by Tikiri
Old hag? Maybe it’s not Katy, then?
“American girls always trouble,” Vlad continued. “Next time, try Asians. Thai, Burma, Laos. Get ’em young. Boom. Cash cows.”
The first man grunted. The sounds of drawers opening and banging shut and dishes clanking came from the other room.
“Look at Win,” Vlad was saying. “Got her at ten. Perfect for job. I say go for twelve, tops. Easy to shut up and they stay quiet.”
Oh my god, they’re talking about children.
“Wait till I get cash from American,” the first man growled. “Then you see who’s laughing.”
“You just bought whole load of trouble,” Vlad said. “Screeching and scratching like a dying cat, and no one even touch her.”
I felt a huge relief wash over me. If Katy’s here somewhere, she’s not hurt. Not yet, anyway. I looked up at the ceiling and said silently, Keep fighting, Katy. I’m going to find you soon.
“You jus’ don’ know how to handle girls,” the first man was saying. “Me, I know how to control. Beat till they forget their name. Dat’s how.”
“Right,” Vlad said. “You done great job so far.”
“You t’ink I went to all dat trouble so she work here?” the first man said. “I got brains, I tell you. I thought this hard. First, American pay me to find her. Then, I sell her for good profit. Ahmed always looking for girls. I make money both ways. Who’s the smart guy now, huh?”
A door opened, silencing both men.
“Allo.” A new voice. Someone younger. A teen? A boy?
“You early, Luc,” Vlad said.
“Ooooh, cake! Can I have some?”
“Look in fridge,” Vlad said in an irritated voice.
“Where’s Tetyana?” the young man asked.
“Upstairs, counting her money as usual, the witch,” the second man said. “So you get what you look for?”
“Oui. It’s been a good day for business today,” the young man said. He sounded like one of my French teachers in the international schools of long ago, with the same nasal voice, and his words strung together quickly, one after the other. “Look what I got.”
The first man clucked his tongue and Vlad oohed over whatever Luc was showing them.
“Latest version,” the young man said, “not even out in the shops yet.”
“How much this?” the first man asked. “You waste good cash on stupid toys.”
“C’mon, I deserve it,” the young man said. “I work hard, and it was my birthday last week.”
“Let boy keep it,” Vlad said. “Hey, can you get for me too, Luc?”
“Sure,” Luc said. “You want one too, Zero?”
“You buy this from selling your filth,” the first man growled. “Don’t want dat shit in my house.”
“Shit?” the young man said, his voice rising a notch. “I make good money from this shit, I’ll let you know. Enough to pay for your trucks. Talk about filth. You think this house is clean, man? You got girls coming in and out like a—”
“Shut your mouth or I slice it,” the first man said. “Don’t talk back to me, boy.”
A shiver went through me.
“Don’t listen to him,” Vlad said. “Always threatening everybody. That’s why fire is always burning in Middle East. Jus’ don’t know how to keep their heads, these people.”
“And you Polish are Russia’s whores!” roared the first man, and promptly fell into a rough gagging-coughing fit.
“See what happens when you lose head,” Vlad said, not seeming to take offense. “Boy got good point, you know. You know how much this business can bring us?”
“No!” The first man had found his voice again. “I only do girls. And boys when customer want, but I don’t touch dis shit. Work of Satan. You end up in hell with dis!”
“And you won’t?” Luc, the young man said. His tone was mocking. “I think you’re only saying that so you can steal my stuff. I noticed some packets missing.”
“Do I look like thief, boy!” the first man yelled. Bang! I jumped. Someone had slammed a table or hit the wall.
I was only half listening to this cacophony. The other part of my brain was furiously trying to think of how to get upstairs and see if Katy was imprisoned here. The front door was locked. The only way inside was through the small wooden door I was staring at, behind which a mad hatters’ cake party was going on.
“What happens when they catch you, huh? Whatcha gonna do then?” the first man was saying.
“You got the same problem,” younger man pointed out. “Worse, actually.”
