by Sara Hubbard
I stand by the door, my fingers over the key pad. Maxim gave me the code, but he never said what would happen if I punched in the code wrong. Would he be alerted? I figure it’s worth a shot, when I feel left with few options. I punch in the numbers slowly, putting a one in as the first number instead of a two. The pad beeps at me and a small red light flashed at the bottom.
A gun cocks and I turn my head to find that gun aimed between my eyes.
“One more chance. You don’t want to see what I’m capable of when I’m angry.”
I swallow a growing lump in my throat as sweat builds on my forehead. I punch in the right code this time, and the light flashes green.
“Good girl,” he says in a soft voice that makes my skin crawl.
I open the door and walk inside. I know the living room well, and I know there are no weapons inside of it, but still, I look for something…anything to use against him.
“Have a seat,” he says, pointing the gun to the plush chair by the fireplace. I do as he asks, a scowl on my face the whole time.
He takes a seat on the couch and continues to keep the gun pointed at me. “So, you’re Luna. Hmm, I can see the attraction.”
I make a face at him as my stomach turns.
“No matter how much Yuri and Maxim denied it, I knew you were alive. My gut is never wrong. I just needed proof, and now I have it.”
I stare at him.
“I had no idea where to find you. It’s not like you could go back to your old life. So, I asked myself, where would he hide you? I can’t think of any place better than this. I knew if I kept watch here, I’d eventually see you. However, I didn’t expect you to be sleeping outside, waiting to be found. I was just hoping for a picture. But this is so much better.”
“What do you want?”
“That’s a good question. You probably think I’m here to kill you, right?”
I frown at him. “Aren’t you?”
He shrugs. “That depends on you. How far are you willing to go to save your life and Maxim’s? Would you kill for him like he’d kill for you?”
I stare at him with narrowed eyes.
“I’m your only hope, sweetheart. You don’t realize that now, but you will.”
He pulls out his phone and punches in a number. Then we sit in silence before the person on the other end answers. “There’s something very interesting you need to see.” He pauses for a moment. “Maxim’s house. Seems my brother isn’t as good at following commands as you’d think.” He pauses again. “Oh, no. You need to see this for yourself. I’d come alone, though. If not, you won’t have a choice about what to do with my disappointing brother.” He hangs up the phone.
“You called your father?”
“Yes.”
“How can you care so little for your brother? What kind of a man are you?”
He rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck. “Who says I don’t care?”
I chuckle without humor. “Look at what you’re doing to him. You’re about to get him killed.”
“I don’t think so.”
“How can you think that?”
“Because you’re going to kill him.”
“Maxim? I don’t think so.”
“No, not Maxim. My father.”
Mouth open, I stare at this crazy sociopathic man, and imagine all the horrible things he’s done to his brother over the years, and what he intends to now do to his father. I can’t imagine growing up in a world where I’d ever want this. “You’re insane.”
“Maybe.”
“I won’t do it,” I say.
He grins at me, and there is a wicked gleam to his eyes that makes me curl my shoulders and sink into my seat.
“Yeah, you will,” he says confidently. “You don’t have a choice.”
As we sit and wait, I pray Maxim will hurry up and come home. He should be walking through the door at any moment. I just have to make it until then. Yes, I want him to save me, but I also want to save myself. I’m just not sure how that’s possible when I staring down the barrel of a gun. This man thinks I can kill someone. Yes, his father killed mine, but no matter how much I’ve wished him dead, I don’t think I could actually kill him. And I’m afraid of what he’ll do if I can’t.
I’m not sure how much time passes when there is a knock at the front door. I still and put my hands on the armrests. Andrei pulls out his phone and tells his father to come around to the back. I start to panic, my hands shaking so bad I have to sit on them. I don’t want to give Andrei the satisfaction of knowing how frightened I am at seeing Sergei again. Of being reminded of my father’s death.
