by S F Draven
“I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose her, Viktor. I used to get on your case about wanting to have a family and a life with your wife, but now I’m starting to understand how empty life can be without that. We’ve all done terrible things in our lives, and they make it so much easier to cope with it. I want to have that opportunity with Katerina, but I don’t know what’s going to happen if I have to part ways with her forever as well,” I said, scared out of my mind at that possibility.
“Whatever happens, Dom, you and I both know that you’re going to bounce back. You were always the first to make sure that we all got over whatever we were dealing with in the past, and I can assure you that I will do the same for you if the need ever presents itself. I’m not going to let you waste away like Giselle wants you to, and you have to remember that even if things come crashing down around you, you will always have your family to back you up. It’s never too late to fix things with all of us, it’s never too late to rebuild those bridges you may have burned all those years ago. Don’t ever think that all hope is lost, okay?”
“Thank you, Viktor. I really appreciate that,” I replied, and I meant it.
It had been a long time since I felt like I was understood by anyone in my position. Viktor had been in the game far longer than me, and even now I felt like he was the one looking up to me instead of the other way around. It was amazing to see just how quickly we managed to mend things between us, and as much as he may have been right about me being able to move forward without Katerina, I knew that I was never going to forget about her. She came into my life and became the better part of me, and I always liked who I was around her. It was the first time in a long time that I appreciated who I was and what I’d become over the years. It was time that I did what I was put on this earth to do, and finally make something of myself that was worth more than all of the money in the world. It was time to show Katerina that I was unstoppable, and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of our chance together.
Chapter Sixteen: Katerina
I was finding it incredibly difficult to stay alert because the cold air was sinking through my skin into my bones and there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it. I tried to busy myself with the thought of what it would be like to get out of here, but there was nothing in my peripherals that told me that would even be a remote possibility. I couldn’t give up, because it was the only option I had left. I was running out of time and I didn’t want to waste away in this old, abandoned building, just be another story that never had an ending. I was worried about the fact that I could barely feel my body anymore. My skin was going numb and I was finding it incredibly difficult to move, even more so than it already was. The sun had begun to stream in yet again, and that was when I realized that another day had come and gone without any food.
It seemed as though Giselle was adamant on punishing me, but I wondered how long she was going to let me suffer in here before I wasted away. I heard the influx of footsteps in my light sleep, checking on me every few hours to make sure that I hadn’t died, and at least there was that. I was beginning to lose hope in anyone coming to my rescue, and I knew that if I wanted to get out of here, I was going to have to do it myself. I tried my best to lift myself to my feet, using every bit of strength I had left in my body, running my cold toes along the concrete, trying to search for anything that would help.
Just before I was about to collapse back onto the ground, I felt something sharp beneath my numbing skin. It was a nail, and I couldn’t put into words how happy I was to see that little object. I wrapped my toes around it carefully, making sure that I could bring it back to where my chains ended, because I had to do this fast. The minute anyone walked back in here, they were certainly going to find it and take it off of me, and I just couldn’t allow that to happen. This was my one and only chance at making it out before anyone came back to check on me, so I carefully sat back down on the floor, reaching for the nail behind my back as I got it safely between my fingers.
I used it to try to undo the shackles around my hands, and I was trying for what felt like hours before it finally gave way and my hands were finally free. They still felt incredibly restricted because they were just so cold, but it was better than being chained up forever. I quickly undid the shackles at my feet, reaching over to the wall to steady myself as I found my way back to my feet. I glanced around the room looking for the nearest exit, knowing that I only had one shot at this before they would certainly put an end to me. I gathered what little strength I had left, running to the far end of the large room, finally realizing where I was.
I looked up to the ceiling to see a large dusty chandelier hanging overhead, and a grand staircase at the far end of the concrete room, as though this was an unfinished room that was halted in the middle of construction. Was this a hotel? I asked myself, realizing that would’ve been the most ironic move of all. I had to commend Giselle for paying so much attention to detail, and if she had been working alongside me in our journalist careers, we might’ve even been friends. Now, it was clear to me that Giselle had no intention of ever building a life with Dominik, that she may not have even loved him to begin with, but he was just a story to her all along.
For a while, that was exactly what he was to me, but once I fell in love with him, I realized that there was something much more substantial about the connection we had, that I could’ve never gone through with exposing him after that. How she managed to make that decision even after he gave her everything she ever wanted boggled my mind, and that was the defining difference between the two of us. I ran over to the doors at the far end of the room, what appeared to be an unfinished fire escape, but the doors were locked. I tried to pry it open, but it wouldn’t give way. I was running out of time because I could hear the distinct heavy footsteps of one of Giselle’s men coming to check on me. Just before I could give up all hope, the door finally gave and I was running down the various flights of stairs.
