The following morning, a helicopter came in very close and Dmitri sprinted, half-dressed, out of the cave, fumbling with the lock, his eyes on the impressive black and gold craft as it landed. He slammed the gate on Rosa just as she got to the opening, knocking her back inside without a care over whether or not she injured herself. He then ran out to what looked like a cliff and looked down below before dropping to the ground in prone position. He could not see what they were doing, or what they were searching for, but soon the bird was up and away. The important thing was he saw the identification on the side of the craft and the letters were Cyrillic, in other words, they were Russian. When he roared with laughter, Rosa backed away slightly, then ran when he stopped suddenly and shot her the nastiest I’m-going-to-fuck-you-silly look she’d ever seen.
He was on her before she even reached the antechamber where they’d been sleeping, though how on Earth he caught up so fast, she’d never know. Slamming her face-first against the wall of the cave-tunnel, he held her head with one hand while unfastening her jeans with the other. She took a deep breath and tried to imagine it was Ivan, but she had glimpsed the helicopter too and wondered what it meant. Had he given up on her? Had something happened to him and injured him? She was jolted out of her thoughts by his fingers dry-fucking her as he kicked her feet apart with his heavy boots to get into her at a better angle. Nothing mattered to her now. If Ivan had been so close, he would not have abandoned her, so therefore something must have happened to him. The only thing that could have stopped him was death, so she put two-and-two together and decided he had to have died.
Dmitri lowered himself until he was pressing against her opening, which was now wet more with his saliva than her own juices, and thrust upward, lifting her right off her feet. He then continued holding her head against the wall as he gave her a rough, but quick, fucking. When he had finished, he dropped her and her knees buckled, but she was quickly back on her feet. Honestly, he was impressed with her stamina. Not so much with her smell. They’d been in the cave for days, and despite the lack of sex, there’d been a lot of other reasons she had sweated, and of course she was squat pissing in a back antechamber and that could get messy as the floors were hard stone. He decided then that she needed a bath, and that was a good place to start her training.
“Come, whore.” He called out, pulling on a camouflage shirt and winding his hair into a ponytail. It was naturally curly and could get in the way in a breeze, and he knew the wind was blowing from his journey outside the cave. Rosa froze immediately when he said this, as was her way, and in an instant he was in front of her, spinning her away from him. At first, she thought he was going to do a repeat performance, but instead, he put something around her neck. She tried to slip away from him, but it was too late, the collar was in place and she heard the plainly obvious snick of a padlock. He then grabbed her shirt and tore it right off of her, throwing it on the ground, her bra soon joining it.
When she was completely naked, he dragged her by the neck halfway down the tunnel, then, seeming to grow tired of pulling on her, he got behind her and slapped her with that evil looking riding crop. That, above all else, was enough to get her moving, and she was soon hurrying ahead of him until they reached the gate. “I’m…you’re not making me go out there.”
“Da, I am. Do you want to know why?” He said and she glimpsed an evil glimmer in his dark brown eye. “Nyet, what I meant was, do you want to know how?” When she did not move, Dmitri’s hand shot out and he grabbed her collar, yanking her to him and taking a knee all in one movement. To her utter humiliation, he turned her over his knee like a child who had done wrong. Unlike, she hoped, he would on a child, however, he used the crop on her with vicious efficiency until she was whimpering from the pain. Most women, he knew, would have been screaming from the pain. This one was special.
When he opened the gate this time, taking a pack that had been sitting just inside the door, Rosa followed him meekly down into the ravine through which a river was noisily racing. “You stink, dog. You are going to wash hair and body every day if you are going to be in my ownership. So, we will be making this walk often. When I am not in cave, I will show you subterranean lake you can bathe in. Is cold, but is cleaner water than even this.”