His father appears through the glass at the back patio doors. He slides the door open and walks inside, his gaze fixed on me. I gasp before scrunching my face up in disgust and horror. Salt and pepper hair on a wide face. Black eyes the color of coal, like both of his son’s. A scar on his cheek and big gold rings on his chubby fingers. Sergei.
“Who is this?” he asks, annoyed. “You brought me here for this woman?”
“You don’t recognize her?” Andrei says.
“You killed my father,” I say.
He makes a face and leans forward, eyeing me with more scrutiny. “I kill a lot of people.”
“I bet you do,” I snap back.
“She’s the girl you told Maxim to torture and kill. The watch thief’s daughter.”
“His name was Gus!” I cry out.
He eyes me up and down in a way that makes me shiver. “You look different. I’m not sure I would have been so quick to kill you if they hadn’t fucked up your face so much. Maybe I would have had some fun with you first.”
“She’s a looker,” Andrei agrees.
My stomach lurches into my throat.
Andrei stands and then walks over to me. “Get up,” he commands, the gun still pointed at me.
I do as he says.
“He didn’t kill her after all,” Sergei says, as if musing to himself.
His cheeks redden and the flush travels down his neck. At his sides, his fingers twitch. I keep my head up, desperate to keep my wits about me, but I’m terrified.
“I had no idea what you were talking about when you called,” Sergei says. “I thought you’d figured out a clever way to turn me against him. You know I favor him, and I always have.”
“At least you can say it out loud now,” Andrei says.
His father smirks at him.
“Trevor was looking into the girl. He wanted to make sure she was dead, and he discovered she was alive. That’s why he’s dead. Maxim killed him.” With a scowl on his face, Sergei shakes his head.
“You’re lying,” I say. But I’m not sure I believe that.
Andrei grins at me, and I feel sick.
“He wanted to save her,” Andrei says to his father. “So he killed anyone who was a threat. Mark, Ritchie and Allan are all missing. Trevor is dead and buried. Only people left now are you, Maxim and Yuri.”
“Hmm,” Sergei says. “I didn’t know he had it in him.”
He almost looks proud.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Andrei says. “Where is your rage now, father? You’re a threat to his girlfriend.”
“I always expected the better son to challenge the other and rise to the top. Like I did with my own brother. Killing him made me what I am today. Sometimes it’s the only way to show what you’re made of.”
“You’re both insane,” I say. “I don’t wish anyone dead, but I wish that for you.”
Sergei approaches me, and I flinch as he raises a hand to touch me. Before he can lay a hand on my face, I slap it away. Something breaks inside of him. Like a beast awakened, he starts to tremble. He pulls his hand back and slices his hand through the air to connect with my cheek. He hits me so hard I fall back onto my ass. My face is on fire, my jaw sore to the point where I wonder if it’s broken.
He curses at me in Russian. “Never put hands on me, little girl. I take what I want. And that includes you.”
&n
bsp; Andrei whistles at his father who’s bent over me, his fists in the air, ready to strike me again. Andrei trains his gun on his father then. I’m not sure who’s more surprised, me or his father. I expect his father to rage harder, but he laughs instead. Andrei doesn’t take it well. He pulls out another gun and aims that at his father, too. Sergei is still laughing.
“Step away, Father.”
“You don’t have it in you. Maxim couldn’t hurt this bitch, but he’d kill me if he had to. You? I think no.”
Andrei fires a shot at the floor just beside his father’s feet. Sergei doesn’t even flinch. I gasp. Ears ringing, I cover my head and ears, certain there’s about to be another shot.
“You were saying?”
His father holds out his hands now and backs away from me.
“Get up,” Andrei says.
“What?”
“Do it.”
On shaky legs, I push myself up onto my knees and then struggle to get to my feet. Andrei twirls one of the guns around in his hand and holds the grip out to me. “Take it,” he tells me.
He’s giving me a gun. I shake my head, emphatically, sure it’s a trick.
