“Hello, sleepyhead. Boy, you sure love to sleep. Thought you were dead.” Ilya laughs.
I wake to the horrible face of my uncle looming before me.
He reveals crooked teeth that make me cringe, and his eyes crinkle with deep crow’s feet.
I look around. I’m outside in an old courtyard with overgrown vines and a field of unkempt grass. I don’t know where the hell I am, though, in terms of location.
It looks like an abandoned school, or… a prison. The building before me has windows with bars on them. Most of the glass in some of the windows without the bars are broken.
My location is the least of my worries as I look down and realize I’m tied to a pole. There’s rope wrapped tightly around me, starting at the top of my shoulders and running down my body. I’m well and truly screwed.
“Where am I?” I seethe.
“That’s none of your concern,” he says, stepping away from me.
I start panting. It’s difficult to breathe against the ropes though. What is he going to do to me?
What has he already done to me?
I’ve been asleep since I got in that car. Whatever he gave me knocked me out good. It was night; now it’s day. Seems like it’s late morning.
What did they do to me during the night? It’s awkward to feel between my thighs. I don’t feel sore, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t touch me.
“Did you touch me?” I ask the words. Bile rises in my throat at the same time, churning my stomach.
Ilya laughs that horrible laugh and runs a hand through his gray head of hair.
“I didn’t. Much as I wanted to, it’s no fun if you’re asleep. You can’t scream then. I can’t take pleasure in your cries for help, knowing that no one will save you. I can’t take satisfaction in fucking your brains out knowing it will damage you.”
What a sick bastard. What a fucking sick bastard.
“Why are you so evil? You’re supposed to be my uncle.” My breath hitches, and the words tumble out on a splutter.
“I don’t care about family relations. I do what I want to do and take what I want. Dole out punishment the way I want. You and your worthless mother were thorns in my side. My idiot brother wanted to be good for her. Imagine it: a good criminal? Unheard of. He wanted to be a slave to the president, do as he says and do it when he’s told. Jump and ask how high. And he wanted me to do the same fucking thing.”
“We had enough wealth,” I spit back. We had so much, and so did he, but he wanted to be in charge. God knows how wealthy he must be now.
“My dear Juliette, the thing about power is what you do with it. You never settle for less than what you can achieve. Never be under anyone’s thumb. Your idiot father was happy to take orders. It was enough for him. I ended that shit show as soon as I could. Nothing will ever make me happier than the way I hacked off his head that day and burned your bitch mother.”
Tears threaten to fall as I remember it all. I’ve been in so much pain since, and he’s taken so much pleasure in their deaths. I hang my head, but he catches my face and lifts it back up.
“Today is another joyous day. I took pride in cutting out Alessandro’s eyes and hanging his ass myself for his treachery,” he taunts.
It was him who killed Dad. The tears fall now. I can imagine how he must have suffered. It must have been so awful and painful. Oh God. I should have told him to hide when I sent the messages. I was just being so careful I didn’t think. I certainly never thought they’d find Dad that quickly. It all happened so fast.
“You animal. You fucking animal!”
“Yes, I am a fucking animal. You people seriously had me fooled. All these long years you were here and not dead. Things have a way of working out in the criminal world, no matter where you are on this planet.” He laughs a crude, sardonic laugh and tightens his fingers on my jaw, digging his nails into the skin. “Whether you’re in Russia or on the arm of a crime boss.”
He’s talking about Vincent. I think of Timothy then and start to cry harder.
“What did you do with the baby?”
“Don’t worry about him, Juliette. His father will get the chance to save him while you can watch. I wonder if he knew what kind of whore you were,” he jeers with that laugh again. It pains me to my soul, and I try to look away. “Awww, look at this… The look of love. You little whore. I forgot how much you like older men. If I didn’t want you dead so badly, I’d give you another round in the sac.”
He lets go of my face and smiles.
“Your death will finally set me free. I’ll watch you burn like your useless mother.”
Burn…
That’s what he’s going to do to me.
Burn me alive, just like Ma.
I start sobbing, and he laughs harder.