by Ava Bloom
“El comandant,” one of the Spaniards said imperiously, gesturing to two of his guys, who stepped forwards and grabbed me. They pulled me roughly in front of their leader, who smiled toothily at me before punching me hard in the stomach causing me to double over.
He began to rain blows on me with both his fists and his feet, hitting me in the stomach, the face, the shins, the groin. I gasped for air, tasting blood, wondering why they seemed content with beating me up. After an eternity—it seemed—he finally quit beating me, probably just catching his breath.
I hung there, suspended between the two henchmen, unable to get my feet back beneath me even though my gut instinct was to stand tall and stare this coward in the face. What about a fair fight?, I wanted to taunt him.
“You Russian dogs,” the guy sneered in heavily-accented English. “You come into our city and piss all over our territory and then you want to rut with our women too.” He punched me again, and I groaned. “You stay away from Vitoria from now on.”
Who the hell was this guy? Some ex-lover maybe? But how had they figured out our plan?
Before I could respond, someone came up behind me and smacked me hard in the temple. My vision flickered for a moment and then went dark as I collapsed in a heap on the bloodied floor.
9
Vitoria
I stood up immediately when Roberto appeared in the doorway of the hospital room. “Vitoria, carinyo,” Roberto said, stepping in close to kiss each of my cheeks. “And how is your lovely mother doing this morning?”
“Tired, but alive,” Mama murmured from her bed, her eyes flickering open for only a moment before dropping wearily closed.
The treatments appeared to be working, fortunately, but it would be a little while before she was able to make a full recovery. She still wanted to know how we’d been able to afford the treatments, but I hadn’t told her yet. I suspected Papa knew, from the tight-lipped, considering looks he had been giving me around the house, but he hadn’t said anything.
I didn’t know what I’d expected—that everything would miraculously be better? The victory just felt hollow somehow. I knew we had saved a lot of lives, and I knew that my role had been important in that. But my mother was still in the hospital, Audaz was still all too interested in talking to me, and Dmitry…
Well, I hadn’t heard from him in days. He had called a number of times before the attack, leaving pleading messages that I had felt too guilty to respond to. Again and again, he said he just didn’t understand what had gone wrong. But even if I’d wanted to get in contact with him, Roberto had been watching me closely, and he’d made it clear that if I alerted Dmitry that their plan had been compromised, I would pay dearly.
Besides, I just wasn’t sure how I felt about Dmitry, knowing that he was involved in something so heinous.
Still, over the past few days, having not heard of him, I knew there could only be two reasons for it: either Dmitry had realized my role in foiling their plot, or else he was dead. I wasn’t sure which would be worse. Either was enough to keep me awake long into the night.
I followed Roberto out into the hallway at his gesture. “I’ve done what you asked me to do,” I told him, before he even had a chance to speak. “If you’re here to get me to do something else for Audaz, I’m not interested.” I narrowed my eyes. “Our agreement was that I only did the one task and that bought all of the treatments my mother needed.”
Roberto waved away my words. “That’s not what I’m here for,” he said. “I have something that I thought might interest you. Won in the battle.”
“Well?” I asked, folding my arms and raising an eyebrow at him.
“You’ll need to come with me,” Roberto said.
I sighed, wondering if this was some sort of trap. But he wouldn’t do that to my father, I didn’t think. I slowly followed him. We left the hospital, but we didn’t go far before he led me into a narrow hallway. The building was deserted, and I wondered what we were doing there. Had Audaz already found a new headquarters? But I didn’t really want to know the answer to that question. The less I knew about how Audaz worked, the more safety I had.
I froze as Roberto nudged me into a room at my left. There was one chair in the middle of the room, sheets obscuring all the windows. Shivering in the chair was—“Dmitry,” I breathed, stumbling across the room and falling to my knees at his feet.
