Sins of the Master

by Catherine Taylor

“It’s best this way,” he whispered to her. “Just go to sleep, Asya.”

  She fought for another minute before her struggles eventually eased, but he held on. His hand went over her mouth and held her nose to ascertain that she was dead. His tears splashed on her face and Eddie swiped at his eyes. He wasn’t sure what was upsetting him most, the fact that she was a woman or that she was his own flesh and blood.

  Easing her back in the chair, he turned her onto her side towards the back of the chair to hide her face. He arranged her legs to look as if she had curled up for a sleep, but the unpleasant, powerful smell of body waste arose from her. He knew he had to act quickly, before it filled the room.

  Pulling the knife from his boot, Eddie breathed out slowly. It had been a long time since he had taken on two men at once, especially ones as young and powerful as the ones in the kitchen. He probably had twenty years on them, but the element of surprise would be his. If he survived, maybe it was time to get a gun.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

  Dylan hadn’t said a word. He stood at the window, staring out of it. Lena was reminded of the anxiety he could inspire in her. The silence was awful and she tried to distract herself by looking about the sombre room they were in. There was an aroma of leather and polish that she liked, much of it emanating from the couch she was sitting on, with her hands firmly clasped in her lap.

  She smiled to see the many books stacked on shelves that took up two entire adjacent walls. There was a large mahogany desk and a black leather chair behind it. She imagined him sitting there, and found herself grinning. Her current mood wasn’t all that different from a student being sent to the principal, especially when she noticed a display cabinet on another wall.

  Several items were prominently displayed, thick leather straps, wooden paddles, short thin whips and ones with several tails. She could see small brass plates under or beside them, but she needed no description of their origins or purpose. In a rack next to the cabinet were canes of varying thickness and bunches of sticks tied together. Lena trembled, knowing that this particular principal firmly believed in corporal punishment, at least for his own students.

  . Her eyes shifted to a far corner to a strange leather bench. It sloped at a gentle angle with two padded shelves set back and below the higher end. There were straps hanging from it. A workout bench looked odd in such a stately room, until its purpose suddenly dawned on her.

  Lena felt a rush of adrenaline as she imagined herself strapped naked to it, kneeling and, bent over the bench with her bottom thrust up, defenceless and exposed.

  “You’re welcome to try it out if you want.”

  Lena startled to see Dylan standing within two feet, observing her with the slightest grin on his face. From the heat in her face, she knew she was blushing furiously.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she snapped. She wanted to say more but was a little lost for words as the throb continued between her legs. Squeezing her thighs together, she shifted on the couch and frowned up at him. “Now, are we going to discuss this matter like adults?”

  “There’s nothing to discuss. You’re trying to defend a man I plan to kill.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she felt a fury that had her up on her feet. “You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?”

  “I heard,” he uttered angrily. “Eddie was good to you, and you obviously wanted to fuck him. When you saw his tattoos, you kicked him out. My objective doesn’t change because you think he has something decent in him.”

  “He does.” Her frustration was growing. “He was kind to me and he treated me with a lot more respect than you have done in the past half hour.”

  Dylan’s face darkened. “That man you think is so fucking kind and respectful walked a young, pregnant girl out to me a week ago. Her eye was swollen shut and she was bruised and terrified. I don’t know what else she suffered, but you can be sure it will haunt her for the rest of her life. Don’t tell me I need to understand this man, because I understand him perfectly.”

  “But there must be another explanation,” she insisted. “He was gentle. He just didn’t have it in him to hurt anyone.”

  “His name is Ivanchenko and that’s all he needs to be. Would you like me to tell you what that family did to innocent women and children? Or maybe you want to see the forensic photos of what they did to my friend, an old man who never hurt anyone.” Dylan strode back to his desk and returned with a photo of Tammy, shoving it into Lena’s hands. “Or I could take you out to the grave where this girl is buried, after they put a bullet in her and took her away from me.”

