by Serena Vale
And sitting on the bed, which was a four-poster with its expensive drapes pulled open and its blankets and sheets twisted and matted was Alexi Volkov. He sat on the foot of the bed; his clothes reeking of filth as he listened to his father introduce her to him and explain what it was that she was here to do.
Got my work cut out for me, she thought.
“This is a joke, isn’t it?” Alexi said to his father, his accent only slightly less noticeable than his father’s. “You’re giving me a babysitter?” the youth asked, puffing on a cigarette and taking a hit from a beer bottle, then resting his elbows on his knees.
“I am,” Mr. Volkov said with finality. “She will be with you at all times. You’ve made a mockery of my – of your – company. You’ve disgraced me and your forebears long enough, Alexi. The time for your childish antics is over. It’s time for you to be as a man and learn to earn your birthright!”
Alexi blew out a puff of smoke in Janice’s direction. “And she is going to make me do so?”
“I am,” she said resolutely. This was all a natural part of the process.
Alexi shook his head. “I’m too old to have a babysitter, papa. And this one… she couldn’t keep up with me if I gave her a Ferrari to drive.”
“Funny you should mention that,” Mr. Volkov said, taking a step towards his son with an extra spring in his step. “Because from this moment onward, Ms. Roe will be the only one who has access to all of the cars that you enjoy… and even the ones that you don’t. So if a car is needed only she will be able to get one for you.”
Alexi paused at that.
“And it does not end there, boy.” Janice watched as Mr. Volkov’s spine straightened with pride, as if he’d been waiting his whole life to give this speech. In a sense he wasn’t wrong… though he’d been waiting all of Alexi’s life to do so. “Your fingerprint key to the elevator and all of your electric keys that would get you in and out of the building have been disabled… you cannot go anywhere outside of this cesspool that you call your room and you can let no one in, unless Ms. Roe allows it.”
Alexi was silent, his cigarette burning away slowly in his hand as though this new information didn’t faze him in the least.
“All of the staff?” his father asked, as though he could read his son’s mind, “they have been advised not to obey a single one of your orders. Should you ask one of them to light your cigarette or make you a sandwich, they will ignore you under the penalty of dismissal.”
Still, the youth didn’t move, but Janice could see that his chest was beginning to move with deeper breaths. She could sense his anxiety growing.
“Your schedule, whatever it was, is now void. Your sluts and your parties have all been cancelled. Also, I’ve had your email accounts shut down. Your social networks have all been invalidated. Your phone has been deactivated. Your laptop has been confiscated. All of your remaining alcohol has been poured down the drain. Your cigarettes have been discarded.” Something that looked like a vindictive smile crossed the elder man’s face. “In short, my son, you have been cut off from the outside world.”
The youth’s eyes looked determined, as if he were trying to show that none of this bothered him in the least of ways. But she could see a small glimmer of fear in his eyes. His hands began to lightly shake but he covered it by bringing his cigarette to his lips and taking a long drag.
It’ll be your last, she thought with an early sense of satisfaction.
“You cannot do this to me,” Alexi said matter-of-factly to his father. He did well to hide any fear that he felt, as if he were telling his father something as factual as the color of the sky. “Someone is certain to know that I am missing.”
“Unless you break a window and scream for help, no one will care. And I doubt that anyone will hear your cries from up here,” his father said dismissively. “Besides… I have already issued a statement to the press.”
“A statement?”
“Yes… that you have chosen to enter rehab at an undisclosed location.”
Alexi did not show any hint of fear, but his frustration looked real enough. “You cannot do this to me, papa,” he repeated just as matter-of-factly as before.
“I can and I have,” his father replied. “Ms. Roe will keep me apprised of your progress, boy. If you fail to please her, then your existence will become all the more miserable.”
Alexi blew out a cloud of smoke and dropped his cigarette onto the overly expensive marble floor of his bedroom. And with the blinding speed of an Olympic athlete he made a mad dash for the door behind her.
Janice smiled. She had encountered this kind of reaction plenty of times before. Fresh Prisoner Syndrome, she called it. Someone who’d had the freedom to go anywhere and do anything that they liked that suddenly found themselves shut in and locked away from the rest of the world tended to react badly. Especially when they believed that they could still do otherwise.
She was glad she had negotiated the terms of her contact upfront.
She stretched back her right arm and shot it forward, her fist colliding with the unsuspecting jaw of Alexi Volkov. For a brief moment fire bit at her knuckles, the physics of his sprint for the door as it combined with her opposite moving fist was enough to make her hand hurt. The sound of flesh colliding with flesh was loud in the quiet room and without even breaking her stance Alexi Volkov fell to the ground as if an invisible chain had yanked him off his feet unsuspectedly.
As Alexi hit the ground he moaned and despite the pain in her hand she saw a small bit of blood in the man’s mouth as he rolled onto his side, dazed but not seriously hurt. His eyes were shut and the sound of his pain was genuine. She knew that to mean that he’d never been struck like that before in his life.
