Chapter 4 Alina
ALINA
“What the hell are you doing here, Alina?”
“I need help.”
“What kind of help?”
“I left Alek.” My sister’s eyes widened with disbelief. “I didn’t have a choice. He hurt me. He’s been hurting me. I couldn’t stay there. I had to get away from him.”
“So, you came here?” Mila yanked me inside so fast I nearly stumbled over my own feet. The door slammed shut behind us, her fingers gripping my arm hard enough to bruise. Her voice was sharp, angry, and low, like she was trying not to wake the neighbors. “Are you insane?”
“I didn’t know where else to go.” Her anger wasn’t fading, so I pleaded, “Mila, please. I need you.”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” She raked her hands through her hair as she started pacing back and forth in the small living room. “If he finds out… If anyone saw you come here…”
I understood my sister’s fear and why she’d kept her distance all these years.
In our world, there was no greater sin than betrayal, and when you betrayed the family, there would be hell to pay.
My walking away from Alek, no matter how dire the circumstance, was the ultimate betrayal.
Which was one of the many reasons I’d been so careful.
I tried to reassure her by saying, “No one saw. I made sure of it.”
“You made sure of it?” She threw her hands up in the air. “Are you forgetting who we are dealing with? This is Alek and his whole crazy family! There are cameras everywhere! They’ll use them to find you, which means they’ll be coming here and God knows what he will do.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” I touched my swollen lip, the sting reminding me of every blow. “But I had to leave. I had to. He would’ve killed me.”
She froze, and for the first time since I’d arrived, she looked at me.
Really looked at me. For a second, I thought I saw the sister I remembered.
Soft. Loving. Protective. The girl who used to braid my hair and tell me stories when I was upset.
But it was gone in a blink and replaced with a mask of fear and fury.
“And you thought you could just walk away?”
“I had to do something.”
“The family will never allow it! They will kill you before they let that happen, and you coming here is dragging me into this, Alina. Me. My life. My safety.”
“You’re my sister, Mila.” Tears blurred my vision as I said, “Look what he’s done to me!”
I shoved my hair back, revealing the bruises on my face, and then I lifted my shirt, exposing the black and blue around my ribs. Mila winced, but only momentarily. I knew she wasn’t convinced, so I added, “And this was nothing. He’s done far worse.”
“Alek is an asshole. Always has been.”
“He’s more than that. He’s a monster.” I tried to fight back the tears as I asked her, “You really think I can survive going back?”
Mila’s jaw trembled, but she didn’t reach for me. She didn’t show even the slightest sign of compassion. She simply shook her head and said, “You have to go back. You know what they’ll do if you don’t. You know what they’ll do to me if they find you here.”
Her words hit harder than Alek’s fists ever could.
I felt like the ground had been ripped from under me. My own sister, my last hope, was telling me to return to the man who would eventually bury me. “Mila, please…”
“I’m sorry, Alina. I can’t. I just can’t.” She pointed to the door as she told me, “You have to leave before it’s too late.”
“But where would I go?”
My heart sank at the thought of going back out there alone with no one to turn to. Mila sensed my desperation, and her eyes darted away from mine, fixing on the floor as though the answer might be written there in the cracks of the old linoleum.
She didn’t speak at first, just stood there, arms wrapped tight around herself. Finally, after what felt like forever, she whispered, “I don’t know… What about Viktor? You two were always good friends. Maybe he could come up with some way to help you.”
Viktor.
His name cut through the fog with a tiny flicker of hope.
But that hope quickly faded when I remembered I hadn’t spoken to him in years. I had no idea where he was or how I would track him down. “I don’t even know where to find him.”
“You’ll figure it out.”
Mila darted over to the cabinet and pulled a wad of cash from the drawer, then shoved it in my hand.
A change of clothes followed, along with a box of cheap hair dye.
I didn’t bother looking at the color. It didn’t matter.
I needed to do what I could to disguise myself, even if that meant going platinum blonde or a dark shade of red.
She looked at the pile like she was checking to see if she’d forgotten anything, then stepped back and said, “Now go before it’s too late.”
I swallowed hard, hoping it would push down the lump in my throat, but it stayed, bitter and unrelenting.
I stuffed what she’d given me into my suitcase before starting toward the door.
When I stepped into the hall, the cold hit me like tiny knives against my skin.
I turned back to Mila for one last plea, but before I could speak, she started closing the door.
The second it clicked behind me, I started to tremble, not just from the cold, but from the fear coursing through my veins. When I reached the sidewalk, I didn’t call for a cab. I needed a moment to think, so I just started walking.
I walked block after block, and I tried to muster up the courage I had deep within me. I wasn’t a coward. I’d never been a coward. I told myself I was done playing victim, and I meant it. I would not go back to Alek. I wouldn’t do it. I would die first, so that left one option.
I had to find a place to hide, just until I could figure out my next move. Maybe Mila was right. Maybe Viktor was the answer. He was certainly the only one I could think of. With him in mind, I made my way to the local library and found an open computer.
As soon as the screen lit up, I typed in the name, Viktor Volkov.
Just seeing his name brought back a thousand memories.
I hadn’t seen him in years, but I could still remember his deep green eyes and his kind smile.
It was hard to imagine that I hadn’t heard his voice since he graduated high school.
There was a time when our families were tangled together like roots from an old tree.
