by K. C. Crowne
Being between the trees felt ominous for some reason. I felt like I was being watched. There could be a million eyes around me, looking at me. I shivered at the thought. It was strange; when I’d been with Viktor, I’d felt safe in the woods. It hadn’t been scary or daunting or eerie. Now that I was without him, even when the driver was with me, I felt lost and out of place. And vulnerable.
Ironic, since Viktor was the person I was running from now. Well, in a way. I had to go home anyway. But I hadn’t left with a sweet goodbye.
“Ah, here they are now,” the driver said, getting out, too.
A truck approached us from the front. It pulled up about a car length in front of us, and the driver climbed out. He was tall and thin with dark hair and sunken eyes. “Trouble, Yakov?”
The name was decidedly Russian, and I realized he hadn’t told me his name during all his ramblings.
Yakov, the driver, laughed. He walked to the man, clapped his hand into his. They looked like they knew each other pretty well. They opened the hood and muttered for a short while. I stood close by, rubbing my arms against the sudden chill in the air.
Finally, Yakov emerged. He looked at me, apologetic. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to fix this,” he said. “Aleks doesn’t know what’s wrong, either.”
“Let me take you into town,” Aleks offered, closing the hood of the car. “I’m headed back anyway.”
“Really?” I asked, skeptical. “Are you sure?”
Aleks nodded. Yakov retrieved my clothes and the other roll I hadn’t eaten out of the car. “I’ll wait here for a towing service to arrive.”
I wanted to get out of the forest and back home where I could put everything that had happened behind me and focus on the new life I was going to create for myself when I left for Chicago.
“Okay,” I said, taking my things from Yakov.
“Good luck,” he said.
“Thanks,” I answered and walked with Aleks to his truck. He opened the door for me and closed it behind me. The truck smelled like tobacco. It had a hula girl hanging from the rear-view mirror and the leather seats were cracked.
Aleks put the car in gear and turned around, facing the way he’d come before accelerating down the road. I looked in the side mirror and saw Yakov climb back into the car as he shrank. The headlights came, and the car around began to make a U-turn.
“Hey!” I cried, pointing at the mirror. “The car. He’s driving away.”
“No, he’ll wait until someone helps him,” Aleks said.
I twisted in my seat to look out of the small window behind us. Yakov was definitely driving away. What was going on here?
Aleks took a sharp turn on the bumpy dirt road, throwing me against the side of the door. I jerked my head around to look at him. “Where are you going?” I asked. “What’s going on here?”
“Don’t worry, Angela,” Aleks said.
My blood ran cold. “How do you know my name?”
“Everything’s going to be okay. You just need to stay calm.”
I put all the loose ends together. The cab hadn’t broken down. Yakov probably wasn’t even a cab driver. And how many Russians had I met in Grizzly Falls before this week? None. How could I have been so stupid?
“Is this about Viktor?” I asked. My voice was small. “I don’t know anything, I swear.”
Aleks didn’t answer me, he just shook his head and whistled through his teeth.
“Please, whatever this is about, I’m not a part of it. Or are you taking me to him? I don’t want to go back there.”
Aleks shook his head. “Be quiet, Angela.”
“Let me out!” I screeched.
Aleks ignored me. I tried the truck door, but it was locked. I wound down the window, but I couldn’t climb out without killing myself on the bumpy terrain. I looked at him again, fearful.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked softly.
“Don’t you worry about that,” he said. “As long as you behave, you’ll be fine.”
As if I wouldn’t worry about the fact that I’d just been kidnapped. Things were just getting worse and worse. My throat started to tighten, and panic kicked in. I struggled to breathe, my breaths coming fast and shallow, erratic.
“I can’t do this,” I gasped. I was going to suffocate right here. “Let me out, I need air.”
“Relax,” Aleks snapped.
But I couldn’t relax. Everything that had happened was crashing down on me. My life had gone from simple and boring to complicated and dangerous in record time. It sounded like a damn novel.