Mr. Volkov walked over slowly to where she stood and Alexi now lay on the floor. He stopped and looked down on his son, measuring the damage. Then he looked up to her. For a moment, she thought that he might disapprove. She knew that he might have thought that she had acted rashly, but she’d been doing this business far too long to know that she had to lay down the law at the first opportunity. If Alexi was aware of the consequences then he’d be less inclined to cause problems. It was an abject lesson, but a necessary one.
Mr. Volkov smiled and gave an approving nod. “Perhaps you are more familiar with Russian discipline than even I had given you credit for, Ms. Roe.” He stood up straighter. “I shall leave you to your work now.”
And with that, Mr. Volkov slowly walked out of the room with a contented smile on his face that was punctuated by a satisfied chuckle.
Chapter 3
Janice sat across from Alexi on the only clean seat she could find, an old armchair that looked fitting for someone study circa 18th century. That it would be in a pigsty like this baffled her.
Daddy’s money, she thought.
She watched her new client in the dirtied living room of the suite. In which someone had found it amusing to build a miniature pyramid of old delivery containers on the overlarge coffee table in the center of the room. She felt somewhat soiled by simply sitting there in such filth. She’d seen bad living conditions in her clients before but this one definitely made the Top 5 list. She felt like some of the insect life in the suite was attempting to nest in her dark hair just by sitting there.
She did her best to ignore it. She had already asserted herself as the dominant personality between her and her new client, she needed to let him see that there was nothing that bothered her. If he sensed weakness he would do whatever he could to exploit it. She’d made that mistake after her first client and she wasn’t interested in repeating the experience.
Alexi sat on the floor, his back against the foot of the leather sofa across from her on the other side of the take-out pyramid with an icepack on his jaw. The blood she had seen in his smile had subsided and he sat with his eyes shut, his neck tilted back and aimed towards the ceiling, resting his head on the sofa cushion like a pillow. He had not made a sound in nearly an hour, apart from
the occasional moan of pain in his jaw.
She knew this part of the process well.
He’d reacted just as she had thought he would, trying to run away like that. She had also shown him that his thumbprint – which was supposed to open the doors to the elevator of his suite – had been disabled. And the keys he was supposed to have on hand to allow him to traverse the stairs had also been confiscated and she now had them hidden in the last place he would ever think to look for them. And he’d also taken the time to make sure that his phone, laptop, and any other means of communication that he’d had before was just as his father had said: gone.
Once he’d realized that he was indeed cut off from the rest of the world and alone, he’d gone looking for the next best thing: drugs and alcohol. Mr. Volkov had already taken the liberty of stripping the apartment of any substances that would have inhibited his son’s “recovery”.
“He’s never thought that I would go so far as to make him a prisoner in his own house,” his father had said with a pleased smile. “He doesn’t bother to hide any of his substances from me… not even the illegal ones. He’ll have no secret stashes that could hinder your work.”
It turned out that Mr. Volkov had been correct in that fact. Alexi had gone looking all across his suite for anything that could dull his pain, chemically or otherwise. But as she followed him, watching for the slightest hint that he might have a stash somewhere despite his father’s thoughts, she found that Alexi had hidden nothing.
And with no source of comfort, he gathered up an icepack and settled on the floor, grumbling all the while. It was a hard thing to realize; being a prisoner in his own home. To make it worse he was coming to grips with the fact that his father had regulated himself to the part of the warden. And she, for want of a better definition, was his new cellmate.
At least she was after a fashion.
It would take some time to get used to, she knew. But she didn’t have the luxury of time on her side to do things the proper way. There wasn’t time to allow him to acclimate to his new settings. Normally she would allow him to come to terms with his situation gradually. But Christmas was fast approaching and she had less than thirty days to get Alexi straightened out. She had to play hardball with this kid and shove him face-first into the clean-up portion of his life. And she knew that he wasn’t going to go willingly.
There was simply no other choice.
Alexi released a deep sigh and dropped the ice pack on the floor as if it was refuse. She had a moment to observe the bruise on his face as he did so. It was about the right size for her first and right off she knew it would take some time to heal. It was perfect: that bruise would be his clock as well as hers. As long as he wore it, he wouldn’t be going outside until it was small enough to not be noticeable. She didn’t believe in the use of makeup to hide imperfections like some people in her business. It was genuine work that she did. Besides… paparazzi could always spot a fake makeup job, even the most inexperienced ones. It needed to be real or nothing. But the bruise would serve its purpose. She had a few days at least to break him. That was the first step.
“You hit hard for a little thing,” he finally said.
She kept her expression neutral. “I didn’t come here to baby you, Alexi. And I can hit you a lot harder if you make me think I have to.”
He opened his eyes and stared blankly up at the ceiling. “Somehow… I believe that about you.” He sighed. “So… this is really happening?”
“I’m afraid it is.”
He tilted his head upright to look at her. The look on his face was just as she expected it would be: malevolent. He didn’t like that he was being forced into this but he had enough sense to realize that he couldn’t get out of it either. Not literally, at any rate. She knew that she had read him right. He wanted out, but he wouldn’t go so far as to commit suicide or anything. He wanted to live… he wanted to prove that he was stronger than her and his father. He would do everything he could to hang on to this part of himself just to show that no one could break him of his ways if he didn’t want them to.
