Chapter 6 

“You will stay here,” Vitaly said, motioning at the room we were standing in.

It was a lot bigger than the room I had been in before. Just the size of the bed, covered in gray silky sheets, was impressive.

“What is this?” I asked— frowning as my eyes scanned the room.

It was elegantly decorated, even though it was mostly bare. There wasn’t anything in the room that didn’t seem to be there without a reason.

“This is my room.”

I cocked an eyebrow at his reply, waiting for him to elaborate. My decision to staying hadn’t involved any change in our sleeping arrangements. I didn’t need Vitaly to get any ideas about us that were not real.

“Why am I in your room?” I slowly asked.

Vitaly gave me a lazy grin, before nodding towards the bed.

“Don’t let it intimidate you. I’ve told you before, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

He gave me a half smile, very cryptic in my opinion, and headed for the door.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I took a seat on the bed, feeling confused by Vitaly’s behavior. When temptation got the best of me, I allowed my back to fall on the bed. The feeling was amazing. I had never slept in anything so comfortable.

Even though I was feeling like crap, there was a small smile on my face. I had to give it to the kidnapper, he had an amazing bed. I was betting the bed I was in cost more than what my mom made in a year. It looked very expensive.

When a shaky sigh escaped my lips, and the silence of the room settled in on me, I got to thinking of the last hour.

Blaine was gone.

While I was lying down in Vitaly’s bed, Blaine was getting back with his brother. It was what I wanted. At least, that’s what I kept repeating to myself.

It wouldn’t have been fair that Blaine had to stay locked up just because I didn’t stay with Vitaly. Either way, we would’ve both been locked up if I didn’t agree to stay. Having those thoughts were the only thing that kept me from going crazy.

One of us being free was better than none of us.

I missed my mom, and I missed Alan. Even though he had been gone for less than an hour, I missed Blaine as well.

I didn’t know why I missed him. It must’ve been because he was the only real company I had the last few days.

Before I arrived at the dinner table, I thought about escaping. When I left Vitaly’s room for the first time, I realized why he had felt comfortable leaving me on my own.

There were two guys standing right outside the door. As soon as I saw them, I walked back into the room and slammed the door shut.

Vitaly’s room, which was ten times better than the room Blaine and I had been in, had a beautiful balcony.

I had been too distracted and depressed with my thoughts to be interested in the view. I noticed a few things once I went outside.

Vitaly had an amazing view, which was mainly his backyard. His entire backyard was large and had a nice landscape. It was only made more impressive by the overly exaggerated pool. It seemed to be there to make a statement.

But that wasn’t it. There were guys, with guns, scattered all over the place. It was a large piece of land. In the distance, I actually saw a nice, very tall, stone wall, which seemed to surround the entire place.

“We’re leaving for a few days,” Vitaly told me during dinner.

“Um… Okay.” I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to agree or give opinions.

Vitaly didn’t seem to mind, because he continued talking. Yurik was standing behind Vitaly, like he did the other day we had dinner.

“I had Yurik blindfold Blaine, but I don’t want to take any risks. If he remembers how to get here, I’m making sure we’re gone by then,” he explained.

“Is Blaine okay?” I asked Yurik.

Yurik widened his eyes at my question, and he turned to look at Vitaly worriedly. When my eyes landed on Vitaly, I noticed he was frowning at me.

“Answer her question, Yurik,” Vitaly said, coldly.

“He’s fine. I dropped him off in the airport. He went back to America,” Yurik replied, sounding very uncomfortable.

“This is the last time you will ask or speak about Blaine,” Vitaly said, in a tone of finality.

Yurik was shaking his head disapprovingly at me.

“I’ll pretend he doesn’t exist then,” I said, sarcastically.

“Yes, that will work,” Vitaly said, either ignoring my sarcasm or not catching on to it.

“That’s not how these things-” I started to say, before Vitaly interrupted me.

“Enough of this,” he snapped, slightly raising his voice.

“I have work to get to,” he said, dropping his napkin roughly over the table, and getting up. “Yurik will give you the rules. Get packing.”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Yurik asked once Vitaly was gone.

