Stephan

by S F Draven

  “It’s about time someone tied you up for a change,” Natalia said. “You’re always in control, aren’t you, Stephan? I’m sorry to say that this isn’t going to end well for you this time. You did a really stupid thing by handing me over that empty casing because now I know that you have no choice but to hand over the real thing, otherwise I’m going to kill Annika and make you watch.” Behind her, I saw that her family was approaching. She wasn’t alone this time, and she had everything she needed to totally dispose of all of us. I couldn’t speak, feeling the tightness around the duct tape over my mouth pull on my skin, while I glared at her angrily.

  I knew she wasn’t going to kill me until that painting was safely in her possession, but I didn’t know how much she was going to put Annika through before she got what she wanted. I was bound so tightly that there wasn’t any way that I’d be able to get out of them on my own, and my body was erupting with fear, frustration at the realization that she was going to keep hurting Annika until I handed over the painting.

  “You don’t look too happy about that, Stephan. I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I’ve had a watchful eye on you for the last few days. I know everywhere you’ve been, everything you’ve taken that didn’t belong to you, and I have to say that I’m proud of you for teaching Annika all those things about how to be a proper criminal because she was much harder to keep down than the first time I kidnapped her.”

  Natalia probably had to pull out all the stops along with her family to keep watch on us, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I have to give up that painting, I have to make sure that Annika is safe. I have to be smart before she takes us all out the minute she learns the location of the painting.

  The hiding places were changing all the time, but I remembered safety tucking it away into a lockbox in the brick wall behind Ivan’s pharmacy. I thought it would be safe there, but now I was beginning to think that had been a mistake.

  Natalia inched closer to me, ripping the duct tape from my lips so I could finally tell her what she wanted to hear. I glared at her, and she smiled down at me, believing that she’d won. She was a few moments away from doing a victory dance of her own, but she had to keep it together long enough to get what was still hidden.

  You better not have betrayed me, Ivan, or I swear, I will kill you myself.

  I knew in my gut that he hadn’t, and he didn’t even know where it was hidden. He wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble to save Annika if he was just planning on giving up our location. Natalia may have been keeping watch, but she didn’t know everything, and I had to use that information to my advantage. I was afraid that I was going to have to lead Natalia to Ivan’s pharmacy because I didn’t want to involve him in any of this, but he knew the stakes when he agreed to help me again.

  Stay calm, Stephan. You’re not going to let anything happen to Annika. You’re going to get her back, and you both are going to get through this.

  If I was going to save her, I had to play this smart, make sure that I was always one step ahead of Natalia and her entire family.

  “Well, Stephan? Are you going to tell me where that pretty little painting is?” she asked, taunting me, waving her gun around like she was actually going to use it. I could see right through her, and she was running solely on pride. She just wanted to make a good impression on her family, show them that she was strong enough to handle all of this.

  They were the kind of dysfunctional crime family that we were all grateful that we weren’t born into because I could tell simply from the way they were looking at her, that there wasn’t an ounce of love in any of them. They saw their children as opportunities, and nothing more. This was all Natalia had, and if she didn’t live up to their expectations, she would be as good as dead to them.

  “Where’s Annika?” I asked, through my teeth.

  “That’s none of your concern, Stephan. You won’t be seeing her again until I deem it necessary, or until you need a little push in the right direction,” she said, and I knew that she was trying to get under my skin, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.

  “I have to know that she’s safe before I’m going to tell you anything. You can torture me all you want, Natalia but you’re never going to be able to find the painting unless I point you in the right direction. You’re going to tear the entire country apart looking for it and waste far too much time. I’m sure your family has much more important things to do than engage in any of that.”

  “You need to watch your mouth, Stephan. You’re forgetting that I’m the one that gets to decide what happens to Annika, and if you make me angry enough, I’m just going to have to kill her.”

  “You do that and you’re never going to find the painting, Natalia.”

  She thought about it for a moment, realizing that there was no way she was going to be able to act solely out of anger on this one. She knew that she couldn’t hold Annika over my head for very long, but she was going to flaunt Annika’s pain at me for as long as she could.

  She was quickly realizing that her threats weren’t as effective as she wanted them to be, and the more time she wasted, the angrier her family was going to get. She stood there for a moment in silence, wondering just how much I was willing to let Annika endure before I caved in.

  “You really are a brazen one, aren’t you, Stephan?” she continued. “I know how much you love her, I saw it from the moment we met the first time back at my house when you were trying to come to her rescue. You managed to escape from me then, but there’s no way I’m going to be letting you out of my sight this time. This is going to be the end of the line for you, and once we get that painting back, you’re not going to be much use to us anymore. Do you really think that you’re going to be able to endure me torturing Annika? I have a feeling that there’s no way you’re going to sit there in silence. That’s the difficult thing about love, you’re never going to be able to part with it. I know you’re going to make the right decision.”

  “You’re not going to hurt her, Natalia. You lay a hand on her, and you’ll never find out where that painting is,” I said, but she didn’t budge. She was determined to get the information out of me as fast as possible, and she didn’t have time to be playing games with me anymore.