  Lena crumpled under his fury. She was shaking as she nodded. “I’m sorry. You’re probably right. It seems that I’m the one who has no understanding of men. I might go take that shower.”

  Handing the photo back to him, she headed to the door but paused before leaving. Turning back, she saw Dylan hanging his head, his face still furious, before he turned away and went back to his desk. Her heart was aching, wondering how it had all gone so wrong. All those years she had dreamt of their reunion, how romantic and happy it would be. Reality was a much harsher realm.

  Out in the large hallway she looked at the white marble statues between the doors and the massive cathedral window at the end. It was magnificent, but she would have given anything to be back in that tiny apartment in Ukraine, with walls lined with books and rust stained tiles on the kitchen bench. She smiled, thinking of the dark, damp bathroom with a curtain for a door. Her smile fell away as her heart continued to shatter and unleash her tears.

  She heard the door open behind her and walked on, unable to bear the thought of another blow up between them.

  “Lena, wait.”

  Sighing, she stopped, wiped away her tears and turned back to him silently.

  Dylan approached her slowly, his face sombre but no longer angry. “I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you.”

  “It’s alright,” she nodded. “You have seen things that I can’t understand and you’ve been through a terrible ordeal. It wasn’t my place to question that.”

  “Lena, the truth isn’t always simple. Seeing you that day in the hotel room, knowing you’d been with him… It angered me, and I may have to acknowledge, that I have harboured some jealousy, which hasn’t done wonders for my temper. It doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind about Eddie, but I had no right to dismiss your comments so harshly and I’m sorry.”

  She nodded. “Your apology is accepted, and I’m sorry my time with Eddie upset you so much.”

  “So what exactly did you do with him that afternoon?”

  “That is none of your business,” she told him firmly.

  “You fucked him, didn’t you?”

  “Don’t talk to me like that. What Eddie and I shared is between us. I’m aware that you’ve seen a terrible side of him, but I haven’t, and you can’t ask me to hate him, because I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I deserve to be treated like trash.”

  Lena walked off, with Dylan coming after her.

  “Lena, stop walking away from me.”

  She turned back to him furiously. “Walking away? Don’t talk to me about walking away. Is that all I needed to do, Jahn, ask you nicely to stay with me? Beg you? No, because I don’t think it would have stopped you, not when you had so little to leave behind.”

  Dylan glared down at her. “You’re trying my patience, Lena.”

  “Am I, or am I just stating the cold hard truth that I should have faced up to?” She swept her gaze about the hallway. “I look about at all this wealth and power, which you once despised. I don’t belong in this. For years, I took baking down to the old people who never had enough pension to survive, because you taught me to do things like that. Sometimes I would just sit there and read to them or listen to their stories, because those were the things that reminded me of you. I lived a simple life until I lost Danil, but I’m still very much the girl who sat in your shabby apartment and wanted you to teach me to play chess, and ate your beautiful cooking and�
��”

  Lena choked with tears, biting down on her lip hard before she could get the next words out. “And dreamt of being your wife. Do you know how ashamed and foolish I feel right now?”

  Dylan went to take her hand, but she backed away, shaking her head and wiping angrily at her tears.

  “No, don’t. It’s good. I needed to wake up to myself, to my own stupidity. I have a drinking problem that I need help with. When I return to the city, I’ll join a support group, get back to my job and try to earn my daughter’s respect, and all this will be just another memory.”

  Lena turned away and took a step, before Dylan seized her wrist and spun her back to face his angry face. “I’ve listened to every word you’ve said and now it’s my turn.”

  “There’s nothing more to say.”

  “I have plenty to say,” he told her sternly. “I fell in love with that girl you are so ready to discard. You were kind and gentle, and I hated that the world wanted to hurt you. I wanted to do everything possible to protect you, and that meant walking away.”

  “How was that protecting me?”

  “Lena, in just the last few weeks people have been tortured and murdered because of their connection to me. Have you forgotten what happened to Natasha and Oleysa?”

