by Bella Rose
The drive was jarring. Katie tried to use her legs to press her body up against the edge of the SUV to keep from rolling around. When they finally arrived, her captor returned to the back of the SUV and again threw her over his shoulder like a big sack of potatoes.
“Can you please put me down?” she asked irritably. “I’m getting a headache. Where are we anyway?”
“Karkoff wants a word with you.” Sasha’s arrogant tone was a far cry from the vulnerable man who could barely make a decision on his own.
Katie smirked at him from her place hanging upside down on some man’s shoulder. “I think you took too much pain medication. It’s screwed with your brain.”
“Shut up!” he snapped.
She made a face at him. “You shut up. What are we? Ten? I know you are, but what am I?”
It was obvious that she had already pushed Sasha too far. She just wasn’t certain she cared anymore. The guy had pushed her too far as well. Was he really acting on the orders of someone else, or did he have his own agenda? Either way she was sick and tired of getting pushed around and watching them push Viktor around right along with her. If Karkoff wanted a word, Katie was ready to give him several.
***
Viktor wanted to know what had happened to the women he’d let out of the van less than twenty-four hours ago. He slunk through the shadows of the alley around the corner from the hospital where he had jimmied the lock and let them go. There was still evidence of his presence there the night before. Several burlap sacks lay discarded against a brick wall, a few shreds of nylon rope lying on top of the pile.
He squatted down and poked through the refuse. Pulling out his phone, he used it as a light to search for any shred of information that might help. He was feeling a little guilty for just dumping them and dashing off to meet Sasha.
A noise pulled his attention away from his sober contemplation. He quickly stashed his phone, leaving himself shrouded in pitch black. There were low voices speaking in Russian, perhaps two or three. The men were walking in his direction.
“Why are we looking here?” the first man asked. “No woman is going to hang out in an alley waiting to get mugged after she managed to escape slavery. This is stupid.”
A second man tripped over a pile of garbage in the alley. He cursed, and then snarled at his companion. “There’s a hospital less than a block away. If you were a woman in a strange city without money or clothes, wouldn’t you go to a hospital?”
“Are those bitches even smart enough to know what a hospital is?” The first man snickered. “We pull them from the middle of nowhere. Who knows what a Siberian hospital is like?”
The men were pacing closer to Viktor’s position. He wondered if they had already been to the hospital. He didn’t recognize them as Karkoff’s men. That likely meant they belonged to whoever was supplying Karkoff with the women he was selling to brothels all over the country.
Viktor pushed his back against the brick wall behind him. Two lines of light cut a swath through the dark alley. The lines bobbed and weaved as the men lumbered along, still talking. There were only two. Yet Viktor could have sworn he had initially heard a third man walking with the other two. His senses went on high alert as he wondered where the third man had gone.
There was a dumpster just a few feet away from Viktor. He could smell the pungent odor above the stale oil-and-grime scent of the alley pavement. Edging closer to the cover of the oversized metal container, Viktor kept an eye on the two flashlight beams.
Then someone grabbed him from behind. “Going somewhere?”
Viktor didn’t waste a single second. He grabbed the hand on his shoulder and twisted it violently to the right while stepping left. Pivoting on the ball of his foot, Viktor spun about to face his attacker. It was dark and he had no notion of the man’s identity or size beyond what he could sense.
The man grunted, finally seeming to come to his senses enough to fight back. There was a muted whistle in the air as the guy drew back to throw a punch. Viktor lurched out of the way just in time. He felt the wind caused by the man’s fist pass right beneath his nose.
The guy took a breath to call to his friends. That could not happen, no matter what. Viktor chopped the man in the throat and felt his windpipe nearly collapse with the force of the blow. There was a choking noise and the man sank to his knees.
“Yuri?” the first man called out. “You okay, comrade?”
Viktor sank his hands into his opponent’s greasy hair and used the leverage to smash the guy’s face into his knee.
“Yuri?”
The other two were coming. Viktor could hear them shuffling closer in the darkness. He needed to get out of there fast. Keeping hold of his unknown assailant’s head, Viktor rammed him into the wall. When he was satisfied that the man was out cold, Viktor ran off into the night as silently as he could.
He could hear the other men behind him, calling for their comrade and blundering about in the dark. Viktor headed in the direction of the hospital. He could at least check there, even though it would be unwise to stir up curiosity.
The alley grew brighter as he approached the emergency entrance of the downtown hospital. Viktor slowed his gait to a rolling walk and strode through the automatic doors as though he belonged there, despite the filth coating the knees of his jeans and the front of his T-shirt.
“Sir?” The receptionist gave him a dubious once-over. “Can I help you?”
“Yes, thank you.” Viktor offered her a warm smile, trying to put her at ease and having mild success if her return smile was anything to go by. “Did you happen to be on duty last night?”
“Yes.” Her entire demeanor became guarded. “Why?”
Viktor had a sneaking suspicion that the gentleman he’d just encountered in the alley had been here a short time ago. “Were there other men in here asking you that question tonight?”
“Maybe.” She looked ready to call security on him.