She was actually glad to see the water, to be able to wash him off of her, out of her, and she took the offered pack and hurried in before anyone saw her. He had a long chain attached to her and sat himself on a rock and commenced to read what looked like a newspaper, so she relaxed and went about grooming herself. When the chore was done, she was sunning on a rock in the river, far from him as she could get without strangling herself, warming up from the water which was chilled by the spring snow-melt. Her hand brushed something caught under a stone and she froze, yanking her hand back immediately with a startled gasp before reaching again and pulling out a soggy, waterlogged man’s wallet.
Her hands shook from more than the cold as she opened it and she had to fight the cry of misery that rose so hard she nearly dropped the identification card within. Ivan’s wallet. Her golden, intelligent eyes, travelled up the cliff, she’d been unconscious when brought in so she had no memory of how they’d come in, and realized he must have fallen. Ivan dead. Her Ivan dead. She glanced up at Dmitri and then stowed the identification back in the wallet and stuffed it back under the rock, protecting it with several smaller rocks. Every chance she got for many days after, she took out that wallet and looked at the picture of Ivan, smiling slightly back at her. One day, when she went back to her favorite spot, she found only the empty wallet and immediately glanced up at Dmitri to see him holding up the ID card, and a cigarette lighter beneath it, melting the plastic.
He dragged her back forcefully, immediately, and threw her on her knees, nearly rubbing her face in the molten substance. “All of this time, you have been coming so willingly out so that you could stare at his face.” He kicked her in the ribs then, hard enough she actually flew a few feet, but when she tried to rise he put his boot on her chest, not caring that he was muddying her freshly scrubbed skin. “Nyet, my little bitch. From this moment on you crawl like dog you are. I suggest you learn to run on hands and feet, as I am not patient man.”
And so, she did as he said, and he whipped her naked rump all the way back to the camp, then fucked her and whipped her and fucked her some more. Never did he use protection, his reason being he was planning to breed his own ‘whelps’ off of her to sell. She couldn’t have told him she had had the procedure to prevent pregnancy, because she was no longer allowed to speak. Not that she would have told him. Better to let him believe she was barren or he was shooting blanks. Admitting she’d had the procedure would only lead to him finding a way to undo it and by the gods, she hadn’t been able to give Ivan any children, she sure as shit wasn’t going to give this bastard any.
After nearly a month of daily abuse, he suddenly got up one morning and left the cave. On the small camp table, which she was not allowed to use in his presence, were six bottles of water. No food was to be found anywhere in the cave, For what seemed like days, Rosa slept, finally able to rest without fear of waking up under her assailant, which had happened more than a dozen times. She got up only to relieve herself and bathe, and occasionally to drink some water, which was beginning to dwindle by what she thought must have been the fourth day. She’d had to ration it or she would have run out far sooner.
But, just as she was beginning to get worried he’d abandoned her, he turned up. To her absolute horror, he’d brought along two other large men who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, stop staring. Soon enough, when Dmitri pointed her to the bed, she understood why. They were going to have a little party with her. That was the first night Dmitri started a new habit: he started taking pictures of everything. Literally.
Chapter 34
Ivan woke and stared up at the stark white ceiling tiles and bright fluorescent lighting of what, by the sounds and smells, had to be a Russian hospital. He’d spent enough time in them
in his younger years to know them without even opening his eyes, but now he had to look, had to figure out how he’d come to be here. A movement to his right caught his attention and he glanced over to find Oleg, whose head had just slumped back in his sleep. Ivan tried to sit up but the pain was immediate and nearly blinding, bringing a grunted curse from him and a surprised, bloodshot-eyed stare from his uncle.
“My boy! You are awake! Thank God! We thought you were lost…” Oleg was by his side immediately, clutching his hand, which he was surprised to find when he tried to return the squeeze, had little strength.
“What happened, Uncle? I was running and ground just…went out from under me…” Ivan said and then it all hit him, Rosa, Dmitri…all of it. Tears welled up faster than he could raise a trembling hand to wipe them away. “I…I remember now…and Yuri and Aleksei…did he kill them, too?”
