Chapter 28
28
OFELIA
I wake from an uneasy sleep to find our new guard gone and Vilnus standing over me.
I can smell the alcohol and cigarettes on his breath. He’s swaying, and even in the dim light, I can see how unfocused his eyes are.
I ease myself carefully away from Masha’s sleeping body, tucking her safely behind me.
“Roman Borovsky’s daughter.” His fat lips curl into a sneer. “Do you know how long we searched Miami for that little fuck?” He rips open his shirt to expose his enormous belly and points to a thick, gnarled scar that crosses his torso from shoulder to the opposite hip. “That’s what Ilyan Fedorov did to me when I told him we’d killed Roman’s father, Borovsky, the old safe maker. How was I supposed to know that Borovsky senior used his own son’s fingerprints to lock the Petrovsky vault? Or that he’d hidden the key?” He steps closer, his clearly excited groin barely inches from my face. I swallow my revulsion.
Keep him talking.
“What’s inside the vault?” I ask. “Why is it so important to everyone?”
“Ha!” Vilnus’s laugh is without humor. “That depends on who you ask. A fortune in Fabergé jewelry, if the rumors are true.” His hand darts out and tugs one of the earrings I’m still wearing, hard enough to hurt. “Speaking of fortunes, I’m surprised little Darya didn’t pawn these long ago. She and that old bastard Sergei could have been living rich all this time, on the price they’d have fetched.”
He fondles the earring. I try not to flinch.
“Little Darya.” The way he says her name makes my stomach turn. “She got used to the knife, eventually. At the start she’d scream when I used it on her. But by the end, I think she actually liked it. She’d lie there, all quiet, just waiting for me to get to work.”
I can’t suppress a shudder at that.
“That’s where Alexei learned his skills with the knife, you know. From me. From watching me work on his sister. And afterward, when I had to use it on him.”
He actually sounds like he’s boasting. As if he did Alexei some kind of favor by cutting into his flesh.
“Alexei said you’ve been like a father to him.” It’s a lie, of course it is. But it seems to work.
A self-satisfied smile stretches the fat lips. “Old Sergei made a big mistake when he left that one behind. Alexei won’t ever forgive his father and sister for abandoning him. Why should he? Sergei must have known I’d blame Alexei for his escape, but he ran anyway.” Orlov smirks. “I kept Alexei in this room for a whole year after they left. There’s no inch of his body my blade hasn’t touched. Of course he hated me at first, but he came around. He learned to respect me more than he ever did that old cripple of a father of his.”
I nod obediently, as if I’m believing every word of this garbage.
“I tried to defend Alexei, you know. When Fedorov insisted he was lying.”
God, is he actually trying to justify himself?
“I told Fedorov the boy didn’t know where Sergei had gone. No man—especially no teenager—could withstand having his own damned eye carved out of his head and not start talking. But Fedorov has never believed him.” He shrugs, his hand dropping away from my earring, to my relief. “That’s why Alexei is so determined to steal your daddy’s pet project now. He and I take that, and it doesn’t matter what’s in that vault. Fedorov can have the fucking thing. Alexei and I will be rich enough to buy the entire contents of it, and for once Fedorov will be the last to know.” He leers at me. “Everybody gets what they want. We’ll have Darya and Sergei back here soon enough, along with that prick Borovsky.” His face spasms with old anger. “Do you know how many stinking homeless camps I trawled, looking for that little fuck? Fedorov might want the Petrovskys, but it’s Roman I’m looking forward to spending some time with.”
His eyes glaze over, and his hand comes around to grip the bulge at his crotch.
“I’m going to enjoy fucking you while he watches.” His voice is hoarse, his breath coming in short pants.
I try not to tremble with fear. Is he going to rape me?
I desperately want to run, but there’s nowhere to go, and Masha is still asleep on the floor behind me.
“You look like your mother, do you know that?” He unbuckles his belt, his eyes locked onto my breasts. “I bet you like it rough like she does, too.”
Fear and revulsion choke my throat, along with a sickening sense of inevitability.
I have to do something. I can’t just sit here and wait like some useless victim.
“I thought your boss, Fedorov, said you couldn’t touch us.” My voice sounds like it’s coming from someone else.
I’m surprised it still works at all.
“Ha.” Orlov unzips his pants and reaches inside them. “Fedorov isn’t my boss. Not anymore. Not now that Petrovsky and I are working together. And besides, Fedorov isn’t here, is he?” He pulls out his cock, shaking the limp mass in front of my face. “Look at it,” he grunts.
I’m frozen, barely able to breathe, let alone move. I’ve never felt more sick or terrified in my life. I know there’s nowhere to run and no way to fight him off. He’s more than twice my size and clearly drunk out of his mind.
If I was on my own, I could at least try to dodge him.
But not while Masha is tucked behind me. I’m not leaving her, not even for a moment. There’s no way I’m going to risk Orlov getting his hands on my little sister.
If Darya survived years under his knife, then I can survive this.
It’s almost as if I can feel her here, with me, sense her quiet strength.
Darya never gave up .
Orlov never broke her, no matter what he did. He didn’t break Alexei, even after he cut his eye out.
He won’t break me either.
“Open your eyes!” Orlov’s command is hoarse, the sound of his hand slapping his own flesh sickening. I force myself to look up.
“Yes!” His fat tongue pokes between his teeth, his hand moving faster, but his member is still limp and lifeless. I might never have seen a naked man in the flesh before, but even I know what an erection should look like. “Gonna fuck that pretty little mouth,” he grunts, pushing his groin closer to my face. “Gonna make you suck me like the fucking whore you are—”
I’m bracing myself, trying not to gag, when suddenly Orlov goes still. His mouth opens, and his eyes go blank with shock and confusion. A moment later they close, his body sagging limply against the tall, unsmiling figure behind him. Alexei lowers Orlov’s bulk to the floor, his lone eye icily furious, his mouth a thin line.
