciousness; my arms were tied tightly behind me and my legs were cuffed to the legs of the chair I was sitting in. My throat hurt terribly and I could tell it was swollen and bruised from being choked out by my captors.

I tried to ignore the pain, but it felt like sparks were shooting down my shoulders and the rope they'd used to tie my wrists was far too tight. My skin was being rubbed raw just from how tightly the rope sat against it. I kept my eyes closed so that they wouldn't immediately be alerted to the fact that I was conscious. I hoped that I could listen to what they were saying and gain something that would help me. "You really think he'll go for it?" I heard a female voice ask in Russian. I wracked my brain to figure out who she could be, but I had no idea. I couldn't place her voice at all. When I heard who responded to her, my blood ran cold. I was in far more danger than I had realized. "Yes, love makes everyone do stupid things," my uncle Ivan said.

So it was my own family that had taken me. My worst nightmares had come true. If my family had me, that meant there wasn't anybody who would come to rescue me-definitely not Tallon, not after he had found out that I betrayed him. I resigned myself to the fact that this must be where it all ended for me. My family had found out that I was going to tell Tallon everything, and it didn't matter to them that he'd found out before I could tell him. They were going to kill me anyway.

I slowly opened my eyes, trying to see how many people were in the room. Surely at least one of my cousins would stand up for me. They had never liked me much, but still, we had grown up together. Didn't that count for anything? As I scanned the room, I was nervous to discover that it was only Ivan and a blonde woman whom I didn't recognize. Who in the world had taken me? Had Ivan himself been the one who choked me into unconsciousness?

"Ah, the printsessa finally awakens!" Ivan announced when he saw that I was openly looking around.

The blonde woman sneered at me, not bothering at all to hide her contempt. I couldn't imagine what I had done to make her hate me so much. I didn't even know her.

"Uncle, what is happening?" I asked, trying to play up that I was his young niece. I wanted him to be sympathetic to me.

Ivan grabbed a chair and twirled it around so that it was facing me, then sat himself down uncomfortably close. I tried to lean back, but I was tied to my own chair so tightly that I had no range of movement whatsoever. Ivan chuckled as he saw my obvious discomfort.

"You should have known how good you had it before, my niece," he murmured, nothing but evil in his voice. "Were you not comfortable living in your apartment? Going on fancy trips with your little boyfriend? I should have known you would end up wanting more. You're a spoiled little brat just like your mother."

His words shocked me. I had heard him speak brutally before, but never about his own sister.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, trying to calm my racing thoughts and get answers. I couldn't understand why he was doing this. What benefit could he get from kidnapping me? I had nothing to offer him any longer. "Tallon has ended things with me. He found me out. He found us all out. I'm lucky he didn't kill me."

Ivan chuckled as if he knew something that I didn't. "We both know he never would have killed you. And unfortunately for you, I know that you were going to betray our family long before Tallon ever found you out. Did you really think that I wouldn't be watching you? Did you think it wasn't obvious that you were developing feelings for the man who destroyed our family? Stupid girl, I knew I couldn't trust you to do our dirty work."

"So, what, now you're going to kill me?" I asked, genuinely unsure of what he was going to say.

He openly laughed in my face, then turned to the woman next to him, "You hear that, Vera? She thinks we're going to kill her! Damn, we must have given her quite a fright, eh?"

The woman he called Vera smiled at him, her eyes sinister. She looked at me, then, and finally, in combination with her eyes and her name, I recognized her. She was my cousin. I was unsure how close, but she had been sent away when we were children. I never knew why, all I knew was that at some point she stopped coming around to play. I remembered feeling sad about it; she had been one of my favorite playmates.

"Vera, is that really you?" I asked, incredulous that she would be involved in all this.

"Ah, now you recognize me! I thought you had forgotten me entirely, cousin," her voice dripped with venom. I couldn't imagine what my family had done to her to change her from the sweet girl I remembered into the human weapon who stood before me.

