by Beth Abbott
Hollywood’s chuckle was instant.
“Nope, not Chicago.” He agreed. “My family is from just outside of Mobile, Alabama, which is totally to blame for that accent you referred to, although if I do say so myself, I think the accent has been diluted from spending so many years away from home in the military.”
Niko had heard of Alabama, naturally, but knew nothing about Mobile.
“Can you tell me an interesting fact about your home town?” She asked. “What’s the first thing that comes to mind?”
“Rain.” Hollywood said instantly and then grinned. “Humidity and warm temperatures pretty much all year round, but we get as much if not more rainfall than any city in America.”
“Really?” She was surprised. “I thought rain was something that Seattle was famous for, not the gulf coast states. You surprise me.”
“Folks in Seattle like to make out they get all the rain, because it makes them sound interesting.” He grinned. “I mean, what else do you associate with Seattle besides rain, coffee, and Amazon HQ? Not exactly exciting, is it?”
“Apparently people don’t get much sleep there.” Niko kept her face straight until he turned to her with a look of confusion. “Or was that just Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan?”
As he realised what she meant, Hollywood grinned.
“Hah! Good one.” He conceded.
“So, what has Mobile got that keeps you going back home?” She asked. “Apart from a lot of rain.”
“My mom, for starters.” Hollywood grinned. “More specifically, my mom’s cooking. It’s unbeatable.”
“Ok, so you’re a mommy’s boy.” She grinned. “Good to know.”
Hollywood shrugged but didn’t seem to have taken offence.
“Fishing.” He continued. “Taking a boat out just as the sun is coming over the horizon, and then casting a line while cracking a few beers with some good old boys, before heading back home for some of the best sea-food you ever tasted. It’s possibly the best thing ever.”
“Sea-food cooked by your mother, right?” She teased.
“Naturally.” Hollywood smiled. “But then there’s Mardi Gras, if you like carnivals, and a few museums and shit like that.”
“You’re not so much into the cultural side of your hometown?” Niko laughed.
“Only when I’m trying to impress a woman. Then you’d be surprised how cultured I can become” Hollywood grinned. “So, what about you? Where are you from?”
“Near Moscow, originally. A small place just on the outskirts.” Niko explained. “We left when I was a teenager, when my father moved with his job. But I went back there to university a few years ago, to study English.”
“It worked.” Hollywood smiled. “Your English is near perfect, and with very little accent.”
“We speak it almost all the time, to keep from being understood by Ilya’s men. Most of them hardly speak English at all.” She admitted. “Ilya lived in London for years, so it became second nature to him. When I came to live with him after my parents died, I was already pretty fluent, so we just adopted it as our first language.”
“Is that where you met Roman’s father?” Hollywood asked quietly. “At the university?”
Niko nodded.
“He was in my class all the time we were there.” She confirmed. “But he only plucked up the courage to ask me out during our final year.”
“Why?” Hollywood glanced across at her. “You’re not that scary looking.”
Niko was surprised at his teasing.
“I’m not scary at all.” She huffed. “But the same can’t be said for my brother. Ilya took great delight in taking me back to campus every term, making sure all the guys saw who they’d be dealing with if they so much as stood close to me. As contraception went, it was very effective.”
“Until Roman’s father.” Hollywood pointed out.
“Yeah, until Vasili.” She agreed. “Ilya still scared the pants off him, but Vasili said I was worth the risk. He was wrong.”
Hollywood glanced across at her, obviously picking up on the sadness in her tone.
“Where is he now?” He asked. “Did your brother scare him off?”
“If only!” Niko couldn’t keep the hint of bitterness from her voice. “Ilya’s men paid Vasili a little visit. He’s never been seen since.”
Hollywood’s head shot around.
“What? Your brother had him knocked off just for getting you pregnant?” He gasped.
“God, no! I didn’t even know I was pregnant when Vasili disappeared.” Niko shook her head. “I think Vasili was killed by Ilya’s men just for dating me. That would be a typical warning as far as my brother was concerned.”
“Shit!” Hollywood whistled. “That’s just fucked up.”
“Yeah, it is.” She agreed. “Welcome to my life.”
“At least you have Drago now, to run interference with your brother.” Hollywood observed. “I assume Ilya gave his blessing, seeing as Drago is his right-hand man.”
Niko turned and stared at the American.
“Blessing for what?” She asked. “What interference?”
Hollywood glanced over at her.
“I assumed that Ilya knew about you and Drago being an item.” He shook his head. “If he doesn’t, I swear he won’t hear about it from me.”
“Drago?” Why had Niko’s voice gone up an octave? “What in God’s name made you think that there was something between me and Drago?”
“At the airport, when we walked through the doors, you were standing with Drago and he had his arms around you.” Hollywood pointed out. “It was a fairly reasonable assumption to make. At least I thought so.”
Niko snorted a laugh.
“And two seconds later, I had my arms wrapped around you, and you were swinging me around in circles.” She pointed out. “Does that mean you and I are engaged?”
Hollywood shook his head.
“You mean that was for the benefit of the airport police?” The penny had finally dropped. “You were trying to blend in.”