“Yes, like I said, I thought you might be interested to see my prize,” Roberto said, smiling at me. “See, I was wondering what I should have done with the Russian. He is, of course, the nephew of the Volkov mob boss. Something tells me that we should make an example of him.” He paused. “But it’s entirely up to you, Vitoria. His life is in yours hands—since, after all, you’re the one who brought him here. He’s your trophy even more than mine.”
“Dmitry,” I whispered urgently, nudging the man. “Are you all right?”
Dmitry stared straight through me, awake but apparently unaware of his surroundings. I swallowed hard, noting the bruising on his face, which tracked along that muscular chest of his and disappeared below the filthy waistband of his jeans.
I felt tears begin to fall down my face. “Please, Roberto, you have to let him go,” I pleaded.
“And why is that?” Roberto asked, even though I could tell he already knew where this was heading.
“Because I love him!” I said fiercely, pulling myself to my feet and spinning to face him, my hands clenching into fists. But I couldn’t fight him, I knew. He was bigger and stronger than me, and I knew he probably had a weapon somewhere on him—maybe more than one.
I suddenly realized that his friendship with my father did nothing to protect me, not really. Especially not if I attacked him. Roberto could make it look like I had simply vanished. He could do anything he wanted with me, and I would have no way to stop him.
I swallowed hard and turned back to Dmitry. “Dmitry, please,” I whimpered. “Are you all right?”
Dmitry’s eyes flickered, and he finally focused on me, licking his cracked and bleeding lips. “Vitoria?” he asked, his expression clouded—and I realized they must have drugged him.
“You know, if you love the Russian so much, you should probably tell him why their sneak attack plans didn’t work,” Roberto commented, picking at his nails.
I swallowed hard, my eyes dropping to the floor as Dmitry frowned at me, a sudden clarity in his eyes, like he was truly waking up now. “What did you do?” he asked, his voice ragged.
I hugged my arms tightly around myself. “When you asked me about Audaz…” I trailed off, not even sure where to start. My tears were flowing freely down my face by now, and I couldn’t stop shivering. “I had to get help for my mother,” I told him. “And Audaz told me the only way that they would help was if I gathered information on what the Volkovs were planning.”
When I hesitantly looked up at Dmitry’s face, he was staring at me as though he had never seen me before. “You lied to me,” he whispered.
“I didn’t want to,” I sobbed. “But I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you. I just wanted to save everyone.” I spun towards Roberto. “Please, Roberto,” I begged. “You have to let him go free. He hasn’t done anything. His uncle is the one you want to go after. And there’s been enough bloodshed already, hasn’t there? You’re just going to make them angry, make them attack again.”
Roberto looked unmoved by my pleas. “And here I thought your father had raised a smart girl,” he sighed. “Apparently not, carinyo.”
“Please,” I tried again. “How many lives did we save, with the information I gave you? Surely I’ve bought more than just my mother’s life.”
Roberto continued to stare at me. Finally, he inclined his head towards me. “You may be right about that,” he said grudgingly. “Although it takes a lot of lives to weigh out the life of someone so close to their leader.”
He strode closer to Dmitry. “Tell your uncle that our business here isn’t finished
,” he growled. Then, he cut Dmitry free from the chair. His gaze lingered on me for a moment as he strode towards the doorway. “It’s a pity that you’re such a fool,” he said. “You could have made a pretty wife for someone in Audaz.”
“I’ll never be part of Audaz,” I swore as he left.
He laughed, the sound echoing down the hallway. “Carinyo, you already are,” were his parting words.
I swallowed, feeling like I would be sick. But before I could focus too much on my own condition, Dmitry stirred and tried to stand. I rushed to his side to help him, but he flinched away from me, a steely look in his eyes.
“Dmitry, wait,” I whimpered, reaching for him again. I wanted to remind him that I had just bought him his freedom, his life. But from the look on his face, that didn’t change anything. I wanted to stop him, to try to explain. What I wanted most was to fall into his arms and hold him, tell him how much I loved him, how scared I had been. Plot a life for us, somewhere that Audaz couldn’t reach us and the Volkov family was only a memory.