  “We’ll see about that,” she said, motioning for one of her guards to go upstairs and fetch Annika. He carried her down like a small child, her hands and feet bound with rope, and laid her on the floor in front of me unconscious. It broke my heart to see her like that, to know that she was going to suffer, but I could only hope that once I gave Natalia the information she needed, that she would find it in her heart to leave her be. Natalia was operating solely on adrenaline, but her and Annika weren’t once good friends. She may have chosen a completely different path, but that didn’t mean that what they had at some point in their lives wasn’t real.

  Natalia grabbed the knife that was sitting on the console table in the entryway, standing over Annika’s body with a smile on her face, like she couldn’t wait to tear into her, to enact the revenge she’d been waiting to dish out for quite a long time. A lot of what she had been feeling stemmed from jealousy, from seeing Annika have everything she wanted. At the end of the day, Annika’s family loved her truly, and that was something that Natalia never received at any point in her life. It was quite sad, but it was the only thing that was driving her to such violence.

  She looked over at me, waiting to see my reaction when she took the first hit, but I kept my neutral expression. She was trying to rile me up, get me to see that she was the one in control, but I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing me squirm while she hurt the woman I loved.

  I’d been through so many situations like this in the past, from people I’d worked for, to people I’d stolen from, and I knew the minute I gave up any control I had over the situation, we’d all be good as dead. I fiddled with my bindings while Annika had started to come to, and I watched as she looked up to see that Natalia was standing over her with a k
nife. She turned her head, looking over at me to see the expression on my face, and my eyes began to well up with tears, but I held it together.

  “What are you doing, Natalia?” Annika asked, laying right under her, completely oblivious to what was going on.

  “I’m going to get what I want, and then I’ll be on my merry way, but it seems that your boyfriend over there doesn’t want to tell me what he knows. Do you mind helping me out a bit?” she asked, driving the knife into Annika’s thigh, and I listened to her cry out in pain, but I didn’t budge. I didn’t flinch, I watched her get up from where she had been towering over Annika, leaving the knife in her thigh, before she went to address her parents.

  “I won’t disappoint you both this time. Please, let me take care of this,” she asked, wanting to be alone with us all because she wouldn’t be able to do what she needed to with them watching her every move. It was pathetic to see just how much she wanted to become like them, even though it was quite clear that she would never be that way.

  There was still an ounce of humanity left in her because I didn’t see a cold-blooded killer when she drove that knife into Annika, I saw someone who felt guilty for what they had done.

  You can pretend all you want, Natalia, but this isn’t going to end very well for you either.

  Natalia turned her back to me as she led her parents out of the room and I noticed her legs were bandaged, a result of the gunshot wounds I inflicted earlier. My aim was not as it should have been, or she wouldn't be walking at all.

  She stumbled, tried to keep her balance, holding onto the door frame for support. I glanced over to find Annika looking over at me. I had just a few seconds to tell her what to do, and I mouthed her the instructions that I hoped would be able to get us out of here.

  “Take it out. Stab her,” I mouthed, and it took a moment before she registered what I had said. I could tell that she was scared, but she acknowledged with a nod.

  Natalia returned and looked down at her, like she was disciplining a small child, and Annika, running on pure adrenaline, took the knife out of her thigh, and drove it into Natalia’s stomach.

  “You fucking bitch!” Natalia moaned as she clutched her stomach, staggering backward.

  We only had a few moments before her parents were going to come right back in to see what happened, and we had to be well on our way out of there before then.

  “Better luck next time, Natalia,” Annika croaked, crawling on the ground with the knife in one hand, trying to keep her wound closed with the other. I couldn’t believe that she managed to do that. That she had enough strength coursing through her to pull that knife out and jam it into the woman she once cared about so much.

  Now that bloodied knife was being used to cut my bindings before all hell was about to break loose. I struggled for a moment, and I could see that Annika was losing a lot of blood, but she was holding it together for my sake. I glanced over for a moment at her parents as they looked incredibly shocked to see just how strong she truly was.

  “We don’t have much time, Annika. I need you to hold on. I’m going to free your parents and we’re all getting out of here, okay?” I comforted her, begging her to hold on while I rushed over to cut her parents free.

  “Take Annika and head to my car,” I said to her father. “Here are my keys, if I’m not out in five minutes, I need you to drive somewhere far away from here,” Annika fought against him, trying to free herself so she could stay and help me, but she was in no position to fight anymore. If she stuck around, she’d surely be gone before any of us could save her.

  “Stephan, no! We can’t leave without you!” she screamed, and it hurt me to see her in such pain, it hurt me to know that she probably thought this might be the last time we got to see each other, but I had to finish this. If I left at that very moment, too many people would be left alive, too many people that would be instructed to find us and take us all out.

  “I’ll be right behind you! Please, go now!” I yelled at them, and they all funneled out of the front door, rushing to my car, and I could’ve only hoped they managed to get safely inside.

