“See what?”
I turn and stare at the empty space, the space where my wife was standing only five minutes ago as I ripped her world apart.
“She was everything.”
THE END – PART 1
Part two will be released in a little over 4 weeks so I promise the wait won’t be long!
And now a sneak peak from a good friend of mines newest book.
Death’s Shadow by TJ Hamilton.
Make sure you check it out. It’s an amazing read.
THE moment I left Australia, I knew my life would change forever. But I never thought I would lose my soul to my new country, Russia. All I’ve heard since arriving into this place is the constant sound of a drip, echoing in the distance. Everything around me is black and wet . . .
Until he comes. He takes me to another room. He licks all the parts of my body that he likes, and hurts the parts he doesn’t. I only see the whites of his eyes. I don’t look into his irises. I can’t bear to see the evil within him. Even when he commands that I look at him, I look through him instead.
They told me I’d be part of a Russian ballet company, but the company I keep here is far from the joy I ever felt from dancing. The four walls that surround me are as decayed as my rotting soul and the ground below me is cold and harsh against my skin. My eyes focus on the glimmer of light that seeps in from under the door, but it doesn’t illuminate the space enough to focus on anything within the room. I stare into the darkness around me again and pick the sound I can hear nearby. It’s quiet, and quick. I know it’s a roach. I slam my hand down next to me and feel the little creature wriggle underneath my palm. I cup my hand there and feel it tickle against me as it desperately scrambles to get away. We’re all trying to get away from something in this place.
I never thought my life would end up with me living in a black, damp hole, but here I am. I never thought I’d eat roaches either, but as I desperately push the squirming insect into my mouth, I know things are different now. This is no longer life—this is survival.
ONE
DMITRI Kozar is dead. The horrors I suffered when I first arrived into Russia had been pushed to the back of my existence, and there they’d stayed for ten long years. I didn’t see a way out of the darkness that had been buried deep inside me, until today. My only options before this day were to remain the property of the Bratva. But Dmitri is dead, and I’m free.
I cradle into Luka and cry harder as he holds me tight.
My head spins at the possibility that the evil in my life can now all be over. I open my eyes and stare into the shadows of Luka’s embrace. Dmitri, Dima, the devil himself, was shot right in front of me, but no one will ever know the truth about the person who killed him. The assassin was my friend, and she has shown me a way out of my life as I know it. They will search for the assassin, but she just left with one of their own. She was allowed into the inner circle of the Bratva, just like me. Now, I can use whatever advantage the Bratva has given me, and kill them all.
The warmth and support of Luka’s strong arms make me wonder how someone like him could still want to be near me. I’m damaged goods. He knew me before I was Russia’s most loved ballerina.
Luka is the only man I have ever loved, but my love for him is forbidden.
Men yell orders to one another from the unglazed window of the building. They fuss over Dima’s mangled body that fell from the room in the ten-story building where I’m standing now, and landed on the street below.
The joy of watching Dima die has evoked something deep inside me; it has awoken the dark beast that has lain dormant since the day I arrived into Russia. This feeling is addictive, and I’m already a slave to it. I need more joy in my life; I need it to mend the piece of me that’s broken.
My rambling thoughts are swept away by Luka’s touch as he gently strokes the back of my hair. He’s risking so much by touching me like this, but he’s never cared about the repercussions. I want nothing more than to be loved by him, but he can never know the things I’m about to set out to do. He will never understand why I need to do this—no one will. No one truly knows the extent of what the Bratva have done to me, and most of it I would rather forget. But to release the evil, I need to keep those memories close, to fuel my hate for the men who have made me the person I am today. They took so much from me so in return, I will take their lives.
“I want you to free all the girls at Dima’s house,” I whisper to Luka, “You’re in charge now, right?” I finally find the strength to look him in the eye.
His vivid blue eyes are my home. They are the most beautiful color and when he looks at me, everything is okay, and safe.
His eyes soften. “Of course.”
Now that Luka is in charge of the Bratva family in Russia, I can do anything I want. Right now, that means freedom for so many young girls.
The room of the abandoned building becomes a bustling scene as heavily armed guards of the Bratva gang scour, looking for Dima’s killer.
“It must’ve been a sniper from another building.” The head guard, Boris, tells Luka.
Luka nods. “I told him to keep away from that empty window.” He looks down at me under his bulging arm. “It’s just lucky you weren’t near the window either.”
I smile back at his words. He really cares more about my safety more than the fact his cousin is dead?
“Come on, Tia, I’ll get you home. We just have one stop off on the way.” Luka shoots me a quick wink.
Every time he calls me Tia, it warms my fractured heart.
I dare to glance at Boris. His brow is furrowed tight and his eyes beam nervously, not able to remain in one place. His whole demeanor looks distraught over his boss’s shock assassination, and thankfully pays no notice to Luka touching me like this.
