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“Cute little thing,” he murmured, handing the bottle to Daria.
“She’s beautiful. So sad her mother gave her up,” she said as she fitted the nipple gently between Gabriela’s tiny bow-shaped lips.
Nik crouched down in front of Daria, his hands light on her knees, searching her eyes. “There’s much love around here,” Nik murmured, looking around. “The building is old. It used to be a miner’s home, built of heavy concrete. It was abandoned and left to be eaten up and covered by the jungle until Liz came down here and reclaimed it. The Peruvian government gave it to her so she could open up the orphanage. It serves the entire area around Machu Picchu, plus the Highlands area.”
“That’s a lot of square miles.”
“There’s a lot of abandoned babies and children here,” Nik said sadly, shaking his head.
“Why so many, Nik? What’s going on around here?”
“Nothing that isn’t going on in every third world country,” he told her quietly. He rose and brought a chair over, turning it to face her. Sitting down, he crossed his legs, his hands resting in his lap. “How did you do in the laundry room today?”
Daria grimaced. “I’ve got red, chapped hands to prove I worked in there, but I’m not complaining. At least it’s one day’s worth of clothes cleaned that Megan won’t have to do tonight.”
“You did her a great service today,” he praised, giving her a look of pride. “She’s been without a washer for weeks.”
“That’s awful. She’s so busy, Nik. Does the woman ever get any rest?”
Shaking his head, he looked over his shoulder to ensure the door was closed. Turning, he said in a low tone, “Ever since being gang raped, she barely sleeps two or three hours a night. It’s pretty bad and it’s PTSD. But I can understand why…”
“Why doesn’t she go home to the States and get therapy and help?”
“It’s not that simple, Daria. If Megan left here, all these children have no place to go. The orphanages in Cusco are overflowing. I know that because sometimes, when I want to get out of here and clear my mind, I take the train into Cusco and go to those orphanages, offering my medical services for three days at a time.”
“So awful,” she whispered, gazing lovingly at Gabriela who was sucking hard on the bottle’s nipple, her eyes closed, her little hands waving constantly. “This is horrible.”
“I’ve pleaded with Megan to go home, get the help she needs, but she won’t leave these children in the lurch. I’ve talked to Liz about it and she agrees Megan should go home, but she refuses to go.”
Frowning, Daria whispered, “But… why?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Humans are all built differently, Kitten. If you have ten people face the same crisis, there will be ten different responses to it.”
Making an unhappy noise in her throat, Daria nodded. She took the soft diaper Nik had provided her and wiped the bubbles gathering like little pearls from the sides of Gabriela’s mouth. “You’re right. I know you are. Megan was so bright and cheerful this morning.”
“It’s a game face,” he warned her heavily. “She’s combatting depression. I’m treating her medically, but she needs therapy, preferably from a warm, nurturing mother type of woman therapist. It has to be a woman because it was males that harmed her. Women did not break her trust. Men did.”
“But you’re a man, Nik. And she was genuinely glad to see you. She just about hugged you to death.”
He smiled shyly. “I don’t know why Megan trusts me so much. Maybe she senses my Ukrainian heart…,” and his dark eyebrows drifted downward.
“What does that mean? You said Megan didn’t know who her attackers were.”
“They spoke Russian to one another during the raping of Megan,” he told her wearily. “That’s how I know it was the other team. Megan heard a name. Boris.”
“Do you know him?” she demanded quietly, rocking Gabriela.
“Unfortunately, yes. He makes Korsak look like a saint in comparison. Boris Golub was a captain in Spetsnaz. He was in some of the most brutal fighting. He took no prisoners. Ever. They called him ‘The Butcher.’” Nik pushed his fingers through his hair in an aggravated motion. “He’s a monster. I’m sure it was he and his team who broke in here and gang raped Megan.”
“Does she know that?”
Nik grew grim. “No… not yet…”
Daria pursed her lips, staring at him. “Why not?”
“No one in the Peruvianpolicíais going after Golub. They don’t have rape kits down here in this country, Daria. The police here in Aguas Calientes know this Russian predator’s reputation and they quake in fear of him. They would never try to apprehend him.”
“This is unbelievable,” she whispered, frustrated. “Then, maybe it’s just as well Megan doesn’t know?”
