Page 8 of Bratva Warriors 5

Nikoli nodded. “We will be sure to notify the cooks.”

Sergi agreed with his own nod, then looked over at Nikoli and said, “Let’s see what Kirill found, then we need to talk to Briar. Maybe she knows something about this woman. We need to figure out why her own family has done this to her. Nothing we found so far even mentions her and I want to know why.”

The three of them left.

Gennadi and the doctor were now there alone.

The doctor just shook his head. Then he looked at Gennadi and admitted, “I’ve seen the worst of the worst in this job but I’ve never seen anything this cruel in my life. For a mother to turn her own back on one of her own children like this? It’s inhuman.”

A lone tear ran down Aleria’s cheek and soaked into her pillow, but she did not open her eyes as she heard everything they had said. She felt her dog at her back and for the first time in her life Aleria realized she felt safe. She felt also for the first time in her life that she had a chance to survive. Too bad it would be the same when she left here but in the meantime, she could heal up and rest.

She felt tired and she soon fell into a fitful sleep. So many memories ran through her mind, memories from her life growing up under her mother’s thumb or should she say... her boot. She barely survived living in that house. Between her mother and her three brothers it wasn’t easy growing up there.

Then the final day, when her mother threw her away for the last time, was the worst day of her life.. She tried to shut down the memories from that day but they were stronger than she was just then. So the nightmare day came back to her in living color and pain.

A scene she would never forget or forgive....

It wasn’t even dawn yet when her door slammed open. Greta and her brother Varga stormed into her bedroom. Greta began screaming the moment she stepped into her room. “You little bitch, how dare you steal money from me!” Then she grabbed her daughter by the hair and dragged her out of her bed.

Aleria fell onto the floor and her brother kicked her in the face, breaking her nose. Tears and sobs added to their accusations. Her mother kicked her in the jaw and Aleria felt pain as her jaw broke.

Then Varga began hitting her.

After a few more hits, her mother dragged her through the small house. She opened the door and threw her down the steps.

Aleria flopped down into the snow bank by the back door. Aleria screamed just as the back door shut and she finally sat up to stare at the house she knew would be locked against her.

She shivered in the cold as she had only been dressed in a T-shirt and pajama bottoms. She had nothing on her feet for shoes, but she knew she wouldn’t go back, she couldn’t. Her eyes were blurry but not with tears. Varga’s kick had broken her nose but it had also blurred her eyes. She finally got to her feet and stumbled away as the sun was coming up. Her jaw was killing her yet she already knew she wouldn’t be allowed to go back inside her mother’s house.

It wasn’t until two days later that someone found her in an alley all beaten up and unconscious. They said later that she was barely breathing at that time. They called the police, who then took her to the hospital and the doctors had to wire her jaw shut after repairing the damage her family had done.

They fixed her jaw and kept her long enough for the worst bruises to fade away but she never mentioned her eyes. She could still see well enough to get around. One of the nurses gave her proper clothes and in the middle of the night she escaped the hospital. She feared that they would din her mother and try to return her. She would not survive that.

Since she had nowhere to go she just wandered the streets for the first week. A few of the homeless gave her food or a soda. She also had a bad headache during that week. The doctors had reset her nose but her head ached fiercely at times. Then she found a pair of old sunglasses on a sidewalk and her eyes adjusted to wearing them. It didn’t help her eyes and over time her eyesight just got blurrier. But wearing the glasses helped with the strong light.... The rest of it was years of scraping to get by. She went to shelters to get food. Churches would help her at times....

The memories faded as she heard her name being called and she reluctantly opened her eyes.

She could sense that Buttercup had moved in closer. He nudged her awake.

The man they called Gennadi sat beside the bed as his face swam in her vision.

Aleria sighed hard and she just stared at him for a long moment.

Gennadi smiled and offered her a glass with a straw. “I know you didn’t eat much this morning but can you at least try to drink this?” he asked her in a gentle voice.

She didn’t say anything yet but she did sit up and take the shake from him. She sipped the drink but she didn’t finish it. She gave the glass to him. Then she leaned back against the headboard and looked at the opposite wall. “So now what happens?” she asked softly.

Gennadi shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not big enough to know what the plans are.”

Aleria snorted. “You and me both. But I do know that plans are being made to storm the hotel to take as many Bratva men down as possible. They are coming to free Greta and Bernadette. Along with anyone else that’s here.”

Gennadi frowned. “This is a Bratva hotel, they can’t even get through the door here.”

Aleria shook her head. “You think that guy last night would have stopped at killing one man? Don’t you believe it. He would have kept killing until someone shot him. And if one could get in, do you think for one moment he would be the only one? Oh, hell no, they would just keep coming. And if they can’t get in one way they would start kidnapping the family of the men here. No one would be safe. Those men were recruited to be tough and unfeeling. They wouldn’t care if Greta told them to kidnap a woman or a child. And they would not be gentle with them either.”

“You think we don’t protect our families?” Gennadi growled.

She shook her head. “That’s not what I said, don’t you put words in my mouth. I’ve been watching you guys and you do protect your families as best as you can, but think about this for a moment...can you stop a bullet? Can you stop a knife in the hands of a man that doesn’t care whether he lives or dies?”