“It was awful, Luka,” I say, purely for Boris to hear. “We were just talking to Dima when his chest started to burst, blood exploded out of his body. I knew exactly what was happening to him, and then he fell out of the window. I thought we were next so we hid in the corner. Luka, I’m so sorry about Dima. I’m so sorry.” I start crying again, and Luka holds me to him.
Boris sigh heavily. “I think it must’ve been the gang from the southern border, near Ukraine.” He spits on the ground after speaking about them. “They have wanted this port for many years. Now that their boarder is under watch from the world’s media, business is too difficult to negotiate in those territories . . . Pakhan.” He bows his head in respect. “What retaliation do you want to organize against them?”
I smile at Boris calling Luka Pakhan, so I push my face into Luka’s chest, hoping it shields my satisfaction. Pakhan is the highest position within the family, and Boris is now paying Luka the utmost compliment by acknowledging him as the new leader. The man who I love more than anything on this earth has now been deemed the godfather of the family. For as long as this remains the case, I am protected from everyone.
“Gather the soldiers. I want to show our friends in the east exactly who they attempted to terrorize. We will not be intimidated. Bratva will remain the authority within this country,” Luka responds defiantly.
I squeeze Luka. His strong words make him sound like a man rather than the boy that I’ve known for six years.
TWO
THE car slowly rolls through the high ironclad gates that border off Dmitri Kozar’s mansion from the rest of the world. Thick woodland spanning twenty-odd kilometres in depth also surrounds the border. It’s easy to get lost in an area that thick . . . and that suited Dima perfectly. I shudder as we pass the trees whose branches tightly knit into one another, creating ominous shadows across the long driveway. I can’t even begin to process how many unloved girls the forest has claimed when they tried to escape. How many bodies may never be found because their family sold them to this life in the first place?
I learnt about the woodland the first time I tried to escape Dima’s mansion. The tracking dogs found me after two days, and I wasn’t fed for two weeks as my
punishment. I learnt quickly not to do it again.
I look over at Luka behind the wheel, but he doesn’t react the same way as I do about the woodland, he doesn’t know the secrets it holds.
The radio in Luka’s sports car begins playing a song by Kylie Minogue and shakes the thoughts of my past. There is nothing left of the life I had in Australia.
A tear rolls down my right cheek, but I discreetly brush it away before Luka sees it. I want to eradicate my past and claim my life back forever. I’m tired of trying to escape reality, and I know this will put a stop to it, once and for all.
Luka’s hand rests gently on top of mine. “Ready?”
I nod, fearing what I’m about to find at the back of Dima’s mansion. Luka knows where the girls are kept, just like the rest of the Bratva gang. I know Luka never agreed with what Dima did, but he had little power to stop him. No one did. That’s all about to change now.
I follow Luka through a tall doorway at the entrance to the mansion. The mansion is a seventeenth century palace, once owned by royalty. Guards pace the front steps of the grand building. The largest of the four nods to Luka as we pass. I wonder whether they already know the fate of their previous leader? The mansion’s staff continues with their work, watering plants and dusting ornate dressers, and pay no attention to Luka and I as we make our way through the grand hallways. Gold embellishes almost every inch of the old palace, from the frames of the massive hanging portraits, the walls’ golden features that frame the portrait’s frames, through to the intricate moulded vines, weaving around the ceiling above. We pass through several sitting rooms before we walk through the staff-run kitchen at the back. A small modest door opens onto a sprawling green pasture behind the mansion. A terrace to the right of us always reminds me of the Von Trapp’s mansion in The Sound of Music, with it’s checked square pavers and concreted railings sectioning off the area from the rolling green gardens below. I follow Luka down past the pristine swimming pool. I catch him glancing back at me and he offers his hand. I take it and grip on as he opens the door to the pool-house. Once we step inside the seemingly normal room, the bile rises in my throat. I never wanted to come back to this place, ever.
“I think you should go up to the house and wait for me.” Luka’s eyes bore into me.
I know as well as he does that I may not be ready for what I will find in the secret basement, under the pool-house.
I shake my head, “I know better than anyone how these girls feel. I have to do this Luka.”
His eyes narrow in frustration, “Very well, but I don’t have time to deal with you having a melt-down after this, okay?” His words carry a heavy warning.
“Trust me, I won’t.” I gulp back the lump in my throat.
Before I can back out, he opens the hidden door behind a bookcase, and pulls me down the stairs to the basement, where the girls are kept.
As I descend down the stairs, the smell hits me first. I will never rid my memory of that smell, no matter how many years pass. Mouldy earth mixed with the damp particles of the underground surrounds me, grab at my nostrils. The brass smell of blood permeates the thick air. My heart drums so loud that it mutes the world around me. Luka’s hand suddenly feels restrictive around mine, and beads of sweat form within my palm. I need to do this, I remind myself. Every day I was in this hole, I prayed for someone like me to come. That day has finally arrived.
Bella Jewel, Til Death
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