When everyone had eaten, the guards started to file out of the room, one of them turning off the lights on his way out, casting them into total darkness. A flashlight came on, the circle of light growing larger and larger. Then someone she was sure was Aleksei grabbed her roughly off the lower bunk and dragged her out of the room while she struggled and stumbled to keep up.
Behind the steel door was a long hallway, still underground. The hallway was well lit and guarded. There weren’t just armed guards at the door. They lined the whole impossibly long hallway which led to the one way out—a wide set of concrete steps that went up into another kind of darkness.
Aleksei didn’t speak to her until they were halfway up the stairs. She was sure he was leaving a bruise on her arm from the tight grip he had on her. When he finally spoke, he said, “You should have taken me up on my offer and gone on a date with me. I would have been very good to you.”
Julie didn’t believe that crap for a minute. She doubted he knew how to be truly good to anyone. Particularly anyone female. But she was smart enough to know that the best thing to say to him was nothing. It was the choice that might keep her alive the longest.
And yet, with the unending nightmare that lay ahead and the near certainty of an ignoble death at the end of it, she wondered if it might not be better to fight and rebel... go out in a blaze of glory. If they were so quick to kill these girls, maybe that would be the best option to take. But stupidly, she focused on the idea Carmen had planted in her head that there could be some authorities out there who suspected Dmitri’s crimes... people who were putting together a case, who might find and rescue her.
For some absurd reason, Julie had expected to be taken up to a fancy office or a conference room. In a twisted way it made sense. Dmitri was the boss. So he must have a nice office. Maybe he liked to make threats or lay down the law from there. But she wasn’t taken to an office or conference room. Instead, she was led to a large, ornate bedroom. Two scary looking guards with guns stood outside the room. They didn’t glance her way. Their eyes were focused straight ahead as if there were something particularly interesting on the wall of the other side of the hallway.
Inside, Dmitri sat on the edge of a large king-sized bed in a plush black bathrobe. “Leave us,” he said.
Aleksei released Julie’s arm and gave her a long dark look that was half lascivious intent and half pure murderous rage. He bent and whispered in her ear, “Don’t get it in your head that you will sleep tonight. When he’s through with you... it’s my turn.”
He pulled back and looked into her eyes, a satisfied smirk curving his lips as he enjoyed her terror at the prospect. This... thing... this... inevitability she’d thought she could put off was happening tonight. And though she definitely didn’t want to lose her virginity right now to Dmitri, she didn’t want to ever be alone with Aleksei under any circumstances. There was something in him that was deeply not right—far beyond the criminality of this enterprise he was engaged in.
She thought of Gabe suddenly, and she didn’t know how she knew, but she knew there was something about Aleksei that was like that thing she’d seen inside Gabe, the thing that had scared her. Except she was sure Aleksei was far worse. Given the choice between them, she knew she would have run to Gabe. No question.
Dmitri said something sharp in Russian which was probably a repetition of the order to leave because Aleksei gave him a dirty look and then sauntered out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
A couple of moments later a bang of gunfire sounded out in the hallway, and Julie heard the sound of a body dropping onto the ground outside the door. She released a startled scream and then rushed to cover her mouth, trying her hardest to be quiet. Her gaze slid to Dmitri on the edge of the bed. He hadn’t moved the slightest inch. He wasn’t ruffled or disturbed or surprised. Instead, he smiled mildly in her direction.
“That has been coming for a long time. Aleksei was never one of my best. It was well past time to retire him.” Dmitri patted the spot beside him on the bed.
Julie couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe or speak or think. The only sign of life coming from her were the relentless tears racing down her cheeks.
“Do not make me raise my voice.”
Behind the door she heard movement, then it faded away. What if both of the guards had dragged Aleksei’s body off? What if there was no one guarding it? Rationally she was sure the safest choice would be to go to Dmitri and do whatever he said, try to appease him. But the gnawing certainty that she might have a chance to get out of this place wouldn’t let her make that choice.
Instead, she bolted for the door and flung it open. Her hunch was right, the hallway was empty for now. A large pool of blood soaked into the carpet outside the door, and a trail of gruesome red went down the hall in one direction. If she followed that trail, she’d get outside, but she might run straight into the guards. She turned and ran the other way.
She’d half-expected Dmitri to come tearing out of the bedroom after her, but there was no sound of a door opening and slamming. No shouting. No footsteps pounding after her. She found a small, unassuming staircase on the back end of the hallway.
Julie raced down the darkened staircase, sensing each step below her rather than seeing it. The bottom of the stairs opened out into a large, industrial kitchen. Empty. Could it be possible that all of Dmitri’s men were either guarding the basement or disposing of Aleksei’s body?
She opened a door in the kitchen that led outside. The night was calm and quiet with a cold nip in the air. Her breath came out in puffs of white cloud in front of her. Brilliant stars sparkled overhead. In the distance, she heard an owl. The contrast between this and the basement she’d woken up in was so dramatic that it took a moment to orient herself to the peaceful beautiful reality outside Dmitri’s house.
The property was vast and seemed to stretch on forever, but in the distance was a huge patch of trees that might offer a temporary safety. She started to run for the cover of those trees when seemingly out of nowhere guards converged on her from three different directions, blocking her escape.
“Back to the house,” one of them said, his accent so thick and harsh, she barely understood him.
They were all large and armed. Another of the guards put his finger in the air and revolved it to indicate she must turn around now. It seemed probable that some of them didn’t understand English. Deflated, she turned and went back, the guards in a tight formation around her. Oddly, they didn’t manhandle her as Aleksei had—maybe under direct orders from the top. But they also didn’t give her the smallest shred of hope that she could slip past them and escape, either.
They escorted her back to Dmitri’s room, and this time she knew guards would stay in the hall outside. Dmitri seemed not to have moved from his perch on the edge of the bed during all this, like time from his perspective had paused and resumed when she was returned to him. His expression was still mild. He patted the spot beside him again, this time with only a fraction more impatience.
“Julie, let us be civil.”
Of course, the calm-psychopath-to-normal-person translation of that was, be a compliant good girl so I don’t have to become violent. Play this charade with me where you are the one making the problems for yourself, and I am the one doing you a favor.