Sins of the Master

by Catherine Taylor

  “I’ll let you have that one. Any follow ups will ensure your arse is burning all the way throughout a two hour drive to the city.”

  Dylan walked away again and Lena sighed, knowing he wasn’t about to listen to her now. She wanted to scream out at him that she needed to explain about Eddie, but she suspected that it would only enflame his temper, having found her naked in Eddie’s hotel room.

  It still needed to be talked about, and Lena determined to go after him. Dylan had gone into the lounge room, but upon her entering, he was nowhere to be seen. One of the double French doors was opened. She wandered closer to it and gazed out at the beautiful garden and trees. Stepping out onto the veranda, she looked about and finally saw him. Beyond the garden, there was a lawn and a row of rose bushes, with a seat where Dylan was sitting.

  Slowly, Lena made her way to him, kicking off her shoes to feel the grass in her feet.

  Dylan looked up and scowled when he saw her coming. “You don’t give up. What do you want now?”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Some manners would be nice.”

  He smirked angrily. “You just slapped me. I’m not feeling overly polite.”

  “You deserved it, talking to me like that, saying I didn’t care if you were alive or dead. I care very much.”

  “Fine, I’m sorry. Is there anything else?”

  “Yes, there’s a lot more and if you don’t start listening to me, I’m going to slap you again.”

  Dylan gave her a stern frown. “It seems you’ve forgotten, I’m a man of my word. You slap me again, and I’m going to tan your arse.”

  “Huh,” she scoffed. “Look at you, you’re an old man and injured. You’d probably snap a finger off before you’d do me any damage. I’m not the girl you dragged off from a fighting match all those years ago.”

  “On the contrary, you’re exactly that girl, determined to get your own way and not having the sense to know when to keep her mouth shut. Maybe the only difference is that you’re using booze instead of food and laziness to deal with your problems, but you always did need something to hide behind, didn’t you, Lena?”

  His remark cut deep, instantly deflating all her good intentions.

  She nodded. “Yes, I know. I’ve never really been strong on my own. I’ve had a drinking problem for a few years now. I didn’t want to admit it, but I know the damage it’s done. Maybe we can talk later.” She began to walk back to the house, but turned back. “I’m sorry I slapped you.”

  Lena headed back, tears trickling down her face. For a moment, she had hoped it could have been just as it was nineteen years ago, when she had felt that courage that Dylan had inspired in her, to take on the world. Instead, she felt the fear of that young girl, hidden away in her bedroom, finding friendship in a doll and comfort in food.

  Her thoughts weighed heavily until she reached the kitchen. Opening a cupboard, she took out the bottle of French wine she had hidden there earlier. In no time she had the corkscrew secured and the cork out the bottle, just as Dylan entered.

  He strode to her and snatched it away. “You don’t need it.”

  “Why?” she asked him angrily. “What difference does it make to you?”

  “The difference between the problems I already have to deal with and another I don’t need.”

  “I am not your problem and haven’t been for many years. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m still here, and for many of those years I did just fine without you.”

  “I didn’t mean what I said out there,” he told her firmly. “It’s just with you, I seem to open my mouth…”

  “And speak the truth?” She stared tearfully at him. “I am what I am. I’m not brave and I’m not strong.”

  “You were strong, you were doing well and you had Danil. What I can’t understand is what changed that.”

  Lena glared at him. “You changed that, with all your lectures on being educated, and fighting for lost causes. Danil was obsessed with being Ukrainian. He had the flag above our restaurant. Do you know how many fights that alone caused in a place like Donetsk? Over half of my patrons were Russian, but he insisted we spoke Ukrainian, read Ukrainian, everything fucking Ukrainian. He took my little girl to Kyiv to protest Russian becoming an equal language. Who cared? I speak both as good as each other. And he died, at the hands of a drunken Ukrainian who disagreed with him.”