“He would kill me?”

I couldn’t say that I wasn’t somewhat worried about Yurik’s comment. He didn’t answer my question, but the small shrug from his shoulders said it all.

“I’ve seen him do things to people for a lot less,” Yurik replied. “You should have waited until we were alone to ask about Blaine.”

“Who? I have no idea who you’re talking about,” I said, playfully.

“Don’t be a smartass,” Yurik said, but still chuckled at my comment.

“But he’s fine though?”

“He’s fine. You should do what Vitaly says, not just for him, but for you too. You are probably never going to see Blaine again. There’s no point in thinking about him now that he’s gone.”

“Blaine and I were never together,” I said, repeating what I’d been saying all along.

“Yeah right,” Yurik said, shaking his head.

“I’m serious,” I told him, picking up my fork for the first time.

Vitaly hadn’t touched his plate, because I’d upset him before he got a chance to eat. I felt hungry, even though a part of me was guilty for feeling fine while everything was definitely not okay.

“I was starting to believe you. You kept repeating it so much, and you and Hale were always fighting. But today, after the scene I walked into,” Yurik said, shaking his head and giving me a teasing smile. “You should feel lucky that was me and not Vitaly who saw you two like that.”

“We were just kissing.”

“Two people who were never together wouldn’t have been just kissing,” he shrugged.

“It’s true. That was the first time we even kissed.”

“You don’t have to try to convince me of anything, Madeline.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just gave me a very serious expression. His features hardened, to the point where he looked very upset.

“I dropped Blaine off with his brother, remember? I got to see how he got after you said those things to him,” Yurik said, shaking his head.

His last statement made my stomach drop. My appetite was gone, and I suddenly wanted to crawl under the deepest darkest hole and hide myself.

“You’re not going to blindfold me?” I asked once we stepped outside.

“You’re with me now. You don’t need that,” Vitaly distractedly replied, because he was handing out orders to the guys in Russian.

From the outside, his home gave off the appearance of a gothic looking castle. It was very modernized and elegant on the inside, so I never really thought it would contrast to how it would appear from the outside.

It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen.

Vitaly must’ve noticed my stunned expression while I took in the magnitude and beauty of his home.

“My grandfather gave it to me. Asterly Castle is what we call it. It’s been with us for a long time. It’s had a few changes since then, most to accommodate my taste. The outline of it is basically the same,” he said, while standing beside me and wrapping his arm around my waist.

“It will be our home most of the time.”

“Right,” I said, but my voice sounded more breathless than mocking, which was what I’d been aiming for.

“We should get going,” he said, while helping me slide into the back seat of a sleek fancy black car.

Yurik was on the passenger seat, and some other guy was driving. I hadn’t checked the time, but it was already dark outside. It must’ve been almost midnight.

“These are for you,” Yurik said, turning from the front seat.

He handed me a folded blanket and a pillow. I looked at them strangely, but he just shrugged at me. Since I didn’t take them from his hands, Vitaly reached over, took them, and placed them in the space between him and me.

“It’ll be a few hours before we get there,” Vitaly said.

While I took in my surroundings as best as I could, considering it was already dark out, Vitaly was talking to Yurik— in Russian.

“Are you talking bad about me?” I asked, but there was a smile on my lips.

I faintly noticed the frown that tugged on Vitaly’s forehead. When the light hit my face, he must’ve noticed my smile, because he returned it.

“I’m giving Yurik instructions. Russian is my mother tongue. I am more comfortable with it than with English. You should learn Russian,” he said, cocking an eyebrow at me.

“Well I can,” I said, getting defensive for some reason.

“Well you should,” Vitaly said, but the tone he’d used, I wasn’t sure if he was making fun of me.

“If I wanted to be talking to a bunch of Russian kidnappers,” I snapped.

I didn’t want to hear him anymore, so I grabbed the blanket Yurik had given me and covered myself with it. I snatched the pillow and cuddled with it against the door.