But Dmitry didn’t care. He stalked out of the room, not even giving me a second glance. I sank to the floor, wrapping my arms around myself as my whole body heaved with sobs. I tried to remind myself about the lives that I had saved. About my mother’s treatments. She was going to get better, and my father was okay, and there were so many others who would have lost their lives if not for what I had done.
None of that felt okay then, though. It still felt as though my heart was breaking.
10
Dmitry
I threw a couple boxes across the storeroom, using a bit more force than was strictly necessary, so that they crashed into the wall at the other end of the room and threatened to spill the straws and napkins that were inside of them.
“Hey, easy there,” Andrei said, joining me in the storeroom. “What the hell did the boxes ever do to you?”
I scowled over at him. “I’m on inventory duty,” I told him. “And I’m not in a good mood for company.”
“I’m not company, I’m your brother,” Andrei pointed out.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, the anger leaving me. “Andryuka, I don’t want to talk,” I told him.
“So I’ll talk,” Andrei said, shrugging his shoulders, just as stubborn as ever. “You listen.”
“That’s not-“ I started to say, but there was no stopping him.
“You can’t stop thinking about this Audaz girl, can you?” Andrei asked.
I frowned. “Where did you hear about her?” I asked.
“Sergei was livid when he found out how our cover had been blown,” Andrei said. He paused. “It’s not exactly a secret. And they’re talking about sending you back to Russia. You’re just lucky that all Audaz cared about was beating you up. Embarrassing for you, maybe, but your punishment would be worse if they had planned some great counter-attack on us.”
I snarled wordlessly. “You think I don’t know that?” I snapped.
“I’m not the enemy,” Andrei reminded me. He was silent for a moment, watching as I made vicious marks on my clipboard. “I think you could make amends if you wanted to. Apologize, tell them that you’re compromised, quit the business. You don’t exactly need the money. Again, no one was hurt except you. Their headquarters was empty, and you didn’t decide to fight them when they stormed your location.”
“And the family?” I asked bitterly. “I’m surprised you’re even here talking to me; I got the feeling I was a leper over the past couple weeks.”
Andrei sighed. “Everyone is just waiting to see how things shake out,” he said. “And that partly depends on whether you graciously apologize and make amends or if you continue to fling around boxes like they’re mortal enemy number one.”
I stared at the latest box, which had split open down one side with the force of my hurl. Then, I turned towards Andrei, slumping down to sit on one of the boxes across from him. “I can’t stop thinking about this girl,” I admitted. I shook my head. “I don’t even know what it is about her. God knows I’ve had women in the past, and I’ve had Spanish women in the past too. They’ve never managed to captivate me like she does.” I laughed bitterly. “But I guess that’s probably just because she was intent on being the person I wanted her to be, so that I would keep her close and she could infiltrate.”
“Something tells me you don’t really believe that,” Andrei said, looking carefully at my face.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Either way, whatever I believe, it doesn’t matter. Whatever Vitoria and I had, it’s over. It’s too risky.”
“She’s not really a member of Audaz,” Andrei said, cocking his head to the side. “I did some digging. I have my own sources.” He lowered his voice. “I have some sources that Uncle Evgeni doesn’t even know about.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seems like everyone has their sources—that’s what the problem has been all along.”
“She’s not part of Audaz, and after this debacle, you’re not going to be receiving classified information…probably ever again,” Andrei continued, as though I hadn’t spoken. “I’d recommend that you elope, but I don’t think you’re going to have any problem with your relationship in the future. Just steer clear of the in-laws.”
“I’m not marrying her,” I said. “Even if I were going to… What makes you think I should go after her, anyway?”
