by K. C. Crowne
What if the danger had been him? No, that didn’t make sense. None of it did. The heroes didn’t kidnap damsels in distress, they saved them.
I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. I didn’t know what to believe. All I knew for a fact was that Maksim was dangerous and I wasn’t any safer with him than I had been with Viktor.
Viktor
The sun was starting to set and I was getting ready to leave. I had decided to wait until sunset before I headed for Grizzly Falls. It was better for me to travel at night, better to not be seen. If Maksim and his men were around, they would be looking for me. Moving through the forest in the darkness would make it easier to get around unnoticed.
I knew they couldn’t track me. I didn’t have the chip in my arm anymore – I hadn’t had it for years.
I didn’t doubt they were tracking her phone, though. It was how they had found me in the first place. And if they knew I still had it, they would lock onto it and know exactly where I was. So the phone was staying in the cabin. I hoped they thought I was staying put.
I pulled on a black jacket. I wore all black tonight. I hadn’t dressed like this in a long, long time. It brought back a bitter taste at the back of my throat. But I wasn’t heading out into the night to kill someone unless it was Maksim or one of his dirty fuckers. My biggest mission was to make sure Angela was safe. After that, it would be simpler. I would track down Maksim and slit his throat so I could live in peace.
My satellite phone rang, and I jumped. I’d been lost in thoughts of revenge and hadn’t heard the shrill sound for so long, I’d almost forgotten what the damn phone sounded like. I’d brought my satellite equipment into the cabin so I could monitor the area at all times. It was no coincidence that the phone was ringing.
“Maksim,” I growled into the phone when I answered. No one else would know to reach me on this.
“Viktor, you don’t sound happy to hear from an old friend,” Maksim said, his voice mirthful.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“It’s been a long time, my friend.”
“We are not friends,” I spat.
“Well, in that case, I guess you do know what I want, don’t you?”
I didn’t answer him. I wasn’t playing his games. Maksim loved bantering back and forth, using careful wordplay, making it seem like everyone was friends while mocking them at the same time. We had been close for years, but I’d never actually liked the asshole.
He sighed. “Always so tight lipped, Viktor,” he grouched. “But it adds to the mystery. Maybe that’s why you do it? You keep to yourself so we don’t know what you’re thinking.”
“If you don’t tell me what you want—”
“You’ll what?” Maksim interrupted me and laughed. “Alright, alright. You’re not going to make this easy. Then again, you never did. I want you to surrender to me.”
I barked a laugh. “Not fucking happening. But you knew that.”
“Yes, I did,” Maksim said. “It’s a pity. If you take your punishment for deserting us like a man, you can be back on the team and we’ll forget all about it. I already have a target lined up for you and everything. Just like the good old days.”
“None of the old days were good. And I’m not stupid enough to think that you’d bring me back into the fold. You’ll kill me the minute you see me.”
Maksim made an exaggerated humming noise. “You were always smarter than everyone gave you credit for,” he mused. “So let me put it to you this way. if you don’t turn yourself in, your woman dies.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as adrenaline pumped into my system. They had her. It was too late. I’d hoped to God that she’d gotten back to Grizzly Falls safely, but I should have known better. The moment I found that message on her phone, I should have known.
“Maksim,” I growled, sounding like a fucking animal. I felt like one, too. “If you so much as touch one hair on her head, I’ll fucking gut you like the pig you are.”
Maksim laughed. “You’ve always been a scary son of a bitch, Viktor. But you can’t intimidate me. It’s cruel to know a man’s weakness, really. I never thought you had one as pathetic as this. Time’s ticking, my friend. We’re waiting.”
The line clicked dead, and I stood in my cabin in the growing darkness, feeling like I was going to burst out of my skin. They had her. They had Angela. And they were going to hurt her. My mind ran through all the things I knew Maksim was capable of, everything he’d done to women before that I knew about. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to envision what he could be doing to Angela.
Something primitive awoke in me, an animalistic sense of territory. Angela was my woman. Maksim was fucked. Because I was going to come for her, and when I got my hands on him, he wouldn’t just wish he was dead. He would wish he’d never been born.
Angela
The conversation was in English. I wasn’t sure why – they were both Russian. But when Maksim spoke to Viktor, it wasn’t in their native tongue. It said something about how close their relationship was.
Which made me wonder about what Maksim had said to me about their friendship, about betrayal. About what had happened between them.
The conversation between them didn’t make sense. Not if Maksim was the good guy and Viktor was the villain. Maksim was using me as bait, and he was picking a fight. I could hear it in his tone, not just his words. He was a world class asshole.
The only reason he was talking where I could hear the conversation was because he thought I was asleep. But I slept lightly. My head hung forward, hair hanging in my face. I’d fallen asleep like that, but only until Maksim had started talking. He’d stood a short distance away but moved around. I’d glanced at him periodically to track him.
The others had disappeared. Where were they? Were they sleeping, too? Or running around collecting other damsels in distress for whatever the hell they were planning?