“Give the guy a cigar!” Niko rolled her eyes. “And Drago is Ilya’s man, first and foremost. Yeah, he and I get along Ok, and he’s been known to have my back when I’m struggling to get Ilya’s asshole thugs to do what I want them to, but that’s it. I don’t trust him with anything I don’t want Ilya to know, and you’d do wise to follow my lead.”
Hollywood nodded, his eyes focussed on the road ahead as Niko turned to stare out of the side window.
She’d exchanged more information with Hollywood than she’d ever shared with anyone, and she’d only known the guy a few hours.
Niko guessed that just showed how empty, sad, and pathetic her life was, that she would talk to any stranger that showed her the smallest kindness.
Soon, she thought, she’d be doing something about that. Very, very soon.
Chapter 33 – Hollywood
More than six hours after they’d climbed into the cab, Hollywood eased the truck through the doors of the huge rusted steel building that reminded him of a massive aircraft-hanger. They were the third of the trucks to make it to the destination, and he guessed which one was his parking spot from the position of the other two.
If the scheduled journey hadn’t already been long enough, they’d gotten caught up behind an accident in a ten-mile tailback, and crawled for almost two hours, until they managed to pass the scene of the collision.
Their combined gripes and complaints about ‘asshole drivers with no consideration for others’ quickly died away as they passed the bodies of half a dozen family members laid out on the freeway, a couple of them kids that would never have a future. Thin cotton sheets covering the corpses couldn’t disguise how small some of the bodies were, nor could the red stains on the cloth disguise how violent a death they’d had. Even if they hadn’t seen the bodies first-hand, the smashed-up car on its roof would have warned them what to expect.
Hollywood had watched Niko make the sign of the cross as they’d d
riven past, her eyes darting towards the sleeping area where Roman and Kellen had both been fast asleep.
Hollywood followed the instructions of one of Ilya’s men, and rolled the truck to a stop outside some portable office blocks.
He cut the engine, and flopped back in his seat, allowing his muscles to fully relax for the first time in hours. It was fair to say his body ached like a sonuvabitch.
“What now?” He glanced at Niko. “What are the normal sleeping arrangements?”
“The cargo will be unloaded and locked in the offices overnight, guarded by Ilya’s men.” Niko explained. “There will be portable cots in one of the rooms set aside for the drivers. You and your guys can sleep in there if you like. Ilya has an apartment nearby, so he and Drago will have gone straight there.”
“What about you and Roman?” Hollywood frowned. “Where do you sleep?”
“We’ll sleep here, in the bunk.” Niko nodded to where Kellen was quietly snoring away.
“That’s not very safe.” Hollywood didn’t like the thought of her being out here with no protection. “Anyone could climb in here and hurt you both, or worse.”
“They’re my brother’s men.” She argued. “They wouldn’t hurt me.”
“They’re a bunch of low-life scum, and if they thought they’d get away with it, of course they’d hurt you.” Hollywood growled. “They’d rape you or worse in a heartbeat. Do you want to risk that?”
Niko stared at him like he was nuts.
“So, what are you suggesting?” She snorted. “That you’ll stay with me? Didn’t you hear me say what my brother does to people who get too close to me?”
“Frankly, I don’t give a shit about your brother, and I’m not saying it has to be me, but either Kellen or I are going to sleep in the cab with you. Either here on the front seats or on the floor in the back, it doesn’t make any difference to me.” He shook his head as though it was a done deal. “It’s not open for negotiation.”
Niko stared at him in astonishment, and Hollywood wasn’t sure what to make of that expression. Was she astonished that he’d so selflessly offered to watch out for her? Or was she astonished because he’d dismissed her objections in such an offhand manner, and was dictating how things were going to be?
He could probably accurately guess which.
“We need to see to the cargo.” Niko was obviously in a mood to ignore him, as she opened her door and climbed down, closing it quietly behind her.
Hollywood didn’t wait to be left behind, hopping down from the driver’s seat, and following the noise around to the back of the truck.
One man was already pulling the container doors open, while another wasted no time in climbing into the back, moving large boxes around like some complicated Rubik’s cube.
Hollywood waited patiently as the man gradually revealed a pathway through the boxes, ending in a hidden doorway, only three feet in height and about eighteen inches wide.
The man unbolted the door and pulled it open, stepping back and waiting.
When nothing happened, he crouched down in the doorway and yelled something harshly at whoever was inside.
This time when he stepped back, Hollywood could make out a head of dark hair, as someone crawled through the doorway, not attempting to stand until they were well clear, when for the first time, Hollywood could make out it was a young woman.
One by one, more and more women crawled through the space, and Hollywood watched Ilya’s men grab them roughly, pulling them off the truck and making them sit down on the concrete floor.
When one of them mishandled a young girl, pushing her so hard she sprawled on the ground, Niko screamed at the guy in Russian, waving her hands around, obviously telling him, in no uncertain terms, what she thought of his actions.
Hollywood kept his face shuttered, his expression hopefully giving nothing away, as he looked from one woman to the next.
They were all in t-shirts or hoodies and jogging bottoms, almost as if they’d been given a uniform. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected to find, but what surprised him the most was that they actually looked pretty clean.
