He glances at the man with the gun, then points at me and laughs some more.
“You’re in love?” he asks playfully, still laughing. “Little Viktor finally lost his heart to a woman?”
He leans in and whispers into my ear, “I bet she had a nice, juicy pussy … didn’t she? Did you enjoy it? Did you fuck her hard?” he growls. “Give her a baby I can sell?”
“No,” I hiss.
This makes him gaze straight into my eyes, a familiar glint haunting his.
“She’s. Mine.” He slaps me hard. “Don’t you fucking think you ever fucking owned her!” He spits on me again. “Fucking pathetic. First, you steal from me, and then you fall in love with one of my girls?”
“She’s not yours,” I say.
“Oh, so she’s yours now? Is that it?” He punches me in the stomach. “She. Fucking. Left. You.”
I shake my head but don’t reply. I won’t give him the satisfaction.
He looks at the man with the gun. “Go stand guard at the door.”
Then he focuses his attention on me again. “You stink of that whore, but her smell is fading fast. That’s why you aren’t fighting, right? Because she doesn’t want you anymore.”
He grabs my hair and pulls my head up. “Look at you. Sad. Pathetic. I didn’t ruin you. Love did that.”
Something about that is so fucking funny, so it’s my turn to laugh. “Love finally made me a better man,” I say. “Love gave me what you never could.”
“Oh yeah, and what’s that?” he says, grabbing me by the collar. “Tell me.”
“Happiness,” I whisper.
He punches me square in the face.
I turn away, absorbing the blow as my eyes close.
“I’ll kill you!” I hear him yell, but I’m no longer there.
I’ve already decided that I’ll be so much happier where I’m going.
Another strike to the shoulder. It doesn’t hurt me anymore.
I’m letting the pain pull me away, and take comfort knowing that it’ll all be over soon. Finally.
But then, out of nowhere, her voice rings, waking me up, pulling me back from the abyss.
Chapter 26
Viktor
“Viktor!” Her voice is like that of an angel, drawing me back in. “No!”
I open my eyes only to see her standing in the doorway with a gun in her hand. It feels like a dream, but I know it isn’t. She’s really here.
“You’re here …” I whisper.
She’s really back.
“You came back …” I whisper.
“Of course, I came back! I couldn’t just leave you here.”
Her words strike me like lightning.
She came back … for me?
“Let him go, Vladim,” she says, pointing her gun at him.
But there’s a man hiding behind the door, and now, he’s holding his gun up to her head too.
“No!” I yell, reaching out.
***
Alexis
I should’ve checked my surroundings.
“Drop it,” he says, clicking the gun into place.
For a moment, I hesitate, but there’s no way I can turn around in time to hit him before he hits me. After taking a deep breath, I lower the gun to the floor and hold up my hands, hoping he’ll spare me. But they wouldn’t kill me yet, right? They need me.
“Kick it away,” the man says.
I do as he asks. As the gun slips across the floor, Vladim stands up and turns to face me. “Well, well. Look what we’ve got here.”
“Let him go, Vladim, you don’t need him,” I say. “You wanted me.”
“Oh yes, I do.” He takes a step toward me.
“You promised me you’d keep him alive if I stayed in my home and waited for you to pick me up.”
“Yeah, but you see … you kinda broke that agreement.”
“To come here to save him! You weren’t going to let him live, were you?”
He shrugs. “Perhaps.”
“It was all a lie,” I hiss, my fists balling.
I look at Viktor whose face looks even more fucked up than before. Bruises and cuts all over, his skin is raw and red, and blood is smudged all over his shirt. He looks like someone who gave up.
“Why aren’t you fighting?” I say to him, tears welling up in my eyes at the sight of him. “Get up!”
“He’s given up, girl, can’t you see?” Vladim muses.
“Why? You can’t, Viktor.”
“Why?” Vladim laughs. “Because he gave you up. Because he loves you.” He laughs some more, but it doesn’t register with me because all I hear is the word love. Over and over again.
“You know how fucking amusing this all is?” Vladim says, shaking his head. “This is hilarious.”
“What is?” I growl, stepping forward, but the man holding the gun to my head grabs my arm to hold me back.
“You honestly think he’s the good guy. Well, let me tell you something … he isn’t. He worked for me, you know.”
“I know. He told me,” I say.
“Right,” Vladim says, pacing around the room, “but did he also tell you that he was the one who took you away from your mom?”
My eyes widen. “What?” My gaze darts to Viktor, who remains silent. The deafening sound of silence amid the truth.
“How do you think he got the scars?” Vladim muses. “He defied me. You were mine, and he stole you from me.”
“You were going to use her,” he murmurs.
“Shut up!” Vladim smacks him in the face, and I put my hand in front of my mouth.
“No! Don’t touch him.”
“You’re worried about him? After what he did to you?”
“Is it true?” I ask, looking Viktor directly in the eye. He nods slowly, confirming the worst.
