Page 33

Arielle

My nose was the first of my senses to wake up. The acrid smell of cigarettes mixed with the musky smell of rotten wood and damp walls filled my lungs, clogging my trachea like a growing tumor. I coughed to dislodge the feeling, my eyes cracking open at the same time.

I was greeted by the hazy sight of a masculine figure seated in front of me and puffing out a ball of cigarettes. I tried to squint my eyes to get a better focus, but the movement triggered a sharp throbbing in my head, pulling a groan from me.

“You’re up. I was beginning to think you might pass on from your little nap,” the smoking figure said, leaning forward, and the fog suddenly cleared from my brain.

The deafening beat of my heart drowned the ache in my head, and awareness spread through my body like wild fear, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. I shut my eyes tight, willing the image in front of me to be a figment of my imagination, but an unmistakable, baleful laugh bounced off the walls, and I knew this was no bad dream. It was a nightmare, just not the type you wake up from.

“Cara, Cara, Cara,” he tsked, dusting off the ash on his cigarettes on a table next to him. “I must applaud your guts, but then I expected nothing less from my favorite weapon. Italy was quite a surprise. I expected you to run off to some tropical island. Guess the world is full of surprises, huh? And I did you the favor of taking out your contacts and your wig. You looked hideous in that color.” He let out an exaggerated shiver, the red flame on his cigarette glowing angrily as he took a long draw from his cigarette.

My hands instinctively traveled to my head, and I could feel patches of my hair from where the wig was ripped off. My throat tightened immeasurably, and a soft whimper escaped my lips, “Please.”

“Please?” he sneered. Rage flashed through his stoically calm fa?ade, and his voice adopted a low, deep, menacing tone. “I picked you from the deepest pit of the orphanage. I gave you a life, a family, and security. I gave purpose to your meaningless existence, and what do I get in return? Fucking betrayal.”

“I’m sorry,” I choked out, feeling tears burning in the corner of my eyes.

I should’ve known Mikhail’s appearance was a sign of impending doom. Once you’ve been discovered by one, it is only a matter of time till your cover is totally blown.

“You’re not sorry, Cara. You’ve been caught, that’s it.” He got off his chair, stalking towards me. With his cigarette gone, I could make out his face better. He still looked the same way he did the last time I saw him, with no added wrinkles and certainly no smile lines.

“I had high hopes for you. I made no attempt to hide the fact that you were my favorite among your siblings. I let you in on classified missions. I was even hoping for you to take over in the future, but you just had to let your pussy get a hold of you!”

“That’s not how it happened, Father. I swear it was—.” Pain exploded on my right cheek, the force of the impact sending my head back and crashing into the wall behind me. An agonizing scream left me, and I clutched my face, staring at him in horror.

Father had always been strict. There were times he resorted to extreme punishments like forcing you to repeat an assignment for hours without rest or food, but he never got physical. He never laid his hands on us, not even for a little smack.

“You could’ve picked any of the men from your past missions, and I wouldn’t give a flying fuck, but you choose to have a child with an Ivanov. You gave an heir to a bloodline I’ve been trying to wipe out for years, and you look me in the eye and say you’re sorry?”

My heart came to a stop. The only thing echoing in my head were his words ‘a child with an Ivanov.’ Panic took hold of me, and the pain in my head became irrelevant.

My baby, what have they done to him? Was he safe? I’d kill myself if anything happened to him.

“You really thought you’d succeed at keeping him hidden for long?” he chuckled, pulling out a Polaroid picture from his pocket. I recognized it. It was the same one I carried with me everywhere. A picture of me and Jason at his first funfair.

I immediately rose to my knees, clasping my hands in front of me. “Please don’t hurt him. You can do anything you want with me, but please don’t hurt him. He’s just a baby. He’s innocent.”

“While maternal instincts look incredible on you, I have more pressing issues to deal with, and if you cooperate, your little boy will be fine,” he said, returning the picture to his pocket and settling on his seat.