From what I could hear on Maksim’s side, Viktor had ditched them. He’d dropped the team. But what had they been doing? They were talking about targets. About the good old days. It didn’t sound very good.
It was only when Maksim said the last line that my blood ran cold. If you don’t turn yourself in, your woman dies.
I closed my eyes when he turned around and tried to look like I was still sleeping. But I tasted my heart in my throat. My adrenaline had shot through the roof, and I struggled to keep my breathing even.
I was freaking the hell out. I didn’t want to die. I wanted to fight and squirm, I wanted to wriggle until I could get free of the ropes. But if I did anything, Maksim would know that I had heard him. And I didn’t want him to know that. I needed to play my cards as close to my chest as possible and look for a way to save myself.
Inwardly, I snorted at myself. As if I had any damn cards to play at all. I was tied up in a forgotten room somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea how far I was from home. I had no idea if I would ever see home again.
And my mom. My new job in Chicago. My new life…my eyes stung with tears, and I fought the urge to sniff.
The door opened and Aleks walked in. “And?”
“The fucker is playing hard to get,” Maksim said with a growl.
“You knew he would.”
Maksim nodded. “The best fucking triggerman I’ve ever had. And the biggest pain in my fucking ass. You need insurance, you hear me? You don’t commit without insurance.”
“Sure, boss,” Aleks said. It didn’t sound like he knew what Maksim meant, but he didn’t want to tell his boss that. Maksim sounded more and more unstable by the minute.
And that made him dangerous.
“What’s the plan?” Aleks asked. “Do you think he’s coming?”
“No doubt,” Maksim replied. “He’ll want her back.”
They were both silent for a moment. Were they looking at me? I didn’t want to peek and risk them seeing I’d heard every word.
“You think he cares that much about her? Viktor do
esn’t care about anyone.”
“He cares about her,” Maksim said, certainty in his voice. “You should have heard him lose his shit on the line. He’ll come.”
My heart warmed and returned to its natural spot as my fear cooled. Viktor cared about me? Not that it was a question; I hadn’t walked away because I thought he didn’t care. But the way Maksim said it made my heart sing. I shouldn’t have cared that a monster, a killer, cared about me. But I cared about Viktor, too. A lot more than I’d been willing to admit. A lot more than I wanted to. With my mind, I kept telling myself he wasn’t worthy of my love and affection.
But dammit, after the week we’d spent together, after how he’d treated me and how close we’d grown, he seemed like exactly that.
Worthy.
I knew assholes and shady characters when I saw them. I didn’t know what the hell Viktor had done in his past. But he wasn’t like the others. And Maksim had said there was no doubt he was coming to get me. He was going to save me. I just had to wait.
“He’s a dangerous fucker,” Aleks said. “What do we do when he comes?”
“I’ve called in for backup. As soon as he gets here, we drop him. Before he gets a chance to shoot first.”
“And the girl?”
“We’ll kill her in front of him. A bit of a show.”
My ears started ringing. They were going to kill Viktor. They were going to kill me.
Maksim really was the bad guy. Holy shit. How had I ended up here? I wished I could warn Viktor. He was going to come for me and was going to walk into an ambush with his eyes wide open. He was going to die.
But not until he watched them kill me first.
I started trembling. I didn’t want to die. I had so much to live for. I hadn’t even started living. It couldn’t be over yet. My whole life, I had lived for my mom, making sure she had what she needed, getting her through the hard times. I was heading out to Chicago for her too, dammit. But I didn’t want that. I wanted something I could look back at and say, “I did that, I really lived.”
A steely resolve settled inside of me. I had to get away. I wasn’t going to be the classic damsel in distress that needed saving. I was a strong woman. Dammit, I had survived my dad. I’d gotten through taking care of my mom. I had managed to fend Ryan and his disgusting advances off for a long time.
I could get out of here. I could save myself.
I started to recall any details I could about where I was being held. I would need them to formulate a plan to get myself out.
The place was creepy as hell. And if Maksim had holed up here, it wasn’t a place people came to often.
They switched over to a conversation in Russian that I didn’t understand. My neck was killing me, and it wasn’t necessary to pretend to be asleep anymore. I made a moaning sound, lifted my head, and turned it from side to side, stretching my stiff muscles. Both men turned to look at me.
“Sleeping beauty awakes,” Aleks commented.
I rolled my eyes at him and looked away just as the door opened and the guy with the crutch hobbled in.
“What the fuck do you want?” Maksim asked, irritated.
“The others are here.”
“About fucking time.” He picked up his phone and dialed a number.
“Where should I put them?” the guy with the crutch asked. He glanced at me.
“I want them close when I need them. I don’t give a shit what they do until then. They can sleep wherever they find a spot.”
The Crutch nodded and turned, taking his time to leave.
“He annoys the living shit out of me,” Maksim said to Aleks. “I should have shot the fucker when he came back looking like that.”
