by Rina Kent
Worse, I’m breathing some sort of a funny smell.
I kick my leg up, but it connects with nothing. I buck against the one holding me, but two other pairs of hands join in immobilizing me.
No. I’m not going to die.
I still have a lot to do and…Kyle and I didn’t even get our proper start yet. I can’t die.
I elbow the body behind me, but his hold on the bag doesn’t loosen. I feel lightheaded and my movements slow. My harsh breathing withers away and I fall slack against meaty arms.
No.
No…
I try to kick, but my limbs don’t move.
Soon enough, darkness swallows me whole.
19
Kyle
I barge out of the car before it fully stops moving.
The scene in front of me is nothing short of a battlefield. A few men are lying on the ground, their blood leaving splashes and forming pools on the filthy asphalt. Others are hiding from the gunshots behind cars.
But there’s nothing to hide from.
More accurately, we’re late.
Fuck.
Adrian motions at his guards to check the perimeter, and they comply with sharp nods. I remain in place, feet planted solidly on the ground, as my gaze roams the cars and the people left behind, whether they’re alive or with their heads down.
Every time I see a motionless body, my heartbeat explodes in my ears until I make sure it’s not Rai.
There’s no trace of her.
None. Nada.
My hand trembles around the gun, and it’s a fucking first. After taking a life when I was ten, I’ve never had my hand tremble around a weapon. Guns, rifles, and knives aren’t only weapons; they are an extension of my hand, a method to not only stay alive but to also eradicate anyone who stands in my path.
This is the first time my weapon isn’t fulfilling its role. I failed her, and so it failed me.
“Where the fuck did they go?” Kirill’s agitated voice grabs my attention, and I sprint in his direction.
Although he and Rai hate each other, he won’t be out to kill her. Besides, as much as I loathe the fucker Damien, he would make it his mission to protect the Pakhan’s grandniece.
Adrian joins me, even though he’s intently watching the scene, probably recreating it in his mind’s eye as I suspect he does whenever he visits a place.
We find Kirill between two cars filled with bullet holes, and I mean completely fucked up with bullets like in some Middle Eastern war. Two bodies lie limp around him as he punches an Albanian to a pulp. Even though the man is not small by any means, Kirill has made a bloody painting out of his face. His features are unrecognizable, eyes swollen, lip busted, and shirt soaked with blood and dirt.
Every time he punches him, the man’s blood sprays on Kirill’s shirt, face, and even glasses. That’s a first for someone who’s so meticulous and never gets his hands dirty.
“I said…” He breathes harshly. “Where the fuck is your nest of cowards? Where do you rats hide? Huh?”
The man groans with obvious pain but says nothing. If anything, he smirks, and that gets him a brutish punch to the skull.
“He won’t talk.” Damien leans against a car as his closest guard fusses with a wound in his bicep. “The others didn’t before we killed them.”
“Where’s Rai?” I don’t recognize my voice, the rage in it and…the fear. A fear so deep I can taste the bitterness of it.
Damien shakes his head once. “They took her.”
His words strike me like a thunderbolt in the middle of a raging sea.
They took her.
The Albanians took her.
Nicolo’s words from earlier and his retellings about what they did to his grandmother wrap a tight noose around my throat. It keeps suffocating me with every gruesome detail he mentioned.
I storm in front of Damien and grab him by the throat. “How the fuck did you let them take her? Where the fuck were you?”
His guard steps in to push me away, but stops with a dismissive motion of Damien’s hand. “Not that I have to fucking answer to you, but they wouldn’t have taken her if I were there. I was fighting one of them off, and when I turned around, they were carrying her and Aleksander into a van.”
“Aleksander was taken, too?” Adrian’s suspicious gaze slides to Kirill, then goes back to Damien. “Why would they take a guard?”
“Fuck if I know.” Damien dismisses the soldier who won’t leave his bleeding arm alone.
“In my place.” Kirill pants, still clutching the Albanian by the collar. “They took Sasha in my place.”
Sasha? Ah, right. Russians and their weird nicknames. How they even associate Sasha with Aleksander is a mystery.
“Still doesn’t make any sense that they’d take you or Aleksander.” Adrian stares at me even as he speaks to Kirill. “They’re usually interested in women.”
At his words, the retelling of Nicolo’s grandmother’s story hits me again, and this time, the images—the rape, the breaking, the murder, the tapes—all of them are too vivid and my hold instinctively loosens from Damien.
Bloody hell.
“He…” the guard in Kirill’s hold croaks, smiling to show bloodied teeth. “He…looked…like a woman…that guard…”
“Fuck! Fuck!” Kirill roars, then takes a few breaths, smoothing his voice even though he appears ready to murder a town. “Listen to me, cockroach, if you don’t tell me where you took him, I’m going to have you raped. I’ll assault you with so many objects until I fucking break you. Maybe then you’ll know how it feels, yeah?”
“In the meantime…your girly guard’s ass will be broken.”
Kirill swiftly yanks Adrian’s gun and points it at the Albanian’s head.
