32
Summer
One hour later we’re walking up the side of an alleyway in downtown.
I have no idea where we’re going and the only assurance I have is Eric’s warm hand covering mine, holding mine.
We were silent on the drive here and we’re silent now, but everything in my head is a mess and so loud I can’t pick my thoughts apart.
When we get down the alley, I see Borya. At least the sight of someone I know soothes me somewhat, although I still have no idea what’s happening.
“It’s not a pretty sight, Boss,” Borya states. “And it smells like piss and shit inside there.”
“She won’t be in there for long,” Eric replies.
I tug on his hand, and he looks at me.
“What’s going on Eric?”
“Justice, Babydoll. Justice.”
The first thing I think is he got Robert, but he said he’d tell me if he did. Is this his way of telling me.
“Did you get Robert?”
“No, the other monster.”
My lips part in horror because there’s only one person that could be.
Ted.
My soul shivers and my legs feel like deadweights, but I move when he pulls on my hand.
We go through a metal door and into a place that looks like a meat locker.
It’s dimly lit and eerie, like somewhere you’d find in a horror film.
We go down a set of stone stairs and then we’re in a basement surrounded by ten men who undoubtedly look like mafia men—a mixture of Russian and Italian.
Eric nods at one of the men and as the man steps aside I see the monster from my nightmares. The monster who started all of this.
Ted.
Ted sits in a chair with his hands and feet bound with tight ropes. Blood covers his white dress shirt, and his face is marred with bruises.
How the hell did Eric get him?
How?
As Ted lifts his head to look at me, I remember the last time we saw each other.
I remember how he threatened to kill me if I didn’t get rid of the baby. He waited for the right moment to strike which was the day Scarlett left to go and live with Dad. I went to a seedy motel and that’s where his goons caught up with me. I barely got away from them when one of them fired a gun—another bullet meant for me. That’s what made me trip down the stairs and fall.
Someone heard them and that’s the only thing that stopped them from pursuing me, but it was too late. I was already bleeding by the time I got to the hospital.
I return my gaze to Eric when the man who is standing by Ted holds out a TV remote to him. Eric releases my hand to go to him and take it.
“Thanks Pakhan,” Eric replies, and I know just from the word Pakhan I was right about the men in the room.