Chapter Thirty-Two

Richard was sitting at the kitchen table when Jesse came up to him breathing heavily as if he had been running. "You need to come with me." He said once he caught his breath.

Richard got up and followed him to the tech room that he was always in. "What do you need me for Jess?" He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Jesse pointed to the screen as he turned in his chair. "That tracker that we had on the van Nikolai's men stuffed Evangeline into stopped transmitting."

Richard frowned. "What?"

Jesse nodded. "We lost the signal for the tracker." He said in a solemn voice. "We don't have a final location for the van."

"Son of a bitch. Alessandro is not going to like this." He said agitatedly. He patted Jesse on the shoulder. "Thanks, Jesse. I'm sure I'll be back in a few minutes." He started walking out of the tech room as he swore to himself. "Fucking bastards are going to get me killed. "

He walked upstairs to Alessandro's room. He knocked on the door and walked inside without waiting for a response. "Alessandro. We have a problem."

"What is it?" Alessandro demanded.

Richard stopped in his tracks as he took in the destroyed room. "Well other than the fact that your room is destroyed we uh," He groaned as he rubbed the back of his neck. "We sort of lost the signal on the tracker for Evangeline."

Alessandro's eyes turned to a fury storm as he slowly stood up. "What did you just say?" He demanded.

Richard swallowed nervously. "We lost the signal on Evangeline. We're not sure if it was turned off purposely or if there's simply just a signal jam but we don't have a final location."

Alessandro swung around and punched the wall so hard his hand went through it. "Damn it. " He ran a hand through his hair. "How are we supposed to find her?" He asked no one in particular.

Richard sighed. "I'm not sure, boss."

Alessandro paced for a few minutes while thinking about what to do. "Okay." He finally said. "Have Jesse pull up a map of the last location that we have for her. From that point go out and learn what's around it." He turned to Jaxon. "Did she say anything about where Nikolai might be taking her?"

Jaxon cleared his throat as he stood up. "She said that it'd be a camp we don't know about. That it'd be somewhat close to where the charity event was and it'd be surrounded by the forest."

"Why a forest?" Dimitri questioned in confusion.

"Because he doesn't have any other camps anywhere near a forest. No one would suspect it because he doesn't like the forest." Jaxon explained simply.

Alessandro nodded and looked at Richard. "Let me know what you guys find. I want to know as soon as possible so we can form a plan."

Richard nodded and quickly made his way back to Jesse's office to do as Alessandro asked.

Evangeline groaned as she woke up. She went to rub the tiredness from her eyes, but chains stopped her. She frowned as she looked down and inspected them. Within five minutes she was able to tell how she would get out of them. As she was yanking on them to test their strength the only door opened. "You're never going to get out of those," Nikolai said as he sauntered into the room with Angel and Belle following him.

She scoffed as she glared at them. "I won't have a problem getting out of these. It's all a matter of time." She shrugged as she sat as straight as she could. "You should know though. When I get out of these chains you three are going to be the first to die." She said with a sadistic smirk.

Nikolai shook his head as he walked further into the room. He stopped right in front of her and leaned down to look into her eyes. "You are never going to get out of here Evangeline." He said with an evil glint in his eyes.

She simply stared at him for a minute before delivering a brutal headbutt to his face. He swore as he felt the blood start to drop out of his nose. He lightly touched his nose and stared at the blood that was on his fingers. "You little bitch." He snarled out as he struck her with the back of his hand.

No sound escaped her as her head was thrown to the side from the hit. She clenched her jaw as she turned her head to glare at him. She didn't say anything as she continued to glare at him.

Nikolai chuckled as he stood tall in front of her. "I've heard the rumors about you, Miss Evangeline." He said as he walked to the long table that was along the wall by the door. "I've heard that no matter how badly you were tortured you never made a sound." He picked up a wicked-looking knife and inspected it as he continued. "I've heard that no matter how badly they made you bleed, how bad the form of torture was, they never heard a single sound come out of your mouth after the first two times you were in there." He lifted an eyebrow as he turned to face her. "What I want to know is how you managed to stay quiet that whole time."