“No.” I sprint toward him and place a hand on his arm, then whisper so he’s the only one who hears. “He’s our only card to find them and he’s provoking you on purpose so you’ll kill him.”
Kirill is breathing through his nostrils even though his face remains stone cold. Instead of releasing the gun, he shoots the guard’s leg, and blood splashes onto the Russian’s glasses.
The Albanian screams like a chicken being slaughtered, but he soon goes back to smirking.
“Let me.” I slightly push Kirill back and he complies, wiping blood off his glasses with the hem of his shirt.
The Albanian is kneeling on the floor, so I crouch in front of him and adopt the tone that got me through everything, the slightly light one, the one that hides how much I want to shoot this scum’s brains out. “Hey there, I’m the good cop among all of them. Damien there would snap your neck in a second. Kirill here would torture you to death, and Adrian, well, you must have heard rumors about how he puts people in a white room, then drives them crazy without laying a hand on them. So aren’t you happy you got me?”
“She’s…your wife…isn’t she? The…blonde beauty. I bet they can tear her cunt in one day—”
I drive my fist straight into his face, and even though the need to finish him off is stronger than anything I’ve felt before, I smile and continue in a semi-restrained tone. “Focus. That was not my question. But, anyway, since I’m a good cop, I have good-cop methods.” I grab his cheek, wiping the blood with my thumb as if I’m worried about it. “What’s your name?”
“David.”
“I bet that’s not your real name, but don’t worry, part of my good cop arsenal is that I can take a picture of you, send it to my hackers, and receive an email back with all your details. Your real name, age, and even face if you went under the knife. But that’s not all. They will also find out things like where you were born and how. Were you in the gulags? Or were you perhaps ex-military turned mercenary before you came here? Did you run in Eastern European circuits, do some burglaries here and some there? All of those will be in the records, and then, I will know about your family. Surely, you didn’t come all the way here for yourself. You guys always have a sick mother living in a cottage-like home on a moun
tain, waiting for a check from you so they can fight off the merciless winters. Perhaps you have a girl on the side, too, or an offspring you’re hiding.”
Even though his expression doesn’t change, David swallows. One of those is correct. The mother, the woman, or the offspring.
Jackpot.
“So here’s the thing, David. For every hair hurt on Rai’s head, you’re going to watch that mother and woman of yours being raped and know you won’t be able to save them until they spit their last breaths. Only then will I grant you death. How does that sound?”
David stares between the four of us, probably searching for someone who’ll tell me not to do this, but he’s fallen among the wrong crowd. Damien doesn’t give a fuck about the methods we use as long as it gets things done. Kirill would’ve come up with this idea himself, and Adrian…well, he stands still and expressionless, almost as if he doesn’t care what’s going on.
I’m probably the only one who wouldn’t use that option. Innocent women have nothing to do with this. However, I have to make him believe I would because, no matter how much they prefer this method, they wouldn’t want it used against them. If anything, considering the horror they inflict, they know it will stab tenfold worse if it’s directed at them.
“What’s it going to be, David?” I wipe the blood from his face. When he says nothing, I stand to my feet, retrieve my phone, and direct it at him. “Smile for the camera.”
“N-no…I…will tell you,” David whimpers. “I’ll tell you.”
“Glad we agree.” I glare down at him, my voice darkening. “Now fucking talk.”
As soon as he finishes giving information and we make sure it’s true, I shoot him between the eyes.
Every second I don’t go to her, she’s in danger.
With every second, they might hurt her in ways she can never come back from.
I’ll get Rai back. I have to, even if I have to resort to methods I’ve never used before.
20
Rai
A funny taste lingers at the back of my throat as I slowly open my eyes.
My surroundings gradually come into focus. I’m lying on a dark floor that appears like old, abandoned asphalt. A rotten smell like a public toilet in a forgotten gas station nearly causes me to gag.
I sit up and the world starts spinning like it did this morning. The gray stone walls have some industrialized red numbers on them, but they’re faded, washed away by the merciless hands of time. The few cracks invading the solid surface and a metal bed in the corner are the only things in sight. Its white sheets are yellowish and appear to not have been washed in an eternity.
How did I end up here? After the bag was thrown over my head, I don’t remember anything. Back then, the only thought I had was that I was dying and I couldn’t just die.
The sense of relief at being alive doesn’t hit me as strongly as it should. I might not be dead now, but that could change. Besides, it’s worse if they take me alive. They could use me to try to force Granduncle’s hand on something. It took so much for me to get to where I am, so there’s no way in hell I’ll be the brotherhood’s weakness.
I try to stand up, but I fall back on my ass immediately.
“It’s useless.” The quiet voice coming from beside me startles me. I didn’t know I wasn’t alone.
Aleksander sits by my side, his legs outstretched in front of him and his arms limp by either of his sides. There’s a cut in the shoulder of his jacket and his soft features appear strained, numb, even.
“They injected us with something,” he continues, still staring at the wall across from us. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s robbing me of energy.”
Now that I focus on my body, it feels hot and kind of numb, like I can’t control my limbs. I try to stand up again, but I fall back faster than the first time.
“Better save your energy, miss.”
“Shit,” I pant.