  Lena bowed her head. “Of course I haven’t.”

  “I’ve made many enemies throughout my life and the people who want me now are just a few of them. But it wasn’t just them I wanted to protect you from.”

  She frowned. “Then from who?”

  “Me. I wasn’t right for you, Lena, but I allowed you to get close to me and believe we had a future together, and for a while I believed it myself. When I left, I thought you would get over me, and when you married Danil, I was happy for you. I didn’t mean for your life to unravel.”

  “And how did you get over me, Jahn?” she asked bitterly. “Very quickly I would say, from what I’ve seen and heard.”

  “I never got over you.” His eyes burned into her. “But I don’t regret that I left. I still had a lot to learn about myself and if I had stayed, I don’t think I would have been good for you. You’ve only seen one side to me, but there was a much darker one that existed, and in ways, still does.”

  “In other words,” Lena said. “I would never have been enough for you.”

  “I don’t know, and I didn’t’ have the courage to find out. So now you have the truth of it.”

  She nodded. “Thank you. No, actually, go to hell, because you should have had the decency to tell me that nineteen years ago. May I go now?”

  Dylan nodded, and Lena turned and walked away, drawing upon everything in her just to put one foot in front of the other.

  * * * * *

  Eddie’s face was the first thing Esther saw when she opened her eyes. She quailed before him fearfully and backed away against the wall.

  “You’re safe,” he told her quietly. “They’re all gone and you don’t need to be afraid of me. I am not going to hurt you. Sorry about the clothes. It was the best I could do.”

  She looked down at the man’s oversized woollen jersey on her, before sweeping her gaze about desperately. She was somewhere else, a tiny bedroom with the single bed taking up half of it. Beyond it, she could hear classical music.

  “Where am I?”

  “The shithole I got placed in when they released me from prison. The rent’s paid up for three months and I had nowhere else to take you.”

  “Where are the others?”

  “Dead. I killed them and got you out.”

  Esther stared at him, unable to make sense of what he was telling her. “Why would you do that? You were with them. Asya called you Uncle.”

  “I did that to stop Asya from killing you. Just because she was my niece, it didn’t mean I had to like her.”

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  “I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to die on me first. Once I know you have eaten and got some water into you, I’m going to pick up my bag and walk out of here, and that’s the last you’ll see of me.” He grinned. “I have a car now, thanks to Leo’s boys. A nice one.”

  “So that’s it?” Esther watched him warily. “You’re just going to let me go, just like that.”

  “I know it’s hard for you to believe. Let’s just say, I’m over it, the killing, the violence, the whole fucking lot of it. A little peace is what I want. Is that too much to ask for?”

  Esther didn’t reply, still unsure of his intentions. He looked at her curiously.

  “The scars on your arms and legs… how did they get there?”

  She frowned and bowed her head. “I cut myself.”

  “Why?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Try me.”

  “Sometimes it hurts inside. I cut myself to let the pain out.”

  Eddie frowned and nodded slowly. “Please don’t do that again.”

  “I haven’t done it for a long time.”

  “Since being with your so-called Master? You were calling out to him in your sleep.”

  Esther looked at him warily. “I’d suffer any pain before I’d betray him.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I believe it. In the last few weeks I’ve seen what you girls will do for him. You, Mairead… What I can’t understand is why.”

  “Mairead,” Esther gasped. “Is she alright?”

  “Yes, as far as I know. Your Master got her out safely, with a little help from me.”

  Eddie stood up and lifted a bulging plastic shopping bag onto the bed. “Go through that. I bought some fruit, an egg sandwich, chocolate bars, water… You eat what you want, but don’t eat it too fast or you’ll throw up. The sooner I know you’re okay, the sooner I can go.”

  Esther watched him walk out and eyed the bag. Grabbing it, she rummaged through and snatched out a bottle of water. Her dry throat welcomed the relief and soon she was ready to satisfy her stomach. She was not a fan of eggs, but she ate the sandwich anyway and then quickly ripped at the wrapper of a chocolate bar.

