Page 32

THIRTY-ONE

Inessa

W atching Vlad literally kick the shit out of a poor woman has me jumping at sounds even though he’s nowhere to be seen. I don’t even give a fuck about whose bed the devil is slipping into. As long as he doesn’t touch me with that same brutality he used on Galya, I’ll survive.

Calling a private car to leave five minutes after him, I quicken my steps and stay hidden as the driver follows Vlad. Whatever he’s doing here isn’t business, but it’s important enough to lie and I need as much leverage as I can get to get out of this shit alive.

We stay three cars back. When he pulls up outside a church, I nearly laugh. He’s not some secret religious person and intrigue needles at me when he turns through large gates into the adjoining cemetery. The same fear in Moscow thickens the air and a woman clutches at a rosary as she crosses the road, not wanting to pass the devil.

He walks deeper into the dead and goes out of view. I can’t see anything with a large weeping willow tree covering his destination. The woman spits over her shoulder, not wanting to catch an evil spirit and nearly walks into me as she glares towards Vlad. She’s old enough to be my grandmother and her face softens as I move out of the way.

Testing my luck, I keep my voice low like the devil will know of my presence.

“Do you know him?”

She spits over her shoulder again, and whispers, “Dyavol, horrible man.”

There’s so much disgust in her voice, I tuck my hands into my coat pockets, so she doesn’t see the V branded on my finger and become aware of my association.

I’m sinking to lows I’d never had dreamed of and coax information out of her as I take the bag from her arms and carry it for her. The woman doesn’t stop cursing under her breath and her house is only three doors down, ensuring I’ll make a quick escape. She holds on to my arm as she walks, allowing me to hear her mumbling.

“Rotten boy, such cruelty, and evil.”

She maintains the mumbling as she unlocks her door and I help her inside. Setting her things in the kitchen, she starts her explanation, pointing out of her window.

“They lived there. I could hear the screams, that poor girl would scream every day, every night. She wouldn’t stop.”

I don’t know if she’s senile or who she’s talking about as the neighboring house looks abandoned.

She shakes her head as she walks away and takes a seat at the table, then pats the seat beside her. I follow the command and try not to ask the million questions going through my head. Pinning me with a haunting stare, her voice hardens with conviction.

“He killed her, then fifteen more in one night.”

My voice is low, holding on to misplaced hope.

“Who?”

I already know, we both do, but she whispers the name she called my husband.

“Dyavol. He is evil, so much evil around him.”

My hands are sweating, and my heart is trying to smash itself into pieces against my ribs as the woman recounts a horrifying history.

“Such a beautiful girl, she should never have been left with him. The other boys too, they’d have black eyes and broken noses.”

Clicking her fingers, she tries to remember a name and I bite my tongue to stop from offering it.

“The younger one, Valyusha, I think. He tried to run, but dyavol pulled him back every time to take his punishment. They both did, so little and they would hide behind the willow tree.”

Vlad wouldn’t hurt his brothers. My stupid fucking brain is defending him when there’s so much evidence he freely gives showing he’s heartless. Why would his brothers be safe when he tortured an innocent girl for fucking hours, across days because he’s a sick fucking bastard.I’m not capable of speaking as I try to remain calm instead of changing my identity and running away like I should.

I saw the alert he set on his phone and mine goes off with enough time to make it back to the jet before him. Quickly leaving his old neighbor’s house, I keep my head down and slide into the back of the car without seeing Vlad. He’s worse than anyone knows, and I will not have the father of my child be that fucking monster. Even if I have to sacrifice my life, it will be worth it.