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Another slap.
“Watch her face,” Genno said. “We have to meet them soon.”
The cryptic warning kept me from getting hit yet again, but I didn’t feel any gratitude towards my asshole cousin. And who were we meeting?
My father leaned close, allowing me to smell the gin on his breath and see every broken blood vessel in his hate-filled eyes. He gripped my chin, digging his short fingernails into my jaw and forcing my cheeks into a semblance of a smile. He turned to Genno with a laugh.
“She’s still pretty, eh? They’ll be happy enough. My little love taps put some color in her cheeks.” He scowled back down at me. “You’re very pale for living in this land of sunshine for so long, Kira.”
Hearing him say my name turned my stomach, and I wrenched out of his foul grip. My mother was the one who named me, long before she realized what a monster she’d married. I think she would have drowned me at birth if she had any inkling of what was in store for both of us, and I still think she was happy when the alcoholism he drove her to finally ended her suffering when I was six.
“I suppose she’ll do,” Genno said. “Beggars can’t be choosy, after all. He’ll take her or we'll walk, right?”
Fear was trying to get me to ask who I was supposed to look pretty for, but what shred of pride I had left refused to let me.
My father nodded, finally moving away so I could breathe. He and Genno huddled up behind a long marble counter decorated with vases full of bright flowers, another mockery to how I felt. I started wiggling my wrists out of the zip ties, keeping my eyes peeled on the door that I thought led out. Out where, I had no idea. It was my only hope, though. My father poured a drink and, not for the first time, I wished it would kill him the way it killed my poor mother. Of course, the devil was stronger.
Once my hands were free, I darted my gaze between my two captors and that door. It could be locked. It could lead to a hallway with another of my father’s goons waiting to catch me. I looked past the windows to the balcony. We were far enough up that I’d break a few bones if I tried it, and at the moment, a few broken bones seemed more savory than whatever they were plotting for me.
I ditched the balcony plan—too close to them. One of them would grab me before I could get the sliding glass door open. Taking a deep breath, I made a break for the other door, swinging it open. The hallway was wide and clear of anyone who might hinder me. I saw a bank of elevators and, just beyond it, another door that had to be a stairwell. My feet seemed to have wings as I raced toward it, and my hand closed over the handle.
A shout and thuds sounded behind me, but I yanked on the door and flew through it, crashing down the cement stairs so fast I nearly toppled over the guard rails and into the abyss far below. At the first landing, a massive weight crushed me against the wall from behind, a hand gripping the back of my neck and pinning me there.
Genno swore at me in Russian. I swore back at him in English, and he pulled my hair back as if he wanted to introduce my face to the wall.
“Remember I have to look pretty,” I said breathlessly, hopelessly.
His fingers dug into my neck but he yanked me back toward the beautiful prison without smashing my face. Small victories.
My father only looked tired of my antics. “You need to stop now,” he said. “You were born an Orlov, and you’ll die an Orlov. Whether you die today or not is up to you.”
I wanted to spit at him and forced a bitter laugh. “You need me for something. You’re not going to kill me.”
He sighed, taking out his phone. He pressed the screen a few times and then thrust it in my face. A video of my childhood friend, who tried to warn me, loaded. She was sitting in a dark room, a room I recognize all too well. The basement of my childhood home. When people went down there, I never saw them again. Not alive, anyway.
“You fucking bastard,” I shouted, kicking at whatever was in reach of my feet. I hit my father in the shin and managed a swipe at Genno’s ankle.
“I consider this girl a traitor,” my father said, ignoring my outburst. “She found out I was here and tried to interfere in my business. Now, she’s waiting to find out her fate.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“That’s completely up to you, dear daughter.” He kicked me hard as payment for my attempt to defend myself, sending a pain shooting up my shin. With a nod to Genno, my asshole cousin shoved me back onto the couch, and my father leaned over me once more. “Yes, I need you for something. It’s time to show some family loyalty. Or loyalty to this girl. Do you have any of it?”
“You’ll let her go if I do what you ask?”
He shrugged, as close to a yes as I knew I’d get. My head throbbed, my back was on fire from getting tossed to the ground and slammed into a wall. My leg might just have been fractured, it hurt so badly, and my face stung from not just the slaps but from my shredded pride.
“What do I have to do?” I finally whispered, unable to look up but sensing their smug victory all the same.
As my father explained, my rage grew to almost consume me. Was it only this morning that I was pouring my orange juice, not exactly looking forward to the day’s work, but still as happy as I hoped to be in my situation? I was free this morning, the only thing I ever wanted to be.
Now I was supposed to marry some mafia kingpin to appease his lust for power? Possibly trapped with someone as bad as my father? Every fiber of my being screamed at me to rebel, fight against this until it killed me if that’s what it took. My father was a liar, a fiend. There was no guarantee he’d keep his word. The only thing that kept me from making a break for the balcony was knowing this strange man he was selling me to couldn’t possibly be worse. No one was worse than Artur Orlov. And I couldn’t be responsible for my friend’s death. I had to hold onto hope that perhaps I could still escape, once she was safe. If I did what I was told, maybe, just maybe I could save her.
“When do I have to meet him?” I asked, looking down at my scraped, dirty knees and my plain, poor quality clothes.
My father tapped at his phone, giving me a triumphant grin. “As soon as you clean yourself up.”
“Today? Now? Looking like this?”
