AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He will be your tormentor, but he will also be the person who will make the pain go away. I was cruel because I needed you to submit…any way that I could. My ways are less painful than Popov’s. He would destroy you. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen what he’s done to my sister.” He shakes his head slowly as if attempting to rid whatever memory plagues him.
“So that’s why you treated me…touched me the way that you have?” My disappointment shines. “To prepare me for what Popov has in store for me?”
His chest rises and falls, and my heart sinks. But it kick-starts back to life.
“No, ah???. I touched you because I wanted to, and I hate myself for being so weak.” He runs a hand down his face in exhaustion.
“Why?” I don’t understand.
“Because my weakness is Zoey’s demise,” he explains, his tone pained. “You were supposed to be the solution I’ve been searching for, for over two and a half years. But this…pull I feel toward you, it will destroy so many lives.”
And there’s the kicker.
His feelings for me result in his sister being imprisoned forever. I am a trade for Zoey. For his freedom. I finally understand why he’s done it. You sacrifice everything for the people you love.
“What happened to Zoey?” It feels alien to speak her name as for so long, it was forbidden.
He laughs, but nothing is humorous about the sound. “It happened so long ago, but this memory is one that will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
I dare not speak and allow him the time he needs.
He stares off into the distance as if he’s going back in time. “Zoey is my younger sister. She’s always been the free-spirited one while I was happy to follow the norm. She would light up whatever room she walked into. My parents adored her. We all did.” His Adam’s apple bobs, and I hold my breath.
“Her dream was to backpack around the world. To most, it would stay a dream but not to Zoey. So one day, she packed up her stuff, bought a one-way ticket to London, and left. She sent the occasional email, but she wanted to backpack off the grid. To see the grittier side to life. She got a lot more than she bargained for.
“I was busy at work but living a good life. The last time we spoke, she had called and asked if she could borrow some money. For some reason, I snapped. I told her to stop wasting her life and to come home. To get a job and to be an adult. I was so stupid. So narrow-minded. I should have known something was wrong as she’d never asked for money before.
“When my mom called and told me she hadn’t heard from Zoey in over two months, I knew something was wrong. We called the police, but without knowing where she was, they had nothing to go on.
“We had no idea what to do. At the time, I was dating a woman named Jessica.”
I curl my fists, leaving crescent moon prints in my palms.
“She was an IT specialist and was able to trace the last email Zoey sent. It was to her best friend, asking if she could wire her some cash. She was in Moscow, and she had run out of money. She asked Betty not to tell me or my parents because she didn’t want to worry us. She had started working to earn some money. Her plans were to stay in Moscow for no longer than a month. All we had to go on was that she was working at a bar. No name. No address. Nothing.
“Something didn’t sit right with me, but I didn’t know what it was. My parents were sick with worry, so I decided to go look for her. I told work I would be back in a week, two weeks tops. But little did I know, I would never go back to America again.”
I gasp, shaking my head in shock. “What? You stayed in Russia?”
“Yes,” he replies, nodding once.
“What about your parents?”
He inhales sharply. “I broke their hearts all over again.”
I chew the inside of my cheek to stop the tears because I don’t want to cry. Besides, what right do I have? Here he stands, suffering the memories, only for me to understand. I owe him the respect of listening to his story without tears.
“I didn’t know what I was in for. I searched every fucking bar, but no one wanted to talk to a privileged American boy. They pretended they didn’t speak English. But they all knew what I was there for.
“I looked for Zoey for over two weeks but found nothing. My parents told me to come home, but I just couldn’t shake that feeling that something wasn’t right, and with every corner I turned, that feeling just got worse. I was desperate to find her, so desperate that I did something that changed both our lives forever.”
One decision changed the course of Saint’s life. It’s unfair it was the wrong choice to make.
“I was getting nowhere it seems because I was asking the wrong people. Moscow can be beautiful. But mostly, it can be cruel. I stumbled across a group of men who were nothing but trouble. That was the night I met Kazimir. I asked if he had seen Zoey. They all looked at her photo, and I knew they had, so I wasn’t leaving until they told me where she was.
“But that’s not how it works. These people, they abide by a different set of rules. They told me they would give me information if I did something for them. I was to deliver a small parcel the next night to an address they gave me. I had no idea what it was, but I didn’t care. I agreed.”
This is where his tale turns.