“Not me,” the first man said. “Belge royals my best customers.”
“You think that cover you?” Vlad asked. “You play with fire, I tell you. They’ll fucking feed you with bullets. They kill you and all of us, just to make point.”
“Merde! All the girls hate you,” Luc joined in, his voice rising. “You think they’ll keep their mouths shut? They’ll talk. Then you’ll see.”
“You born idiot, boy,” the first man said. “My bitches do as I tell ’em or cops be pulling their bodies from Thames. And if you t’ink I help you when they catch you, you wrong. I put first bullet right through your goddammed head.”
I clutched my iron bar tighter. Something in his voice told me these weren’t empty threats. I’d met some nasty characters before, but not anyone so brutal as this.
Suddenly, there was a crash, as if someone banged open a door. Everyone stopped talking.
“What the hell happened!” It was a woman’s angry voice, a voice I’d heard before.
“Allo, Tetyana,” the young man said. “What’s up?”
“What’s up? You wanna know what’s up?” she shouted. “What the friggin’ hell happened to Win?”
I gasped.
“Stop screaming, woman. My head hurt,” Vlad said.
“Who did this to her? Tell me!” she demanded. “Zero, is this your dirty handiwork?”
I leaned in. I was sure now it was the redhead I’d met earlier.
“Not me. It was client,” the first man said without a moment’s hesitation. His voice was calm. A good liar. “I try stop him, but he got real mad. He want more and she tired. But I save her, you know, and bought her home good. Hey, I did my job.”
What?
“You said they won’t get hurt!” The woman, Tetyana, sounded furious. “You promised!”
“She not dead, right?” Vlad said, in a mocking voice. “What your problem, then?”
“I didn’t sign up for this,” the woman said. “No one hits these girls! We had an agreement.”
“Oh, no, we don’t.” It was the first man’s voice, so low and dangerous, I wanted to take a step back. “I don’t make agreement with woman. This not your bizness. She belong to me, not you.”
“It is my business!” the woman shouted. “When you hit a girl, it’s my friggin’ business!”
“Shut up, woman!” the first man shouted back, just as loudly.
A chair was scraped back.
“Enough!” the second man, Vlad, said. “You two keep pissing ’round.” He laughed an ugly, chilling laugh. “Zero thinks I don’t know to do my job, eh? I gonna show new girl how job is done. Haha!”
Crash!
Those words had jerked me so hard, I’d pushed a small plastic packet off the shelf behind me, and it had fallen on the floor with a thud. It was the tin cans next to it that fell to the tile floor making a racket.
Silence in the next room. I stopped breathing.
“What the heck that?” I heard Vlad say.
Please don’t come in. Please.
“Bordel de merde,” Luc said. “I saw a big rat outside today. Maybe it’s inside the house now.”
Rats?
“You gotta be kidding,” said Vlad. “I hate those little bastards.”
“This is shit hole,” the first man said.
“They give rabies,” the young man said.
“We gotta do something!” the second man said,
his voice rising even higher. “Luc, catch it, will you?”
I looked around, my heart beating wildly. What do I do?
Chapter Fourteen
The storage room flooded with light.
Through an impossibly small opening, I gaped at a youngish man of about nineteen or twenty staring at me with one hand on the light switch. This must be Luc.
From what I’d overheard, I’d imagined a cocky teen in a hood, torn jeans and baseball cap worn backwards. Instead, he was wearing a white shirt, tie and smart bomber jacket—a mix of cute boy actor and bad boy biker. With his short brown hair, he looked like a charming model at a high-end department store, rather than a gangster on the street. I blinked twice.
Next to him stood a man with a razor-thin scar along one cheek, wearing a black leather jacket and army boots. He was short and hefty with biceps the size of a miniature horse, but I noticed his left hand was missing. All he had was a stub where his hand should have been. This was the kind of man you’d find in a gambling den at four in the morning, smoking cigarettes from the side of his mouth and groping waitresses if they were unfortunate enough to get too close—a man you’d not want to meet in a dark alley in the middle of the night. Or anywhere, at anytime, for that matter. This must be Vlad. His squeaky voice had been deceiving.