Viktor pursed his lips. “I’m going to guess that they were asking after a group of women.” Viktor held up his hand. “Please give me a moment to explain?”
As he had hoped, his earnest expression and honesty had earned him some points with the receptionist. The hand that had been hovering over her phone relaxed to the countertop. She inhaled deeply. “Go on.”
“Let’s just say that I don’t want to know anything about where a group of women were taken, or where they went, or whatever,” Viktor told her cryptically. “Let’s just say that I was in a position to be in a lot of trouble if someone discovered that I knew anything about them at all.”
The receptionist’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Then she bit her lip. “So perhaps you were just wondering if a group of women made it to this hospital at all?”
“Exactly.”
The receptionist offered him a tentative smile. “Yes, sir. They’re going to be just fine.”
Viktor couldn’t have stopped the broad smile that crossed his face had he wanted to. The relief he felt was immense, though he hadn’t even realized how worried he had been. “Thank you, ma’am. I cannot express how much better that makes me feel.”
She reached up over the counter and patted his hand. “I’m glad to hear that actually. Very glad. And I never saw you here tonight, or any other time. And I don’t know anything about you.”
“Thank you.” Viktor had never before been so pleasantly surprised by the goodness of humanity.
Chapter Nine
Katie glared at Sasha as she sat on a leather couch in a well-appointed study. She could only assume that this was Karkoff’s home. It was a little odd to think of a mafia boss living deep in one of the city’s oldest and most prestigious neighborhoods, but the man most certainly had the money for such a place. The furnishings were expensive. The rooms she had seen as her captor had carried her through the house were packed with beautiful antiques and modern conveniences all rolled into one.
“I cannot understand what Viktor sees in you,” Sasha commented with d
erisive amusement. He was staring at Katie as though she were on display in a museum. “You’re ill tempered, have a mediocre body, and your personality is like acid.”
She snorted. “Did you ever consider the idea that I don’t give a shit if you like me? Maybe I’m not like this with Viktor. What a concept!” She didn’t bother to soften the caustic tone of her words.
“You should have stayed away,” Sasha said darkly. It would have been better for everyone if you had.”
“I have a feeling it would have been better for you,” she told him thoughtfully. “But I get the impression that’s really your malfunction and nobody else’s.”
He snarled something at her in Russian, but an older man came striding into the study before Sasha could finish whatever insult he was giving her. The portly man with the gray hair and the bushy moustache glared at Sasha to silence him. Then he turned to Katie and gave her a very long and thorough perusal.
“Your mother would be horrified to hear you speak to a woman like that,” the old man said, wagging his finger in Sasha’s face. He looked back at Katie with his hands on his hips. “So you are Katie McClellan?”
“Yes, sir, I am.” She attempted to be polite. There was really no reason to be ignorant with this man. Even if he had been the cause of her getting dragged out of her house practically in the middle of the night.
“You look as though you were ready for bed.” The man frowned. He looked at Sasha. “Did you not tell her that I just wanted to talk?”
Katie almost laughed at the uncomfortable expression on Sasha’s face. Apparently his no-holds-barred approach to getting her here to this meeting had been mostly his idea. Now he was left trying to explain himself. It was amusing, to say the least.
“My name is Boris Karkoff,” the old man said with a grand sweep of his arm. “I apologize if Sasha was rather—enthusiastic in his method of getting you here.”
“Oh absolutely.” Katie tried not to laugh. “Because I always respond well to having my house broken into and my dog threatened.”
Boris Karkoff swung around to face Sasha with a towering frown on his jowly face. “You threatened her dog?”
“The rabid beast was going to bite me,” Sasha protested. “It had already bitten Nicolai. Then this stupid bimbo smacked Nicolai with a hot pan and burned his face!”
Karkoff looked back at Katie with an expectant look on his face. Katie sighed. “Of course Max bit the guy. You guys busted through my kitchen door screaming like crazy people. Max had every right to bite you. And of course I’m going to use whatever weapons I have at my disposal when you barge into my home uninvited and threaten to abduct me! You tied my hands and threw me in the back of a van. I think it was only logical that I fight you every step of the way.”
“Tell me she’s kidding,” Karkoff said to Sasha. He sounded annoyed. “You broke into her house and abducted her without explaining yourselves first?”
“We told her you wanted to talk to her,” Sasha argued hotly.
“I think that was after you’d already trussed me up like a turkey and threatened to shoot my dog if I didn’t come willingly,” Katie pointed out. She was not letting Sasha get away with minimizing his bad behavior.
Karkoff shook his head, but it was a bit like he was blowing off the antics of a high-spirited child, not trying to justify the bad behavior of a full-grown man. This didn’t bode well for Katie. Then Karkoff hauled back and slapped Sasha across the face so hard that Katie heard the man’s neck pop.
She covered her mouth with her hands, shocked. Sasha barely flinched. In fact, he curled his lip at the old man and sneered. Karkoff waved his hand to indicate that Sasha should just go. Sasha turned on his heel and exited the study, but not before he made a point of leering at Katie as though she were a prime item on some menu.
