Chapter 30
Aiden
This house smells like cow shit.
For someone who parades around like they have all the money in the world, Ivan always chooses the shittiest places to live. I don’t know why. Well, I do know. He tries to hide how broke he truly is. How he has a faithful staff of idiots is beyond me.
The miles of farmland surrounding us bleed through the walls.
Everything smells like cows. It’s worse in my car, which I’ve parked in the woods on his property.
It was freezing sleeping in it during the winter, but now that it’s April the nights aren’t so brutal.
I can’t imagine how the summer is going to be.
It won’t take that long. I’ll see to it.
I could find a cheap place to rent, but all the money I earn doing Ivan’s dirty work is going toward my goal. Katya and I will have our own place. For now I refuse to go anywhere else. I’ll sleep in their driveway, I don’t care.
“Hey.” Koda lifts his head before doing a double take.
“Whoa, what’s going on? Ivan know you’re here?
” None of them know I’ve been sleeping in my car since we arrived months ago.
I never leave. I found a nice spot in the woods on this property to hide away in.
I want to be close to her even if I’m not always allowed to see her.
“He needs me.”
Koda eyes me, cocking his head. The sides of his head are shaved, it’s a grayish color, and the long top flops on one side of his shaved head. His blue eyes are nearly silver. It’s unnerving. I’m glad Katya has warm brown ones, just like our mother. Although there was nothing warm about that woman.
“Do you think he found it yet? I’m really tired of living in these run-down houses.”
“Well, you’re almost eighteen.” Although what will happen to Koda after that probably won’t be anything good. Once Ivan has you, that’s it, you’re his property. Koda’s also his biological son. I can complain all day long, but at least he’s not my family by blood, just unfortunate circumstance.
Only for a little while longer.
I almost feel bad for Koda, but if anyone can survive this, it’s him. “Do you even know what it looks like?”
“Do I look like someone who Ivan tells shit to?!”
“Me fucking rawr.” He claws the air like a cat.
“It’s meow.” With an eye roll I storm to Ivan’s office. “What are you doing?” Koda is hot on my heals.
“I want to see what Daddy wants." He says.
“Daddy?” I nearly gag. “Don’t ever call him that in front of me again.”
“Why, you wanna be my Daddy?”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m basically your brother.”
“Eh, no, not even close. We share a sister, that’s all.”
“How has Katya been adjusting?” I get to see her when Ivan leaves. Occasionally he lets me see her with him here. Ivan has taken everything from me. I won’t let him take her too.
“You know, she’s a kid. She’ll be fine. They bounce back. Look at us.”
“Yeah, the picture-perfect example of quality mental health and stability. You’re right.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“I have shit to do. Piss off.”
“Fine. Let me know what he says. I want to find this damn statue and get the hell out of this place. It smells like shit in here.”
It does. Koda leaves me and I walk up to the door. One of Ivan’s goons stands guard as if he’s the fucking president or some shit. Not the president, just a lowlife thug who has his sights set on climbing up the ranks.
He lets me in. Ivan’s sitting at his desk looking at a paper.
Damn, he’s an ugly son of a bitch. I have no clue what my mother saw in him.
No, that’s a lie. I know exactly what she saw in him. A place to stay rent free with the child she was stuck with when my father up and left and never looked back. I was only five then, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
My mother met Ivan when I was only nine years old.
Between shelters, the streets, and various motel rooms, I don’t think I’ve ever really lived inside a house.
I’ve never had a home. I guess I did when my mother and father were together, but I was too little to remember.
We left Ukraine after my father left us, and the US has been home sweet hell ever since.
My mother wanted security, which Ivan pretended to provide.
And it killed her.
“Yes?”
Ivan sets his paper down, his watery eyes hard on me. “Yes?” He leans back in his chair, sizing me up. “Like I’m some fucking servant? Try again.”
What would you like, oh great shithead? I swallow the thought and my hatred, trying again. “You wanted to see me?”
“Better.” I quickly glance down at the paper he’s reading. Something is circled in red. I step a bit closer, trying not to make it obvious, and with a quick look I see the bold black word Memoriams. “Good news. I think we finally have a starting place.”
“A starting place?” And why is he sharing it with me?
Ivan nods, standing up. He towers over me. I’m not a short dude, but he’s intimidating to look at. He’s also fucking insane. Like the Joker without all the charm. “The next town over is a called Pulglass.”
“And what does that mean for the statue?”
“I’m going to send some of my guys to dig around, see what they can find. I don't want to make a scene." Ivan looks me straight in the eyes. It's unnerving. It takes everything in me not to look away. "Not yet anyway."
“What does that have to do with me?”
“I need you ready, just in case.”
Meaning that if they fail, then it’s my turn.
I don’t fail. I can’t afford to and he knows it.
He really tries to pretend not to need my help.
Somehow here I am. Day after day following around his bullshit.
I hate the things he makes me do. I fucking hate it.
But I have no choice. If I want to be close to her, I have to swallow it.
Soon. Soon we’ll escape.
I dare, just a little. “Does this mean I can stay in the house?” Not that I really want to, but I want to be here for her. I want to read her bedtime stories and have tea parties. I want to be here when she’s scared and upset. Instead I’m stuck in my fucking car.
Ivan studies me a moment. “I give you plenty of money.” He doesn’t, not unless I want to buy an apartment back in the nineteen sixties. “Get a place to stay. Stop mooching off me.”
I can’t do that. All my money is being saved for her. “I’ll be ready.”
“You say that as if you have a choice.” He walks around the desk and leans against it.
I know he does this to intimate me, but I’m not scared of him.
I have one weakness and she's upstairs. “Be ready. Have your phone on you. Do not miss my calls.” It’s the only thing of mine he pays for.
He has one of his guys scan it weekly. It’s why I couldn’t give my number to Cam at the gym. It’s too risky.
I don’t want Ivan know where I’m going. The gym is the only sanctuary I have, and it’s nice to have a place to take hot showers whenever I want.
“I won’t. I’ll be ready.”
Ivan eyes me a moment. It makes my skin crawl. “I mean it, Aiden. You better not betray me, or the only thing you’ll be seeing is a fucking bullet between your eyes.”