17. Maya
MAYA
As soon as I hear the door to the apartment open, I spring to my feet, hurrying over to the door. I ignore the guards stationed around the large living area, having almost forgotten that they’re there at all.
Anton is striding back through the door, and for once, I don’t have to struggle to catch his attention. He looks freshly showered, whatever he was called away to deal with scrubbed off his skin, and I find my feet faltering as I draw closer to him.
It’s the strangest sensation, the depth of intimacy between us now that I have seen the child growing inside of me, the child that is as much his as they are mine—but to still know so little about him, about what he is capable of, about when, if ever, he will let me go.
“I need to talk to you,” he tells me, and I brighten up at once.
Thank God, something I can do to actually feel useful.
He gestures to his guards, waving a hand at them to indicate that they should leave, and they all move for the door in unison, none wanting to draw more attention to themselves than they need to.
I watch as they go, and then, all of a sudden, I find myself standing alone in this room with him—with the man who has me more confused than I ever have been in my life before.
“What do you need to talk to me about?” I ask him, wrapping my arms around myself protectively.
He goes to pour himself a drink from the cabinet that sits over by the fireplace.
He brings the glass to his lips, looking out over the dimming sun in the sky, the way the streets are already starting to fill with life as people go about their evening routines.
I feel a pang, wondering what I would be doing if I wasn’t trapped in here. I mean, probably just dragging my ass to work to try and make rent this month, that sounds about right, but still—suddenly, that seems like the most tempting thing in the world.
“Did you work with a woman called Ruby at my brother’s bar?” He speaks, his voice careful and calculated. What small glimpse I saw of his softness when we laid eyes on the picture of our baby seems to have faded just as quickly as it arrived.
I pause for a moment, furrowing my brow, casting my mind back as I attempt to recall. “Uh, I don’t know,” I reply, shaking my head. “There were a lot of girls coming and going at work, not many people stuck around for long, what with the clientele being so... tough.”
He nods, taking another sip of his scotch.
My gaze lingers, briefly, on the way his mouth looks as it grazes against the glass, but I swiftly push that aside, swallowing hard, trying not to let myself get distracted. I need to focus on the matter at hand here.
“Ruby,” I repeat, tapping my finger against my lip as I try to cast my mind back. I don’t think that I worked with someone with that name, but something about it does ring a bell—and all at once, it clicks.
“Yeah, I think Dylan, one of the other bartenders, she mentioned working with a girl called Ruby just before I got there,” I confirm with a nod. “Why? Is she involved in all of this...?”
He falls silent, like he doesn’t want to fill me in on the truth. A cold shiver runs down my spine, and I frown at him.
“Anton? What’s... What’s going on with Ruby?”
“I don’t know yet. I need to figure out where she is. Get in touch with her before Artem has a chance to.”
“Why? What’s he going to do?”
He turns to me once more, seemingly having skipped right over the question I just asked. “When he was holding you before the auction,” he asks. “Did you see anyone else back there? Any other women who might have been held alongside you?”
I shake my head.
“It was just me,” I whisper, my gaze dropping to the ground.
I can still remember all too clearly what it felt like to be in that place, to feel the world closing in around me, not knowing if I would ever find a way out.
I can’t imagine anything worse than being back there, but the idea of other women being trapped in the same way...
I should have known it was possible, but the notion is enough to make me sick to my fucking stomach.
“You didn’t hear anyone else? Any mention of any other names of people who might have been—”
“Anton, I was stuck in a room by myself, in the dark, with no idea what was going on or if I was ever going to get out,” I tell him sharply. “No, I didn’t exactly get any useful intel while I was in there, okay?”
He falls silent for a moment, not taking his eyes off me.
I can’t read his face. Is he pissed at my attitude?
Annoyed that I have so little for him? I wish that I could be of greater help in all of this, but instead, all I can feel is the weight of how little I know pushing down on top of me.
I can’t help, I can’t do anything, and by the sounds of it, another woman is in danger...
