Luka
After the raid at the casino, I’m still angry that we weren’t able to subdue Dmitri, but the fact that he was so prepared to run instead of fight is a good indicator that he’s losing ground fast. I have a lot more confidence that we’ll be able to circumvent his next effort to take over our territory.
Pavel, Leo, and I are all at the warehouse again with the rest of the crew, strategizing our next moves and planning an ambush on Damien’s home just as Pavel had wanted to. We came to the agreement that we could break into the house as long as Damien was the only person who got hurt.
His family has nothing to do with this. I stand by that.
We’re about to begin working through our plan together when Pavel gets a phone call and immediately steps out to take it.
I pause my speech, partially to prevent Pavel from missing it but also to emphasize my annoyance with him for leaving mid-sentence, which I recognize is petty of me. I hate people leaving me hanging, especially in an important meeting.
After only a moment or two, Pavel comes rushing back into the main room, his face white as cocaine. At first, I’m concerned that something has happened with his daughter, and I’m suddenly embarrassed about the way I acted when he walked out.
Unfortunately, the reality is even worse. “Dmitri has Rachel and Anna,” he blurts.
My heart skips a beat, and my stomach twists in a knot. “Excuse me, what?”
Leo looks at me, a rare glimmer of familial concern in his eyes.
“Dmitri has Anna and Rachel,” Pavel repeats. “I don’t know how he got them, but he’s asking for fifty million dollars to keep both of them alive.”
How did this happen? I was keeping them safe.
They must have left the house. That’s the only way Dmitri would be able to get to them.
“Where the fuck are they?” I reply, doing my best to comprehend the situation without absolutely losing my fucking mind. It’s not time for that. Once I find Dmitri, I’ll be seeing red.
“He said to bring the money to Blue Silk, so I assume they’re also there,” Pavel says.
All eyes turn to me, and my heart sinks. I’ve been to Blue Silk once, and it was so devoid of empathy or humanity that I made the choice never to go there again, no matter how cheap the drinks and dances were. The idea of Anna and Rachel being there, scared for their lives, makes me want to die.
Somehow, this is my fault.
“Fuck,” I say, shaking my head at the news. “Okay, you and Leo are going to come with me to Blue Silk, and we’re not bringing any fucking money either. We’re going to put Dmitri’s head on a pike. Everyone else, carry out the original plan and surround Damien’s house. Do not harm anybody except for Damien, or you’ll be joining Dmitri,” I order, feeling my heart race as my blood boils.
Everyone in the warehouse scrambles to action, and I rush out the door with Pavel and Leo.
As we reach the car, my mind begins to race. How could Dmitri have gotten ahold of both Rachel and Anna? Would they have gone with him willingly somehow? Anna’s too smart to believe that just anybody would be associated with me, especially someone she’s never seen before. There’s no way they were coaxed there.
The only thing I can conclude is that they were kidnapped when they tried to leave the house.
But I fucking told them to stay home.
I take the driver’s seat as we pile into the car, wasting no time hitting the road and tearing through traffic on the way to Blue Silk. That club was one of Alexei’s favorite places to spend money and do blow, and I always considered him morally questionable because of it. Even if all of the sex clubs in the city were overrun by human cockroaches, Blue Silk would have the most. I never understood his preoccupation with the squalor of it all, but seeing Dmitri use this location as some kind of symbolism bothers me to no end.
I hate to think of what Anna and Rachel must be thinking right now. Do they feel betrayed by me for allowing them to come across so much danger? I was gone for one night. Even the most prolific criminals in the city can leave their houses for one night without their families getting kidnapped. There’s something else I must’ve overlooked, some key piece of information that was lost in the chaos.
But I won’t know what until I get to Anna.
The drive to the club is tense, and I find myself getting restless as we near the bay. I knew I was going to end up killing Dmitri as soon as I had him in the right position, but now I regret not putting a bullet through his skull back at the casino. He ran like a coward and kidnapped the woman I love instead of fighting back like a man.
It’s at this point that I need to admit to myself that I do love Anna, and I love her more deeply than I’ve loved anyone or anything in my entire life. The depth of emotion that I feel for her is so vivid and intense that it scares me, and I’ve tried fighting it for all this time.
Why has it taken her being in danger for me to fully realize it? Love as a concept always scared me because I hated the vulnerability of it all. I’ve always existed for a power struggle, and I always came out on top. The reality of love is that there is no power struggle, and I still don’t fully know how to grasp it.
But I have to.
I have to for her.
Even if it means I must show her the parts of me that I hate, the places in me where the darkness of my past feeds, I have to do it for her. All I need is her love in return, and with time I can understand what I’ve been missing.
Before Anna, I spent my time chasing women I didn’t even like, women who wanted nothing to do with the human inside of the shell. All they wanted was the money that the shell would shower them with just to maintain their affections for just a bit longer.
What has Anna ever asked of me? It should have been made clear to me as soon as I met her that she needed nothing but someone to hold onto. She never made it about the things I could buy for her.
I’m brutally snapped from my internal monologue as we finally arrive at the club. I can feel the heat of righteous anger pooling in my stomach as we get out of the car and approach the building. Even from the outside, it radiates hopelessness, with bars on the windows and cigarettes littering the doorway.
This place is sick, and behind those crumbling brick walls is pure evil. I’m stepping into hell, but that’s fitting for a sinner like me.
The devil had better watch his back tonight. I’m coming to kill.
Without hesitation, I lead the way into the building with my gun drawn. The dancers on stage don’t even seem bothered by our display, and they give us a quick once-over before they resume providing lap dances to bloated day drunks.
I almost wish they would scream, react, do something. It would give me some faith that they haven’t seen worse.
But life is cruel.
Nobody bothers us as we begin to comb the place. Even security seems to have vanished, which I’d find odd if I weren’t so wrapped up in finding Anna and Rachel. Those two are the only thing that matter to me right now.
I’m about to take on the changing room when I hear Leo shouting from a few meters away. “I found them!” he screams, pointing toward an open door.
Pavel and I converge on him, following close behind as he barrels down the steps of what appears to be a basement staircase.
When we reach the bottom of the crumbling cement steps, my heart jumps into my throat.
Anna and Rachel are there, tied to chairs so tightly that they can’t even move a finger, their eyes pleading for salvation as Dmitri holds a gun to Anna’s head.