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"No one speaks to her but Mr. Hwei." One of the four men spoke up, holding a hand out to stop me from stepping closer when I was right in his face.
"And I don't give a shit about that. Either you move, or I break your face at the very least. Unless you want me to scream and have Stepan come out here to demonstrate how deadly his aim can be with you as the target. You are in his building, therefore under his control, and mine since I am his fiancé." Okay, that last part was a lie, but I wanted to drill my importance to Stepan into them for effect. "I only want to talk to her."
When they made no indications to budge, I rolled my eyes and reached out, grabbing the girl who let out a yelp of surprise when I pulled her behind me protectively. The man closest to me grabbed his piece, but the one behind him stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. "If you fuck this up for Mr. Hwei then it's over for you. Just leave it, it's only a talk."
Pulling the girl aside, I moved to the other side of the room and sat her on the couch, handing her some water, which she nervously took from me. "How old are you?" I asked softly, keeping my voice low. "Hey, don't look at them, look at me. They can't hurt you, they can't touch you, not in this building, not ever."
The girl looked at me with much confusion before mumbling under her breath in another language. My Cantonese might be rusty, but I knew enough to be conversational and to understand most things said.
Doing my best to look comforting—which was hard because I had splatters of blood on me and sported a pair of brass knuckles—I switched my tongue. "Hey, I won't let them touch you. I promise, you are safe with me." My words were so stiff since it'd been a long while since I'd spoken Cantonese. "So, how old are you?"
Nervously, her eyes kept bouncing between me and the men around the room, who bore holes into her with their harsh gazes. "If you all don't look away right now then I will put bullets through your eyes." I threatened in English, not bothering to look at them once I had turned my attention back to the girl.
"Take your hand off your fucking gun and look away like she said. You fuck with one of our women and we will descend on all of you like the pack of wolves we are and rip you to shreds." Lev backed me up in a strong and threatening voice.
Taking the girl's hands into my own, I stroked the back of it soothingly. "Please, I really want to help you, I can see it in your eyes." Eyes that still haunted me for some goddamn reason.
"Fourteen." She answered me in a voice barely above a whisper as she hung her head.
"Is he your father?" I doubt it because the poor girl seemed ready to piss herself from how terrified she looked. "Is he hurting you?"
Tears filled her eyes as her hands shot out and grabbed onto my arms. "He… He bought me… P-please don't let him keep me, I don't want him to touch me again, it hurts, please help me, please."
Looking over to Lev, I waved him over and instructed him to call for backup and watch the girl. Then, I went over to the office doors, glaring up at the two men when they tried to block my way. "Move, or I will cut your limbs off. My position in this place is as high as Stepan and his brother, so either you let me through or things get ugly for all of you." At least my threat was good enough for them to act accordingly.
I was more than ready to rip this Mr. Hwei a new one when I threw the doors open and stepped into the office like a damn queen, but one look at him and everything came crumbling down like a house of glass being smashed by a wrecking ball.
Even though he sat across the desk from Stepan a few meters away from me, it felt like he was right beside me. I was back there in half a second; in that hellish place which broke me. It'd been over fifteen years, yet it felt like yesterday that his grubby hands grabbed at my body, at my friend's body.
"Nana."
When did the room become so suffocating?
My mouth felt drier than the Sahara Desert, and every struggling inhale burned at my airways as if I sucked in a lung full of fire. Then everything felt so big as if I shrunk into an ant. Fear turned my legs to stone as the ground swallowed me like cement, and bile choked at my throat from the feeling of my heart twisting at my insides.
"How's my favorite girl been?" Mr. Hwei's voice echoed as if he was miles away.
'My favorite girl. Always so good.'
I'm gonna be sick.
By some God-given miracle, my feet moved. The sound of Stepan's private little office bathroom opening and shutting flew over my head by a mile. Acid burned at my throat as I hunched over the toilet, and the uncontrollable sobs forced more vomit out of me as I hugged the toilet.
Not even my mind was safe from being seared because memories I'd long locked away flooded through the weakened barriers and spread like wildfire in my mind. I became consumed by the flames of my past to where it felt like I was actually back in the damn building as it burned down around. Everything hurt so much, yet I felt so numb at the same time. My body burned even though I was drowning in the subzero Arctic waters.
My body nearly shut down for some reason at the feeling of human contact until I realized it was Stepan because of his voice and safe embrace. "Malenkaya, come back to me, you're not there anymore, you're here, safe with me. I got you. Daddy's got you." He shushed softly while stroking my hair.
"Make him go away, it hurts to see him. He did so much bad to me, to her. He did so much bad things to Nana." Even after all these years, the hatred I felt for all the men who'd hurt me and my friend—Nana—in the brothel wasn't enough to spur me into action.
I thought the dark feeling would be enough for me to enact some form of revenge against the men who'd harm me and Nana if I ever saw them again. Instead, I shut down and cowered away like a damn fool after puking my guts out.
"How about we make him go away forever, together." He suggested, well more so commanded because his stern tone meant he wanted me to be involved. "I'll be right there by your side." He said with a voice full of promise. "You need this Hanna, you need to be the one to plunge the knife into him or put the bullet through him. It's the only way you'll be able to fully free yourself."
"I can't do it, Daddy, it's too much." I couldn't face those memories again, and I might not survive a second wave.
"Yes, you can, tigress. Get your anger out on him, beat him to a bloody pulp, make him suffer as he did to you." No matter how much Stepan tried to convince me, I couldn't do it. I couldn't work myself up enough.
"Stepan, I can't, please, I can't." I begged him with uncontrollable tears as I clung to the front of his shirt. "I'm sorry, I can't."
