Chapter 3 #3
“Sienna?” she murmured, my hand stroking the top of her head.
“Hmm?” I answered softly, closing my eyes as I gently rocked us from side to side.
“When we’re free from here… can I live with you?
” she asked suddenly. I froze at her words and pulled back slightly as she lifted her face toward mine.
“I don’t have a home. My mom died a long time ago, and my dad…
he doesn’t love me. He sold me. I don’t have anyone else but you,” she went on, her voice trembling as my heart broke.
“Oh, Val, angelo mio…” I whispered as her teary eyes searched mine.
“Please, Sienna, I don’t want to be alone,” she sobbed suddenly.
I shook my head and cupped her round little face in my hands as tears slid down her cheeks. “Never. You will never be alone, I promise you,” I said firmly. “Promise?” she asked with trembling lips. I nodded, resting my forehead against hers. “Promise.”
—
“Enna” I woke slowly, blinking as I straightened in my seat when the car came to a stop.
I sighed softly, running a hand over my face, trying to chase away the memories that slipped even into my sleep.
The torture never stopped, not even in dreams. “You’re getting more and more creative with your meeting places,” I said, looking at the stone bridge in the middle of the forest. Huge trees surrounded us, birds singing somewhere above.
I glanced to the other side of the bridge where a black car was parked.
“You know Ganesh, he likes everything about nature,” Kenji replied, cutting the engine.
He was right. The last time we had met him, he’d been camping in the mountains; before that, in an aquarium while feeding sharks. Honestly, that man…
“So, do you have any ideas to get the two girls out?” he asked, opening his door without getting out.
“Three,” I replied tightly, looking away as I unbuckled.
He turned toward me,“Sienna…” “She’s only seventeen.
Her name is Cecilia, and she’s so fragile, Kenji.
And she’d rather die than…” I began but he cuts me off, suddenly grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me toward him until our faces are almost touching.
“I don’t give a damn, Enna! I don’t care who, what, where, or how!
” he snapped, eyes dark, “I’m not letting you die trying to save them. You can’t save them all, damn it!”
His jaw was tight, his features drawn with anger and fear.
I took it all in, his anger, his worry. I endured it, because I knew he meant well.
He wanted to protect me. “I know,” I whispered, gently removing his hand from my neck.
“But her, I can save her. I have to, Kenji. And nothing will happen to me. Not as long as you’re here, not as long as Ganesh is here.
And I can defend myself too” I tried to reassure him.
But he only shook his head before getting out of the car and slamming the door, heading for the trunk.
I sighed and stepped out as well, closing the door behind me with a tired motion.
I was exhausted, truly exhausted. My mind never stopped, day or night.
Memories haunted me more and more, and I slept less and less.
For months now. Three months, to be true.
I grimaced, pushing the thought away. No.
That path had no end, at least, no happy one.
Thank God it wasn’t the same for my sister and my nephew. Selina and Rafael were safe now, happy, and I no longer had to worry about them, though I still watched over them constantly. Nikolai was a good man, but my trust had become something painfully difficult to give.
Something suddenly draped over my shoulders. I tightened the scarf Kenji had just placed there, “it’s cooler in the forest,” he said, handing me the box where I had packed the gulab jamun I’d made earlier, Ganesh’s favorites, especially the rose-flavored ones.
Kenji and Ganesh were among the very few men I trusted blindly.
A trust forged through unimaginable trials, for all of us.
I smiled as I took the lollipop he pulled from the inside pocket of his jacket.
It was something he always did, offering sweets.
He carried an entire stash in his glove compartment and always had a few on him.
“You used the vial trick again?” he muttered, “I wonder what you’ll do when one of them drinks it and realizes it’s just strawberry juice” I only smiled. With Kenji, resentment never lasted, we both knew time was precious, and death always close.
The lipstick-and-vial trick was really a test. The ones who chose the lipstick had a better chance of survival—more will to fight.
The ones who chose the vial, the ones who chose death, were already broken.
Kenji was right: I couldn’t save them all.
But this test helped me identify the most fragile ones, those who couldn’t survive this battlefield.