“Tell her, Viktor,” Vladim says with a dirty smile on his face. “Tell her how she was so young when you stole her away from her mother and me.”
“You?” I mutter.
“Yes, me,” Vladim says, a glint in his eyes. “I’m your father.”
My heart skips a beat as I sink to the floor in shock and disbelief.
“Don’t listen to him, Lexi,” Viktor blurts out. “He’s only saying that to make you believe he’s the good guy.”
“Shut the fuck up and tell her exactly what you did,” Vladim spits at him, grabbing his arm to drag him toward me. “Tell her to her face how you were the cause of all her misery.”
His chin drops to his chest in defeat, and he begins to talk.
***
Viktor
Ten Years ago
I thought it would only be one time.
One time, when we, the snatchers, would fuck the girls to get them pregnant.
I wished it were only one time.
Of course, that was a lie.
It happened again and again until they gave birth, and then again. They became cows that we milked. When Vladim asked me to take part in it, I refused at first, but I couldn’t keep it up. I did what I had to do and then puked right after. I didn’t understand how he could do this without any regrets.
But then I saw him holding his own daughter for the first time.
And all I saw was the greed in his eyes. The endless hunger for more.
He didn’t want her love.
He didn’t want her for himself.
The moment he looked at me, I knew it … He was going to make her grow up as a servant.
From that day on, I struggled with every daily chore.
Now, I watch the girl grow up from behind glass, wondering what she thinks of us. There are so many more like her, but she’s his daughter, which makes her special. Except not to him.
Years pass, and another one is born to the same woman. Mother to both but caring for neither. All they do is sit in the room and sew clothing for the servants. She doesn’t know how to be a real mother; she was never taught to be one. After all, she grew up as a servant herself. Just like the girls who’d never
know what it meant to be real kids, to grow up with other kids and just have fun.
It breaks my heart just looking at them. And here I am, thinking Vladim would change if he saw it too—that he might snap out of it—but seeing the girls only makes him worse. It makes him see them as liquid cash in human form.
The more days that pass by, the more I’m starting to feel I can’t do this anymore. I have to act.
So on the day that he’s out hunting for more girls (which he does every month, just for sport), I take the girls out of their bedrooms and escape.
I pull them through the maze of corridors, far away from anything they’ve ever seen.
“Where are we going?” the oldest one asks.
I don’t respond. She wouldn’t understand anyway. I’m not taking her mother; she would only call the others and sound the alarm. She’s trained to do so. But these kids … these kids can still be molded. They can still be saved.
I run as fast as I can, not looking back as the realization of what I’m doing sinks in.
I’m betraying Vladim. I’m taking his children away from him.
I’m doing it because it’s the only thing I can do.
Because after all these years, I have to do something right.
So I keep going. Even when the alarms go off. Even when the girls start to cry.
They don’t want to come along.
“I wanna go to Mommy!” the youngest one says. She stops in her tracks and so does the oldest. “I don’t wanna go.”
“You can’t go to Mommy right now,” I say, turning around to face them. “You have to trust me right now.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll take you somewhere nice and safe. It’s so beautiful out there. Don’t you want to see the grass and the butterflies?”
“Grass?” the oldest one ponders.
“It’s green and soft. I could show you … if you come with me,” I say.
After a few seconds, she nods, and then so does the other one. I grab their little hands and say, “C’mon.”
We run as far as we can until their legs can no longer keep up, at which point I lift them up. It takes all my strength to carry them, but once we’re outside and sunshine bursts from the clouds above, I know we’re going to make it.
But then I hear the door slam a few feet to my left. “Stop!”
I don’t stop.
I start running, as fast as I can, hoping I can outrun them.
I’m fast and young, so I should be able to.
Except it didn’t occur to me that Vladim might have already returned with his squad … all of whom are just as fast as I am.
I run across the asphalt and into a nearby street. My muscles hurt from the sheer pressure while holding two girls, but I can’t stop. I won’t stop. Not when I’m this close to fixing what I’ve helped start. Not when I’m this close to actually making a fucking difference and doing the right thing.
I rush across the next few streets without thinking, but when I look over my shoulder, a whole pack of people is chasing me. And one of them is Vladim.
“Get back here, you fucking cunt!” he yells, running after me.
People on the street look at us as if we’ve lost our mind.
I couldn’t ask them for help, even if I wanted to. They wouldn’t believe me if I told them what’s going on, and by the time they do, I’d be dead.
So I keep running, keep going, until my legs can no longer carry me, and I fall over, covering the kids’ heads.
“Fuck!” I yell.
“Mister, they’re coming,” the oldest one says.
“I know. Run. Run!” I tell them, but they just stand there, looking at me with big eyes. “GO! Leave me!”
My raised voice scares them away, but the oldest still turns to look at me, so I say, “Don’t look back! Forget everything, just live!”
