Vanessa #2
“Why do you hate me so much, Russ? What did I ever do to you?” I ask, again, not expecting an answer, but he’s apparently feeling chatty today.
“It’s not that I hate you, Vanessa. I just don’t value you.
Your mom fucked my dad and stole him from my mother.
She was never the same after he left her for that whore and the bastard she gave birth to.
Her life was him, and when he left, she had nothing.
She was a wreck until she took her last breath.
I could barely stand to look at her before she died.
And do you know what she said before she finally croaked? ”
“No.”
“She said that she hoped she would see her husband in heaven. That they could finally be together in the afterlife. Fucking pathetic. So this isn’t about you, Vanessa. This is about the woman your mother destroyed and now I’m going to destroy your entire bloodline.”
Well, that sure sounds like hate to me.
Russ is silent, and I decide maybe I should be done asking questions for the time being.
I’ve obviously upset him if the firm set of his jaw is any indication or the way his knuckles are white from the tight grip on his phone.
He’s a sick fuck who finds amusement in other people’s pain, but right now, he’s a cold stone. That almost scares me even more.
Thirty minutes later, we drive onto a long dirt road through thick oak trees.
It’s spring, and though there’s still a chill in the air, the bright-green leaves are starting to appear.
The road dead ends at a little house in the center of a small patch of cleared land.
Russ didn’t have my head in a bag on this trip, so I saw exactly how to get back to the main road.
Although I didn’t see any cars, I doubt we’d be able to flag someone down for help, even if I managed to escape with my mom and sister.
Have faith. Braxton is going to find you and get you out of here in no time.
When we pull up to the house—that so far I have no memory of—a man I’ve met only a handful of times emerges from the front door.
Damien Sokolov.
Looking at him, you honestly wouldn’t think much of him.
He’s not some larger-than-life mythical man who looks like he could crush you like a walnut in his fists.
He’s actually kind of short with a soft middle and a receding hairline.
But it’s what’s behind his eyes that makes him dangerous.
It’s the people he surrounds himself with who are just as unhinged as he is that make him deadly.
Russ gets out of the SUV as the man to the right of me opens the door and steps out. My stepbrother reaches in and grabs my arms, pulling me out of the vehicle. He holds my arm so tight there’s no doubt I’m going to be bruised to shit as he walks up to his boss.
“So here’s the whore who has been causing problems,” Damien says to me. “You’ll make a fine addition to my stable.” He looks me over as though he’s examining livestock, which causes the few sips of coffee I had at the diner to threaten a reappearance.
“Are Irina and Noel inside?” Russ asks.
“Of course. Where else would they be?” Damien answers. “Throw her in the room with them, then you and I are going to talk about a few things. There’s been a change of plans.”
Russ doesn’t question him as he drags me up the three stairs and takes me inside the little cabin. There’s a small galley kitchen to my left and a living room with camping chairs set up to my right.
“There used to be a plaid couch over there,” I say to no one in particular as a memory from when I was maybe three at the most resurfaces.
I was sitting on the couch with a stuffed doggy and my dad was building a small fire in the potbelly stove while my mom sat in a rocking chair next to it.
It’s just a flash and nothing of importance or significance, but I was here when I was a little kid, and I’d completely forgotten about it.
“Yeah, squirrels must have gotten to it or some shit. This place was a mess when we came here a year ago.”
He’s been using my father’s cabin this whole time, and I didn’t even remember it existed.
This feeling that Russ stole something else that was mine washes over me, and I have to fight hard to not start railing against him.
I didn’t know it was here, but that doesn’t matter.
It’s one more instance where Russ took what wasn’t his and used it just because he could.
Because he felt entitled to take everything from me and my mom because he was a fucking brat who blamed everyone but the person responsible for his mother’s heartbreak.
Russ pulls me down a small hallway to a door on the right. When he opens it, I see my mom sitting up with her back against an old metal frame, holding my little sister to her side. Russ shoves me inside and slams the door shut behind me.
“Vanessa!” Noel gets up and runs over to me. “I want to go home. Russ said we could leave when you got here.”
I wrap her in my arms and look at my mom, who has tears streaming down her face. She has to know that my being here doesn’t mean what Russ told them. She may not know exactly what he has planned for me, but she knows it’s nothing good.
“I’m sorry, Vanessa. God, I’m so sorry,” my mom says.
I walk over to her with Noel clutched to my side and sit down. “This isn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it is. This is all because of what happened with me and Lev. If I’d just been stronger, if I’d just figured out how to stand on my own two feet…”
“Then Noel wouldn’t be here. I’ll never be sorry for that, and neither should you.”
I could be bitter and angry with my mom. Hell, there were moments I was. But what good would that do now?
No one bothers us for a few minutes, then the door opens, and in walks one of Russ’s men.
“Boss wants to see you.” I move to get up. “Both of you,” he says, nodding toward my mother.