I heard Vitaly sigh loudly next to me, but he didn’t try to take the blanket away.

“How long do you think it will be?” Vitaly asked.

Since the blanket was covering my eyes, I couldn’t see who he was talking to. I assumed he was referring to the trip, until Yurik spoke up.

“I don’t know. She’s very stubborn,” Yurik said, in what sounded like a playful tone.

“And sarcastic,” Vitaly added.

When he made that comment, I knew they were talking about me. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of getting mad.

“And pouty,” Yurik continued.

“Did you notice that when she gets mad-”

“I’m right here!” I snapped, interrupting Vitaly.

“You are,” Vitaly said. “For a moment there, I thought you disappeared under the blanket.”

“You’re not being funny.”

“Yurik said that you didn’t eat after I left the dinner table,” Vitaly said, changing the subject.

“Yurik is a tattle tale,” I said, wrinkling my nose when Yurik turned back to face me.

He just laughed and Vitaly turned to smile at me. They both looked amused.

“She’s very childish too,” Yurik said.

Vitaly nodded his head in agreement. When I reached over to punch him, he stopped my hand before it made contact with his face.

“You should get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we arrive,” Vitally calmly said, completely ignoring the fact that I’d just tried to hit him.

I narrowed my eyes at him distrustfully. It was in my best interest to stay awake and see where he was taking me. One look out the tinted window though, and I realized it was practically a lost cause.

It was dark outside and I had no idea where we were. It wasn’t like I would recognize any street that we passed. I was in another country, and I didn’t have a clue what most of the signs meant.

I grabbed the blanket and covered my head, snuggling once again against the door.

Vitaly chuckled lightly, but it was about it. A comfortable silence settled around us. The streets we were going through were empty except for us and the cars driving in front and behind us. They were all Vitaly’s men.

“Let her sleep,” I faintly heard somebody say.

I cleared my throat softly, not really feeling up to talking or moving around too much. My eyes felt so heavy. I was comfortable. I really didn’t want to move.

“Madeline?” Vitaly called, and I felt someone running their hand through my hair.

I squirmed around where I was. Somehow, I found myself looking up straight at Vitaly’s face. I noticed, very awkwardly, that I was lying down over Vitaly’s legs.

“Why did you move me?” I said, panicking and hurriedly trying to sit up. I ended up bumping my head with the ceiling of the car.

My head had been resting on the pillow, which had somehow found its way to Vitaly’s lap. 

“You crawled onto my lap. Was I supposed to shove you away?” He asked.

“Yes!”

“You were asleep,” he shrugged.

“In your lap!” I practically shouted.

“You were the one who climbed there. Were you really asleep, or just pretending?” He asked, smirking at me.

“I was asleep! You probably moved me around. You pervert,” I said, looking at him accusingly.

“Yes, and I was also the pervert that tightly wrapped your arms around me. That was all me,” he said, and even Yurik was laughing while he slipped out of the car.

“I, I, whatever. Just don’t touch me, pervert,” I said, moving as far away from Vitaly as I could go.

“Do you want something?” He asked, sighing loudly and shaking his head at me.

We had stopped at what appeared to be a gas station, very much like the ones back home.

“Can I get off?” I asked, suddenly feeling the need to pee. “What time is it?”

It was still dark out, but I felt well rested. I was still groggy from just waking up, but I could feel that I’d slept a couple of hours.

“It’s almost five in the morning. The boys wanted to stop and we needed gas,” he replied. “We stopped once before but you were asleep.”

“Right,” I said, nodding at him because I had not even felt or heard them stop.

I must’ve been really out. I hadn’t been getting much sleep the past few days. It seemed like the soft purr of the car had lulled me to sleep. I didn’t want to consider the possibility that I really had been too comfortable sleeping over Vitaly.

“So, can I get off?”

“Will you behave?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, snappily.

“There it is,” Vitaly commented.

Yurik had been right outside, but he poked his head into the car when Vitaly said those words.

“True, very pouty,” he said, making Vitaly smirk at me.