  Just as they left, Natalia’s father came in from one of the side rooms accompanied by a group of his goons. He looked at the body of his daughter bleeding out onto the tiled floor, then over to me. I only had seconds to react before they realized what was happening, so I pounced quickly, managing to grab one of them around the neck and turn him towards the others, using his gun to fire off a few rounds in quick succession. I used the knife to slit the guard’s throat, using his limp body to take the bullets that were flying my way.

  I took out the remaining guards, with a few more precise shots before dropping the dead man and confronting Natalia’s father. He had already drawn his weapon and was pointing it menacingly in my direction.

  “You have some nerve, Volkov. You and I knew very well that painting is worth more than anything I could take from here, and so you’re going to take me to it, otherwise I’m not going to stop until I take everything you’ve ever loved away from you,” he warned, staring back at me. I was running out of bullets, so I had to make sure that I had a clean shot if I was to get out alive, otherwise, he was going to live up to his promise.

  “You have some nerve having your daughter orchestrate this whole thing when you know very well that no one in your life is even capable of love. You must live such a sad life to not even care about what happens to your daughter. You’re here pointing a gun at me when she’s there fighting for her life. It’s such a shame,” I said.

  “You have no right to talk about my family, Volkov. You abandoned yours a long time ago, and that makes you a lot like me. I believe that there will come a time in your life where you become just as greedy as I am, working to build your empire, and taking out anyone that gets in your way. You’re not going to walk out of here alive, and your precious little girlfriend may be getting to safety now, but it’s only a matter of time before I have what I need to strike again,” he threatened, but I wasn’t buying any of it. He was spewing the first few things that came to his mind because he couldn’t fathom the possibility of us making it out of this mess.

  “I’m going to find my way out of here, sir. It’s a shame that you left this entire operation in the hands of your incompetent daughter. If you had lifted a finger yourself, you might have had a painting and a family that still cared about what happened to you,” I said.

  “What will it be, sir? Are you going to let me walk out of here, or you’re going to try to play the hero now?”

  He looked at me like he already knew what was coming next because he didn’t have anyone around to protect him anymore. As he raised his arm to fire off his final shot, I pulled my trigger and held it. The last three bullets hit him squarely in the chest and he dropped to his knees before collapsing face down.

  At that moment, I heard a gun go off behind me and felt the acute pain in my shoulder, as I staggered back.

  “You had no right, Volkov. That was my husband, and he was the love of my life. It’s a shame that you’re never going to see yours again.”

  Chapter Sixteen: Annika

  Come on, Stephan, I need you to come back to me. I need to see you again.

  * * *

  I was sitting in the passenger seat of his car, barely able to stay conscious, but I was holding onto what little strength I had left, hoping that he was going to make it out of that front door alive.

  “Sweetheart, we have to get going. It doesn’t look like he’s going to make it, and I have to get you to safety,” my father said, but I didn’t have it in me to listen to him, not while Stephan was in there fending off everyone that came at him just so he could protect us.

  I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline rush through me, telling me that I was going to be able to make it if I tried. I reached into the glove compartment, retrieving Stephan’s emergency pistol, taking it between my fingers before I got out of the car.

  “Annika, no! Get back in the car!” my father screa
med.

  “You have no right to tell me what to do, Father.” I stood by the open car door, looking my father in the eye. “You have no idea what happened when you were gone, leaving me alone like a sitting duck when you were well aware of all the things that could’ve happened to me. You left me without security, without anyone to watch over me knowing what you do for a living. If I had known more, if I had known how to protect myself, I wouldn’t be in this mess. The man I love wouldn’t be fighting for his life trying to protect all of us.”

  “How do you even know he can be trusted, Annika? He’s a Volkov.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. Father, don’t you see what’s going on here? Your judgment is clouded, and your problem is that you believe that everyone is always out to get you. Stephan Volkov just saved your life, he just saved your entire family, so either you reach into the backseat and grab a weapon to help me, or you and mother can take off never to see me again. The choice is yours, but I’m going back in there.”

  “Fine,” he said, reaching over to retrieve a piece, and I stumbled up to the front door, with him right behind me, wondering how long my leg was going to be usable before it gave out entirely. I peered in at all the dead bodies that were scattered across my home, looking over to see both Natalia and her father laying there dead, their eyes wide open, but entirely lifeless. I didn’t see any sign of Stephan, but right as I was about to head to the back of the house in search of him, I heard rustling coming from upstairs.

  “Go, Father. You’re going to get to him much faster than I will,” I instructed, and I knew that even though he had quite a bit of hatred for the Volkovs, he was doing the right thing for once and I had to be grateful to him for that.

  He rushed up the stairs, and I climbed them right after him, struggling to get my leg to cooperate. I felt like I had begun to lug around dead weight, but I eventually made it up to see my father have the gun cocked back, and ready to shoot at the one who had nearly killed Stephan. I could see the blood trickle out of him, how desperate he was trying to cling to whatever energy he had left, and right before he began to keel over, his eyes locked with mine.