Russian Tattoos: Prisoner
Kat Shehata
(Russian Tattoos, #2)
Published by: Limitless Publishing
Publication date: August 2nd 2016
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Suspense
American tennis player Carter Cook is being held prisoner by the Russian mafia…
Carter is the obsession of mob boss Vladimir Ivanov, a man she once loved. Now a mafia war has erupted on his home turf, and Vladimir’s enemies have put a bounty on her head to force him to surrender. If she is captured, his rivals will deliver a deadly ultimatum—his life in exchange for hers. The price for Carter’s freedom is Vladimir’s blood.
Vladimir holds ultimate power as godfather of the Ivanov Bratva…
He spent five years in a Siberian prison camp and has earned every tattoo inked into his skin. He is a powerful man who rules his crew with an iron fist.
But his enemies have discovered his only weakness—Carter. Vladimir knows if she stays in his world, he is handing her a death sentence, so he vows to get her home and never interfere in her life again. Giving up the woman he loves is the only way to protect her from the bad guys—including himself.
Vladimir’s rivals have a different plan for the ill-fated couple…
Some punishments are worse than death, and the head of the Ovechkin Bratva will go to any length to seek vengeance and inflict maximum suffering on Vladimir.
Carter may be Vladimir’s weakness, but she is also his only hope for survival. When the boss of the Ovechkin family threatens the man she loves, she must fight for Vladimir’s freedom before their rivals can deliver the fatal blow.
Love is blind—but it could also be deadly.
Excerpt:
The thought of what the Russians were going to do to me made my stomach churn. I tried to slide down the chair to get away, but the guy clamped down on my shoulders and held me in place. I heard someone breathing a few feet in front of me and smelled the noxious odor of burning tobacco. The thug unraveled my blindfold, and a rush of bright fluorescent light cut across my face. As my vision came into focus, Boris’s black eyes fixated on me from across the barren concrete room.
“Welcome to Russia, lapsha.”
Boris. Sitting across from me. Vladimir’s right-hand man with the power to punish me in in every unspeakable way he could think of. I was trapped in a cold, cement cell with the monster who dominated my nightmares. Begging for mercy would only fuel his desire to watch me suffer a slow, agonizing death. My face burned. My body slumped forward. The guy behind me held my shoulders and brought me back to center. My chest heaved. I fought for air.
Boris spoke to my handler in Russian, which prompted him to remove the gag. I gasped and sucked in huge breaths of air in case it was taken from me again. Boris watched me struggle with the calculating eyes of a killer, enjoying my fruitless plight to stay alive. Once air filled my lungs and I caught my breath, I lashed out at my captor.
“Dad will report me missing. Everyone will know it was you.”
The guy behind me, who I still hadn’t seen, clicked his tongue, shoved the gag back in my mouth, and cranked it behind my head. I whimpered. The tough girl act wasn’t fooling anyone, not even me.
“Evidence left at the scene of the crime tells a different story.” Boris took a drag off his stogie. A ring of smoke hung above his head like a polluted halo. His lips curled into a sickening smile. “I warned you. I can make anyone disappear.”
Author Bio:
Kat Shehata’s first career involved caring for exotic, dangerous, and adorable animals as a zookeeper. As an author, Kat weaves her love of animals into her work. She is the co-author of the New York Times bestselling children’s book Animals on the Other Side written with Sylvia Browne.
She is an avid tennis player and spends her free time playing matches in a recreational league in Cincinnati, Ohio. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Wilmington College, a professional writing certificate from the University of Cincinnati, and a master’s degree in creative writing from Spalding University.