  “I’m sorry, and it’s not a situation that’s going to be resolved any time soon, but Danil was not wrong in his convictions. Ukraine suffered more than any other country under Soviet rule. I’m sorry you don’t understand this, but Danil did and I won’t be sorry that he fought for what he believed in.”

  “And what good has it done? It’s all gone,” Lena said quietly. “The restaurant, our home, our friends. Now Crimea is being fought over like some tug-of-war and the same has already begun in Donetsk. I have nothing to return to. Greta has her own life, and she doesn’t want to be with me. The truth is, I don’t know how to fight for anything and right now I want a drink, so would you please give me the bottle?”

  “No. Your drinking days are over, starting today.” He went to the sink and tipped it out. When it was gone, he put the bottle down and returned to her, gripping her hand. “Let’s get you into the shower.”

  Lena pulled away from him, but her hand remained trapped firmly in his. “Let me go, or I swear I will kick you right where it hurts most.”

  “You can try,” he told her angrily. “But just remember a kick is as good as a slap.”

  Only as her bare foot was connecting with his solid shin, did Lena suddenly fathom the meaning behind his words. She slowly gazed up at him and saw his smug smile and a steeled determined glare.

  “I hardly touched you,” she told him anxiously. “You’re not even hurt and you could have stopped me.”

  “I gave you a choice, and I told you exactly what would happen if you made the wrong one.”

  “But I don’t want a spanking.” Her protest was weak as a shiver went through her entire body.

  Dylan loomed over her, his eyes penetrating her. “I’m beginning to think that’s exactly what you need.”

  “No,” she squeaked, trying to back up. “I don’t.”

  “It’s alright, Lena. Just come with me and I’ll put you over my knee, take your panties down and give your bare bottom exactly what it’s been needing.”

  Lena gasped as her body responded to his words. He knew exactly how to take the fight out of her and Lena wanted nothing more than to submit to him. He was offering her the fulfilment of what she had yearned for through nineteen lonely years. Nothing would have made her happier than allowing him to take charge of her, punishing her for past mistakes and comforting her when it was over. She had no doubt where it would lead, but it was too simple a solution to a much greater problem.

  As he guided her out into the hallway, she managed to yank her hand from his grip and back up against the wall.

  “I said no,” she remarked. “You don’t have that right over me anymore, and you don’t have my permission. I still have things to say, one of them being something important about Eddie, and if you have any respect left for me at all, you will listen to me.”

  Dylan glared at her and slowly nodded. “Fine. We’ll go to my study.”

  .He walked on, not waiting to see if she followed. Lena went after him, feeling miserable that she had just denied herself the one thing she wanted and needed more than anything.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

  Crouching down, Eddie reached out and gently brushed the blonde hair back from a pale, bruised face. Blue eyes looked back at him fearfully.

  “Do you understand?” he asked her quietly. “These men will continue to hurt you until you tell them what they want to know. Your Master is dead and there is no good for you in keeping his secrets any longer. Just tell them where the house is and I will personally make sure you are set free.”

  Tears ran down Esther’s face. “He’s not dead.”

  “I pro
mise you, he is. He did it himself and took my nephews with him. Thirty years ago, he took my brothers out the same way. Now, out in that other room, my niece is grieving for her brother and Asya has a very bad temper. The only person standing between you and her, is me. I’m not a vindictive man, but if you don’t help me, I can’t help you.”

  Esther stared at him. “If you killed me now, they couldn’t hurt me anymore and I wouldn’t die betraying him.”

  Eddie stood up and shook his head angrily. “What is it with you girls? You are young enough to be his daughter. Why are you all so ready to throw your lives away for this man? He’s not a fucking saint.”

  Esther began to sob again. Eddie gritted his teeth, pacing the room and wishing he was far away from this place. The moment he’d realised they didn’t have Lena, he should have gone, but leaving Esther in Asya’s hands was turning his stomach.

