He kneeled in front of me so we were eye to eye. “Angela,” he said. His Russian accent was even thicker than Viktor’s. “Don’t be afraid. We won’t hurt you.”
I frowned. My head ached like a bitch. Why had I been taken, if they didn’t mean to hurt me?
“We brought you here to protect you from Viktor,” he said.
Confused, I stammered when I spoke. “W—why would you do that?”
“I see you don’t understand,” he said, as if I were a student who had disappointed a teacher. “He must have lied to you, as he lies to everyone. You see, Viktor is a very, very bad man. We used to be friends, he and I. Joined at the hip.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Maksim.”
“I don’t know you, never heard of you,” I told him.
“Viktor and I were friends, until he betrayed me,” he revealed in a voice meant to invite sympathy. “We used to work together, but he had other things in mind. Darker things, things that I would never dream of doing myself. He is a killer, Angela. An assassin. He kills people for money. People who don’t deserve to die.”
I didn’t want to believe him. He had to be wrong about Viktor. How could someone who had been so gentle with me be such a terrible person? But Maksim’s eyes were cold and hard, and something about the way he talked made me feel like maybe he wasn’t lying. I had seen the guns in Viktor’s shed, after all. He’d taught me to shoot.
The man watched my indecision and continued, honing his point. “If we didn’t bring you here, he would have hunted you down and killed you, too. You’re innocent and pure. That’s his favorite.”
My stomach twisted with disgust. “He never hurt me,” I said in a hoarse voice.
“No, he didn’t,” Maksim agreed.
He lifted his hand as if to caress my cheek. I tried to yank my head away, but I couldn’t crank my neck any further. Maksim touched my cheek and I felt instantly dirty. Maybe he wasn’t Viktor, maybe he had been betrayed by his best friend, but that didn’t necessarily make him a good guy. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
“He tricks them, you see,” he murmured. “He takes the time to make people trust him. And then, when it’s far too late, he strikes.”
“Viktor would never hurt me,” I said stubbornly.
Maksim lifted on shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “Believe what you will, Angela. You know best.” He walked away from me, returning to the table to look at the screens. The guy with the crutch glanced over his shoulder. Aleks continued to ignore me.
What if what Maksim had said about Viktor was true? What if I’d narrowly escaped with my life? But it didn’t make sense. I hadn’t had a bad feeling about Viktor. I’d been unsure about Aleks. And I had a terrible feeling about Maksim since the moment I’d seen him. And if Viktor was the bad guy, how could that make these guys good? If they really were that good, if they were trying to save my life, why was I tied up in a chair rather than being kept safely? And why couldn’t I leave?
I thought about Viktor and the way he’d insisted I stay at the cabin, that it was too dangerous to head into the woods. I hadn’t understood. Half the time, I’d thought he was talking about the weather. But what if t was about all of this?
What if the danger had been him? No, that didn’t make sense. None of it did. The heroes didn’t kidnap damsels in distress, they saved them.
I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. I didn’t know what to believe. All I knew for a fact was that Maksim was dangerous and I wasn’t any safer with him than I had been with Viktor.
Viktor
The sun was starting to set and I was getting ready to leave. I had decided to wait until sunset before I headed for Grizzly Falls. It was better for me to travel at night, better to not be seen. If Maksim and his men were around, they would be looking for me. Moving through the forest in the darkness would make it easier to get around unnoticed.
I knew they couldn’t track me. I didn’t have the chip in my arm anymore – I hadn’t had it for years.
I didn’t doubt they were tracking her phone, though. It was how they had found me in the first place. And if they knew I still had it, they would lock onto it and know exactly where I was. So the phone was staying in the cabin. I hoped they thought I was staying put.
I pulled on a black jacket. I wore all black tonight. I hadn’t dressed like this in a long, long time. It brought back a bitter taste at the back of my throat. But I wasn’t heading out into the night to kill someone unless it was Maksim or one of his dirty fuckers. My biggest mission was to make sure Angela was safe. After that, it would be simpler. I would track down Maksim and slit his throat so I could live in peace.
My satellite phone rang, and I jumped. I’d been lost in thoughts of revenge and hadn’t heard the shrill sound for so long, I’d almost forgotten what the damn phone sounded like. I’d brought my satellite equipment into the cabin so I could monitor the area at all times. It was no coincidence that the phone was ringing.
“Maksim,” I growled into the phone when I answered. No one else would know to reach me on this.
“Viktor, you don’t sound happy to hear from an old friend,” Maksim said, his voice mirthful.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“It’s been a long time, my friend.”
“We are not friends,” I spat.
“Well, in that case, I guess you do know what I want, don’t you?”
I didn’t answer him. I wasn’t playing his games. Maksim loved bantering back and forth, using careful wordplay, making it seem like everyone was friends while mocking them at the same time. We had been close for years, but I’d never actually liked the asshole.
He sighed. “Always so tight lipped, Viktor,” he grouched. “But it adds to the mystery. Maybe that’s why you do it? You keep to yourself so we don’t know what you’re thinking.”
“If you don’t tell me what you want—”
“You’ll what?” Maksim interrupted me and laughed. “Alright, alright. You’re not going to make this easy. Then again, you never did. I want you to surrender to me.”
I barked a laugh. “Not fucking happening. But you knew that.”
“Yes, I did,” Maksim said. “It’s a pity. If you take your punishment for deserting us like a man, you can be back on the team and we’ll forget all about it. I already have a target lined up for you and everything. Just like the good old days.”
“None of the old days were good. And I’m not stupid enough to think that you’d bring me back into the fold. You’ll kill me the minute you see me.”
Maksim made an exaggerated humming noise. “You were always smarter than everyone gave you credit for,” he mused. “So let me put it to you this way. if you don’t turn yourself in, your woman dies.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as adrenaline pumped into my system. They had her. It was too late. I’d hoped to God that she’d gotten back to Grizzly Falls safely, but I should have known better. The moment I found that message on her phone, I should have known.