And then, just as I’m a few steps away from handing my ticket over, a hard, rough hand clamps onto my arm and spins me around.
The face looking down at me isn’t Viktor’s. But it’s pale and blue-eyed, the hand gloved and squeezing my arm almost painfully, and I know without a doubt that it’s one of his men.
“Mrs. Andreyva, it’s time to come back home.”
CATERINA
The ride to the new safe house is colder and tenser than any drive I’ve been on before. A heavy air of foreboding hangs between Viktor and me, and I don’t dare even sneak a look at his face. The look on it when his men brought me back to the hotel was terrifying enough.
I should have known better than to think I could escape him. They’d tracked me down just as easily and quickly as I’d feared, giving my description out until they found the people I’d talked to trying to locate the train station. Everyone was very eager to help, from what Viktor had coldly told me.I bet they were,I think darkly again, looking out of the tinted bulletproof window of the armored vehicle taking us to the next safe house. The car feels like a jail cell, and I’m sure the house won’t be any different. Viktor will have me under lock and key now, closely observed. He said as much in a few words.
We have a veritable train of armored cars—the rest of our household, as well as Luca, Sofia, and Ana, in others. I didn’t see any of them when I was brought back to the hotel. Viktor kept me locked in our room for the day that remained before we left. He hadn’t come back to our room either, instead, leaving two men at the door with strict instructions that I was not to leave for any reason and that they were not to move, “not even if the fucking hotel burned down around their ears.”
I’m sure they would have happily stood and burned to death rather than face whatever punishment Viktor would mete out for leaving me or letting me out of the room. I didn’t bother trying.
I’d had my one escape attempt, and it had failed. I knew better than to try again. There was no point, anyway. Viktor had made sure the windows were locked and that anything I could possibly use to facilitate an escape—for instance, money—wasn’t left in the room. He’d taken every single possession out of the room except for a change of clothes that he’d had purchased for me, something that he’d made abundantly clear he didn’t think I deserved any longer.
I would have almost felt bad, seeing what was in the crisp shopping bag sitting atop the bed, if I hadn’t known what Viktor had done. There had been a pair of soft, silky underwear and a matching wireless bra, things that would make me feel completely dressed while still not chafing my healing skin. On top of that, there had been a light wool sweater dress made of fine soft cashmere with elbow-length sleeves and a midi-length skirt with a scooped neckline. This dress would cover almost all of my wounds while being soft and forgiving, in a lovely pale blue color that I know Viktor loves.
It’s the kind of outfit that said he had put some thought into it—and it was undoubtedly expensive. Before I knew the truth about what he had done, it would have been one more thing to chip away at the walls I’d put up to protect myself from him.
Looking at it then only made me feel sick. But I’d known I’d have to put it on anyway.
“There’s only the one set of clothing,” he’d said coldly, standing at the door with his ice-blue eyes fixed on me. “I’d had more purchased for you, but perhaps I’ll make you earn it.” A cruel smile had curved his lips then, his eyes colder than I’d ever seen them, glittering like hard jewels in his taut face. “Perhaps I’ll lock you in a room naked, so there’s no chance of you going anywhere until you learn to behave. But don’t worry, Caterina. There’s plenty of punishment before that for you.”
And then he’d left, the threat clearly hanging in the air.
Remembering it makes me shiver. I’m sitting as far on one side of the car as I can, putting as much space between us as I can manage. I’m acutely aware of the man sitting in front of me in the passenger’s seat and the ones behind us, all armed. I could try to throw myself out of the car, but the doors are locked, and I’m pretty sure I can’t even engage mine if I tried.
I wouldn’t get that far before someone stopped me, anyway.
I’d thought I was a prisoner in my marriage before, but now it’s very, very real.
Terrifiedis putting how I feel mildly. I don’t think Viktor would treat me as roughly as he does someone like, say, Andrei and Stepan, but I still can’t get their broken and bloodied faces out of my mind. I’ve angered him terribly, and I know that he’s going to punish me for it.
I just don’t know how.
Deep down, I can’t regret trying to run, either. Whatever happens to me now, if I hadn’t, I would always have wondered if I might have succeeded, if only I’d tried. I’d done everything in my power to get away and escape Viktor, and I’d failed. Even the sympathetic woman at the train counter hadn’t been enough to keep them from finding me. I’d had the one chance, and it hadn’t been enough.
Now I have to live with that.
I just don’t know what that will mean for me.
The armored car comes around a bend, and then suddenly, I see our destination looming ahead of us as the forest splits open. We’ve been going up the mountains for some time, and what I see ahead nearly takes my breath away, even knowing that it’s about to be my prison.
I hadn’t been wrong when I’d wondered if the next safe house would be a fortress. It’s exactly that, a massive chalet-style home with towers that look as if they’re aspiring to pierce the clouds wreathing the tops of the mountains and a huge, solid barricade all around it. I can see from our vantage point that it’s a considerably sized estate, if guarded to the teeth, but I doubt I’ll get a chance to explore much of it.
Viktor’s threat to keep me locked naked in a room somewhere suddenly feels much more immediate. It seems dramatic to think of him locking me in a tower garret like Cinderella, but I’m not so sure that it is anymore. He’s a man who I’m certain can come up with creative forms of punishment, and I’m certain that he believes that I’ve earned exactly that.
As we approach, the heavy gate opens. I see the soldiers standing there, wearing black clothing, Kevlar, and heavily armed. There are others along the wall surrounding the estate, and as the cars crawl through the gate, I catch a glimpse of their set, hard, emotionless faces.
These aren’t men that I can cajole into letting me out. They aren’t men I can trick with a story of Viktor having given me different instructions than what they were told. Viktor will be very clear with them. And even if I could, it doesn’t matter. I’m somewhere in the Russian mountains with no transportation and not even suitable clothing for trying to get away. I’m sure any vehicle I could take is locked up tight in some inaccessible garage.
I’m trapped here. There’s no way around it and no other options for me. Once again, I simply have to survive as I’ve been doing all this time.
There are more guards at the front of the house, which is as beautiful as I expected. It’s almost castle-like, made of stone with balconies and heavy doors and architecture as lovely as it is forbidding. It’s exactly where I would expect a Russian mob boss to bring his captive bride.
Viktor isn’t often a predictable man, and all of this seems a little on the nose for him. But then again, clearly, I didn’t know my husband as well as I thought I did.