“You should be happy Viktor didn’t kill him,” he commented. “At least it gave you a leg up.”
“Don’t make it sound like he was of any use to me,” Maksim growled. “Getting your hands on the woman only bought you a bit of grace. You’re not special.”
“I was just saying.”
“When I want your opinion, I’ll fucking give it to you,” Maksim snapped. He turned back to his computer system.
Aleks crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against a wall a short distance away from Maksim, sulking. Maksim clearly wasn’t a good boss, nor was he the good man he claimed to be.
I understood Viktor more than I had before.
Viktor
I was not letting Maksim get away with this. The son of a bitch had forced me into hiding for long enough. I’d stayed away because it had been easier than facing him, better for me to be removed from society altogether.
But everything changed. Angela needed me. And I refused to let my past ruin her future. I wouldn’t let her be Maksim’s victim.
She was mine. I was going to get her back. And I was going to fuck Maksim up for just looking at her, let alone whatever else he had in mind. This was Maksim’s last day on this earth.
I stood in my gun shed. The gaping hole Angela had kicked into it had let in all kinds of forest creatures looking for a place to hide from the night, and they’d scattered when I’d pulled open the door. I grabbed guns and knives and ammunition from the boxes and drawers I’d crudely set up when I’d come here. I hadn’t needed to use any of it. Now, I strapped myself up so that I looked like fucking John McClane, ready to take back what was rightfully mine. Yippee ki yay, Maksim.
When I was ready, I headed through the trees. I was on the hunt. I’d slipped back into my old skin. The cold, hard killer had returned for one last mission. When I moved through the trees, I was nothing more than a shadow, melting from one dark patch to the next. I’d checked the radars before suiting up. Maksim and his men weren’t far off. Their trackers had lit up my screen like a Christmas tree.
And I was going to be the gift that just kept on giving. Bang, bang, motherfucker.
When I’d walked away from Maksim, I’d laid down my guns and told myself that I would never do anything to hurt another human again. I would never presume to judge people, decide that they had to die.
Now, it was different. I was ready to dish out what was coming to them. I still knew exactly what I was capable of, and Maksim was going to learn just who he had fucked with. He had no fucking idea what was coming for him.
My ugly side was showing again. The monster had woken up. This time, though, it had nothing to do with my past. It had nothing to do with who I thought I should be, and what I thought others deserved.
This was about Angela. About the woman who had in a very short time become everything to me.
And about Maksim, who did not deserve any kind of mercy.
For the first time, I was going to use my skills to save someone. I was going to use my skills to do something good.
The rush of triumph at that thought was overshadowed by the fact that Angela was in danger. What if something happened to her? What if Maksim hurt her before I got there?
Or killed her?
I didn’t trust the asshole. His words meant nothing. And he loved inflicting pain. He loved calling the shots. Maksim was the kind of man who believed he could play God.
I was going to show him what it was like to bleed.
The place where he’d taken her was a short distance away from my cabin. Across the valley and up on the other side, nestled away in a thicket of trees. It had been a house once, but it had been abandoned for years. I’d looked to hide out on that side of the mountain at first, but because of the structure already being there, I’d decided to move further away from where humans had been. Just to be safe.
I knew exactly how to access the place, though. I remembered the layout. When you were in the business I’d been, you trained yourself to notice the important things. And you didn’t fucking forget. It could mean life or death.
And now, it did.
When I found the place, I moved up against the hillside a bit and squatted next to a tree, scoping out the building. It was dead quiet in the middle of the night, with little movement. But there was life
at the old building now. Lights were on here and there, and the roar of a generator from the back room explained how they’d managed it.
Inside, there was movement. The building had two large rooms and a few storage rooms around the side. The windows – mostly broken now – were large and supposed to offer a beautiful view. I doubted anyone was enjoying the view now.
Movement caught my eye. Dark shadows walked slowly in a pattern. Guards, patrolling.
I counted five of them around the building. No doubt a handful more would be sleeping in order to take over the next shift. I’d counted more than ten chips being tracked on my radar. But he could have hired local muscle to help, and there wouldn’t have been a tracking light for those.
It was safe to guess at least twenty people, aside from Maksim and his inner circle. He always moved with at least two people at his side. I used to be one of them.
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I was as quiet as the dead. The guys down there had no idea I was here.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and my pulse was fast. But my breathing was slow and steady. I was calm.
One of the guards lit a cigarette. The flame made a bright flash for a moment, and then the red cherry glowed as he inhaled. He said something in a low voice to the other, something I didn’t quite catch. He took a few steps away from the rest of guards toward me.
I held my breath as he came closer. Any closer, and I would have to break his neck.
He unzipped his pants and pissed against the tree. He was so close, his urine splashed on my boots. I gritted my teeth and remained still. I wanted to break the fucker. But if I did it now, it would give away my location before I was ready to act.
Finally, he zipped up and walked back to the building. He sucked on the cigarette one more time, threw down the butt, and stubbed it out with his toe.