A few of them dared to look around nervously at their surroundings, and a few more were glancing at the men standing around.
A few more of them were staring straight at Niko, and Hollywood wasn’t surprised to see the looks of hatred that they were throwing her way.
Seeing the women in front of him like this, Hollywood realised that he’d almost been lulled into liking Niko, purely on the basis of her looks and pleasant conversation, and his stomach churned.
He’d completely forgotten that she was responsible, even if only in part, for the women being here and where they were going.
Before he could stop it, Hollywood felt the muscles in his face turn to stone. His teeth gritted together, and his hands balled into fists, thankfully in the confines of his jacket pockets.
He glanced around to see Yuri and Kris standing behind their truck, and Logan and Evan in the distance.
Thankfully, Logan was managing to keep his emotions in check, but as they were looking at similar sized groups of women, all sitting silently on the ground, Hollywood guessed that it was no easier for the others than for him.
He walked casually over to Kris, half smiling as he approached, although the effort almost killed him.
“Everything Ok with you guys?” He murmured.
“All good.” Kris nodded. “A mercifully uneventful journey, thank goodness.”
“Same here.” Hollywood nodded. “Got caught up behind that accident.”
“I think we all did, because we followed the other truck in, and we only got here a few minutes before you guys.” Yuri glanced around. “Speaking of… where’s Kellen?”
This time Hollywood’s smile was more natural.
“He binged on chocolate bars for a while, early on.” He explained. “I think after the sugar-rush subsided, he must have crashed, because he’s been snoring merrily for the last couple of hours, along with Niko’s kid. They’re still in the bunk.”
Before Kris could comment, Hollywood heard Niko’s voice speaking in Russian, the size of the hanger making it sound hollow and distant.
“She’s telling the women that if they behave and not cause any trouble, they will be given food and drink, and be allowed to sleep on the mattresses in the cabins.” Yuri translated. “Anyone who causes any trouble will be chained to the trucks, and will sleep on the floor out here, with no protection.”
Hollywood almost winced.
The ‘no protection’ part felt like a knife cutting through him, especially after he’d just offered to watch over her and Roman to keep them safe from Ilya’s men. He almost wished he hadn’t made the offer now, although the thought of leaving a woman unprotected was unacceptable, even as it appeared in his head.
“There’s supposed to be somewhere for the men to bed down on mattresses in one of the buildings.” Hollywood glanced at Yuri. “Since Niko and her son will be sleeping in the cab of our truck, I told her that either Kellen or I would sleep in the truck with her, to keep her safe from Ilya’s men. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them.”
“That was generous of you.” Kris sneered, looking back towards Niko. “Especially after the little speech she just delivered to the women.”
Hollywood shrugged. The offer was out there now, and even if he wanted to take it back, his conscience wouldn’t let him. She was still a woman, and Roman was little more than a baby. They needed protecting, plain and simple.
“Is she as heartless as she sounds?” Yuri asked. “Or is she doing what Ilya tells her to do because she has no choice?”
Hollywood glanced back at Niko, who was monitoring the women being herded into the cabin, and for a split-second, he thought she looked to be in pain, her expression pinched as though she regretted what she was doing.
Then, as one of Ilya’s men appeared to step out of line, viciously pushing a young girl, the mask slipped back down, and Ni
ko screamed at him, making him back off quickly.
“If you’d asked me that half an hour ago, I’d almost forgotten about the cargo in the back, and was enjoying her company more than I have any other woman for a long time.” Hollywood admitted. “She’s intelligent, funny, and like any mom, she worries about her son and the effect being around someone like Ilya is having on him.”
“And what’s your impression now?” Yuri murmured.
“Now? I can’t reconcile the woman I’m looking at with the one who sat next to me in the truck for five hours.” Hollywood shrugged. “They’re two completely different women.”
“So, which one do you think is the real Nikita Federova?” Kris turned to stare at him.
“I’m hoping it was the first one.” Hollywood admitted. “She had no reason to put on an act with me, so my gut is telling me that she was being herself.”
“So, you think this hard-faced bitch, screaming at the men and threatening the women is what? A persona that she’s putting on to impress the men?” Yuri asked.
“That would be my guess.” Hollywood nodded. “Look at the way Ilya’s men regard her. They hate her and want to fuck her in roughly equal measures. If you think of how vulnerable she is without Ilya or that Drago guy around, the only thing stopping one of his men from raping and murdering her is the threat of retaliation by Ilya. If they thought they could do it and not get caught…”
“Like while she was in the sleeping compartment of the cab at night?” Kris suggested.
“Exactly so. If they thought they’d get away with it, I wouldn’t give her great odds of surviving one night.” Hollywood looked around Ilya’s men and knew he wasn’t wrong. “Either way, until I know which of her split personalities is the real one, I’m inclined to keep an open mind on the subject. I doubt it’ll be long until she proves herself one way or another.”
“Good idea.” Yuri nodded.
“All the women have been locked away.” Kris observed. “I think it’s time one of us hit the sack, bro, if we’re gonna be up again before dawn.”
“Is that what time we’re heading out?” Hollywood scowled, feeling every one of his aching muscles protesting.