Sergei stills, his smile fading.
“Take it!” he demands.
I do as he asks. My hands tremble so I wrap both of them around the handle to steady it. I don’t even know who to point it at. Both of them are crazy, but Andrei gave me a gun. I train the gun on Sergei.
“He’s right,” Andrei says to me. “I can’t kill him. He’s my father, after all. No matter how much I fucking hate him.”
Sergei spits on the ground. “Such a disappointment.”
“Shut up!” Andrei says. Then to me, “Point the gun at his head and pull the trigger.”
I stare back and forth between them, trying to process all that’s happening. “I—”
“You said you want him dead. Here’s your chance.”
“I—”
“Fucking point the gun at his head and pull the trigger. He killed your father and made you watch. You want your life back?”
My hands tremble harder, and my fingers won’t work. I’m not even sure I could pull the trigger if I wanted to. Killing someone is supposed to be hard. Even if the person to die is Sergei Morozova. Even if he deserves it. Saying I want him dead and actually killing him are two different things. I want him to pay, but maybe not like this.
Sergei lowers himself down onto the couch. He opens his hands wide as if welcoming the bullet. I think he knows I’m no threat. And his son just admitted he couldn’t do it either. Now what? We both die? Maxim dies? Tears brim my eyes.
Sergei says, “So this is your plan. To have this woman kill me? Look at her? She can’t even hold the gun straight?”
Andrei nods.
“You think killing me will make you king?” He laughs. “My men will follow Maxim, not you. You must know that. You’re not that stupid.”
“I know they would, but they won’t have a choice. Maxim agreed to step back and support me.”
Sergei grinds his teeth. “Maxim knows you planned this?”
Andrei grins. “Not exactly, but I’m sure he knew it was coming, sooner rather than later. Why do you think he’s already taken care of everyone else?”
“Well, played, Andrei,” Sergei says. “Maybe I was wrong, after all.” He’s silent for a moment. “Actually, no, I wasn’t. Maxim is still the better man. You will never be king. No matter what deal you made. He’s my son, and he’s just another version of me, but you? I have to wonder if your whore mother had an affair.”
“Pull the trigger!” Andrei screams.
I start to cry, imagining how I’ll feel if I do. Murder. I’ll be a murderer. Like them.
“Do it!”
I start to cry, reminded of how I once aimed a gun at Maxim and how, in a dark moment, I found the will inside of me to do something I thought I never could. I would have killed Maxim if he hadn’t removed the bullets from the magazine. Do I have it in me to do it again? This time to a man I hate? I wipe tears from my eyes.
“Do you want your life back?” Andrei screams at me.
“Yes,” I whisper. I cock the weapon, and a round flies out the side. It’s loaded. Maxim said make sure it’s loaded. But my hands shake so bad, I wouldn’t hit him even if I could pull the damn trigger.
“Kill him!”
A loud bang makes me jump. I close my eyes and think I’m dead. Feel the world around me still, hear my heart thudding in my chest, smell the gun powder in the air. The world slows. It takes me a minute to process, for the world to speed back up to real time. That’s when I realize I’m still alive.
I hear gurgling and a stifled laugh.
I flash open my eyes. Sergei holds his hands on his chest as blood pools over his hands and down his white shirt. His eyes are wide, but I think it’s from pain. Not fear. Not even when faced with death. And he’s going to die. The spray is too fast and too furious. His eyes roll back in his head and then he goes limp.
Andrei did it?
“Easy,” Maxim says softly from behind me. “I’m going to take the gun, Luna.”
I say nothing. I can’t even move.
“Nod your head if you understand.”
I swallow and nod, many times.
His arms reach out from behind me. He slides his open hands over my forearms and doesn’t stop until he reaches my fingers. Then his hands wrap around mine and slowly extricate the gun from my stiff, failing fingers.
“Good girl.”
I drop my hands to my sides. Sergei’s lifeless eyes stare back at me now. It’s like he’s taunting me still in death.
