Vanessa #3
“I’m not leaving my daughter in here alone,” my mom states.
The man shrugs. “Suit yourself.”
He walks out of the room, and the three of us follow him.
Damien and Russ are sitting at the small kitchen table as Damien picks up a chicken leg with his greasy fingers and takes a large bite out of it.
A piece of skin hangs from his mouth while he chews enthusiastically, as though it’s some five-star cuisine.
“There’s a change of plans,” Damien says, his eyes darting between me and my mother. “Say your goodbyes. Noel and Irina will be leaving shortly.”
“To where?” I ask.
“Russia,” he answers.
“What?” I look at Russ. “You said they were going home if I came. That you would take me and let them go.”
Russ shrugs, but I see a glimmer of delight in his eyes. He fucking loves that I’m giving him this reaction. He dangled the carrot of their safety in front of my face and snatched it away, and the sick fuck wanted to see my reaction.
“Damien got a phone call. One of our comrades in Russia lost a maid and wants a new one. Naturally, he thought of your mother. Irina and Noel will be leaving within the hour. Be grateful I’ve given you the time for a proper goodbye, Vanessa,” Russ says, then takes a swig from a glass of clear liquid.
“She’s your sister, Russ! I get that you hate me and my mom, but she’s your blood.”
“Wrong!” he yells, slamming his fist on the table. Damien’s eyes dart between Russ and me as though he’s amused by the entertainment that’s coming with his dinner. “She is nothing to me. She was born to a whore with her blood running through her veins.”
“You’re fucking sick, you know that?” I quickly lose the battle to keep my temper in check and lunge for Russ.
One of his men grabs me by both arms and yanks me back, causing me to stumble and nearly fall to the floor, but the asshole wraps his arms around my waist and lifts me, my feet kicking in the air.
I hear my mom scream, “Don’t touch her!” but all I can see is the knife sitting next to Russ, and I’m trying to do everything I can to get to it so I can plunge it into his neck and watch him bleed out on the old wood floor.
Damien stands, and it’s obvious he’s now annoyed over the entire scene.
“Enough!” he pulls out a gun from his holster and points it to my right.
I turn my head to find a man holding Noel by the arms while Damien has a gun trained on her.
“I will shoot her where she stands if you don’t stop,” he says in a deadly calm voice.
“My friend only wanted your mother. I was throwing in the daughter as a gesture of goodwill. But I don’t have to, Vanessa. I can end her right here.”
Noel whimpers and the fight leaves my body. “Alright,” I say, setting my feet on the ground. “Alright.”
Damien rolls his eyes and holsters his weapon. “Good. Now go back to your room and spend your last moments together so I can finish my meal in peace.”
The three men holding us drag us back to the small bedroom, and the door is slammed shut.
I run to the window and look outside. No one is at the back of the house, and I try like hell to open the window.
“It’s nailed shut,” my mom tells me. “I tried to open it when we got here.”
I turn and look at my mom. “Listen,” I whisper. “There are some men who know where we are.” As long as this damn tracker in my mouth is working. “They’re going to get us out, but it looks like the timeline just moved up, and I have no way to contact them.”
“What men?” my mom asks.
“An MC. One of the men and I are…” I know what Braxton said we are and I agreed, but I don’t know how to explain it to my mom.
“He loves you. And you love him.”
My head jerks back. “What? What do you mean? How do you know that?”
“What reason would he have to go up against Damien and Russ if he didn’t feel that way?
” My mom sits on the bed and looks at her hands twisted in her lap.
“If they don’t get here in time…if something happens, I want you to know how much I love you, and how much I appreciate everything you did for us… when I couldn’t.”
“Mom. No. You aren’t talking like that. We have time. They’ll be here.”
“I love you, Vanessa. You and your sister are the light of my life. I should have been a better mom. You both deserved better.”
“I love you, Mom,” Noel cries, and my mom wraps her shaking body as tightly as she can in her arms.
Something flying past the window catches my attention, and I move closer to the glass, trying to figure out what it is. It appears suddenly right in front of me, and I jump back, seeing a black drone hovering just outside.
“What is that?” Noel asks.
“I’m really hoping it’s the cavalry.” I think about the time I told Braxton that he was my knight in shining armor as a joke back when we met the first time in New York. Fuck, I never imagined how true those words would be five years later.
The drone flies away, and I go to the bed and sit next to my mom and sister, trying to keep my breathing steady.
In the next moment, a loud explosion shakes the house, then complete chaos ensues.