“Shit, indeed.”
I stare at him sideways. His lips are dry and cracked, which could mean he’s dehydrated. I motion at his jacket where there’s a red hole. Stains of blood cover his cheeks, too, giving him the look of a wounded warrior. “Did you lose a lot of blood?”
He stares at his injury as if he forgot it’s there. “No. This should be fine.”
“How did you end up here too?”
“They took me in place of Boss.”
“Kirill?”
“Yes.”
“Why would they want to take Kirill?”
“I’m not sure. I just knew I had to protect him.”
The amount of blind loyalty Aleksander has for Kirill is insane. He’d literally die for him. As would Katia and Ruslan for me, I guess. I hope they didn’t get caught in the gun war.
“We need to come up with a plan to escape,” I tell him.
“Our best option is if one of us causes a diversion and the other escapes.”
“I will do it.”
“No. You’re the Pakhan’s grandniece. I’m disposable, so I’ll do it.”
“Even though you’re Kirill’s guard, you’re not disposable. None of our men are, even if you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you.”
“Your boss does.”
“That’s because you’re threatening him, miss.”
“Only to protect myself. I won’t cause any of you harm if you don’t cause me harm.”
“Does that mean you’re not…” He clears his throat. “You know, against his preferences?”
“Why would I be? They’re his preferences and no one’s opinion matters. As I said, I will only use his sexuality against him if he threatens me. I would rather not, but that’s the only thing I’ve got on him, considering how closed off he is. If you tell me something else…I can ditch it.”
“Nice try, miss.” He smiles a little. It’s the first time I’ve seen Aleksander smile, and I hate to be like the other guards who compare him to a girl, but he really looks like one right now.
“Doesn’t hurt to try.” I smile back. “Let’s escape first, then we’ll talk.”
The door bangs open and both of us stiffen against the wall. We don’t try to scramble away because that’s not only useless considering whatever they injected in our systems, but it also would drain our energy sooner rather than later.
Five men walk inside, all tall and broad with mean features. The bald one, who appears to be their leader, approaches me with a gleam in his light eyes.
He has a scar that cuts across his bald head and ends right above his eyelid. When he speaks, it’s in a thick Eastern European accent. “We should start with this one. You’ll scream for your uncle and husband, won’t you, kitten?”
Two men charge toward me, each trying to grab me by the arm. I kick and push at them, but not only am I outnumbered, my body also doesn’t feel like mine. My movements are slow, and every time I punch them, they laugh and speak in their language, which I don’t understand.
Aleksander tries to help me, but the other two hold him down on his knees and press down on the wound in his shoulder. He bites his lower lip to not release any sound of pain.
“Get her on her knees,” the bald one orders. “I want those lips around my cock.”
The guards get me in position, lust shining through their eyes. The sick assholes must’ve been promised a share after their leader is done.
The bald one gets his short, fat dick out and places it at my mouth. I don’t open, glaring up at him. I’m going to fight tooth and nail before I let them touch me. I’m a Sokolov, and we don’t go down without a fight.
He motions at the other guard, and they punch Aleksander across the stomach. He groans, falling to the ground, but they hold him upright, one of them grabbing him by his injured shoulder.
“For every second you don’t suck me off like a good whore, that girly faggot will be punched. How long until he dies, I wonder?”
The guards hit him again and blood explodes from his mouth.
“Wait a second.” One
of the men holding Aleksander crouches in front of him and feels at his chest. Aleksander tries to shoo them away, groaning and bucking until his face turns red.
The guard unbuckles Aleksander’s pants and boxers. I don’t want to watch the assault, but if I close my eyes, how am I a leader? Aleksander is one of our men, and if I let him go through this alone, it’s no different than betraying my role.
Gritting my teeth, I force myself to stare at his face, to tell him it’ll be fine even if I, myself, am not so sure of that. Aleksander isn’t focused on me, though. He’s lost his cool head and is blindly trying to ward them off, which only gets him hurt more.
I’m about to call his name, but pause when his pants and boxers are pulled down to his knees. Instead of the penis I expected to see, there are…female genitals.
“Fucking shit. Jackpot, boss.” The guard grins. “It’s a woman.”
My incredulous gaze meets Aleksander’s, who lowers his eyes, a tear sliding down his cheek—or more accurately, her cheek.
She’s a woman. Aleksander has a been a woman all along.
I should’ve suspected it since the beginning considering her features, but she’s such an excellent guard, stronger than many of her male counterparts, that no one dared to question her gender, even when they joked about her looks.
“Have fun with her while I have fun with this one.” The bald guy runs his meaty fingers along my cheek.
The two other men flip Aleksander on her back, and something inside me snaps.
I grit my teeth, but I don’t open my mouth, not until I make sure Aleksander meets my gaze.
Now, I tell her.
Then I swallow the clog in my throat and open my mouth. Ever since that day I first gave Kyle a blowjob, I swore to never do it to any other man after him. Ever since that moment, I felt like every part of me belonged to him and him alone.
Now that I’m in the midst of this situation, I can only think of him and how much I wish he were here, because if he were, no one would ever touch me.