The study door closed and Katie was alone with Boris Karkoff. She had no idea what to expect, but there was no way she was going down without a fight.
***
Viktor stood at Katie’s back door with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. In the dim gleam of her porch light, he could see splinters of wood scattered about from where the door had obviously been kicked in. Inside the house, Max was barking furiously.
Moving carefully, Viktor pushed the door open. It had only been pulled closed. A quick examination of the lock proved that the entire handle would have to be replaced. The door was old and solid, but the lock had been flimsy.
The kitchen was a mess. There were muffins scattered everywhere and the place was boiling hot. Viktor noted that the oven was hanging open and was still on. Heat poured into the room as the gas appliance attempted to maintain the oven temperature. He shut the oven off and closed the door.
Stepping around the muffin debris, Viktor tried to piece together what might have happened. The pan appeared to be bent as though it had been weaponized somehow. He smiled grimly as he imagined that Katie would not have gone willingly or easily, which was probably why Max was shut in the bathroom.
Viktor tried the door of the hall bath. It seemed to be locked from the inside. Jiggling the handle sent Max into a renewed frenzy of barking. The dog actually sounded hoarse, a though he’d been locked in there for a while.
Pulling out his pocketknife, Viktor slipped the narrowest blade into the door handle until he heard the assembly inside click open. He started to open it, but realized that he might well have fifty or so pounds of pissed-off dog in his face as soon as he did.
“Max?” Viktor called through the door. “Max, it’s just Viktor.” He felt ridiculous talking to a dog as though it were human, but he knew that was the way Katie spoke to him.
There was a pause in the frantic canine sounds. Then there was an almost polite scratch at the door. Viktor pulled the bathroom door open and stepped back, but he need not have worried. Max bolted through the opening and ignored Viktor almost completely. He put his nose to the ground and began eagerly searching for Katie.
“She’s not here, boy,” Viktor said more to himself than the dog. “But I know where to find her.”
Viktor had thought to leave the dog behind, but the sad puppy expression proved too much for him to resist. Standing at the back door, preparing to leave, Viktor stared down at Max’s off-kilter eyes. Their expressive blue color was almost eerily human. Finally, with a monumental sigh, Viktor waved the dog through the door.
“It won’t lock right anyway,” Viktor reasoned. “And if you get out and get lost, Katie will never forgive me.”
Viktor paced off into the night with Max padding along beside him. It wasn’t a long walk to Karkoff’s mansion, but it felt surprisingly good to have company for the trek.
***
Katie crossed her arms and glared at Karkoff. “You do realize that Sasha is a very disturbed individual with some serious personal issues that make him really unpredictable, right?”
Karkoff sank down into a comfortable-looking armchair. He was treating this as if she had paid him a social call. It was rather odd. “Sasha is my older sister’s youngest child.” He said it as though that made all the difference.
“It seems like he could have used a swift kick in the pants during his growing up years,” Katie commented darkly. “I know I’d like to kick him in the ass right now.”
Karkoff gave a hearty laugh. “I like you, Katie McClellan. And I think I can see why Viktor does too.”
“So is that it? You give your blessing and everyone leaves Viktor alone?” Katie almost stood up, ready to leave.
Karkoff waved her back down to her seat. “Not so fast.”
“Of course. There’s a catch, right?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Karkoff narrowed his gaze on Katie. “Viktor is a valuable asset to me for the very reason everybody thinks he is worthless. He is a free agent. He can go places and do things that my own men cannot because he is not pledged to me or to anyone.”
“No. Viktor is his own man,” she said proudly. “Which is why he should be able to do whatever h
e wants with his life, even if that means going to college and never working for you again.”
“Ah, but that I cannot allow.” Karkoff wagged his finger at her the same way he had at Sasha. “I need his services. You distract him. It would be better if you ended things with him and let him live his life the way he was.”
“But that’s not what he wants,” Katie said in confusion. “Why do you think your needs are so much more important than his?”
Karkoff laughed. “Because I am me and I have an entire family to think about and protect. All of my men look to me for guidance.”
“Yet Viktor isn’t part of that family, so he doesn’t benefit at all from what he gives to you.” She was getting angry. Her voice was rising and she couldn’t seem to stop it. “Do you not understand how wrong that is?”
“Calm down, my dear,” Karkoff said offhandedly. “Viktor is well compensated for what he does.”
“But it’s not a life!” she argued. “Don’t you think he wants more? Why has everyone always assumed that he doesn’t?” Katie couldn’t sit still any longer. She jumped to her feet and glared down at Karkoff. “He isn’t your monkey. He isn’t your man. He belongs to himself and that’s that! I’m not going to back off, as you put it. I love him. I think I always have. I left him once and look what happened!” She gestured wildly to the study. “He’s stuck being your errand boy. I don’t care what I have to do. I’m helping him get a real life for himself.”
Karkoff looked completely taken aback by her passionate speech. Then he made a low sound in his throat. “You are truly the pain in the ass everyone says you are.”
“You think so? Well you haven’t seen anything yet!” Katie crowed.
