Lie, p.8
Lie, page 8
Petrov shook his head before he threw his cards on the table. “Don’t cheat. Just know how to play.” His hand was strong, two pair, and it made him win that round.
Popov was on his feet, and he faced me with his arms across his chest. “Wanna pull up a chair?”
It was hard to believe, but I wasn’t a gambling man. “I’m here for business, not pleasure.”
“Oh, I know.” He grabbed his cigar out of the ashtray and puffed on the wet tip. “You’re the only man I know who turns down a free fuck.” When he released the smoke from his mouth, he blew it right in my face as it rose to the ceiling.
Rape didn’t turn me on. “Get my money.”
Sometimes he looked like he wanted to resist me when that unsettling look came onto his face, but he never did. He stepped away to retrieve the cash.
Then I heard a voice I’d recognize anywhere.
“Heath…?” It was a quiet voice, afraid to be loud. It possessed so much trepidation that it seemed to belong to a person I didn’t know, like saying my name was the equivalent of risking her life. But the sound of her voice was so ingrained in my brain that I could recognize it even if it wasn’t quite the same.
I turned at the sound, looking through the bars to the first cage on the left. My eyes narrowed as I looked at the brunette on the floor against the wall, her face so bruised it was almost unrecognizable. Her arms were across her body to hide her nakedness, and she looked so scared that her energy was totally different. She wasn’t the strong, spontaneous woman who wielded an iron fist, who had the spine most leaders lacked. It took me at least ten seconds to understand what I was looking at.
When she got a better look at me, she disregarded her nakedness and came to the bars. “Heath…” Her voice broke just saying my name, tears flooding her voice, making a crack like a stick cleanly snapped in two. “Please get me out of here…please. Help me. Don’t leave me in here.” She turned hysterical, yanking on the metal bars and making them shake. She wanted to break through them and escape. “Please…”
Her face was so bruised and swollen, she didn’t look like herself. The green color of her eyes was almost nonexistent because her eyes were nearly swollen shut. The bruising all over her face indicated a man had beaten the shit out of her, slammed his fist into her face so many times that her features were destroyed. Her spirit was broken because she had no pride.
It was the first time in my life I was too disturbed to react, to pull myself together and move forward.
Popov returned and dropped a bag of money on the floor. “There you go.”
When Catalina immediately stepped back from the bars as he came close, that told me he was her tormentor. Her arms moved across her chest and hid her breasts from view as she continued to sob uncontrollably.
I turned him. “Open the door.”
He glanced at her and turned back to me. “I just got her.”
I stared at him harder, furious at his disobedience. “Open the fucking door.” I took a few steps toward him, silently promising retribution if he didn’t do what he was told. I could burn this place to the fucking ground if I wanted to.
“She’s the reason Ivanov is in prison right now.”
Now I raised my voice so loud, all the bars in the cages rattled. “Open. The. Door.” I didn’t pull out my gun because I didn’t need more than my voice to make a serious threat. The guys at the table were still, watching their leader engage me in a verbal battle. If he didn’t obey, I’d shoot him and move on to the next guy.
He sighed in annoyance because she was a prized prisoner, but he knew it wasn’t worth his life, along with the lives of his men. He pulled the keys out of his pocket and finally opened the door. “There.”
The second the door was open, Catalina sprinted to me, getting to me as quickly as she could, as if I was the only thing in the world that could save her. She crashed into my chest so hard she actually made me shift backward slightly. Naked, sobbing, and shaking, she wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face into my chest. “Please get me out of here.” She grabbed at my shirt and cried, taking deep breaths and soaking my clothes with her tears. “Please. Don’t leave me here…”
My hand moved under her hair, and I pulled her back slightly so I could look into her face. I’d imagined that naked body so many times, but now I didn’t look, I didn’t want to look. I pulled my shirt over my head and gave it to her.
She took it with shaking hands, as if she’d never received a gift so wonderful as the clothes off my own back. There were no words she could say to match the appreciation in her eyes. It led to a whole new batch of tears. She was shaking so much she couldn’t even get it on.
So, I did it for her. I pulled it all the way down over her ass and her thighs so she would be completely covered. Then I cupped her face with both of my hands and looked at all the bruising and swelling. It made me sick to my stomach, made me feel so much pain. This woman was so beautiful, but now she was a busted fucking piñata. I whispered to her. “You’re safe now.”
A flash of gratitude came into her eyes before she closed them, more tears flooding.
I turned to Popov. “Who did this?”
He was silent, rigid because he knew shit was about to go down.
I turned Catalina around and pointed at her face. “Who fucking did this?”
He was too scared to look at her. “Ivanov is in jail because of her. He’ll probably be in there for life because the cops have been looking for him—”
“Who. Fucking. Did. This?”
Popov looked at his men, as if he were asking one of them to take the fall.
Catalina spoke through her tears. “It was him.” She came closer to my side, like she didn’t want to be even a few inches apart for me. “He came into my cage and choked me while he beat me until I blacked out…”
Popov held up both hands once Catalina threw him under the bus. “I didn’t know who she was—”
I pulled out my gun and shot him right in the fucking head.