I was breathing harder and harder, hyperventilating. I clawed at Aleks’s arm. “Let me out!”
He shoved me away from him, and I hit the door hard. “I said calm the fuck down,” he growled through gritted teeth, fighting with the wheel to keep the truck steady on the uneven terrain. “I’m going to run us into a tree if you don’t sit tight and shut up.”
I wasn’t thinking straight. My vision was starting to go dark around the edges. My ears were ringing. I had to get out of there. I would not allow myself to become a victim.
“Let me out!” I shouted and turned around, trying to bash the window behind us that looked out over the truck bed. I hit it with my elbow until bursts of pain shot into my arm. Next to me, Aleks was shouting, but I didn’t hear what he was saying. I’d gone into fight-or-flight, or a strange combo of the two.
Something hit me hard over the head, and I fell away and against the door. My vision blurred. The last thing I saw was Aleks, muttering to himself, before the world went black.
Viktor
I’d never been the sort of man who needed to clean up a mess. I didn’t make mistakes. The few times I’d had to step in, I’d taken care of whatever someone else had fucked up without difficulty.
That was who I was. Viktor. The Bullet. A nickname someone had called me once. Or the Butcher. The Reaper. The Shadow. Death.
I’d had so many names over the years, I’d stopped thinking about them too hard. I hadn’t worn them as a badge of honor or a compliment. I saw them as insults, now. I wished I could have been someone else so Angela would have wanted to stay.
It would be best to move on. I was out here for a reason, and Maksim was looking for me. It wasn’t safe for Angela to be anywhere near me, and I’d known that from the start.
But God, she’d come to mean so much in such a short time, I had no idea how I was supposed to just forget about her. Angela wasn’t like other women. I’d had my fair share of lovers, but none of them had been like her. She was elegant and graceful with a quick mind and a sharp tongue.
And she wasn’t mine. Not anymore. Dammit, had she ever been? I hadn’t done enough to keep her. I hadn’t done enough to show her a life she might want.
What the fuck was I talking about? How could this life be something she’d want? I was an ex-assassin. A killer. Sure, the guys I’d taken out hadn’t exactly been innocent – there were people darker than sin out in the world. That didn’t mean that I’d done the right thing, though. I’d still ripped families apart. I’d still exacted judgment when it wasn’t my place to do so.
Just because I’d decided it wasn’t who I wanted to be anymore didn’t mean that I didn’t still have blood on my hands. Why would Angela want to love a monster like me?
I had to stop thinking about her, get my head back into the game. I had to be careful, I had to look after myself. I had to watch my own back, because no one else was going to watch it for me. I was alone in this world.
It was better this way.
I started tidying up. I worked with a fevered frenzy, scrubbing and sweeping, working my fingers to the bone. I’d already tired out my arms, and they were numb as I cleaned. I just couldn’t seem to stop working. The moment I stopped working, I started thinking.
And fuck that shit.
In the room, I pulled off the sheets and made the bed with new ones. I would have to wash these, get her scent out of them or I would lose my mind
at night when I lay there, the smell of her reminding of me everything I’d lost. I flipped the mattress too, for good measure.
And found her phone. I turned it on. It was wrong of me to snoop, but it was a force of habit to look at any information I could find. I prepared myself to hack into her system, getting past her facial recognition software or her password, but it wasn’t necessary. Angela didn’t have any kind of security on her phone. Imagine living the kind of life where you didn’t need that kind of security? It was almost impossible to fathom.
I started scrolling through her phone. Photos first. I wasn’t sure why I’d gone into her gallery. I should have looked at messages or emails or something. But the gallery had evidence of her. Selfies, alone and with friends. Photos of what I assumed was her mother.
As I looked at the pictures, a pang shot through my chest, and it felt like I’d been stabbed. Fuck, I’d had an angel, and I’d lost her. I wanted her back so damn bad.
I closed the gallery and opened her text messages. Focus.