“Nyet, they are safe in Africa with Ndigwe still, though his fee is becoming higher and higher. Dmitri is in country, but he is in Cape Town. As you instructed, Ndigwe took them into grassland, where it is safer.” Oleg pulled his chair over and Ivan winced at the horrible grating sound, but said nothing. “No word on your woman…I can only assume…”
“He killed Yuri’s woman in America, it stands to reason he will have killed Rosa, too. My sweet Rosa.” The tears fell this time and Oleg actually stood and held him as no one had since he was a small boy. When finally he had calmed, Oleg sat back down and leaned heavily on the bed. “How long…”
“Two months, give or take. You broke both of your arms, both bones in your lower right leg, two vertebrae, those were of most concern for long time until you moved your feet in your sleep, and one of your hands was crushed.” He nodded to the hand he wasn’t holding, Ivan’s left, “That one, da, and both of your ankles. Only thing that saved you, we think, is river was running high and your last bounce was enough to propel you into water. Somehow you wound up on your back and we found you on bank, unconscious and bloody, swollen, bruised mess. I had pilot fly you to Italian hospital first, but they ask too many questions, so we moved you back to St. Petersburg. I thought maybe not such good idea taking you to Moscow. Dmitri has people paid off everywhere, watching for any sign of you, though they would hardly recognize you if not for your height. You look more like Aleksei, and your papa, than ever I have seen.”
Two more months passed before Ivan was discharged, he did his physical therapy like a champion, though his heart wasn’t really in it. With every straining breath, with every grunt of exertion, all he could think over and over was, “I failed her.” But he was, at least, determined not to let Yuri down, and in order to get to Cape Town, he had to satisfy the doctors that he was capable. So it was, in mid-August, he departed St. Petersburg and flew back to Italy via the same chopper that had picked him up all those months before. The pilot remembered that journey well, though he asked no questions, and he was able to land in exactly the same spot as the river was now barely a trickle in the heat of the late summer.
Ivan found the cave path easily, and followed it up until he came to the locked gate. Using a rock and his scant strength, he finally bashed the rusted lock until it gave way and walked in, stopping once inside to allow his eyes to adjust. He sniffed the air, but caught scent of nothing living nor dead, so he walked on, cautious for any traps that might have been set. When he came to an antechamber, he used the flashlight on his mobile phone to illuminate the room, his eyes immediately coming to rest on a small camp table and a lantern. He supposed he should have reconsidered using it when he saw matches had been left for whoever might find it, but in that moment he didn’t think.
Whatever he was prepared for, it was not what he found when the room was lit, and he stood in shocked horror, turning slowly from wall to wall. Pictures. Thousands of color photographs, some of the most graphic had even been enlarged into poster-size prints of all of the demeaning things Rosa had suffered, not only at Dmitri’s hands but by the look of it, there had been others as well. Ivan snatched down any picture with any identifying marks, his rage had returned. He would avenge this atrocity. She had not deserved to die this way. But where, he wondered as he searched the rest of the antechambers and tunnels, was her body?
Chapter 35
“Omar, are we all set?” Dmitri asked, leisurely, shifting his legs on the footstool and causing it to stir so that he kicked it, bringing a small squeak of pain. He didn’t like the way the African man looked at his dog, but they had already discussed it, only when Dmitri was done with her would Omar be allowed to put his hands on her. In a disease ridden country like Africa, that was the only way he could be certain his own body stayed clean.
“Yes, sir, almost, sir. We just need to load up de…de dog, sir. Its cage is in back of de truck, as you requested.” Omar said, then straightened his red baseball cap and looked away from the naked woman Dmitri’s legs were resting on.
“Good, that is good.” Dmitri stood and finished the glass of chilled vodka he’d been savoring before they departed the safari park’s most expensive villa. “How many days until we reach village?”
“Two to three, sir, depending on de roads and de weather…and de vehicles, of course.” Omar added as Dmitri passed the dog’s leash to him. “I will load…it…up den, sir. Shall I walk it?”