She refused to give him a response. She simply glared at him as he stood in front of her with that knife. He twirled it around as he knelt in front of her. "Ever since I heard those rumors about you I've wanted to see if they were true." He held the knife to her cheek and smirked. "Let's have some fun."

Without saying anything else or giving her any time to mentally prepare herself he got started.

Evangeline knew that he was trying to break her. He wanted her to become his personal assassin. An assassin that always did his bidding. One who had no humanity, who would do anything that he told her to. She knew that she was in for a world of pain. That he was going to inflict pain on her that she hadn't felt ever before. She wouldn't let him break her. She would be strong and hold on long enough to find an opening to take Nikolai out. She's survived as long as she has for being as strong as she was.

Nikolai swore to himself as Evangeline passed out from blood loss. He turned to Angel and Belle. "Go and get a doctor here. I want her fixed up enough to stay alive, but nothing more." He ordered them as he left the basement.

He couldn't believe that he had finally been able to catch her. She had been able to stay away from him for so long. He had her back now and he was not planning on letting her go. He was going to break her and make sure that she didn't remember anything or anyone besides him. He knew that she was a weapon that everyone feared. They'd fear him simply because she was at his side. He was going to break her no matter what he had to do. He had ways of torturing her that she had never even heard of before. He would get what he wanted no matter how long it took him.

Alessandro took a deep breath as Richard walked into the room. "Alright, I had Jesse print out the map where the last signal came from the tracker. He's pulled up the entire area around it. I had him stay close to where the charity event was being held. Everything is set up in the boardroom down the hall."

Alessandro nodded. "Thank you. I'll be right there."

Richard left him alone as he stared out of the window that overlooked the gardens. He sat on the window seat that Evangeline had loved as soon as she saw it. He looked down and saw that she had left one of her many novels on the seat. He picked it up and let out a small chuckle. It was a romance novel that she had read at least three times since he had met her. He went to put the book on her shelf when something fell out of it. He knelt and grabbed the paper off the floor. When he flipped it over he felt his heart race. It was the photos they had taken when they went to the carnival. That had been their first date and it was the first time he had been truly happy since he lost most of his family. He didn't know that she had kept them as close as she did.

He sighed heavily as he slid it back into the book before putting it on the shelf next to her many other books. He left his room and headed to the boardroom where he knew everyone was waiting for him. He walked to the head of the table and sat down. "As you all know Evangeline has been taken from us. As of right now, I believe that she's being held in a secret camp by Nikolai Petrov and I guarantee that he is torturing her. He wants to break her and use her to make everyone in the world bow to him. That or use her to destroy them." He cleared her throat. "I know that we are all hurting from her being kidnapped but we have to stay strong to get her back."

"How are we going to do that?" Dimitri asked from his seat next to Alexander.

Alessandro gestured to the map on the table. "According to Jesse, this is where we lost the signal for the tracker." He started as he pointed to the spot on the map. "Now all around that area is forest. Before Evangeline made Jaxon leave her alone she told him that she would be taken to a camp surrounded by the forest but has never been discovered. According to her no one besides Nikolai and his most loyal men and assassins know where it is. So we need to search this area. Make it one hundred feet out in every direction. Richard is going to be putting teams together. If you find this camp do not go in. You stay out of sight and call Richard immediately. You stay in pairs and try not to get noticed. I don't want anyone getting hurt or killed. So no one goes anywhere alone. If you do find the camp, stay hidden and let us know where you are. We'll come to you with an entire army."

"What happens after that?" One of his soldiers asked from the corner.

Alessandro let a sadistic smirk slip onto his face. "We kill everyone that isn't one of our soldiers or Evangeline."

"What about assassins?" Richard asked.

"Jaxon has assured me that the eight assassins that came home with us are willing to do anything for Evangeline. He's with them now to let them know what's going on. They will be with us once the scouts tell us where the camp is."