  Eventually, she sat back against the pillows, satisfied and able to think again. She looked towards the door nervously, uncertain of what to make of Eddie. He seemed genuinely kind, but he was still a man who had cold-bloodedly killed his niece and two men. Not that she would shed a tear for them, but it begged to be considered that she was still in a precarious situation.

  When Eddie returned, he grinned at the wrappers on the bed. “What is it with girls and chocolate?”

  “I think I would have eaten tripe,” she commented.

  He shook his head. “No, it isn’t called tripe for nothing.”

  Esther looked towards the door. “That music you’re playing. I’ve heard it before. It’s beautiful.”

  “It is, and by a Czech composer called Dvořák.”

  “Master often played it,” Esther said quietly.

  “So did my wife,” Eddie smiled. “She introduced it to him many years ago.”

  Esther stared at him. “Would you tell me about you and him?”

  “Why?”

  “I want to know, and...”

  “And what?”

  “I’m afraid. I’m not ready to be alone. And I have no idea where I’m going.”

  Eddie studied her. “So instead of snatching up your freedom, you’d rather sit and talk with me.”

  “I want to understand why all this happened, why Master is dead, and why so many people got hurt. I need to make some kind of sense of it all.”

  “You won’t be able to, because it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Neither does killing your own niece and saving me. I want to know why you did that.”

  “Let’s just say, I owed Jahn a considerable debt and this goes a little towards paying it. Now pull yourself together and let me get going.”

  “Please,” Esther pleaded. “Just a few minutes.”

  Eddie sat down on the bed. “I can only tell you where it began for me. I met Jahn in prison. He was only sixtee
n then, but as tough as any man there. My brother and I had already watched him go up against a few that took a fancy to him. Fuck, he could fight, and soon nobody went near him. He kept to himself most of the time.

  “And then my brother led a riot in the prison and Russian Special Forces were sent in to deal with it and round up the ringleaders. Jahn was taken as well. They starved us for days to weaken us, and then one night they came and dragged us out of our cells and gave us a beating with their batons, before dragging us down to an old underground cell for further fun and games.”

  Esther gasped. “He was only a boy.”

  “Yes, but he was smarter than us. It didn’t bother him to eat a rat or a cockroach to keep his strength up. Jahn was a survivor. Of course, they figured he was as weak as us and wouldn’t give them any trouble.” Eddie stopped and shook his head. “Are you sure want to hear this?”

  “I want to know what they did to him.”

  “I suppose it doesn’t make any difference now.” He stared down at the floor and shook his head. “They stripped him of his clothes and tied him down on a table. Of course he tried to fight them, but they sprayed something in his eyes and managed to get him down, and then… and then two of them raped him.”

  Esther sharply inhaled and she shook her head. “No.”

  “You see?” Eddie got up and paced, shaking his head. “You don’t need to hear this. It’s upsetting for you.”

  “No.” Esther wiped tears from her face. “It makes me understand him so much more. I often thought, it was like he could see right inside to my soul, and now I know why.”

  “Do you want me to go on?”

  “Yes.”

  “Igor and I had to watch his humiliation and suffering. I was terrified, knowing the same would soon be done to us, but Jahn never uttered a word. All we heard was his breathing through clenched teeth, while the first two had their way with him, but then it all took an unexpected turn. Jahn snapped a rope that held him and snatched a gun from one of them who had got too close. He shot two of them, then lifted up the table he was tied to and smashed it into the others. He was like a rabid animal and when he got loose, he got a whole lot fucking worse. The screams of these men went on forever and before he was finished there was blood everywhere. He was covered in it and then he turned to us, staring at us as if he was seeing us for the first time. I think I pissed myself and even Igor was afraid, but Jahn just calmed down. He found the keys to our cuffs and set us free.”