They were my priority, even if I wished I could help so many more.
We walked toward the stone bridge beneath which a stream flowed gently, its sound soothing enough to listen to for hours.
A man approached from the other side, leaning on his cane, his sunglasses hid the small dark eyes I knew by heart.
A short beard streaked with white covered his face, and a low black hat concealed his greying hair.
Burn scars climbed up to his chin, hidden beneath long garments.
He wore a flowing shirt and loose trousers, traditional clothing he rarely abandoned.
Ganesh was Indian, the son of immigrants, who had forged alliances with the right people at the right time from a young age, becoming what he was today: one of the most dangerous men alive, even though he didn't look like it, that old fox.
When I reached him, I bent quickly to touch his feet before he could stop me. He always protested, but I insisted, it was a sign of respect in his culture, and if there was one person I respected, it was Ganesh. Without him, I would never have freed my sister. I would never have survived this long.
“Namaste,” I said as I straightened. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kenji bow as well, eyes lowered.
It was the same for him, after all, it was thanks to Ganesh that we had become what we were.
“How many times must I tell you not to do that, Chhori,” he said, though he still placed his hand on my head to bless me.
“I like embarrassing you, Ganesh. You know that,” I replied with a smile, stepping back and opening the box. “Your favorites. Rose-flavored.
He shook his head with a faint smile and took one.
“Perfect, as always, Sienna,” he said, motioning for Suraj, one of his bodyguard, to take the box.
The man did so with a grin, swallowing one immediately.
He dodged the cane Ganesh swung at him and joined Ashwin and Kamal near the car, both giving me thumbs-up after helping themselves.
I laughed despite myself at their foolishness, while their boss studied me after wiping his fingers on a cloth pulled from his pocket.
“Congratulations on your sister’s marriage and her pregnancy,” he said. “The Ivanovs do reproduce like rabbits,” he chuckled. “You’ve allied yourself with a powerful family, Sienna…” “They’re not my allies,” I replied calmly. “Just my sister’s family.”
Ganesh tilted his head slightly, studying me in silence.
He often did that, observed, analyzed. He could see a hundred outcomes before one ever happened.
That gift had brought him where he was. I tried to learn from him, and I wasn’t bad at it, but Kenji was a real pro, a carbon copy of Ganesh.
At last he lifted his gaze toward the forest and gestured for me to follow, Kenji stayed close at my side.
“How was your trip?” I asked Ganesh, tightening the shawl around myself as a breeze rustled the branches and made the leaves sing.
“Peaceful. I walked the streets of my childhood, visited my parents’ graves.
I prayed for you as well,” he said, offering his arm so I could slip mine through it.
“Udaipur may be where I was born and raised, but I always find myself returning to this rotten country called the United States,” he added with a dry chuckle as we stopped near the stream.
“My mother used to say that home was where your heart beats,” I replied, remembering the woman who had given me life and love until she no longer could.
“Oh?” Ganesh said softly, and I stiffened, sensing what was coming.
“Then why do you remain in that pit of Vassili’s, when your debt has been paid and the video he used to threaten you holds no power anymore? ”
I swallowed. I had known this question would come, just not so soon.
“Maybe… maybe that’s where my heart is,” I answered, kneeling to dip my fingers into the cold water, shivering as Ganesh’s cane tapped softly against the ground, his habitual gesture when thinking.
“Look at me, Sienna,” he said after a moment, I clenched my jaw but obeyed, rising to meet his gaze. “If something keeps you there, it is not your heart. And don’t give me your usual excuse about your friends. Unlike you, they have nowhere else to go,” he scolded gently but firmly.
“But you… you have a family who loves you, Chhori. That is a rare gift,” he continued, placing a hand on my shoulder, his voice softening.
“And you know we can find ways to get your friends out too. They would follow you anywhere. You are their guide,” he sighed and withdrew his hand, shaking his head slowly.
“But you don’t want to leave, do you? Because what keeps you there is far stronger than your heart.
Stronger than your happiness: guilt… and that thirst for revenge.
” His voice carried sadness. Disappointment.