“Why is this so important to you? It’s not like you’re the federal government itself?” I asked, finally finding my voice. He was unnaturally particular about Mikhail, and it didn’t make sense. He was a criminal by law and was wanted by the FBI, just like every other target I’ve had to work on. While I understood Father’s anger at my betrayal, I couldn’t wrap my head around his seeming obsession with Mikhail’s case.

His face contorted in the perfect image of disgust. “You still think this has anything to do with the government, and you and your siblings are special kids who were specifically selected for classified jobs by the government?”

“You said we worked—”

“I know what I said, Cara,” he chuckled darkly. “Do you really think the government has the time for all of this? That I’d pick up and raise a couple of kids for what? The greater good? Every person you’ve taken down and every life you’ve taken was for me. Every one of them. I am your government.”

I felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs as I stared at the man who had once been the pinnacle of a moral compass to me in mortification. He lied. His little sermon about how we should see ourselves as superheroes, creating a less dangerous world for our loved ones, was a lie. They were all lies, every bit of it.

My whole life was a lie.

“Were they even guilty of any crime?” I asked, trying to find excuses to make myself better. Mikhail wasn’t innocent. I got a glimpse of his life. But what about the rest?

“If you consider pissing me off a crime, then yes,” he replied casually, and at that moment, I saw a monster in place of the man I had known my whole life.

“You turned us into murderers! You—”

“Enough!” He roared, and I jumped back in fear, wiping my eyes with the sleeves of my dress. “Here’s what we’re going to do. You’ll tell me everything I need to know about Ivanov, his new job here, and anything you can think of. One wrong move from you, and I’ll blow your son’s head off and force-feed you his intestines.”

His threat killed off the fight in me, and I was back on my knees, tears streaming down my eyes as I pleaded desperately. “I don’t know anything. You have to believe me. I didn’t run away with him. I ran away on my own, and I accidentally started working for him.”

My words sounded ridiculous even to my own ears. The chances of me disappearing with Mikhail’s child and being found years later on a different continent with him and the child being a coincidence sounded like the sort of lie even an idiot wouldn’t buy. I searched my head, trying to find something for him, a little bit of information that would pacify him, and I came up with nothing. Mikhail made sure I knew nothing about his personal business.

“The choice is made then,” he said, raising his phone to his ear.

“Wait!” I screamed, grabbing his ankle and stopping him from making his call. “Hold on. I think I might have something for you.”

He smirked. “I knew I raised you well. Go on.”

“I don’t have much. He doesn’t trust me, and the only reason he kept me around was to punish me, but there’ve been some weird meetings and some situations I didn’t tell you about after my accident.” I said, gluing my eyes to the floor.

“Go on.”

I emptied every bit of information I had on Mikhail to him, from his wake-up time to the brand of deodorant he uses. I equally involved Benjamin and Enzo in my report. I didn’t feel good about it, but I’d rather die than for my son to be killed over some criminal rivalry.

“I should’ve anticipated a side effect when I staged that accident to drive you closer to him,” he said, shaking his head in disappointment, and my eyes widened in shock.

“You were responsible for my accident? I could’ve died!” I yelled at him, my eyes wide with disbelief.

I didn’t think it was possible for me to be surprised following the turn of events, but this took the cake.

“Sometimes, you have to throw in an enzyme to speed up a reaction, and if I had known things would turn out this way, I would’ve ensured you died in the crash.”

A sudden wave of anger overtook me, and I was lunging at him before I could think. “You son of bitch! I’m going to fucking tear you apart! Even if it is the last thing I do, I’ll kill you, Henry!”

Strong arms tore me away from him as I kicked and struggled to land a blow on his face. I felt a prickle on my neck, immediately followed by a burning sensation on my neck, and it all went black.

******

Bang!

An explosion sent a sharp jolt of pain through my head, waking me instantly.

“Where is she!?” A familiar dark voice boomed, adding to the ache in my head.

“Mikhail?” I croaked out, struggling to open my eyes.

