I paced after Andrusha left, feeling completely out of sorts. He was hurt. He shouldn’t even be out of bed.
I stood at the window and looked down at the black night. I was going to go crazy if I didn’t do something.
I turned back to the apartment. I could do laundry. I gathered clothes and then dug around for my hoodie, trying to remember where I had left it. I had taken it off at the shooting range when Viktor had dragged me down there to practice.
I looked at the door. It was only a two-minute walk down to the shooting range and a two-minute walk back. Four minutes. It’s not like I’d be loitering outside. I could just run and grab it quick.
I opened the door and listened. There were no voices. There was no one downstairs. I jogged down the stairs and crossed the bay to the doors of the shooting range. I opened the doors and listened. Nothing. My nerves jangled.
I moved down the stairs and walked along the glass wall. Inside the range, I could see my hoodie on the bench, right where I had left it.
I opened the door and walked the length of the range, passing tables of weapons before grabbing it.
I turned around. Standing between me and the doorway was Vlad.
Andrusha had gone out to look for Vlad. And Viktor had told me they suspected Vlad of colluding with Bunko.
My heart began to pound wildly in my chest. “What are you doing here?”
He tilted his head and gave me a slow, creepy smile. “What do you think I’m doing here?”
I knew I was in trouble. I licked my lips. “Who are you looking for?”
He took a step towards me. “Actually, I was looking for you.”
I inched back until my butt hit the table. “When Andrusha finds out you were here, he won’t be happy.”
His smile widened. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be long gone before he figures it out.”
I needed to keep him talking. “What do you want, anyway?”
He shrugged. “Justice.”
I didn’t know what that meant. “How does that happen?”
He eyed me. “Before Andrusha came along, I was the right-hand man in this place. I called all the shots. When my boss decided to retire, it was my time to take over here. To be in charge.”
Behind my back, my hand found a gun. These practice weapons were religiously checked for bullets and usually left empty down here, but I still picked up the gun and held it behind my back.
“Is that what this is all about? You feel slighted?”
He shook his head. “Andrusha should have kept me as his right-hand man. Instead, he shuffled me aside like some geriatric waiting to retire, and put Viktor in charge.”
“What do I have to do with this?” Vlad had never liked me from day one.
He smiled. “You know, Bunko is a very powerful man. He made a deal with me.”
Oh my god. I swallowed hard. “What kind of deal?”
“If I bring you to him, Andrusha will follow. Which will make it easy for Bunko to kill him. And when Andrusha is gone, Bunko promised to put me in charge of this place.”
The thought of Andrusha going to fight Bunko in his state was horrifying. It was an automatic death sentence.
“You’ll never get me out of here. There are way too many guards protecting the place.”
He looked at his watch. “Any moment now.”
A tremendous boom sounded, so loud the floor shook beneath my feet.
“What was that?” I lifted my eyes to the ceiling.
“That is a small explosion I set to blow up one of our sheds on the corner of our property. Most of the men on duty will be dealing with the chaos. They won’t even notice when we slip out of here.”
I swung the practice gun out in front of me and pointed it at Vlad. “Get away from me.”
He watched me take the safety off. “The practice guns down here are never loaded.”
I pretended to weigh the gun in my hands. “Feels loaded to me.”
“Even if it was, you wouldn’t shoot me. You don’t have the guts.”
He started to walk slowly towards me.
I squeezed the trigger.
Click. No bullet.
He paused and gave me an impressed smile. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Stay away from me.”
He continued to move towards me, and I continued to fire an empty weapon at him.
Click.
Click.
Click.
He was closing in on me.
Bam.
The noise was deafening as the lone bullet in my gun exited the muzzle, jerking my arms back.
Vlad staggered. We both stared at the red bloodstain that was growing on his pant leg.
“You fucking shot me.”
I bolted towards him, shoving him hard against his chest.
He grunted and staggered back. “Come back here.” His fingers clawed my sleeve as I slipped past him.
I should have run towards the guards. I should have gone to the loft, but sheer panic made me veer towards Andrusha’s office. Locking the door, I grabbed to phone, crawled under the desk, and called Viktor’s phone.
“Hello?”
“I just shot Vlad. In the leg. There was only one bullet, and it hit him.”
“Olivia, slow down.”
Andrusha’s voice came on the line. “Olivia, we are on our way. Tell me what’s happening.”
I was breathing so hard, I could barely speak. “There was an explosion, and I just shot Vlad.”
His voice was so calm. “Where are you?”
My heart was slamming in my chest. What if Vlad came up here? What if he had a gun? “In your office. Under your desk.”
“Can you tell me where he is?”