“Dima,” he says in a low, quiet voice. The door to our cell opens, and the guard pokes his head in, his face grim and wary. “Get him upstairs.” Alexei nods at Orlov’s prone figure. “Tell them he fell on the stairs. I’ll wait ten minutes before I switch the code on the camera feed.”
“What about the guard who was in here?”
“Dead.” Alexei says it dispassionately. “His body is hidden in that end tunnel. We’ll need to get rid of it before dawn.”
Dima nods, as if there’s nothing at all strange about what Alexei has just said. He lifts Orlov’s body as easily as if it’s a sack of potatoes and closes the door behind him.
“Th-thank you.” My voice is barely audible. I’m suddenly freezing cold, trembling so badly my teeth actually chatter.
Alexei kneels down a few feet away, but doesn’t try to touch me. “Did he hurt you?”
I shake my head, biting my lip in an effort to gain control of myself.
“’Felia.” Masha’s head pokes up under my arm, her face white and frightened. “Is the bad man gone?”
Oh, God. She was awake.
I pull her close to me. “He’s gone, myshka . It’s alright. I’m fine. We’re fine.” I stroke her head, murmuring to her quietly, trying to steady my voice. Masha clings to me, her head buried in my side. Her thumb creeps up to her mouth, and I close my eyes briefly in an effort to stop a hot rush of tears.
It’s taken me most of the past year to train her out of sucking her thumb, a habit that started the day Papa died. Seeing her do it again is somehow devastating proof of our horrible reality.
“Dima will stay with you tonight. Make sure nobody else comes in here.” Alexei is watching me closely.
“What about you?” My voice is barely a whisper. “Won’t you get in trouble?”
“He won’t remember any of it tomorrow.” His mouth twists contemptuously. “As far as he knows, I’m locked in a room down the corridor. That’s where I’ll be when he wakes up. We’ll work out a story to explain the missing guard.” His eye drops to Masha. He says her name gently.
Her head lifts a fraction, her eyes peeking at Alexei then dropping again.
“Your sister is very brave, myshka . And so are you.”
Masha turns her head, looking at Alexei directly. Her thumb slips just below her mouth. “I don’ like it here.”
“I know you don’t. But soon your papa is going to come to take you home. I need you to be a brave girl until then. Can you do that?”
“Papa?” She frowns. “My papa dead.”
I swallow hard, barely able to breathe through the painful lump in my throat. “He means Roman.” I kiss the top of her head. “He means that Roman is coming for us.”
Masha nods slowly. “Roman is papa now? Roman an’ Luce?”
“Yes, Mash. Roman is our papa.” The tears slip from my eyes, tracking down my face and into her curls.
“Papa Roman.” She nods as if this makes perfect sense, still staring at Alexei. “You made the bad man go away.”
“For now.” He doesn’t smile. His eye shifts to me. “I’m trying to get a message to Roman. My friend Lars has been using a code I thought Roman would understand, but so far, no luck. Is there any word I could use that would convince him the message comes from you?”
“Just give me your phone. I’ll call him right now.” My heart leaps at even the thought.
Alexei shakes his head slowly. “I wish it was that simple. Orlov has taken our phones. We’re all confined to the grounds and under close watch, especially after what went down at the airport. Lars, my friend, is on the outside, but we have very limited contact. He’s been hacking into the Hale computers to try to get a message through.”
“Hacking?” I feel a surge of hope. “Then it’s my brother, Mickey, you need to get to. He’s like a computer genius. Seriously,” I say when he looks skeptical. “Mickey actually works with Roman. If your friend can get to him, he’ll tell Roman.”
“Okay.” Alexei still looks unconvinced. “Do you have a code word Lars can use? Something that will make Mickey believe it’s coming from you?”
“I do.” I smile shakily, tears hovering on the edge of my lashes. “Poppins. Tell him to use Mary Poppins.”
“Poppins!” Masha beams, her thumb slipping out of her mouth. “Luce is Poppins!”
“Yes, sweetheart.” I kiss her cheek. “Luce is Poppins. She and Papa Roman are coming to rescue us, soon. Alexei is helping them.”
Masha slides away from me. Standing up, she walks hesitantly over to where Alexei is still kneeling. Reaching out one small hand, she tentatively touches his eye patch. He flinches slightly.
“Where is your eye?”
Alexei gently removes her hand to stop her lifting the patch. “The bad man took it,” he says quietly.
“Does it hurt?”
His mouth twists. It’s almost a smile. “Not anymore.”
There’s a noise from the corridor, and Alexei glances toward the door. When he turns back, his mouth is a grim line once more. “If anyone asks,” he says curtly, “the guard left while you were sleeping, and you don’t know where he went. I’ll try to get the code word to Lars, but I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance.”
He stands up, and so do I, pulling the torn remains of my dress around me. Given how much of me he’s seen already, it’s probably stupid to feel self-conscious now, but I do. “Thank you,” I say quietly.
His eye drops to the purple bloodstains on my gown, and his mouth hardens. The life in his eye dies, replaced by his customary flat, opaque detachment. “Don’t ever thank me,” he says curtly. “Not after what I’ve done to you.”
He leaves the room with the silent, lethal swiftness with which he arrived, there one moment, gone the next.
It feels empty without him.
I shiver, wrapping my arms around myself.
Masha looks up at me. “Lexi our friend,” she says solemnly.
“Yes, myshka .” I tousle her hair, trying to still the odd, uneven thudding of my heart. “Lexi is our friend.”