“You two are impossible!” I complained, and opened the door without waiting to see if I could or couldn’t get off.

I had changed into a pair of skinny jeans, along with a dressy lilac colored blouse. It hadn’t been that cold before we took off from Asterly Castle. As soon as I stepped outside, the cold air stung my skin. I was wearing flats, which weren’t really helpful in keeping me from the cold.

“Here,” Vitaly said, pulling a black suit jacket over my shoulders. “I didn’t get you a sweater.”

When he said the word ‘sweater’, it came out with a deep accent.

“It’s alright,” I said, feeling strangely warm because he left his arm over my shoulders.

He looked so out of place walking into the gas station. It seemed like Yurik… or someone from his crew had already taken care of paying for the gas.

The guy behind the counter, a middle-aged man, seemed to recognize Vitaly. Not only did he wave at him, but he referred to him as Mr. Aminev. I knew it was his last name. It just felt strange that someone had actually recognized him.

I was so curious about it, I wanted to ask. I held my tongue when he walked us over to the pastries section.

“I’m not hungry,” I told him. “I’ll take a coffee though.”

I nodded in the direction of the coffee, while I scanned the store.

“I need to go,” I told Vitaly.

He frowned down at me and shook his head.

“I already told you you’re not going anywhere.”

“I mean, I need to go… pee,” I said, whispering the last word.

Vitaly chuckled at my words, before taking ahold of my hand. Once we were standing in front of the bathroom, he opened the door for me.

I was surprised when he walked in after me.

“What are you doing?” I slowly asked.

There was only one toilet. Vitaly was standing there, looking at me with a questioning look.

“You said you needed to use the bathroom.”

“Not with you here!” I practically yelled, feeling warmth creeping into my cheeks.

“I’ll turn away,” he said, but he was grinning at me.

I couldn’t be too sure, but it seemed like he was doing it on purpose.

“No! Get out of here, you pervert!”

“I’m not being a pervert,” he calmly said, and it really looked like he wanted to laugh at me.

“Yes you are! Get out of the bathroom!” I snapped, pushing him as I said each word.

He got out, but by the time we made it to the door, he was laughing— loudly.

I left the bathroom to find Vitaly chatting animatedly with the cashier. It seemed like they knew each other from somewhere. The guy had known Vitaly’s name, and had recognized him when we walked in.

I wanted to see if I picked up something from what they were saying, but it all sounded like a slurred mess to me. I barely picked up a word or two, but nothing to give me a clue as to what they were talking about.

“Ready?” Vitaly asked, and again I noticed his accent sounded thicker.

I was starting to catch on to when that happened to him and Yurik. Usually it was when they were angry, excited, or had just spoken Russian.

“My coffee?” I asked, just as he raised two cups.

He handed one to me, took my hand in his, and we headed out the door.

“You knew that guy?” I finally asked, because I couldn’t hold in my curiosity.

“No,” he replied, shaking his head.

“He recognized you.”

“I’m aware,” was his very cryptic reply.

“Well, what were you two talking about?” I asked, while he was opening the car for me to slide in.

“You should learn Russian,” Vitaly said, giving me a very annoying smirk.

I was surprised when we arrived in front of what looked like an apartment building. On the way to what I assumed was Vitaly’s apartment, he kept a tight grip on my waist. Whenever someone stopped him, mostly neighbors, he presented me in English.

The three people who stopped him weren’t as fluent in English as he was, but they more or less understood that I was his ‘new girlfriend’. The first time I tried to correct him, his fingers dug so deep into my waist, I practically felt the bruise forming. I whimpered unintentionally, which shocked even me.

The hold he had on my waist immediately loosened after that.

“You weren’t planning to tell them I kidnapped you, were you?” Vitaly asked once we reached his apartment, which was on one of the highest levels of the building.

“I was going to say we weren’t together,” I replied.

He nodded at Yurik, who then ordered the rest of the guys to empty the living room. When it was just Vitaly and me, he took a few steps away from my side.

“I want you. I don’t want to keep you against your will. I want you to want to be here.”