“Are you okay? Can you walk?” He rushed to me, inspecting me for injuries.

I stared at him in part relief and confusion. “I’m—how did you get here?”

“Now’s not the time for questions, Princess. Lift up your legs,” he ordered softly, and he swept me into his arms.

“Well, well, well. If it’s not the couple of the year.” Henry entered the room, wearing an obnoxious smile, and I felt the familiar rage return. I’ve never felt so much bloodlust in my life.

“Delivering the two people I want the most to me. The universe must really be on my side today.”

“If there’s anything on your side, it’s a six-foot hole waiting for you, and if you don’t step out of the way this instant, I’ll be pushing you into it a lot faster than I intend,” Mikhail said, and I could feel his muscles vibrating as his grip tightened around me.

Henry let out a dark laugh. “I don’t think you’re aware, but you’re outnumbered, and this isn’t the type of war where love conquers all.”

I scanned the small cell and found us to be outnumbered on a ratio of 3:1, not to mention the added advantage of the guns his men carried.

“Don’t move,” Mikhail said, lowering me to my feet.

“You know,” Henry continued, twirling a pocketknife in his fingers as he rested his walking stick on the wall. “I thought you’d be a better opponent, seeing as you were raised by your grandfather, but just like your father, you had to meet your demise in a woman.”

“Don’t speak about my father!” Mikhail roared, taking a step forward, and I visibly tensed. I didn’t think Mikhail was stupid enough to embark on a rescue mission alone, but the numbers were currently not on our side.

“Who should I speak of then? Your grandfather who did not have the spine to do what it takes to make Russia the biggest port?” Henry shot back, his eyes glowing with contempt.

“By selling children?”

“Don’t sound so self-righteous, Ivanov. You’re already a part of the mafia. What is one extra transaction to you?”

A wave of dizziness and nausea washed over me, and I had to lean onto the wall to keep myself from falling. Everything around me was spinning.

I clutched at my chest, willing the burning sensation in my lungs to go away, but it only intensified. It didn’t matter how many deep breaths I took, it felt like every atom of oxygen had been sucked out of the room.

Don’t sound so self-righteous Ivanov. You’re already a part of the mafia. What is one extra transaction to you?

The statement reverberated through my skull. It was him all along. He was the one responsible for the trafficking, and he had used me to secure his business.

“It was you the whole time,” I said, my voice sounding nothing like mine. The floor beneath felt like jelly, and everything I thought I knew crumbled before my eyes.

“Stay out of this, Cara,” he waved me off like I was some annoying insect and returned his focus to Mikhail. “Your grandfather destroyed my business, my family, and everything I owned. I spent the past decades living like a vermin, and now, I’m back to claim my place.

Mikhail opened his mouth to retort, but I beat him to it. “Have you always been this vile?” I asked, my voice stronger this time.

“I asked you to stay out of this.”

“Stay out of it? You hijacked my life and turned me into a fucking monster, and you ask me to stay out of it?”

“Don’t act like you’re innocent, Cara,” he scoffed. “You know murder is wrong. You only continued because you love the bloodlust. Why else do you think you fell for him, huh? You’re no different from me.”

“I’m nothing like you,” I spat out. Staring at him with a burning gaze. “You’re pathetic. You can’t even stand comfortably on your feet and had to get kids to do your business. You’re the weakest man I’ve ever come across.”

“You stupid bitch!” Henry said, diving towards me with his knife. I ducked to avoid his sloppy attack, and at the same time, a gun went off somewhere in the room, and multiple shots followed.

I curled into a screaming ball on the floor, covering my ears with my hands till a deathly silence took over the cell. I shut my eyes tightly, scared to open them and see who won.”

“Get up, Arielle, you’re safe now.” Enzo’s voice broke the silence, and I opened my eyes to find him standing over me with a gun in his hands. My eyes quickly scanned the room, only coming to a stop when I found Mikhail taking off a bulletproof vest. Relief washed over me, and I felt my body give into the darkness that’s been clinging to me.