The naked bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling gave off a feeble light, but to me it felt like stadium floodlights on me.
The redhead, Tetyana, was standing next to Vlad. It was the same young woman I’d seen in the square earlier, but this time, she’d removed her leather skirt and jacket and was wearing nothing more than her heels, red lace panties and bra and a see-through mini kimono. I averted my eyes.
“Where’s the rat?” Vlad spat out.
I didn’t say anything, not because I shouldn’t speak but because I couldn’t. I was paralyzed with fright.
He frowned, scanning the room. “Running loose in here?”
“Who dat?” Pushing his way through this raggedy crowd was the scariest man of them all, the man who’d kidnapped Katy and kicked Win outside. I swallowed hard. Closer now, his hairy face was even more intimidating. This must be Zero.
He frowned at me. “What you do here?” he snapped. “I told you go to mosque!” His eyes shone like the devil lived inside of him. I was sure he could kill with just one look. I drew back, but didn’t say a word.
“What’s wrong, you?” he snapped. “Lose voice, stupid woman?”
A micro-second earlier, I’d done the only thing I could think of. I’d grabbed the black robe, and without knowing which way was up or down, I’d pulled it over my head. In my rush, I’d put it on crooked so that I could barely see, and only from one eye. With all the noise I’d been making, they must have wondered if an elephant had been rampaging in the storage room. I stood perfectly still, half-blind, trying to calm the rising terror inside me, wondering what I must look like from the outside.
“But what about damn rat?” The scarred man’s eyes darted anxiously around the room. “How I gonna sleep tonight with fat rat running around?”
Under the robe, I raised an arm deliberately and slowly, and pointed to the furthest corner of the room. All three heads turned to look.
“It gone that way?” the man asked.
I nodded my head so they could clearly see the movement. Underneath, a river of sweat was streaming down my back. My legs were trembling so hard, I was sure the world could hear my knees rattle.
“Jus’ one?” Vlad asked.
I nodded again.
“Hey, are you okay, Bibi? Ça va?” Luc asked, his face puzzled. Three sets of eyes turned away from searching for the non-existent rat and back to me.
I was trying not to hyperventilate, feeling like a chicken in a wolves’ den, knowing this charade could last only so long.
“Who the hell open window?” Zero said suddenly, and marched to the small window I fell through. “Everyt’ing breaking here. Every time you find place, Vlad, it’s a pisshole.”
Vlad’s face went red. “I bust my ass to find good place and you call it pisshole?”
“This is worse than house you got in Paris. Do better!” Zero snapped right back.
“Jeez. First you say I don’t know how to control girl. Then, you say I don’t know how to find place?” Vlad shouted. “You know how hard is to find place where police don’t come? Huh? You—.”
“Shut up, both of you!” Tetyana said.
“You leave, if you don’t like, leave!” Zero shouted at Vlad, ignoring the redhead.
“Boys!” Tetyana raised her voice louder. “Shut it, for fuck’s sake! You want to get attention?”
The men stopped, but glared at each other.
“Don’t know what the big deal is,” Luc said, leaning against the wall like this was just another Sunday afternoon conversation. “The front door can come down in seconds. One kick will do.”
“It called psy-cho-lo-gy.” Zero pronounced the word slowly, as if he’d just learned it. “Everyone know nobody can walk in like dat. Girls know they can’t go out. They behave. We gotta show we’re serious.”
“You take their passports and beat ’em up. Isn’t that enough psychology?” Luc said with a dry smirk.
“The plan was to make fast money, not do psychology,” Tetyana said, in a quiet voice.
“What you doing here, anyway?” Zero asked, as if suddenly remembering my presence. He strode up to me, making me take an involuntary step back. “What you do in dark, huh?”
His frown had deepened, darkening his already ugly face. He was not someone you wanted to get on the wrong side of. I kept silent, trying to stop the panic attack from overcoming me. My brain raced, trying to think of what to do next. Run out? But where? Maybe a coughing fit? They’ll know it’s not her.