But at least for the moment he realized the depth of his plight. He was as trapped as the proverbial rat and the maze he would need to run was one that she would design as they went along. All he could do was endure it.
“So… how do I get out of this mess?”
“You mean how do you get rid of me?”
His malevolent look didn’t diminish, but she could tell that he agreed with her. He had that in common with his father at least; he respected people who spoke their mind.
“Simple. Do everything I say, when I say it, as I say it. If you clean your life up then you’ll be rid of me.”
“My life needs no cleaning,” he replied tersely.
She laughed loud enough that the sound reverberated off of the expensive walls, floors, and ceiling like the laugh of a malevolent spirit in a haunted house. The sound, she hoped, would echo in his ears as well. He probably wasn’t accustomed to having people laugh at him. It would leave a lasting impression, she was sure.
“No? Thirteen arrests in the last four months. Your list of charges include drunk and disorderly, possession of a controlled substance, public lewdness, public nudity, some pretty major traffic citations, misdemeanor theft, accosting a priest, assault and battery, and then there’s my personal favorite: attempted theft of a city bus. No cleaning? Really?” She punctuated her remarks with a second loud guffaw.
He was silent a moment, his expression betraying none of the rage she was sure he felt. His eyes were throbbing, as if his brain was boiling right behind his eyes. He attempted to conceal it just by shrugging. He was doing the same thing that she was: trying to show that nothing bothered him. Janice knew that she was better at it though. “Everyone just overreacted.”
“Your papa has spent over a million bucks in legal suits, Alexi. And that’s despite his expensive lawyers and that they happened to win every single lawsuit. Still… you’ve cost him plenty of money. And you’ve embarrassed him something fierce, so he tells me.”
He scoffed. “I embarrass him? And he’s worried about money? There’s no surprise there.” He cleared his throat. “And that’s why you’re here? To see that I don’t cause him any more trouble? He does realize – as I’m sure you do – that I’m still costing him money simply for you being here?”
She gave a single affirming nod. “But there’s a catch, Alexi.”
“A catch?”
“Yeah… see… I have an arrangement with your father. I only get paid when I straighten you up to his satisfaction. He’s not satisfied, then I don’t get paid. So in a sense, he’s not losing any money simply for me being here unless I deliver him the image of a cleaned up heir in time for Christmas. You don’t shape up, I don’t get paid. It’s that simple.” She leaned forward in her chair. “So… you would do well to consider me extremely motivated.”
He gave a smirk as if this amused him more than anything else. “And how long do I have to endure this façade?”
“Oh, it’s no façade, Alexi. It’s the realest thing that you will ever endure in your whole life. And you’ll go through it until I decide that you’re done.”
He gave her an appraising look. “Do you think you can actually force me to do these things that you claim?”
“Do I need to knock you out next time?”
He was quiet.
“I didn’t think so. And the answer is yes… I can force you to do the things that I want. All it takes is the right persuasion.”
“You intend to beat me?”
“As amusing as that would be for me,” she said with a bemused smile, “it won’t look good if I deliver you to your papa looking like the sour end of a rotten piece of fruit. But just remember, I have between now and Christmas… that still leaves plenty of time for any bruises that I give you to heal. But for now, there are other options.”
“Oh?” he asked with a second scoff.
“Yeah… for instance, do you like eatin
g?”
His expression changed. “Huh?”
“Eating food… you do like eating, don’t you? I can tell that you do by this pizza box imitation of the pyramids of Teotihuacán,” she said pointing at the covered coffee table between them. “I figure anyone that literally builds a temple to eating has to be serious about it.”
“Cute,” he said icily, though he licked his lips nervously. “So what do you mean by asking if I like eating?”
She stood up from her seat and dusted herself off, not surprised to find that dust – she hoped it was dust – falling away from her in small clouds. “When it’s time for me to eat, security will let me out so that I can go and have a feast of I want. But you? Well… you’re locked in. And you won’t eat unless I say you can.”
“You can’t starve me,” he said defiantly.
“Can’t I? If it’s the only way I can secure your compliance I’ll starve you to the point where I’ll see to it that you’re fed nothing more than a box of raisins a day. I’ll starve you until you’re so diminished that you’ll sing the entire first act of Carmen for an apple if I want. If you mouth off to me… if you defy me in the least of ways… if I even suspect that you’re giving me trouble… you’ll be drinking water from the inside of the toilet bowl trying to keep yourself nourished.” She paused and gave a malevolent smile of her own. “And maybe I’ll record the whole thing and put it on the internet. How many of your friends will enjoy your company once they see how far you’ve fallen? Which of all of your little sluts will want to kiss you once they’ve seen that?”
His expression became livid and just as she expected, he rose up to his feet with rage in his eyes and leapt for her. If he feared any consequences for murder, he didn’t show it.
But she was ready.
She held up one hand and gave him a second punch to the face, this one just under his left eye. His cry of outrage vanished instantly as he again fell, the faux pyramid breaking his fall and crumbling beneath him just like a genuine ruin would.