We’d basically grown up together, and since we were the same age, we were thrown into each other’s orbit, whether we liked it or not.
There were times when I wasn’t sure how Viktor felt about having me around.
He was quiet, standoffish, and often impossible to read.
But once he decided you were worth the time and let you in, he gave everything without a single hesitation.
He was kind in a way that felt rare. It certainly was for me.
He had an old soul and often viewed things differently than others, but I liked that about him.
I liked that if he saw someone cross a line, he would call them on it and cut them down without second thought.
And it didn’t matter who they were, and sometimes his blunt honesty could knock the air right out of you.
I liked that about him, too.
There was never malice in his actions. Only truth.
And when he was in a good mood, everyone knew it. He was funny in that dry humor, cutthroat way that slipped under your skin and stayed there. Just thinking about how he could make me laugh made the heaviness in my heart feel a little lighter.
Maybe, just maybe, he would open his door to me.
Someone coughing behind me brought me back into reality, and I turned my focus back to the computer screen. The search results were thin. He was mentioned in his father’s obituary, but not much more. My stomach twisted into a knot as I scrolled through one dead end after the next.
There were a few close matches, but after digging a little further, I realized it wasn’t him.
It felt like I was chasing smoke, but I kept at it.
And then, like a ray of light, I saw his name listed on a property in Little Rock, Arkansas.
A few more strokes of the keys and a name popped up on the screen.
The Black Crown.
I’d heard that he and his brothers had sold out, but no one had ever explained what that meant. I was too afraid to ask, but as I sat there staring at the screen, I finally understood.
He and his brothers used their father’s death as an opportunity to walk away from the bratva—something I never believed was possible. My heart started to pound so hard I feared people around me might hear it.
A riverfront casino.
One of the biggest in the south.
And it was theirs.
I sat back in my chair and stared at the screen until the letters started to blur.
This was my chance. My only hope. I grabbed a pencil from the tray and wrote down the address, and with shaking fingers, I pulled up the bus schedules.
I searched Little Rock, and my stomach took a nosedive when I saw the next bus didn’t leave until the following morning.
That meant a night in a city I didn’t know.
A night of hiding and praying that I wouldn’t be found, because every hour that ticked by was another chance for Alek or his men to catch up with me.
I couldn’t let that happen. I needed to find a hotel.
It needed to be cheap and relatively close to the bus station.
I did another quick search, and after I found a place I hoped would work, I shut down the computer, grabbed my things, and headed for the door. I was exhausted, hungry, and just wanted a second to catch my breath, but I tucked my chin and pressed forward.
Tomorrow I would be on a bus to Little Rock.
And maybe, just maybe, I’d see Viktor again and he would help me.
But before that could happen, I had to survive the night.
The hotel reeked of mildew and cigarettes.
It was the kind of place where no one asked questions.
They just took your cash and sent you on your way, and I was good with that.
Once I made it up to my room, I locked the door and slid a chair beneath the handle.
It wasn’t much, but it kept me off the street, and that was enough.
I grabbed a change of clothes and the box of hair dye from my suitcase and slipped into the bathroom.
Half an hour later, I stepped out with dark red hair that seemed to accentuate the purple in my bruised cheek.
There was a time that would’ve bothered me.
I would’ve done everything I could to hide it, but now, the bruises felt more like a battle wound.
A battle wound I’d survived, and I would keep surviving. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. But only time would tell. Regardless, the red was different. I hoped it would be enough to keep anyone from recognizing me.
Dinner was a pack of stale crackers and a warm soda from the vending machine. They tasted like cardboard and sugar, but they helped to fill the empty void in my stomach. I tossed the remnants in the trash and crawled into bed. I curled up tight and prayed the locks would hold through the night.
I managed to get a few minutes of sleep here and there, which is better than expected. I got up, put on fresh clothes, and pulled my hair into a messy bun before heading over to the bus station. As soon as I arrived, I slipped up to the counter and purchased my ticket.
I turned around, and my breath caught when I spotted two men standing in the center of the bus station.
They were tall and broad-shouldered, with a fierce demeanor and dark shades.
I glanced down at their wrists, searching for any sign of the trademark tattoo, but they were hidden by their coats’ sleeves.
It didn’t matter. I wasn’t taking any chances. I lowered my head, and with my heart slamming against my chest, I slipped into the bathroom and locked myself in a stall. I closed the lid and sat down on the toilet, praying that they didn’t come in after me.
Minutes bled into almost an hour, and I was reaching my wits’ end when my bus number was finally called over the intercom.
I had no choice but to open the door. When I stepped out of the stall, I noticed a mother herding her two small children toward the exit.
I hoped I could blend in with them and go unnoticed by the men waiting out front.
I followed close behind, trailing right next to the little girl with bouncing braids, and to anyone else, I looked like I belonged with them. My blood ran cold when one of the men turned his head in our direction, quickly scanning the crowd, but a scuffle at the terminal drew their attention away.
I kept walking, one step at a time, and it wasn’t long before I was stepping onto my bus.
The driver paid me little mind as I handed over my ticket and continued towards the back.
I slid my suitcase into the compartment above, then dropped down into an empty seat.
I fisted my hands in my lap and held my breath until the bus lurched forward.
Then, and only then, I let myself relax a little.
I wasn’t in the clear. Not by a long shot.
But I was one step closer to Viktor and possibly my salvation.