“I know. Run. Run!” I tell them, but they just stand there, looking at me with big eyes. “GO! Leave me!”
My raised voice scares them away, but the oldest still turns to look at me, so I say, “Don’t look back! Forget everything, just live!”
She nods and then turns and runs after her sister, disappearing from my view.
I take a deep breath and cringe when pain shoots up my leg as I get up from the ground. I get up quickly as the men are coming after me soon, and I have to beat them to it. Have to distract them by taking another route. It’s the only way the girls won’t get caught … the only way they’ll survive.
So I run in the opposite direction, almost cutting off the men following me as I narrowly turn a left and go into a public square. I keep running until I pass the final house and stumble onto an unpaved road.
From there, I rush straight into the bushes, coming out in an open field on the other side.
And then I just keep running, knowing full well that I can’t keep outrunning them forever.
But at least I’ll know I managed to save two souls.
Even if it wasn’t my own.
***
Now
My words sound hollow after finally uttering the truth … now that she finally knows who I am and what I’ve done.
I should’ve told her sooner. Maybe I could’ve softened the blow.
I knew it when I first saw her tattoo that she was the oldest of the girls I’d saved that day.
His daughter.
Now, the girl of my dreams.
At first, I hated her. Despised her. Blamed her for my scars.
She was the reason Vladim punished me. Her and her sister.
But the more time I spent with her, the more I realized that it was never her fault. I was only blaming her to avoid facing the fact that I caused my own demise.
I used to regret saving them, but the moment I saw her in front of me, kissing me, loving me, I was so happy.
So fucking happy that I’d die for her all over again.
It’s sick, and I knew from the beginning that what I was doing was wrong.
But I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t fight the need to claim her as my own.
So I did.
And I don’t regret it … Not even for one second.
***
Alexis
“Father?” The word feels strange on my tongue, so strange that tears well up in my eyes.
“Yes, Alexis. I’m your father,” Vladim muses, cocking his head.
“Liar,” I spit. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
“It’s the truth,” Vladim says, looking at Viktor. “Tell her, Viktor.”
“It’s true …” he says, coughing up blood.
I shake my head. “No.”
“Yes. Stop denying the truth when it’s right in front of your eyes. He lied to you,” Vladim hisses, pointing at Viktor. “He didn’t tell you because he wanted to keep you all to himself.”
“No.” Viktor coughs. “I wanted to protect you!”
“Protect?” Vladim chuckles, and then he looks at me. “She doesn’t look like she needs any protection. She’s my daughter. She has my genes.”
Just the word ‘daughter’ makes my skin crawl.
“I rescued you from that place so you could live a normal life,” Viktor says.
“So you could get your face burned off!” Vladim yells, laughing right after.
I’m horrified. “You did that to him because he took me?”
“You and your sister. You’re both mine. My little girls.”
Little girls. Fuck, it sounds so wrong and nasty.
“Alexis, don’t listen to him,” Viktor sputters. “Please … I love you.”
His words break me and split me in half.
Love.
He said the word.
That one word I can’t stomach to hear but need more than ever right now.
He loves me, and from the look on his face, I know he means it.
“Shut up!” Vladim yells at him. “I’ve had about enough of your nonsense.”
When he turns to punch him, I yell, “No! Stop!”
He halts in mid-air, then turns to look at me.
“I … I’ll come with you. If you promise to let him live.”
He grimaces. “Why would I? He took you away from me. He needs to be punished.”
I hold up my hand. “He’s already been punished. You took his honor, his pride, his face. And now, you can take me from him as well. That’s what you want, right? Me?”
He cracks his knuckles. “No, what I want is for him to suffer … and for you to have stayed by my side.”
I don’t know what else to do, so I say, “He is suffering because he wants me, and he won’t get me. Ever. Because I’ll be yours.”
There’s a glint in his eyes, and a wicked smile spreads across his lips. “Go on.”