“Anton, what’s going on with your brother?” I demand. “I know I can’t have been the first he tried to sell off like that. But how long has it been going on? Are there other women in danger right now that I should-”
“You don’t need to worry about any of this,” he tells me, and I almost laugh.
It sounds ridiculous. If he had any idea what it had been like to be held in that place, in the dark, in the damp, without any idea of the fate that was going to befall me or if I was going to walk out of there alive was funny to me, downright comical.
And I had actually had a best-case-scenario situation, where the man who had purchased me had turned out to be someone who wasn’t going to use and abuse me exactly as he saw fit.
“Of course I do,” I exclaim. “If he’s out there, if he’s still doing this…”
“You’re never going to have to lay eyes on him again,” he replies, his voice so full of a steady certainty that I could almost believe him. But that’s not what this is about right now.
“I know I’m safe here,” I reply. “But I can’t just sit around and let him do this to other women. I can’t, Anton. I won’t.”
I lay my hands on my belly for a moment, glancing downward.
“What if the baby is a girl?” I whisper. “And I’m bringing her into a world where something like this could happen to her.”
He downs the last of his drink, eyes darkening as he steps towards me. “I’ll never let him near our child,” he replies, his voice laced with such a harshness that I jolt with surprise. I know it’s not aimed at me, but rather his brother, but it still comes as something of a shock.
“What if you don’t get a choice?” I plead with him. “Look, Anton, I’m just I’m asking you to let me help. I know the girls who work at the bar, I might be able to find out more about Ruby if I go down there and ask a few questions...”
“You need to stay here. Where you can be safe.”
Something in me deflates when he replies. He has that tone to his voice, that sharpness, that leaves little room for argument, but he can’t seriously think that I’m just going to hold my hands up and let him call the shots.
I’m as much a part of this as he is, having been thrown into the dark, dangerous deep end of this world, but he is treating me like I might break if he asks any more of me than he already has.
I try to change my tone, moving towards him again, warming my face with a smile.
“I know you just want to keep me and the baby safe,” I assure him.
“But... I could be useful in all of this, right? I know how the bar works, and that’s what he’s been using as a cover to make sure nobody catches on to him. If I go back there—”
“Then he’ll snap you up just like he did last time, but he’ll be more careful about who he sells you to,” he replies bluntly. “You’re not going back there. You’re not leaving this apartment, unless you need to.”
“Anton-”
“No more discussion,” he shoots back. “I’m done here.”
He pours himself another drink, and I stare after him helplessly as he stalks his way back through to his office.
I feel like nothing I’m doing or saying is going to get through to him.
Doesn’t he see that he is trapping me in here, too?
It might be for my own good, at least as far as he is concerned, but that doesn’t mean that I feel any less trapped than I did before.
I sink down into one of the large seats in front of the empty fireplace, staring into the cold hearth as the guards begin to fill the room again.
No matter where I turn, it feels like someone has placed a burden on me that I don’t know how to fight off. Whether it’s my father’s gambling debts, Artem’s twisted demands, or Anton’s insistence on protecting me, I don’t know when I will be able to live this life of mine just for me.
Or if that’s ever even going to happen. The more time that passes, the harder it is to believe that I will ever taste the same kind of freedom that I had before I fell pregnant.
I should be grateful that Anton is willing to do everything in his power to ensure I do not come to harm, but with other women out there facing the same hellish nightmare that I was thrown into, I can’t help but feel restless and useless sitting here on my butt, doing nothing at all to help.
I know I can’t live like this forever. But what other choice do I have now? If I try to escape, I know that Anton will redouble the security, maybe even turn on me for betraying him, if he feels like I have tried to pull something like that.
But if I stay, what will I be teaching my little girl about the kind of life she can live for herself...?
Little girl.
I smile slightly as the thought crosses my mind.
It is the first time I have assigned a gender to my child, even in my own head, though I know that we will not know for certain for a while longer.
I plant my hands on my belly and send a silent promise to my child that I will do everything I can to ensure their freedom.
Anton already has their safety covered, I don’t need to worry about that part.
But I need to focus on giving them a chance beyond the four walls of this apartment. Even if it means going up against Anton to make it happen.