Kat
Adrian paces our tiny room. It’s late evening, and we’ve been cooped up here all day. The ship seems still. I think it dropped anchor. Adrian says they have one more port stop tomorrow before they sail across the ocean.
I’m staying alert. It could be my last chance to escape before Adrian brings this thing with my father to a head.
But he’s seemed troubled all nightnot that he’s ever not troubled. My grumpy cinnamon roll. He’s been checking his phone for service and cursing. I get the feeling he’s rethinking his plan. Deciding if he’s really going through with his vendetta.
I’d like to believe it’s because of me.
Because he’s fallen for me as hard as I’ve fallen for him.
If I got to keep you, Kateryna, I would build you an art studio.
He’d said it like it was a pipe dream. Something he didn’t believe was actually possible.
Fear tugs at my solar plexus.
The voices of the crew ring through the halls. They’re obviously drunk againmust be their nighttime ritual. I’ve thought about banging on the door and begging for help but quickly dismissed the notion. I don’t know if any of them speak English or Ukrainian. I also don’t find these guys to be particularly comforting.
But then again, if me getting out of this would save Adrian from his own suicide, maybe I should try it.
I hear one of them shout outside our door and then pound on it.
Adrian flies to our side of the door, leaning his shoulder there. He snarls something in return.
There’s dark laughter from the other side and then shouts to his buddies. Their voices draw nearer.
Adrian shoots me a dark look, and I shiver because I see the killer in him.
“What do they want?” I ask.
“You,” he says grimly.
My hand flutters to my throat where I work to swallow.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I won’t let them have you.”
I feel like puking. What kind of men beat down the door of a woman, thinking they have some right to her?
Rapists, that’s who.
Of course, they saw I was Adrian’s prisoner. Maybe they thought…gross. Did they think I was some kind of sex slave? I’ve heard of such a thing in the news, but…
And that’s when things click together in my head.
About Nadia.
My father.
Oh God.
Could it be something as sordid and awful as that? There’s more pounding and shouts at the door.
No. I don’t want to believe it. Yet all the pieces fit. I was having a hard time seeing my father being interested in someone’s sister. I mean, maybe she’s quite beautiful, I don’t know, but my dad already has lots of women at his beck and call.
Oh… I almost wretch. What if all of them were…unwilling?
No, surely they would’ve asked me for help. He wouldn’t bring that around me.
But maybe it’s a business for him. I always suspected he was a drug dealer. Maybe it’s actually…humans.
The door is locked, but apparently, they’ve found a key because Adrian watches the handle turn. He lunges for his bagI’m guessing he has a weapon there, but it’s too late.
They are inside the room.
I try to scream, but no sound comes out.
Adrian attacks, and he’s good. He punches one, slams the door into another’s head and kicks a third, but there are five of them and just one of him.
I dive for the bag, assuming he has something in there that would be of use, but the biggest, smelliest crew guy grabs me. His meaty forearm clamps across my windpipe, and he drags me to the door with a gleeful shout.
Adrian’s still fighting hard, but he’s on the ground. He grabs the legs out from the guy closest to him while he takes kicks to the ribs and gut.
“Adrian!” I choke.
When he sees me being dragged out the door, he bellows in rage, surging back to his feet only to get knocked down again.
The last thing I see before I’m carried off is Adrian’s limp form being pulled across the floor.
Adrian
I spit blood down the front of myself when I regain consciousness. When I attempt to throw myself onto my feet I’m stopped byoh the fucking ironya goddamn zip tie around my wrists. It’s one of my ownI’d left the baggie out on the floor, and it’s attached to the metal frame of the bed.
“Kateryna!” I shout, yanking against it.
Where is she? Fuck, if they defile her before I get to her…
No. I won’t let it happen. And I will kill every last one of those cocksuckers for trying.
I hear her scream in replyshe’s in one of the other bunkrooms down here.
Fuck. Me.
“Don’t touch her,” I yell in Russian. “Leon Poval will have your head!”
Whether they believe I work for him or know that she’s his daughter, I pray invoking his name will stop whatever is going on in there.
I wrestle with my zip tie, my muscles shaking with effort. I’m attached to the cot, but not the legI can’t slip it off. I can’t drag the bed, either. The damn thing is bolted to the wall, as things are on a ship.
My knife is right there in my back pocket, but I can’t reach it. Why in the fuck didn’t I use it on those mudaks?
I hear Kat’s screams, and they clear my mind of all else but saving her. Gripping the rail of the bed I hoist my body into an inversion, lifting my hips above my head. I shake my legs and the knife falls out, except it lands on the floor, not the mattress as I’d hoped.
No matter.
Dropping back to my knees, I corral the knife between my two knees, then pinch them together and lift to pass it up to my wiggling fingers. I drop it twice, cursing and shaking with the effort, but I finally catch it in my fingers. It takes some work but I’m able to wrench it open and awkwardly turn it to saw off the zip tie.