  When she had first been captured, Leo’s men had done little more than locked her in a room with a mattress. With Leo dead, they were uncertain of what to do and panicked by the dramatic turn of events. Mostly, they wanted to be out of there, but Asya’s presence had changed that.

  For the last two days, she had kept Esther tied to a chair. Her wrists and ankles were red and bleeding from where the cable ties were cutting into her. An acrid smell of urine wafted up from her, and there were dark shadows under her puffy red eyes.

  He was stuck with her. Taking out a knife, he crouched down before her. “I’m sorry. I’m going to cut the cables, but it will hurt. I don’t mean to hurt you.”

  Esther looked at him but didn’t respond.

  He did it as carefully as he could, but knew it was agonising for her. The cables had cut in deeply and had to be eased out from her flesh. She was trembling but remained silent. When she was free, he offered his hand to help her stand. She took it, but she was no sooner upright before she was collapsing to the floor.

  Eddie caught her and captured her up into his arms. Carrying her to the mattress, he lay her down gently.

  “When did you eat last?”

  She was shaking and her eyes were staring out at nothing. There was no reply.

  “Fuck.” Eddie shrugged off his jacket and laid it over her. “Try to sleep and I’ll keep the wolves from the door as long as I can.”

  He knew she hadn’t heard him.

  Eddie sat down on the mattress and stared at her. The silent hollowness in her expression had a familiarity that stirred unwanted memories. It wasn’t the first time he had seen how the mind could retreat inside itself. Sometimes it was a slow process, a gradual wearing down of the soul until it was lifeless, or until the victim found a way to end the suffering.

  With the added likeness of blonde hair and blue eyes, Esther’s resemblance to his wife was cruel and punitive. She was even close to the age Tatiana had been before she’d died. It was as if Esther had been put there to taunt his memory and he didn’t have the energy to fight it.

  He smiled, remembering the way she used to wake him up in the morning, by jumping on him and giggling. Even when he was growling at her to stop, she wouldn’t, until he came roaring awake, to grab her and hold her under him while he tickled her. She would laugh until she was crying and then they would be over each other, locked in an embrace, kissing until their bodies became part of each other.

  He never really minded when she nagged him about his life. He had a way of distracting her, coming up to her with an evil grin, while she tried to back away and maintain her scolding, but once he had her, she would be laughing again and the matter would be over for another week.

  Tatiana had hated the Brotherhood, but she knew its creed and her duty as the wife of a member. She had adapted well until her sister-in-law was subjected to a vicious beating from one of his brothers. Her fury had been loud and condemning, refusing to submit to his demands of shutting her mouth. Eddie had done his best to keep her shielded from his family, but there was nothing he could have done when she decided to report it to the militia.

  Eddie struggled to put it from his thoughts, but the images were too clear in his mind, of Tatiana kneeling and terrified. It was the women who had stripped her of her clothing, and then circled her, spitting on her and launching vicious kicks to her body.

  The men had stripped down to their trousers, flaunting the tattoos on their bodies to remind Tatiana of whom she had sinned against. His brother, Igor, had been watching passively.

  “Only for you, Eddie, do I allow this cunt to live, but you will show her that her husband does not approve of her choices.” He held out a doubled up leather belt, wide and thick. “Two hundred.”

  For years, Eddie had wondered what might have happened if he had taken that belt and thrown it back in Igor’s face. They might have both died that day, but he would have died a man loved by his wife. Tatiana would never have looked at him the way she had, smiling in her terror, while holding onto her absolute faith that he would never hurt her. His betrayal of her trust still haunted him with every detail of that day.

  Five times he had lashed her small naked body, before the belt was snatched from his hands. When Eddie had turned around, he was shocked to see the fury in the icy blue eyes staring back at him.

  “You don’t fucking deserve her,” Jahn had told him before turning to Igor. “If this woman is struck one more time, I’ll castrate five of your men before the day is done. This is my promise.”

  Igor had roared with laughter. “Jahn, it is good to see you, but you must not interfere with our laws. I am sparing the whore’s life.”