"Enough with the games," I said with as much gruffness as I could muster. "What's going to happen to me?"

Without warning, Ivan smacked me across the face. My head whipped to the side and I gasped at the unexpected contact.

"You will not disrespect me any longer. Never speak to me as if you have any control here."

I felt panic surge in my chest. My uncle clearly had no qualms about harming me, and I was completely trapped. I had no idea what was going to happen next.

"You're lucky. We aren't going to kill you. No, you're far too valuable to Tallon for us to do that. Instead, we'll be using you as a little bargaining chip. If all works out, you'll be handed over to the Italians by the end of the day, and Tallon will take your place. There, now you know the plan. Are you happy?" His voice was sarcastic.

"He won't do it. He hates me. He won't trade himself for me, not after what I've done."

"That is of no concern to me. I will give him a choice: he may trade himself for you, or you will die and your blood will be on his hands. I have learned that your little boyfriend is quite the altruistic type. I have a feeling he will not want to be responsible for your death."

I remained silent. I knew that if I spoke, tears would overtake me, and I had no desire to cry in front of Ivan.

"Good, you have learned your place. Now, Vera and I are going to go have a meeting with your little boyfriend. I expect you to behave yourself, but since I can no longer trust you, I will be leaving Ilya here to watch you." A massive man stepped forward from the shadowy corner of the room. He looked remarkably unfriendly. "And don't get any ideas. Ilya has been given the go-ahead to keep you quiet any way that he sees fit, so I wouldn't try and sweet talk him if I were you," Ivan threatened.

And with that, Ivan and Vera walked off behind me. I was tied too tightly to turn around and see where they went. My emotions were a tangled mess. I hoped Tallon would refuse to even meet with them, but at the same time, I irrationally wished that he would somehow save me.

***

After what felt like an eternity, Ilya received a phone call. I flinched as he pressed the phone roughly against my face, then heard Tallon say, "Hello?"

I was simultaneously heartbroken that Ivan had managed to get him to meet, and elated that Tallon might be able to save me. The panic that had been steadily rising ever since I'd found myself in this situation overtook me completely and before I knew it, I was sobbing into the phone and begging Tallon for help. I felt horribly guilty to even ask him to help me, but I didn't know what else to do. I knew that Ivan wouldn't hesitate to kill me if it meant he could hurt Tallon. On the other end, Tallon encouraged me to breathe. I tried hard to follow his instructions. I wanted to do anything to make him happy with me, and I needed to calm down so that I didn't put him in more danger.

To my horror, I heard him agree to trade himself for me. I tried to yell into the phone that he couldn't do it, but Ilya ripped the phone away and quickly grabbed my throat the second he saw me open my mouth to protest.

My entire body twitched as he pressed the air out of me. My instincts demanded that I fight, but I couldn't move a single inch. Just as I began to see darkness twirling into the edge of my vision, he let go. I gasped deeply for air, trying to soothe my aching lungs. Ilya simply shook his head and clicked the button to end the phone call, then stepped away from me as though he regularly enacted this level of violence against people.

Too soon, Ivan and Vera were back. They roughly opened the handcuffs that had kept my legs attached to the chair and pulled me onto my feet.

"Good news for you, niece, he chose for you to live. Unfortunately, that means he will die, but I do not care so much about that." Ivan's glee was abhorrent. He was such a brutally violent man, I couldn't believe I had ever agreed to work with him.

All of this horrified me, and the worst of it was knowing that I had drawn Tallon directly into the middle of it all without a second thought. His death would be because of me. It might be my uncle who pulled the trigger, but it was me who had placed the gun in his hand. He never would have had this level of access to Tallon if not for me.

Silent tears ran down my face as Ivan dragged me outside to a van. I squinted against the sun and desperately tried to think of what to do. I was terrified to think that these might be Tallon's last few moments as a free man. I couldn't live with myself if that turned out to be true.

I had to figure out a way to get us both out of this. I just had to.