His dead body fell to the floor with a distinctive thud. The ceiling was low and there was no air filtration, so I could smell the burning of my gun right away. I could even smell death because we were in such close quarters.
Catalina closed her eyes and breathed deep with relief, like she was thanking god he was dead.
I returned my gun to the back of my jeans and faced the other two.
Neither reached for his gun or rose from his chair to resist me. They didn’t avenge their friend; they took the path of least resistance. The smoke from Popov’s cigar still rose to the ceiling, and the rest of their poker chips sat on the table, untouched.
I grabbed Catalina’s hand. “Let’s go.”
Instead of running for the door, she stayed put and tugged me back to her. Her face came close to mine, and she whispered, “I can’t leave the others. They have to come too.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the request. “I can’t do that.”
She started to grow hysterical again. “You have to. I can’t live with myself if I go free and they don’t. Please do this for me…” New tears started in her eyes and quickly dripped down her cheeks. She must be in so much pain right now, but instead of thinking about herself, she still thought about other people.
I couldn’t let these girls go right now. There were only two men standing in my way, but this was just the top layer of a much bigger organization. If I freed all their slaves, there would be consequences. I couldn’t deal with it right this second. “There’s nothing I can do right now.”
“Heath, please.” She squeezed my hand.
“We have to leave them right now. But I’ll come back.”
That wasn’t good enough for her. She shook her head. “I know you can do it now—”
“I promise I’ll take care of it later. You need to trust me.” I’d never been a hero, never cared about anything but myself and my money, but right now, I would do anything she wanted. I would take off my ring for good and give it to a homeless person if that was what she wanted. My heart was broken at the way she’d been treated, and it changed me all the way down to my core. It nearly made me want to cry, knowing how hard he had to have hit her to make her face look like that.
She looked like she still wanted to argue, but she eventually gave in. “I trust you…”
I couldn’t drive the armored truck around, so I told Steel to return to the Underground with the money and I’d take a cab.
Hadn’t been in a fucking cab in so long.
When we were both in the back seat, I stared at her against the opposite window, looking outside, wearing my shirt with a bruised face. “Damien’s place?” I wasn’t sure where she wanted to go first, but I doubted she wanted to go home and be alone.
She kept her eyes out the window with her arms across her chest. “No. My apartment.”
I gave the driver the address, and we took off. It was only a few blocks away, so the drive wouldn’t be long. I caught the driver glancing in the rearview mirror, trying to get a better look at the half-naked woman sitting in the back seat. She’d been through enough, and the last thing she needed was another admirer. “Eyes on the road.”
His hands swerved on the wheel slightly, and the car almost crossed the center line into the other lane.
I was surprised he’d picked us up in the first place. I was shirtless and covered in violent tattoos, while looking pissed off. If he’d paid better attention, he might’ve noticed the gun in the back of my jeans.
We pulled up to her apartment minutes later, and after I handed over the cash, we went into the building and up the stairs to her floor. Once we arrived at her apartment, I saw what they had done to her front door. They’d worked on the keypad lock until the mechanisms broke. The door was still slightly cracked, exactly as they’d left it when they took her away.
If this had been the setting of her kidnapping, I was surprised she wanted to come back.
She was the first one to walk inside. “I want to take a shower…”
I followed behind her and shut the door even though it couldn’t lock anymore. She was usually candid with her thoughts, so she would have asked me to leave if she wanted me gone, but she didn’t give me any directions. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to Damien’s?” He had a big place with plenty of rooms, and being under his roof would probably make her feel a lot safer than staying here.
“Yes.” She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. “I’m fucking starving, but I’ve got to get this shit off me.” She pulled my shirt off her body right in front of me and tossed it onto the back of the couch. “Thanks for letting me use it.” She walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open. Maybe she was so used to being naked she didn’t think twice about undressing in front of me.
I kept my eyes averted and didn’t stare.
When she was in the shower, I pulled the shirt over my head and entered the doorway.
The shower curtain was closed, so I couldn’t see her. Steam quickly filled the room and fogged the bathroom mirror. With my arms crossed over my chest, I leaned against the doorframe, my eyes down even though I couldn’t see anything. “I’ll get you something to eat. What do you want?”
“Anything. I haven’t eaten in days.”
I took a deep breath and felt my eyes squeeze shut when I heard about her mistreatment. I had no idea how long she’d been in that cage naked, starving, and beaten while I slept peacefully in my bed every night.
“I’d just eat something here, but I don’t have anything.” She raised her voice over the sound of the running water.
“I’ll be back.” There were a few places nearby I could walk to in five minutes.
Before I turned away, she spoke. “Hurry.”
I could dissect her tone easily even though we hadn’t spoken in weeks. She needed me to come back as quickly as possible, not so she could eat, but so I would be in the apartment with her again. “I will.”
When I returned, she was still in the bathroom.