Andrei shrugged. “I don’t know if you should,” he said. “But hiding out here doing inventory, going to the gym just to beat up some more inanimate objects—I know none of that’s helping you get her off your mind.” He paused. “I thought you were dead, you know. We all did. We didn’t find your body, but we thought you must have slipped away into the building or…something.” A dark shadow passed over his face.
“Yet here I am,” I sighed, wishing I could feel happier about that fact. But I couldn’t stop replaying Vitoria’s confession to me. That she had been the one to pass the information over to Audaz. She probably had never really been interested in me, she had just played me. And like a fool, I had allowed myself to be played, even fancying that I was in love with her.
I knew in my heart that that wasn’t strictly true, though. If she had just been playing me, she wouldn’t have kept on it there at the end. Those were real tears, in front of the man from Audaz who had brought her there. She had meant it when she said that she loved me.
And I loved her too. I couldn’t stop dreaming about her. Wishing things could have been different between us. Another time, another place… Wherefore art thou Audaz?
I shook my head. “Andrei, whatever it is that we could have had, it’s over between her and I,” I told him.
“Don’t you at least want to talk to her about it? About why she did it?” Andrei asked.
I frowned, contemplating that. He was right, of course. I knew, objectively, why she had done it. She had needed the money to save her mother. Audaz had the money. It was a favor. It had bought my life too. But I wanted to hear her say that.
To give her the chance to apologize? As though apologizing could fix what she had done…
The next morning, I called Vitoria and arranged to meet her at the beach. She couldn’t come until that evening because of her class schedule, but I agreed immediately, trying not to think of what other things she could be up to, under the guise of “being in classes.” If this was going to work at all, I had to trust her when she said she was studying.
That evening, a little before sunset, we strolled along the sand, both of us silent for a long time.
“I didn’t think you would want to hear from me ever again,” Vitoria finally whispered.
“I didn’t think you would either,” I admitted.
“What changed?” Vitoria asked.
“Nothing—that’s the problem,” I sighed. “I can’t seem to get past my feelings for you. Even though I know you were just spying on me the whole time.”
Vitoria looked away from me, out over the water, and then slowed to a stop, sink
ing down to sit on the sand. After a moment, I copied her, sitting as well. “I didn’t want to do it,” she said. “Not even from the start. I didn’t want to be involved in anything to do with Audaz.”
“You told me you weren’t,” I accused.
“I said that no one had asked me to join Audaz,” Vitoria said, running a hand back through her hair. “That was true. They didn’t need me to join, they just needed to strike a deal with me. With my mother’s health on the line, I was all too ready to complete a mission for them.”
She pounded a fist against the sand. “My mother was never sick. Well, she was, but not from some strange disease. Audaz was drugging her the whole time. Of course she got miraculously better once I snitched on the Volkov family’s plans—there was nothing wrong that sobering up couldn’t fix. I’m so stupid.”
“Naïve,” I sighed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Inexperienced.” But I couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t her fault that Audaz had played her so well.
“Yeah, well,” Vitoria said unhappily. “I thought you were going to be a total pig. Some Russian scumbag who just cared about getting laid. But I quickly found that I was in over my head.”
“I didn’t intend to get into a relationship with you either,” I admitted. “Certainly not to develop feelings for you. I don’t do relationships.”
Vitoria was quiet for a long moment. “I just don’t know what you want me to say,” she finally said. “If you want to know how I did it, it was that night you brought me to your house. After you fell asleep, I went on your computer and got into your email. The evidence was all in there.”
I grimaced, making a mental note to up my security. Not that anyone would ever make the mistake of trusting me again. “And you didn’t care at all, about what it would mean for me?”
“Of course I cared,” Vitoria said, turning tearful eyes on me. “But it came down to my family versus the man that I loved. There was no way to choose.” She bit her lower lip. “I was so scared that I’d lost you. Especially when I didn’t hear from you after the attack. I knew that you must have either found out that I was the snitch, or else you had been killed. I was so scared.”