The first message was a red flag. It had been sent after she’d arrived. She’d tried, even though she’d known there was no signal. And it had gone through.
Hey, Mom. I’m okay, don’t worry. There was a landslide and I’m stuck on the side of the mountain in a cabin. I’m safe. A man named Viktor rescued me. I’ll call as soon as I can.
I pocketed the phone and left the cabin, climbing the mountain back up to the cave where I hid my satellite equipment. If the message had gone through and nothing else had gone wrong, it was fine. Whatever. But if the message had been intercepted…
I was impatient for my equipment to load. I tapped my fingers on the rock my laptop was balanced on, waiting. Finally, the screen flashed with the information I needed. I read it quickly, anxious.
Fuck. The message had been intercepted. There was only one person who would have done that. And one reason for it. Maksim had found me, through Angela.
Shit, shit, shit!
I should have killed that fucker in the woods. I shouldn’t have let him live, I shouldn’t have become soft. I’d been so fucking worried about who I was now, I hadn’t thought clearly about what the consequences could be. He’d been sent after the message was intercepted, and then I’d let him go and he’d called in the troops.
Now, they were here for me.
And they knew about my woman. Fear struck me hard and fast, making me dizzy. I was a big man, I had done a lot of shit, and fear wasn’t something I was familiar with. But this was Angela. She had become everything to me in such a short time. If something happened to her because of this, because of me, I would never be able to forgive myself.
I had no doubt that Maksim would go after her to get to me. I knew the motherfucker better than he knew himself. And he knew how to hit me where it hurt.
I shut off my equipment, sloppily, struggling to think straight. I hurried out of the cave, nearly getting stuck as I pushed between the rocks. When I was out in open air, my chest rose and fell, my breath coming in ragged gasps. My head spun, and for just a moment, I had no idea what to do.
If they found her, they might kill her. Or they would hurt her so badly she’d wish she were dead. They would use her to get to me. And Maksim would win because I would do anything for her. I would go to the ends of the earth for her.
Nyet. I wouldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t let him take her from me. First things first, I needed to find out if Angela was safe. And once I did that, I could take care of him. I checked her phone again. Her profile was set up with an address and everything in case of emergency. Perfect. I’d head to Grizzly Falls, find her, make sure she was okay.
And then I would unleash the beast one last time.
Angela
When I came to, my head ached, throbbing in time with my heartbeat. I lifted my head and struggled against the ropes that tied me to a chair. My mouth was taped shut. My neck ached. My elbow ached.
For a moment, I had no idea how I had ended up here. It all came rushing back at me.
I’ve been kidnapped.
I started fighting the ropes that bound me, wriggling, writhing, squirming. The ropes bit into my skin, rubbing it raw, but it didn’t budge. I was tied tightly; whoever had done it had done a good job.
Aleks, probably. He’d looked suspect when he’d come to the car, all sunken eyes and suspicious expression. I shouldn’t have listened to either of them when they’d said I would get home safely.
Maybe it was just hindsight talking. How could I have known?
The room I was in was bare, with concrete floors that looked like carpets had been ripped out, a ceiling with a water stain in the corner, and broken windows that let in a fiercely cold wind. The sun was setting. I didn’t want to be here overnight.
Panic threatened to choke me again.
A door at the far end of the room opened slowly. I held my breath as I waited for someone to walk through. A man limped in, using an old crutch that barely looked like it could hold his weight. He had a broken nose with bruises spreading beneath his eyes.
Behind him, Aleks followed. He looked irritated.
The third man to enter the room made my blood turn cold and my skin break out into goosebumps. He had a scar across his left cheek, running from the corner of his mouth to just below his eye. It gave him a permanent sneer that was scary as fuck. His face, though, was nothing compared to his eyes. Cold and dead, and I had no doubt that he could hurt someone – kill someone – without a second thought.
He walked with authority, and when he spoke, the other two listened. There was no guessing who was in charge.