Andrei trains the gun at Maxim. “It’s done,” Andrei says.
Maxim grips my arm and pulls me to his side before stepping in front of me. “You put a gun to her head. I would kill you for much less than that.”
Andrei chuckles. “You shoot, I shoot. We both die.”
“It’d be worth it.”
“Max,” I say softly.
“Go upstairs, Luna.”
“No.”
“It’s not a discussion,” he says. “Go! Now!”
I don’t move. I can’t. There has been so much death. And for what? To get my life back? My life isn’t worth the deaths of all these people. No, not another person will die because of me. I won’t allow it.
I try to move around him, and he holds his hand out to stop me.
Andrei grins. “We had a deal,” he says.
“That deal didn’t include you making her kill our father.”
He shrugs. “Well, no, maybe not, but you insist on keeping her. So, it was necessary to make sure she never talks about it. She had to get her hands dirty.”
Maxim walks forward and presses the gun to his brother’s head. His brother holds his hands out, ready to take that bullet.
What is wrong with these people?
“I could kill you right now and not lose sleep,” Maxim says.
“Maybe. And then what? What does your life look like? Who fills Dad’s shoes? It’ll be you. And don’t pretend you ever wanted that. I know you, little brother. This life suits you, but you don’t want to be king.”
“Max, don’t do this.”
“Leave, Luna!”
“No. You want to kill him, then do it in front of me. I want to see who you really are. Show me. Scar me with this image for the rest of my life!”
He lets out a growl and seconds tick away. I won’t ever be able to look at him again if I watch this. He knows this. It’s the only way I can think to stop him. If he cares for me at all, he won’t do it. It’s as much for me as it is for him. Please let him see that.
Maxim lets out a loud curse before he lowers his gun. He tucks it in his back pocket. “I won’t kill you, but…” Maxim retracts his arm and smashes his brother in the face. Like a felled tree, Andrei tumbles to the ground with a dull thud. Then Maxim steps over him and hits him again and yet again.
“Maxim, stop!”
He holds his hand in the air, ready to hit his brother again, but pauses. He looks back at me, hate in his eyes. I shrink away and take a step back. This is the monster he claimed to be, the man who wants blood and revenge. And I fear him. Fear what lives inside of him, ready to be unleashed.
I hurry out of the room, take the steps two at a time, and run into my bedroom. In my chair, I sit as I always do when I’m sad, lonely, or deep in thought, with my feet up and my arms around my legs. If only I hadn’t gone outside. Sergei would still be alive. Maxim wouldn’t have killed his father, and he wouldn’t have almost killed his brother. The look in his eyes, like there was nothing inside of him. Like he was missing his soul. This haunts me as much as the night my father died.
I tip my head down to rest on my knees and try to catch my breath. In and out, slower, through the nose and out through the mouth. Over and over until my breath finally slows. When I finally manage to lose the tension in my shoulders and chest, I start to sob. I’m still sobbing when Maxim knocks on the door much later in the night. He doesn’t enter until I invite him in.
Showered and in clean jeans and a T-shirt, he walks over to me in his bare feet. He drags the other chair over so we sit a few feet apart, facing each other. He won’t look me in the eye, not directly. It’s off to the left or right, but never straight on.
“How many people were there the night my father died?” I whisper.
“Seven.”
“And how many of those seven are dead?”
“Five.”
I feel sick to my stomach. “Because of me?”
“Because none of them would trust you like I’m trusting you. It doesn’t matter who I am or what I say. No one in that room would risk jail for you. Except for me and Yuri.”
“Yuri would go to jail for me?” I don’t believe that.
He shakes his head. “For you, no. For me, yes.”
“So you killed them.”
“No. I killed my father.”
“But you’re involved in all of the other deaths, right? No one else would want them all dead. You’re the only one who benefited.”
He leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. He cups his watch and moves it back and forward on his wrist.