I had no idea where I was going, but I knew that all would make sense again if I just managed to get back out onto the street. Once I get out of here, I’m going to run as far as my legs will take me until I can find someone to help me, I thought, making my way through the empty hallway, realizing that there were only a few rooms with the numbers up, and some that never got to be finished. I was hoping that one of the unmarked doors were going to lead to the street, but when I finally opened one up, I realized that I had chosen wrong.
“It’s good to see you back on your feet,” said a distinct voice, and that was when I realized that I had met my match. There was no getting out of here, and I had just blown my one and only chance at an escape.
“Giselle,” I said, watching her sit there at the small rusty bistro table in the middle of the empty room, sipping on a cup of tea while she was signing a few papers, which I believed had everything to do with where we were right now.
“Don’t be shy, Katerina. Sit and have a cup of tea with me, it’ll probably be the last thing you ever ingest anyway,” she said, and I obeyed because I knew there really wasn’t anything that I could’ve done at this point. She was chuckling to herself, wearing an expression of excitement, and it was at that moment that I started to put the pieces together of her plan.
“This is what you wanted all along, isn’t it?” You were waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back, not only to take Dominik down, but to assume his position the minute he was out of the game,” I said, and she nodded her head.
“They don’t give you enough credit for how smart you are, dear. If we’d met at any other time in our lives, there’s the possibility that we could’ve made a great team, but you just had to remain loyal to the man who single-handedly destroyed you.”
“I’m still standing, Giselle, am I not?”
“Not for long, Katerina. Once this is all dealt with, I’m going to have enough money to last me a lifetime, and I’ll be able to live out the rest of my days however I see fit. Isn’t that just incredible?”
“You did all of this so you could steal Dominik’s business out from under him? I thought this was about exposing the man he was,” I said, rather confused.
“It was at first, but I eventually saw how much money was in a business like this. I saw the way he was handling things, and I knew that given the opportunity, I’d be able to do a much better job than he ever could,” she said, feeling no need to hide anything from me anymore because she’d already decided that I wouldn’t live to see another day.
“You have everything you could’ve wanted, Giselle, but it was never enough for you, was it? You just had to keep taking away more, keep hurting the people that did so much good for you, and the innocent,” I said, and she shook her head.
“None of you are innocent in any way, and if you think that then you are certainly delusional. It doesn’t matter anymore, because once my men locate Dominik, we’re going to have the final performance that we’ve all been waiting for,” she said, and I truly believed that was a possibility.
I sat there with her, watching her be so at ease with everything she’d done and I wondered how she managed to pull this off all on her own. It crossed my mind that someone must’ve helped her along the way, because as powerful as she may have been now, there was no way that she would’ve known how to go about any of this.
“There’s no way that you managed to pull all of this off on your own, Giselle. Someone had to be helping you along the way, someone that was incredibly close to Dominik,” I said as she looked up and past me to see a man enter the room.
“Why, you’re absolutely right, Katerina. My name is Maxim, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, and I realized that this was Dominik’s old running partner. I’d heard a few stories about their time together, and in that moment I realized that he and Giselle weren’t only working together, but that they were also in love. It became increasingly clear just how calculated these two people had been, and how much of a fool I’d been to believe that we’d all somehow be safe in the end. Once Dominik caught sight of this, I wasn’t sure that even he was going to be able to pull through, even if we took me out of the equation for the time being. Now, it was a case of more than just betrayal, it was the burning of bridges, it was people legitimately coming back from the dead in his eyes.
If I were him, I knew that it would be far too much for me to take, and I would’ve understood if there was a part of him that wanted to forget this entire situation and run somewhere very far away from here. When I realized just how strong Giselle had become and just how many people she had wrapped around her little finger, I knew it was absolutely useless to think that I was going to get out of this alive now. My fate was sealed, and all I could do now was try to learn as much as possible. At least that way, I could die with my dignity intact, I could let go without feeling like there was something missing all along, and that was all I needed right now.
“I’ve heard a lot about you, Maxim. It’s a shame that we have to meet under these circumstances,” I said, and he looked up at me and smiled.
“It’s a shame that you chose the losing side of this, Katerina. You would’ve been a great addition to this little mission of ours, and once we succeed, I’m afraid there isn’t going to be any room left for you. We’re going to have to dispose of you in a way that Giselle sees fit, right after she manages to dangle you in front of Dominik and strip him of everything he has. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for my entire life, as Dominik got everything I’ve always wanted. Now, it’s finally my chance to step into the limelight and take back everything that has been rightfully mine all along.”
“I’d like to see you try,” I said, right before he slapped me so hard it knocked me out. Everything faded to black not long after, and I was afraid that I just wasn’t going to wake up this time.