“I know what you’re up to.” Luc said standing straight and giving me a dirty look. “There’s no rats in here. I know what you’re doing.”
My heart skipped a beat. Does he know who I am?
He took a step forward and pointed an accusing finger at me. “It’s you who’s been stealing my stuff, isn’t it?”
What? I shook my head vigorously.
“Then what’s all my stuff doing on the floor?” He took a step forward, his eyes widening as he saw the full extent of the damaged package on the floor. “You’ve ruined my sacs, Bibi! Merde!”
I moved my arms sideways to say no. I flapped the black robe like a monster-sized crow. No. No. I hoped he understood.
“I knew you were all double-crossing me,” Luc wailed. “First Zero, and now you. How could you do this to me?”
“Jeezus, people,” Vlad said, giving him a look of contempt.
Tetyana was watching me quietly. Something in her eyes bothered me.
Zero stepped closer to me. His step wavered, but his eyes looked deadly. Inside the robe, I squared my shoulders and balled my hands into fists, ready to defend myself. He will get resistance, Bibi or not Bibi, I thought.
“Dis true, Bibi? You stealing this filth?” He asked. “You selling this filth to infidels?”
I stared at him, speechless.
“Oi!” It was Tetyana. Everyone turned to look at her.
“Can’t you all see she’s just trying to pray?” she said.
Pray?
“Pray?” Luc said.
“In here?” Vlad said.
“You possessed, woman?” Zero gave me a strange look.
I shook my head.
“Everyone out!” Tetyana clapped her hands. “Leave your sister alone, Zero. How can you interrupt when she’s praying?”
Zero looked at her, confused.
“Don’t you know that’s bad luck? You’ll go straight to hell. No virgins for you!”
That did it. Zero walked out quickly, but not before throwing a bewildered glance my way.
Does Tetyana know I’m not Bibi? Or does she think she’s saving Bibi?
“Jeezus,” I heard Vlad say. “What wrong with you people today? So
much drama. I need to nap. Dibs on TV,” he said as he stepped back into the kitchen.
I sighed in relief. Good. Watch the game, you brute, and leave Katy alone.
“Out!” Tetyana ushered everyone outside.
Then she turned to me. I froze.
Giving me a strange look I couldn’t make out, she stepped out and closed the door. I was alone in the little storage room once again.
Chapter Fifteen
With a shaking hand, I reached for the knob.
I had mentally counted time and given myself eight full minutes before stepping out of the storage room. I had no idea how long Bibi’s prayers lasted, but that sounded sufficient, plus time wasn’t on my side. It had been hard to focus, because my brain had been screaming to run out and find Katy before anyone could touch her, but I had to play smart.
I had to outwit everyone in that gang to get out of here alive with Katy. One punch or kick from either Vlad or Zero and I’d probably go out like a light, but since neither sounded highly intelligent, from what I’d heard so far, I had hope.
The voices on the other side of the room had died down. Footsteps above me told me someone or some people had retired upstairs. I opened the wooden door, not knowing what to expect, and took a step out to the grimiest kitchen I’d seen in my life.
Sitting at a dirty table was Tetyana, still in her racy getup, having a drink with the impeccably dressed Luc. Between them stood an open bottle of whiskey and two empty shot glasses. Both stopped talking when I walked out.
The kitchen counter was a mosaic of icky browns. It hadn’t been wiped in ages. The sink was piled high with dried-out dirty dishes. A garbage bag in the corner was overflowing and smelled like something had crawled inside and died. The door of the fridge was slightly ajar as if someone had forgotten to shut it, and the floor squeaked with every step I took.
I stood still next to the door, trying to figure out what to do next. Should have decided that before I came out, I thought. That was when another thought struck me. What if Bibi’s in the house? What if I bump into her? A chill went through me at the thought.
“What’s the matter, hun?” Tetyana looked genuinely worried. “Everything okay?”