I mumbled, trying to speak through the tape over my mouth. They ignored me as if I wasn’t there. They were speaking in Russian, and I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.
I stuck out my tongue, licking the tape until it wouldn’t stick anymore. I moved my jaw, sawing it side to side and licked the tape until one part of it snapped off and the tape flapped to the side.
“Hey!” I yelped, and all three of them looked at me. The leader looked bored. “What do you want from me?”
They continued their conversation as if I hadn’t said anything at all.
“Why am I here? I’ve done nothing! I know nothing. Please let me go.” My voice had been demanding but was now sobbing and pleading, so I stopped talking. Tears ran down my cheeks. I was struggling to keep it together. They didn’t care at all.
They huddled around a table I hadn’t noticed in the corner, loaded with equipment. Computers, satellite phones, radars. They were looking intently at the screens, shaking their heads, talking in muted voices.
“Please,” I tried again. “Let me go. I don’t know what you can possibly get from me that will help whatever you’re doing.”
The ugly man turned to me and smiled. His smiled was so twisted, thanks to that scar, it did the opposite of making him look kind. It was horrifying. He started walking toward me, and I fought the ropes to try to scramble away from him.
He kneeled in front of me so we were eye to eye. “Angela,” he said. His Russian accent was even thicker than Viktor’s. “Don’t be afraid. We won’t hurt you.”
I frowned. My head ached like a bitch. Why had I been taken, if they didn’t mean to hurt me?
“We brought you here to protect you from Viktor,” he said.
Confused, I stammered when I spoke. “W—why would you do that?”
“I see you don’t understand,” he said, as if I were a student who had disappointed a teacher. “He must have lied to you, as he lies to everyone. You see, Viktor is a very, very bad man. We used to be friends, he and I. Joined at the hip.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Maksim.”
“I don’t know you, never heard of you,” I told him.
“Viktor and I were friends, until he betrayed me,” he revealed in a voice meant to invite sympathy. “We used to work together, but he had other things in mind. Darker things, things that I would never dream of
doing myself. He is a killer, Angela. An assassin. He kills people for money. People who don’t deserve to die.”
I didn’t want to believe him. He had to be wrong about Viktor. How could someone who had been so gentle with me be such a terrible person? But Maksim’s eyes were cold and hard, and something about the way he talked made me feel like maybe he wasn’t lying. I had seen the guns in Viktor’s shed, after all. He’d taught me to shoot.
The man watched my indecision and continued, honing his point. “If we didn’t bring you here, he would have hunted you down and killed you, too. You’re innocent and pure. That’s his favorite.”
My stomach twisted with disgust. “He never hurt me,” I said in a hoarse voice.
“No, he didn’t,” Maksim agreed.
He lifted his hand as if to caress my cheek. I tried to yank my head away, but I couldn’t crank my neck any further. Maksim touched my cheek and I felt instantly dirty. Maybe he wasn’t Viktor, maybe he had been betrayed by his best friend, but that didn’t necessarily make him a good guy. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
“He tricks them, you see,” he murmured. “He takes the time to make people trust him. And then, when it’s far too late, he strikes.”
“Viktor would never hurt me,” I said stubbornly.
Maksim lifted on shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “Believe what you will, Angela. You know best.” He walked away from me, returning to the table to look at the screens. The guy with the crutch glanced over his shoulder. Aleks continued to ignore me.
What if what Maksim had said about Viktor was true? What if I’d narrowly escaped with my life? But it didn’t make sense. I hadn’t had a bad feeling about Viktor. I’d been unsure about Aleks. And I had a terrible feeling about Maksim since the moment I’d seen him. And if Viktor was the bad guy, how could that make these guys good? If they really were that good, if they were trying to save my life, why was I tied up in a chair rather than being kept safely? And why couldn’t I leave?
I thought about Viktor and the way he’d insisted I stay at the cabin, that it was too dangerous to head into the woods. I hadn’t understood. Half the time, I’d thought he was talking about the weather. But what if t was about all of this?