She nods and then turns and runs after her sister, disappearing from my view.
I take a deep breath and cringe when pain shoots up my leg as I get up from the ground. I get up quickly as the men are coming after me soon, and I have to beat them to it. Have to distract them by taking another route. It’s the only way the girls won’t get caught … the only way they’ll survive.
So I run in the opposite direction, almost cutting off the men following me as I narrowly turn a left and go into a public square. I keep running until I pass the final house and stumble onto an unpaved road.
From there, I rush straight into the bushes, coming out in an open field on the other side.
And then I just keep running, knowing full well that I can’t keep outrunning them forever.
But at least I’ll know I managed to save two souls.
Even if it wasn’t my own.
***
Now
My words sound hollow after finally uttering the truth … now that she finally knows who I am and what I’ve done.
I should’ve told her sooner. Maybe I could’ve softened the blow.
I knew it when I first saw her tattoo that she was the oldest of the girls I’d saved that day.
His daughter.
Now, the girl of my dreams.
At first, I hated her. Despised her. Blamed her for my scars.
She was the reason Vladim punished me. Her and her sister.
But the more time I spent with her, the more I realized that it was never her fault. I was only blaming her to avoid facing the fact that I caused my own demise.
I used to regret saving them, but the moment I saw her in front of me, kissing me, loving me, I was so happy.
So fucking happy that I’d die for her all over again.
It’s sick, and I knew from the beginning that what I was doing was wrong.
But I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t fight the need to claim her as my own.
So I did.
And I don’t regret it … Not even for one second.
***
Alexis
“Father?” The word feels strange on my tongue, so strange that tears well up in my eyes.
“Yes, Alexis. I’m your father,” Vladim muses, cocking his head.
“Liar,” I spit. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
“It’s the truth,” Vladim says, looking at Viktor. “Tell her, Viktor.”
“It’s true …” he says, coughing up blood.
I shake my head. “No.”
“Yes. Stop denying the truth when it’s right in front of your eyes. He lied to you,” Vladim hisses, pointing at Viktor. “He didn’t tell you because he wanted to keep you all to himself.”
“No.” Viktor coughs. “I wanted to protect you!”
“Protect?” Vladim chuckles, and then he looks at me. “She doesn’t look like she needs any protection. She’s my daughter. She has my genes.”
Just the word ‘daughter’ makes my skin crawl.
“I rescued you from that place so you could live a normal life,” Viktor says.
“So you could get your face burned off!” Vladim yells, laughing right after.
I’m horrified. “You did that to him because he took me?”
“You and your sister. You’re both mine. My little girls.”
Little girls. Fuck, it sounds so wrong and nasty.
“Alexis, don’t listen to him,” Viktor sputters. “Please … I love you.”
His words break me and split me in half.
Love.
He said the word.
That one word I can’t stomach to hear but need more than ever right now.
He loves me, and from the look on his face, I know he means it.
“Shut up!” Vladim yells at him. “I’ve had about enough of your nonsense.”
When he turns to punch him, I yell, “No! Stop!”
He halts in mid-air, then turns to look at me.
“I … I’ll come with you. If you promise to let him live.”
He grimaces. “Why would I? He took you away from me. He needs to be punished.”
I hold up my hand. “He�
��s already been punished. You took his honor, his pride, his face. And now, you can take me from him as well. That’s what you want, right? Me?”
He cracks his knuckles. “No, what I want is for him to suffer … and for you to have stayed by my side.”
I don’t know what else to do, so I say, “He is suffering because he wants me, and he won’t get me. Ever. Because I’ll be yours.”
There’s a glint in his eyes, and a wicked smile spreads across his lips. “Go on.”
Viktor’s eyes meet mine, and when I open my mouth, he lunges for Vladim. The sudden burst of energy that he has surprises me and seems to catch Vladim off guard. He falls to the ground with Viktor straddling him, choking him.
The man next to me points his gun at them, at which point I holler and grab his arm. With a quick jab to the stomach and a kick to the balls, he’s on his knees, and the gun is mine. The first thing I do is shoot the motherfucker who tried to shoot me. One bullet straight through his head.
The gunshot doesn’t faze me, and it doesn’t stop Viktor or Vladim either.
They’re tackling each other, punching and kicking like wild animals, consumed by rage.
Something about their fighting makes me want to scream.
“Stop!” It comes out of me without thinking.
Viktor looks up while Vladim has him by the collar. “Shoot him!” Viktor yells at me.
I don’t know what to do. If Vladim’s really my father, then … “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can! He was going to sell you. Remember that neck tattoo? He doesn’t love you. You’re cattle to him.”
“Shut up!” Vladim smacks him again. “You fucking liar!”
“He’s trying to rip us apart!” Viktor says. “Don’t let him!”
“But …” The gun trembles in my hand as I point it at both men. “He’s … my father.”
Viktor Page 21