She sat on the edge of the tub with the shower curtain open, a blue towel wrapped around her body with her damp hair over one shoulder. Once her shower was over, it seemed to be the first thing she did, and she hadn’t moved since.
I stepped into the bathroom with the plastic to-go bag and expected her to get up and move to the dining table, but she stayed still, looking at me like she expected me to bring the food to her. “Do you want to eat here?” Eating in a steamy bathroom sounded disgusting, but right now, she could do whatever she wanted and I wouldn’t say a word.
She nodded.
I took the container out of the bag and handed it to her. It was a hamburger with French fries. Then I sat on the closed toilet and faced her.
She quickly opened the lid and started to eat. She shoved several fries into her mouth at once, picked up the burger in both hands and took an enormous bite like she really was starving. The few times I’d seen her eat, she was really methodical, trying to eat as little as possible. “You’re not hungry?”
I kept my eyes on the floor so she wouldn’t think I was staring at her in that thin towel. “No.” There was so much acid in my stomach, I thought I’d never eat again. Thankfully, some of the bruising on her face had lessened after the shower, so those skin cells were dead and fell off, but I was still disturbed by what happened to her to make her so bruised in the first place. And I was afraid something worse happened besides those bruises.
She ate the whole thing, even the crispy burned fries. The entire hamburger was gone, and once she’d sighed in satisfaction, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she could’ve eaten more. She closed the box and left it on her lap like a pet she didn’t want to lose.
“Why don’t you want me to take you to Damien’s?” I didn’t understand why she’d want to stay in the same place she’d been taken from. No way she would feel safe. No way the memory wouldn’t haunt her forever.
“I refuse to be run out of my own home.” Despite everything she’d been through, the hysterical tears and deep bruises, she still had a resilient piece inside her. “Besides, I don’t want him to see me like this…”
“It’ll be a long time before those bruises fade, so he’s going to know eventually.”
She took a sharp breath like the thought of that conversation made her sick. “I’ll worry about that later. Damien might be able to handle it, but my father won’t.” She blinked her eyes quickly as the tears welled up once more. “It’ll make my father cry.” She fidgeted with the box in her hands.
Guilt suddenly flooded through me when I remembered what I did to him, that I would’ve executed him if Damien hadn’t outsmarted me. I had other things to think about right now, so I compartmentalized it. “I’ll change your door for you. Get you one that people can’t get past.”
“Thank you…”
I leaned forward with my arms on my thighs, unable to believe I was sitting in a bathroom with her, that I’d gone to work like any other day but saw the most disturbing thing in my life…her in that cell.
“You can look at me.” Her voice was quiet, delicate.
That was when I realized I wasn’t averting my gaze to protect her privacy. I did it for myself, because looking at her made me want to die. “I don’t want to.” I concentrated on my fingers, tried to block out the memory of her face, but I felt the hot tightness in my chest, an inexplicable emotion I hadn’t felt since I was a boy.
We sat together in the bathroom a long time, saying nothing. The steam eventually filtered out and her hair became completely dry. She finally stood up and walked out.
I followed behind her and watched her throw away the box before she went to her bedroom.
I assumed she was changing, so I stayed in the living room, looking at the front door as I considered what I would use to replace it. Maybe I could put her in a different apartment for the next week, just to give her real peace of mind.
She came back minutes later, in jeans and a shirt. The rest of her body didn’t seem to have injuries, but her neck was bruised too, signs of where he’d strangled her.
I turned back to the door. “Do you want me to leave?” I didn’t want to stay. I didn’t wanna have to look at her and imagine what had happened to her. I was no saint, but I’d never been tempted to hurt a woman just because she stood up to me. I’d never been tempted to hurt a woman at all, actually. I punished those who deserved it without mercy and spared those with petty crimes. I couldn’t comfort her, do anything for her, except try to understand why any man would damage that beautiful face.
“No.” She came closer to me but kept a few feet between us. She glanced at the door, which was now shut but unlocked. “I’ll probably get a new place, even with the new door. But for now, this is all I have.”
I would offer to let her stay with me, but after everything she’d been through, staying with some man she hardly knew was probably the last thing she wanted. And offering would also seem insensitive.
“I’m so tired.” She ran her fingers through her hair and closed her eyes for a moment. “I haven’t really slept since…I can’t even remember. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone, I don’t know how many days passed, but I couldn’t sleep the entire time.”
“Then get some rest.”
She turned to me, looking at me with her bruised eyes. “Could you stay…?”
I stared into her green eyes.
“I know you don’t owe me anything, you’ve done enough, but if you could sleep on the couch, that would make me feel better…” She dropped her gaze slightly, like she was embarrassed to ask.
I’d do anything she wanted. “Yes.” I turned away from her and headed to the couch. “Go get some sleep. I’ll be here whenever you wake up.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “Thank you…” She turned around and slowly walked to her bedroom. Instead of closing the door, she left it open, like she wanted to be able to hear the sounds in the rest of the apartment. Her body made the mattress dip when she got inside, but then she was still. When she didn’t move again, I knew she’d gone to sleep instantly.