I started to wheeze. “I don’t know. What if he comes up here?”
“Olivia, did you kill him?”
I looked around the desk, listening. “I hit him in the leg. I only had one bullet.”
“You did well. We’re almost there. I want you to listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“There is a safe in my wall. Beside the bar.”
“Yes. Behind the picture.” I stared at the light beneath the door, terrified I would see a shadow cross in front of it.
“I want you to go to it and open it. The combination is 22-98-10.”
I didn’t want to get out from under the desk. “Why?”
“When you open it, there is a loaded gun. I want you to grab it.”
I started to cry. “Okay.”
“What is the combination?”
“22-98-10.”
“Go get the gun,” he ordered me.
Terrified, I crawled across the floor. Outside the window, I could see flames shooting high into the sky. Men were shouting, moving vehicles, and in the distance, I could hear the sound of sirens. I concentrated on opening the safe. I grabbed the gun and then crawled back under the desk.
Picking up the phone, I gasped. “I’m back.”
“Do you have the gun?”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“I want you to hang up the phone and go sit in my chair. The one that faces the door.”
“Why?” I could feel tears trickling down my face.
“You’re going to wait there for me. And if anyone except me or Victor walks through the door, you unload the entire clip into them, is that clear?”
That sounded horrifying. “That’s a bad idea.”
“Only me or Viktor, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Now hang up and go wait for me. I will be there very soon.”
“Okay.”
I hung up the phone and crawled to the chair. With the heavy gun in my lap, I wiped the tears from my eyes and focused on the door.
Outside, I could hear shouting, and then flashing red and blue lights streaked across the dark walls of the room.
He said he would be here soon.
I had forgotten to warn Andrusha about Vlad and his plans with Bunko to kill Andrusha. My heart pounded at the idea of Andrusha risking his life just to save mine. The thought made me sick. We needed to get out of here. Together, we needed to run away from all this madness and violence. If we stayed here, we would never get out.
“Olivia?” Andrusha called from the other side of the door. “Don’t shoot me.”
With a cry, I put the gun down and raced to unlock the door.
Flinging it open, I saw Andrusha, Viktor, and two other men.
“Andrusha,” I cried.
He held my face in his hands, his worried eyes looking me over. “Tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
“Vlad is working with Bunko!”
He nodded encouragingly. “Start at the beginning.”
“I left my hoodie in the shooting range. Vlad was there. And he said he was going to kidnap me and take me to Bunko, so you would follow. Bunko wants to kill you, and for his help, Vlad will be put in charge.”
Viktor and Andrusha exchanged looks.
Viktor spoke. “How did you end up shooting Vlad?”
I shook my head. “I picked up a gun on the table, and there was one bullet. I hit his leg.”
“That’s a fucking miracle,” Viktor muttered.
Andrusha looked at Viktor. “He’s probably gone.”
Viktor motioned for the other men to follow. “We need to check it out.”
“The explosion outside—Vlad said he set it.”
Andrusha walked into the office, picked up the gun, and shut his safe. “I’m going to get you back to the loft. I need you to pack one bag. Clothes, shoes, toiletries. Pack it all.”
He grabbed my hand and led me towards the loft.
“Are we going somewhere? Do you want me to pack a bag for you?”
He didn’t look at me. “Just get ready, okay?”
Ten minutes later, Viktor and Andrusha showed up at the door.
Andrusha picked up my bag and handed it to Viktor. “I need you to go with Viktor.”
Fear seized my heart. “Not without you,” I said as Viktor disappeared out the door with my bag.
“Olivia, I need to take care of my men.”
I stared at his face. He was ash gray and sweating. “You’re sick. You should be in bed.”
He put one hand up to my face. “Olivia, I can’t do what I need to do if I am worried about you. If you want anyone to survive this, you need to please do this for me. Viktor is going to take you to a safe place.”
“When will I see you?”
He kissed me hard on the mouth. “I need three days to clean this up and get everything organized here. Then I will come and find you.”
“You promise?” I cried.
“I promise. Come on. Time to go.”
He led me down to the vehicle, where Viktor was waiting. He kissed me hard before putting me in the back seat.
As we started to drive off, I told Viktor, “He shouldn’t be working. He needs to be in bed.”
“I know,” he said.
It didn’t matter what I said. Andrusha had made up his mind, and Viktor, like the good soldier he was, backed him up.
Three days later, I lay, fully dressed, on a bed in a motel. The television was on mute, and I mindlessly flipped through the channels.
Viktor sat at the table, cleaning his guns.