  Jahn had responded by crouching down and pulling out a large knife. “And I just made a promise, Igor, and you know I’m a man of my word.”

  “Jahn, I owe you my life, as does Eddie, but this cunt went to the militia. She broke the fucking rules and disgraced her husband.”

  “So did your brother, when he put his wife in hospital for burning his dinner.”

  Igor had chuckled. “Sergei gets hot tempered and he likes his food. I have spoken to him and he will be doing the cooking for the next month, but Tatiana has betrayed us. Eddie has begged for her life, but now it is his duty to punish her.”

  “His duty was to love and honour her, forsaking all others, including his brothers.”

  The words had given Eddie the belated courage to pick up his sobbing, trembling wife and walk away. From that moment, there was no such thing as the honour of Bratva. He felt nothing honourable about what he had done.

  In the days that had followed, Eddie had to watch Tatiana sink deeper into depression. All the laughter had gone from their home and she was constantly fearful, flinching whenever he got too close. She wouldn’t speak or look at him, and eventually she stayed in her bed. None of it was more remembered than the morning he had found her hanging from a tree outside their home.

  Looking down at Esther, he had an urge to gather her up in his arms and hold her. He shifted closer to stroke her hair.

  “Come on, little one, you’re stronger than this. Don’t give up now.”

  Her gaze shifted to him. “Help me.”

  Eddie beamed and nodded. “I will.”

  She needed food and water, at the very least. Getting up, he hurried from the room.

  Asya was lying sideways in an armchair, her leg draped over the rest. “Did she talk to you, Uncle?”

  “No, because she has passed out.” He looked at the two men sitting at a table playing cards. “Scramble some eggs, something light and get me water for her.”

  They got up, and went out to the kitchen. Eddie looked back at Asya. “What is this fucking house you want to know about?”

  “Zaleski’s house,” she remarked. “It’s our ticket to freedom. Semyon’s friend in the government will get us into the Embassy where they can’t arrest us, but only if we get this information for him.”

  “Then I suggest you keep the girl in a far better condition than she is.”

  Asya smirked, while she played with the apps on a new phone. “I’ll get the l
ocation and then the girl is mine, but you’re right, we should care for her. I want her to be alert and fully aware in her last hours. She should know the price of what loyalty to that cunt has cost her. I will have her despising his name before I am done with her.”

  “But she’s done nothing.”

  “She was his,” Asya snarled. “And my brother is dead, murdered by the man she whored herself to. Now she can suffer everything I had planned for him.”

  Eddie nodded and wandered over to the window, to stare out at the busy city street below. They were in a second storey apartment that belonged to one of Leo’s men. The windows were double glazed and the rooms had been soundproofed.

  He wondered how many girls had been brought to this place, after getting drunk and drugged in the Emerald Hotel, lured by men who were trained to charm them. How many of them had gone out for some innocent fun, laughing and giggling as girls did, only to awaken to Leo’s grinning face and never laugh again?

  Eddie strolled back, moving behind Asya’s chair. She glanced back at him and grinned, holding her phone up for him to see.

  “Latest technology, compliments of the New Zealand Government.”

  “He gave you that?” Eddie frowned. “And how does he fit into all of this?”

  “I told you, he was Semyon’s friend, the one working behind the scenes to betray me. He has his own business with Zaleski and I’m not privy to it, not that I care, as long as he fulfils our agreement. He’ll get nothing before we are safe in that Embassy and passage out of this country is secured.”

  Looking toward the kitchen door, Eddie listened for the men moving about in the kitchen and then he struck quickly, his arm locking around Asya’s neck, pulling her up by her throat while his other hand snatched the phone, before she could throw it and alert the men. She kicked out and thrashed violently, but there was only a soft heavy armchair to kick at. His stranglehold on her was immovable, even as her nails sunk into his arm. Her eyes were bulging and he could see the terror in her face.