“Like your girlfriend?” I asked, chuckling at my words.

Vitaly had the nerve to nod his head.

If people went around, just kidnapping whoever they wanted to date— well, the world would be a crazy place.

“I’m not your girlfriend. I’m not going to be your girlfriend,” I said, harshly.

It seemed like he was going to snap at me. I waited for him to do so, but he ended up simply taking a few deep breaths.

“I don’t have you kidnapped,” he said, lowly, carefully.

I narrowed my eyes at his words. For someone who seemed smart, he was kind of slow. Or maybe I should’ve congratulated him, on trying to convince me that I wasn’t really his hostage. I was. It didn’t matter how much he tried to convince me otherwise.

“Can I leave then?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow expectantly.

“Is that what you wish?”

“Yes, I want to go home.”

“You are home,” he stated.

“I mean my real home. This is your place.”

“It’s yours now as well.”

“I don’t want it. I just want to go home.”

“But you are-”

“Are you going to go in circles telling me this is my home every time I ask to go home?” I asked, feeling somewhat exasperated with his answers.

“You can’t leave. I want you here. You wanted me to release Blaine, and I did. Now you are mine.”

I laughed at his terrible reasoning, which benefited me in no way. I was basically getting screwed over. It wasn’t like he had given me much of a choice, which was how he was making it sound.

“Blaine warned me about you. I already know what you do for a living. I know you could’ve killed him,” I said, glaring at him.

“I wasn’t going to kill Blaine.”

“You kidnapped him!”

“Blaine and his brother were going to give my father the short end of the stick with their take over. It wasn’t a fair deal. I simply intervened so that Alexander would give my father a fair deal.”

“Oh right, you go kidnapping people. That sounds like a perfect solution,” I said.

“It worked. My father didn’t lose his company,” Vitaly said, giving me a half shrug and a teasing smile.

“And you ended up with me,” I said, bitterly.

“You were the best part of the deal,” he said, closing the distance between us.

I was just about to open my mouth to argue, when a very angry woman stalked into the room.

As soon as her eyes landed on Vitaly, she began yelling and pointing at him accusingly. I took a few steps back, even though I had no idea what was going on. I scrunched up my nose, thinking that Vitaly was right. I really should learn Russian.

She was yelling at him in Russian, and I didn’t understand one word she was saying. Vitaly wasn’t saying anything, but when Yurik rushed into the room, his eyes were on him.

“What is she doing here?” Vitaly growled out.

I could only guess he was speaking in English for my benefit. He was worked up, so his accent was very thick. Still, his eyes were looking angrily at the girl, who I noticed was extremely pretty. I assumed it was an angry ex-girlfriend. The scene got even funnier when she tried to slap Vitaly.

Yurik grabbed her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her still.

“Get her away from here,” Vitaly said.

He traded a few more words with Yurik, but the bastard switched back to Russian.

It was annoying that he could easily keep me out of the loop. Whatever he told Yurik, it was apparently not what the girl wanted to hear.

“Get as far away from him. His last girlfriend turned up dead,” the girl told me, before Yurik covered her mouth, and took her out of the room kicking and screaming.

Other guys walked into the room, and were helping Yurik as best as they could. I had kept a smile on my face the entire time, up until she made the dead girlfriend comment.

I was staring ahead, towards the door where they had left through. When Vitaly turned to face me, I saw the grave look in his eyes.

“Should I be worried?” I asked, letting out a nervous chuckle.

“Why? You’re not my girlfriend,” he said, hitting me with the same words I’d thrown at him.

He had even used the same harsh tone. It seemed like that girl had really gotten to him, because he wasn’t even trying to be nice to me.

“Is that your ex-girlfriend?” I asked, because my curiosity was stronger than my will to not give in.

Vitaly stared at me for a long time, his dark brown eyes looking like they were searching something in my face.

I was starting to get self-conscious with how intently he was looking at me, before he finally shook his head. He ran a hand through his hair, slightly messing it up, only for it to fall into place once he let it go.

“That was my sister.”

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*Yes, Blaine will be back.