We had been stuck in this room for three days straight, neither of us leaving for any reason. Viktor had brought a duffel bag of dehydrated foods that I cooked for us using the motel kettle and the coffee mugs. I was bored, restless, and anxious. Viktor remained silent and stoic most of the time, except when I forced him to answer my questions. Like right now.
I sat up and asked, “Is this the safe place that Andrusha was talking about?”
“Nope.”
“Have you heard from him?”
“Not since the last time you asked.”
“What did Andrusha mean when he said he needed to take care of the men?”
Viktor glanced at me. “Andrusha is in charge. He can’t leave them high and dry. He needed to get them organized.”
“But then he’s leaving with us, right?”
Viktor refused to look at me. “These are things you need to discuss with him.”
“Do you know what he’s planning?”
Viktor ignored me.
I lay back down on the bed, knowing I wouldn’t get more out of him.
A sharp rap sounded on the door, making Viktor pick up his gun. I watched as he put the gun dead center on the door before looking out the peephole. Then he opened it.
There stood Andrusha, looking half-dead. His skin had a gray pallor, and he was sweating.
Viktor opened the door, and Andrusha walked towards the bed. He sat down and shook his head. “Things are cleaned up. I bought you guys about twelve hours.”
Viktor moved to the window, pulling back the curtain a fraction to look outside. “Roger that.”
My hands covered my mouth when Andrusha shut his eyes and fell back onto the bed.
“Andrusha,” I cried, springing towards him.
Viktor stepped forward and touched his forehead. “He’s burning up. His infection must have come back.”
I looked up at Viktor. “We need to get him to a hospital.”
He gave me a grim expression. “I’m going to need your help.”
Viktor carried Andrusha to the back seat of the SUV and laid him down while I carried out our bags.
Viktor moved to the driver’s seat. “Get in the front.”
I clambered in after him and looked over at Andrusha, who lay completely unconscious in the back seat. “Where are we going? Are we taking him to a hospital?”
He shook his head. “Trust me, okay?”
We drove through the city before he pulled into a storage facility. The place was deserted—there were just long rows of lonely-looking metal storage doors.
I wanted to badger Viktor to bring Andrusha to the hospital, but I bit my tongue. He backed the SUV up to a set of doors and killed the engine. “Come help.”
The storage unit was stacked high with big, gray bins.
“Look for one that says Medical.”
I found it and held the light as Viktor expertly put an IV into Andrusha’s arm and then hung it from the hook in the back seat. He pushed something into the line and then hung a second bag.
“What is that?”
“Antibiotics and pain medication. He’s not going to feel anything.”
“Maybe we need to get him to a doctor?” I tried once more.
He took Andrusha’s blood pressure. “If he goes into a hospital, he will either be arrested because of his wound, or Bunko will find him and finish him off. I’m giving him the exact same drugs any doctor would give him.”
“How do you know?”
He glanced at me. “Because Doctor Turgenev taught me how to deal with Andrusha’s infection if it came back.”
I studied his eyes. “He’s going to be okay?”
“I can help him. Can you stay here with him?”
It took Viktor twenty minutes to load up the back of the SUV.
“Viktor,” I called, as a set of lights slowly drove towards us.
I watched as Viktor came out of the storage locker. “I think this package is for you, Olivia.”
“What?”
Viktor glanced at me. “This is something Andrusha made me promise to do.”
When I saw Mica get out of his car, I scrambled out of the SUV. “Mica!”
“Viktor called me. How is Andrusha?”
“Hurt.”
“How are you?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t even process what had happened in the last few days. It was overwhelming, as was my concern for Andrusha.
He motioned with his head. “I have something for you.”
I cried out when he opened the door and something furry bound towards me. “Sasha!”
“He belongs with you.”
I bent down and put my arms around Sasha. “Oh, thank you.”
Viktor came over to shake hands with Mica.
“I have three bags of dog food in the back and the other things you asked for,” Mica said to him. He glanced at me. “Charlie packed some winter clothes for you.”
“Thank you,” I breathed.
Viktor started to carry stuff to the back of the truck.
I held Sasha’s leash. “Are you sure you want to give up Sasha?”
Mica handed me a knapsack. “That dog has made it pretty clear who he wants to live with.”
I heard the truck door slam. “We need to go,” Viktor said from behind me.
Mica held open his arms and gave me a strong hug, reminding me of Andrusha. “You’ll take care of him for me?”
“Yes.” I wanted to confess how scared I was for Andrusha. I wanted to tell him how much I wanted something different for all of us. We stared at each other for a long moment, both of us wearing identical looks of regret. Both of us seemed to know the severity of this situation without even having to speak of it. Both of us feeling the same fears about Andrusha.
He nodded. “Call us if you need anything. No matter what.”