Free!
“Kateryna!” I shout again. I would tell her I’m coming, but that would tip off the crew if they speak English.
She shrieks like someone hit her.
They will die. In the next sixty seconds.
I find the gun and ammo in my bag, load the pistol, and run toward the sound of Kat’s screams.
I find two of the assholes crowded in the doorway, two more inside, and one trying to mount Kat on the bed as she fights like a little wild cat.
I aim and fire one shot almost point-blank.
Then another.
A third.
I don’t get to fire the fourth because I’m attacked by George, who knocks me to the ground. The gun skitters across the floor. He punches me in the ear, gets an uppercut to my jaw before I manage to elbow him in the nose then flip our bodies, so I’m on top.
My vision bleeds red. I’m taking revenge, not just for Kat, but for Nadia and every other human being ever treated like property. Ever abused for someone else’s amusement.
By now, the asshole who was on top of Kat has joined the fight, though. He wraps a meaty arm under my chin to choke off my air. It only turns me more ferocious. I use his grip on me, lifting both my feet to deliver a knockout blow to the guy beneath me.
I struggle, but I can’t seem to get myself free of Grigor’s hold. I twist and turn, throw elbows, and kick behind me to no avail. My vision starts to turn hazy around the edges then black. Stars dance before my eyes. The sound of Kat’s sobs keeps me fighting. If I go down, she’ll be alone with this guy. There’s no way he wouldn’t take out his rage at what I’ve done on her. I can’t let that happen.
As my vision dims, the crack of metal hitting bone rings in my ears, and then I’m suddenly free falling to my knees. Gasping for breath. I stagger back to my feet to find Kat standing behind my assailant with a long-handled pipe wrench in her hands. She looks wild and vicious. Her lip is bleeding, and there’s a red mark on her cheek that looks like it will bruise.
Grigor collapses to the side. I pick up the pistol and place a bullet in his head and another in George’s.
“Kat,” I croak, regret so deep I’m drowning in it.
It’s unforgivable. I can’t believe I did this to her. I want to punch my own face in. Shoot my own kneecaps.
But instead of hitting me with the wrench, she drops it and launches herself into my arms, her legs wrapping tightly around my waist, her arms strangling me.
“Kat,” I choke again. I drop the pistol and hold her, walking swiftly out of the room and away from the horrible scene. I don’t want her to have to look at the mess I made of the crew. The faces of the men who tried to rape her.
“I’m so fucking sorry. So damn sorry.” I carry her up to the deck to suck in the sea air. “I never should have let this happen to you.”
She squeezes me even tighter. I can feel her shaking, and now I wish I hadn’t brought her out here where it’s cold. I carry her to the helm. “Adrian,” she gasps. “Who’s going to sail the ship?”
“Listen to me, Kat.” I sit her down on the counter and clasp her head in my hands. “I’m going to get you off this ship. I just need to get a little closer to land, and then we’ll take the tender to shore.”
She nods her head. “Yeah. Okay.”
Relief that she at least trusts me enough to get her out of this shitstorm hits me square in the chest. I don’t deserve one speck of that trust, but I cling to it, anyway.
“Come here.” I wrap her in my arms again. “Tell me you’re okay. Please, tell me he didn’t-”
“No,” she says. “I kicked him in the balls.”
I cradle her face in my hands and press a kiss to her forehead. “Good girl.”
“Adrian” She blinks tears back. “What happened to Nadia?”
My own eyes sting, and for a moment, I can’t speak at all. Then I simply nod.
Her lips tremble. “Is my dad a sex trafficker?”
My stomach’s tied up in a knot. I wanted to keep this from her, to not taint her with the worst of it, but it’s too late. I allowed her to be tainted by bringing her on this ship. Treating her like a slave.
I manage a jerky nod.
A tear spills down her cheek. “I hate him,” she sobs.
I hold her and stroke the back of her head. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve left you out of it. I never should have let this happen. I’m so sorry, Kateryna.”
“But she’s safe now? Tell me, Adrian. I deserve to know.”
I stroke my hands down her arms, and she presses her forehead to my chest. I don’t want to tell her any of it. Some is too horrible to even speak of. But I would give Kat anything she asked of me right now, so I speak across the rust in my throat. “She was grabbed in a parking lot and taken to America on a freight ship. She spent four months in the basement of your father’s sofa factory chained to a bed.”
“The one you burned down.”
“Yes.”
“H-how did she get free?”
“I followed the trail to Chicago. I got a job with the bratva and used their connections to track down the operation. There were eight girls down there when I found them.”
Kat’s tears wet my shirt. She sits back and wipes them with her fingers. “If I were you, I would want revenge, too.”
Funny, but my revengenow that I’ve had a tastefeels so worthless now.