20
Kat
I smell car exhaust as I fight to clear the fog I’m lost in. My head throbs like never before and I hear myself groan. I want to sleep. To escape. But I know I have to wake up. I have to fight.
“Put her in the trunk and get lost.”
I’m dropped and hit something hard. The jolt has me opening my eyes, but all I see is darkness.
Panic surges through me. Josh.
Does he have Josh?
No. He doesn’t. Does he? I was alone upstairs. I’d forgotten Josh’s swimsuit. That’s why I’d gone back.
Josh.
“Bye, Mommy.” I hear his sweet little voice and see his tiny face between the closing elevator doors again.
Is that it? Is that the last time I’ll see him?
God. I’m going to be sick.
“I said get lost and make sure you stay lost, fuckhead.”
Vasily.
I turn my head, look up to see two faces. Vasily’s is one, and the other man looks like a terrified junkie as he meets my eyes.
Vasily shoves bills at him, and a moment later, he’s gone.
Not too terrified to aid and abet in a kidnapping.
“You’re awake, good,” Vasily says, lifting my arms, bringing my wrists together and holding them in one of his as he picks up a roll of duct tape and starts to wind it around my wrists too tightly.
“Hurts,” I manage, my tongue feeling thick, my lip thicker.
“Does it?” He grins, drops my arms and the tape. “I’m just getting started.” He raises his arm, and I see the butt of the gun before he smashes it into my skull again.
My brain rocks, and my eyes close. The last sound I hear is the slamming of the trunk.
When I come to again, I’m not in the trunk anymore. I’m moving. Well, someone is moving, and I’m over their shoulder.
I taste puke. I must have thrown up at some point. My head hurts like my skull’s being squeezed in a vise. I open my eyes and even that hurts. I can’t lift my head but watch the ground as we move indoors into a large, dark space. I must lose consciousness again because when I next wake, I’m sitting on a chair, being taped to it as my head lolls to the side. I’m sure I’d fall over if it wasn’t for the tape.
My hair is matted with blood—mine—and when I look down at my bound hands on my lap, I see that some of my fingernails are torn. The pinky of my right hand is broken. I can tell from the angle, not so much the pain because everything hurts, and I can’t figure out what’s worse.
The sound of tape finally ceases, and he grips a handful of my hair to force my head up.
I look at him, at Vasily Stanislov’s face. Lev’s uncle.
This is the man who killed my mother.
The same man who killed Lev’s mother.
He looks like he hasn’t shaved in days, and his hair is matted and greasy. His clothes, too, look worn, and from the smell, he hasn’t showered in a few days.
He doesn’t look like Lev, I think. There’s something different inside Lev’s eyes. Or maybe that’s just how he looks at me.
“You don’t look so hot now,” he says, and I wonder if my ears are damaged because his voice echoes at first, but then the room sways around him too so maybe it’s not my ears but my brain that’s damaged.
He lets go of my hair, and I hear him walk away behind me.
My head bobs down before I can force it back up.
I’m in a huge space. A warehouse. A deserted one. Dust-covered machinery lines the walls, the floor was torn up in places, and most of the windows high up blown out. Graffiti marks many of the walls, and I think that black spot on the floor a little farther is where someone once made a fire. Maybe homeless people trying to stay warm.
There’s a dripping sound in the distance and something else. Something like rushing water.
No, not water. Traffic. Which means people.
We’re not completely isolated. If I can get out—
“You go by Kat or Katie or what?”
He’s not far behind me, but when I try to turn to look at him, an almost electrical pain shoots down my spine, and I can’t.
My thought of escape fades. I can’t even turn my head. To run, even if I could get out of the chair he’s taped me to, would be impossible. Not that I’m getting out of the chair. There’s duct tape layered around my chest and shoulders and again at my legs binding me to it.
“I could smash your head in with this and be finished with it, you know?” he asks me as he comes back into view holding a brick in his hand.
I eye that brick, lick my lips, and try to swallow so I can talk.
“But what would be the fun in that?” he asks, dropping it to the ground. The thunk it makes when it lands makes me wince.
“My mother.” I need information. Anything. And I need to buy time for Lev to find me. Because he must be looking for me by now. He’ll find me. Won’t he? He and Gleb will find me. They have to.
Hot tears sting my eyes.
What if they do, and it’s too late, and he kills Lev too? Or both of them. What will happen to Josh?
“Aww. Poor baby. Are you sad?” He brings his face inches from mine, tilting it to the side, feigning concern.
He’s going to kill me. I know it.
This won’t end well for me.
“Are you scared, Kat?”
“You killed my mother.” My voice has steel in it. I don’t know how. Maybe the hate I feel for this man gives me strength.
“I did. Yes. She was a two-bit whore, though. No great loss.”
His words are so careless, so unfeeling. A lost human life is no great loss? My mother’s life?
I draw my head back and do the only thing I can bound as I am. I spit in his face.
It lands square on his cheek, and I know he didn’t expect that. And I know the moment he straightens up that I’ll pay for it. Using the back of his hand, he wipes my spit away, and when he meets my eyes again, I see pure rage.
He uses the hand he just wiped his face with to slap me. It comes down so hard across my cheek that it sends my chair falling over, and my head bouncing off the concrete floor. Everything goes dark again, and I think this is it. This must be it.
“Although…” he starts. Hauling my chair upright again, he takes my face in both hands to make me look up at him. My vision is fading, though. Coming and going. “It’s not like she worked the streets. She was the kind of whore who only fucked men with money. Stay with me, Kat.” He gives my face two lighter slaps. “Or this won’t be much fun. I’ll tell you what.” He steps away, and I try to look up at him. “I’ll give my nephew a call. Get him on his way. The way things are looking, you aren’t going to be hanging on for much longer.”
He walks away, and my head droops, my eyes closing. I taste blood when I lick my swollen, tender lip, and I can’t open one eye at all anymore.
I hear him talk.
And then I hear Lev.
I make a sound. I want to tell him to take care of Josh. To tell Josh that I love him and that I’m sorry. But all I can manage is a low moan. I can’t even lift my head anymore.
“Where were we?” Vasily asks.
Again, I’m not sure how long I’ve been out because he’s tapping my face to get my attention.