Chapter Seventeen: Dominik
We finally managed to make it to the property that was listed on the document containing Giselle’s old fake name. It was the name she gave hotel staff that she didn’t want to recognize her, it was the name she gave under restaurant reservations when she didn’t want to be associated with me, but now it was going to lead me right to her front door. Viktor and I called for back-up, because once we arrived we could already see that the place was crawling with guards everywhere. There was no sneaking around them, and if we ever planned on getting inside, we were going to have to go straight through them and make the grand entrance we’d been waiting to make for quite a while.
Viktor and I nodded at each other, knowing that it was going to be a long-shot for us to make it inside without so much as a shot at either of us, but we had no choice but to try. We each cocked our guns back, and I fired off the first shot. They all turned their attention to us, all firing off bullets in our direction, but we were too quick for them. We managed to sneak by, dropping each of them and watching as their bodies fell to the ground like flies, just as we managed to get inside. I turned around to see the bloodshed that we had caused, and I hoped that it would send a pretty hefty message to Giselle when she realized that we managed to take our power back.
We moved through the large old hotel, trying to figure out where Giselle would be holding Katerina, but it wasn’t long before we were met with more of her security detail, all firing off their machine guns in our directions, desperately trying to take us down. It was no use, as we moved through them without so much as a scratch, and I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I thought about how much Giselle loved herself a view from one of the top floors, how she’d spend hours out on the balcony, looking down on everyone below her, and that was when I began to climb the stairs. Viktor followed suit, and it wasn’t long before we made our way down the large hallway, stopping at the grand, unmarked double doors.
I opened them up, and stared back in horror at what I saw. Just before I could gather myself, I heard the sweet sound of my back-up funneling in through every door they could find. I tried to keep calm, but my blood was boiling, as I saw a face I didn’t expect to see.
“Hello, darling,” said Giselle, but to my greatest surprise, it wasn’t her I was shocked to see.
“Hello, old friend,” said Maxim, staring back at me and I just couldn’t believe my eyes.
“I can’t believe that you two have been behind this the entire time, especially you, Maxim. I thought that we had a mutual understanding. I thought that we found middle ground and we let bygones be bygones, but I see now that I was wrong. You’ve been playing me for a fool this entire time, sneaking around with the woman I thought I put an end to all those years ago,” I said, ready to shoot them both in the head for what they’d done to me.
“She was always a persuasive one, don’t you remember, Dom? You were the one who introduced us to begin with. It was a fun ride, buddy, but I’m afraid that this isn’t going to change anything. You and I both know that you’ve been the weak one all along, and you’re simply incapable of choosing the right option when it’s presented to you. I tried to let you know that I was gunning for what you had, but you always shut me down. You left me no choice but to find it elsewhere,” he said, looking over at Giselle with such admiration it made me sick.
I looked around the room, noticing that Katerina was lying unconscious near the table by the window and I ushered Viktor over there so he could make sure that she was going to pull through.
“She put up such a fight. Poor girl didn’t even know what hit her,” said Maxim, and that was the last straw for me. I put a bullet between his eyes, watching as he fell to the ground, and Giselle stared back at me with resentment in her eyes. She hadn’t expected it of me, and before I could go to her, before I could do the same to her, I was finding it hard to take the shot again.
It was a strange feeling to be at the end of the line, finally putting an end to a lifelong threat to my life, but I didn’t know what I was going to do when it was all over. I heard rustling to the side of me, noticing that Katerina must’ve been coming to, but I was too preoccupied with the f
act that I had to finish this, for my sake, for Katerina’s sake.
“Well, aren’t you going to do this?” she asked.
“Shut up, you ungrateful bitch,” I said, pressing the barrel of my gun right up to her head. She had caused me so much pain, she had been the reason behind so much of my distress, and I let her get the best of me.
“You know, for a while I thought that maybe I made a mistake by sticking you in the ground all those years ago, but I see now that I was right all along. You don’t deserve to live, Giselle. You’ve done enough, and it’s time I make sure you don’t come back from the dead this time,” I said, just about to pull the trigger before someone knocked the gun right out from my hands.
“Let me,” said a distraught Katerina, barely hanging onto what was left of her life, and she looked like she was going to pass out any moment. She had a sharp nail in her hand, and before Giselle could fight her off, she jammed it right into her jugular. Giselle grabbed ahold of her throat, as her eyes widened. She was spewing blood everywhere, just as Katerina finally collapsed to the ground. Even after everything she’d been through, she still managed to stick by me, through it all. I wasn’t about to lose her this time. I couldn’t bear to lose her ever.
Epilogue: Damien
She was barely hanging onto what was left of her life when I took her into my arms, begging her to come back to me. I couldn’t bear to see her slip away from me now that I knew she was going to do anything to protect me. I was on my knees, taking her head into my lap as I felt her cold skin against mine, and I felt myself cry. The tear slid down my face onto hers, and I looked around at the massacre we made to get to where we were, and for a moment I truly believed that I failed her, but she was still breathing. There was still hope.