“Nyet, it can hold it. It knows what will happen if it soils its cage again, does it not?” He asked, and the dog let out a small whimper, as if remembering terrible pain. Omar said nothing, but his jaw clenched slightly before he pulled the pitiful creature out of the villa door and into a secluded spot in the side garden which was not strictly on the way to the truck and the cage.
“Dog…I hate calling you dat…go ahead and go before I load you…I can’t stand to see him beat you anymore.” Omar urged but the dog was already pulling towards the truck, set on doing what its master had ordered. “So be it, den.”
She jumped joyously into the hard-bottomed cage and, after lapping at the water bowl, curled up in the corner. Several woman shouted hateful things at Omar and he looked at them but made no attempt to defend himself. He had done nothing to improve this woman’s plight, so how was he any better than the man who had enslaved such a pretty being? When the door was closed and padlocked, Omar climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck and cranked it, waiting for his boss, who came along presently, dressed as any European going on safari might.
He gave no thought to the ‘dog’, just climbed into the truck and settled in as they eased through the crowd. The same women who had heckled Omar tossed rotten vegetables at his truck as they eased through traffic, and one bold woman tried to reach the cage, but Dmitri fired a few shots in the air. From that point on, the crowd scattered, and they were able to move through the market on the outskirts of the camp much quicker.
Indeed, the trip did take two days, and if Omar thought Dmitri was being merciful letting her out to relieve herself at night, the masculine grunting and the squeaks of pain from her through the long, quiet nights were enough to tell the story. He only let her out because he wanted to use her for his own pleasure. In the mornings, he would order Omar to help her to wash off and then she would be loaded back into the truck where she would, he assumed, finally get some sleep. She seemed perfectly happy with the way of things, which Omar could not understand but he supposed she’d probably lived that way for years and knew no different.
Chapter 36
In the middle of the African grasslands, the arrival of a helicopter tended to stir up a good bit of talk, so Ivan opted to land in Cape Town and hope it went unnoticed. The airport was several miles from the last known place Dmitri had been staying, so Ivan felt relatively confident he’d be able to slip into the country and then depart from the city immediately. He heard talk of a man who had a woman that he treated like a dog and he knew it was Dmitri, who else, but he never considered the woman might be Rosa. Had he even let the thought cross his mind, he would probably have torn the Safari Retreat to shreds looking for her.
&nb
sp; When he walked into the small village where Ndigwe and his brothers were staying, he immediately stirred interest, but nothing of a rude sort. Aleksei was in a rudimentary hospital-style tent-compound. There, he rendered medical aid as best he could with the limited supplies the WHO sent him monthly. He looked up at Ivan and his jaw dropped, the protective cap from a syringe he’d been prepping to give an injection fell from his mouth. After holding up his hand at Ivan to wait, he gave a small African child the injection and then put a plaster with cartoon characters on it over the site. After saying something in the tribal dialect Ivan saw him and the mother exchange smiles, and she departed carrying her baby.
Now he turned his attention to Ivan, appraising him silently, and Ivan knew from his sad expression he was well aware of what had happened in the time they’d been apart. Oleg would have kept Aleksei and Yuri well informed. His eyes scanned the crowded tent and he frowned. Where was Yuri? The doctor handed Ivan a paper cup with several different pills and Ivan eyed them cautiously.
“Take them,” A bottle of lukewarm water was thrust in his hand. “There are so many diseases out here I’m sure I don’t know half of them…yet. But, those pills guard against the ones I am familiar with and I can’t let you be unprotected. My God, Ivan, you look like you’ve aged sixty years…what happened to you?”
“Ivan?” A soft voice said and Yuri appeared from behind a cloth partition. He flew to Ivan, who had just finished swallowing the cup of assorted medicines, and threw his arms around him. “You…you almost died…don’t die on me…just…don’t…”
That moment made all of it worthwhile to him, knowing that someone somewhere still needed him, needed his protection. In that instant, he realized he was going to have to get back in shape, he couldn’t very well protect them in his current state. “I missed you…both of you…I did not realize how much until now…”
A Life Less Ordinary Page 13