Everyone nodded as he stood up. "Talk to Richard about your jobs. If you're not going out to scout then I need you to make sure that you're fully rested and ready to go at a moment's notice. I'm not waiting for anyone."

Without waiting for any response he went back upstairs to his room to wait for the scouts to call in with news. As much as he wanted to be doing something he knew that there was nothing that he could do. He had no choice but to wait until his scouts brought back news, whether it be good or bad.

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Evangeline ground her teeth together as the whip came down on her back again. She was not going to give Nikolai the pleasure of hearing her scream or cry out in pain. She had grown a tough skin throughout the years of torment, torture, and abuse. She knew that she had only been in that torture chamber for a few hours. It couldn't have been that long since she was taken yet in her mind it felt like it had been even longer than that.

She took every slash of the knife that Nikolai used, every crack of the whip, and anything else that Nikolai threw her way. She took everything without making a single sound. She was not going to let this monster of a man break her down. She would not let him turn her into a monster like he was. She would hold onto her humanity. She would hold onto it by remembering her time with Alessandro, Luca, and Aurora. She thought of the newborn baby girl that Aurora had named after her. She held on for them. She held on for the family that she had been recently reunited with. She didn't want to lose any of them and she knew that if Nikolai broke her she'd be lost to them for the rest of her life.

Evangeline kept her breathing even and her mind blank as she continued to keep her mouth tightly shut. She had learned what she needed to do in order to get out of the chains that Nikolai had her in. Now she just had to bide her time and wait for the perfect moment to break free.

Nikolai swore loudly as he stood in front of Evangeline. He had been trying every single thing that he could think of to break her. He didn't know what else he could do. He would have to think about it. He would also talk to Angel and Belle. They were his two favorite interrogators. He was sure that he would be able to get some fresh ideas from them. He paced in front of her while he pulled out his phone to call them in. "Angel. Grab Belle and meet me in the dungeon. Now."

He hung up and leaned against the wall next to the weapons table while he waited.

He wasn't waiting that long. After about five minutes they both came into the room. "What do you need Nikolai?" Belle asked as she stood with her arms folded over her chest.

He turned to face them and slid his hands into the pockets of his pants. "I've been trying to break Miss Evangeline over here and nothing seems to be working."

Angel scoffed as Belle said. "Haven't your camp leaders told you?" She asked in a deathly calm voice as usual. "Nothing gets to her. We can't break her and we can't make her scream." She scoffed. "Even that one guy um," She thought for a minute before snapping her fingers. "Ivan, couldn't break her or get her to scream."

Angel let out a humorless. "I think she recently killed him." She said as she glared at Evangeline, who was still chained up with her head hanging against her chest.

Evangeline lifted her head slowly with a dark smirk. "I did, in fact, kill Ivan. He was a pathetic piece of shit who needed to be put down like the dog that he was." She said with her head tilted slightly to the side.

Nikolai glared at her as he stood in front of her. "You killed Ivan?" He demanded.

She let out a humorless laugh. "Yes, I did." She kept her head tilted to the side as she said. "For some reason, he was in Milan." She smirked. "I suppose that you sent him there to find me." She shrugged. "He found me, but he wouldn't live to tell you about it. As a matter of fact he found me while I was in a blackout. Which was very bad for him."

Nikolai unsheathed the knife that was at his waist and sliced at her face, leaving behind an angry wound that left blood trailing down her face. "Little bitch. He was my best."

She shrugged with that mocking look on her face. "He was. Now he's dead." She said simply.

He lashed out at her again, this time stabbing her in the side. He twisted the knife before yanking it out and taking a step away. "You're in for so much more pain Evangeline. More than you'll be able to take. You will scream for me and I will break you."

Evangeline refused to respond as she kept that same icy glare locked onto Nikolai. She knew that Belle and Angel were in the room with them, yet she also knew that they wouldn't do anything unless Nikolai said otherwise. So she kept her eyes glued to Nikolai, awaiting his next move.