at me through the hole. She looks different than she did mere minutes ago—stronger and somewhat relieved.
When she gestures for me to move back, I scoot to the far corner of the room I generally hide out in. I block my ears when the bang of a gun being fired is closely followed by a boot being kicked against my door. When the fortified material shoots open with a whack, I bury my head into my knees. The redhead isn’t alone. She’s with a man who has dark hair, bright blue eyes, and the sneer of a murderer.
Although I don’t immediately recognize him, the dingy conditions Vladimir made me entertain his ‘guests’ in means I must remain cautious. He’s attractive, but that doesn’t mean anything. Only my ‘guests’ lack of morals made them hideously ugly, so I can’t be certain he wasn’t one of them.
I peer at the duo through lowered lashes when the unnamed man instructs for the redhead to stay behind him. He’s so protective of her, his possessiveness is almost suffocating. I haven’t seen that from a man before, especially not in this country.
“It’s okay,” the redhead mutters in Czech, stepping closer to me. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
My eyes bounce between her and her partner when he warns, “Not too close, Ahren.”
I shouldn’t like the fact he thinks I’m a fret, but I do. It means I’m not wholly broken. There’s still some life left in my eyes.
Nodding so he’s aware she heard him, the woman the man refers to as Ahren slowly bridges the gap between us. Although my intuition is warning me to remain cautious, there’s something in her eyes I can’t disregard. She’s been hurt before, the scars peeking out of her shredded shirt exposes this, much less her soul-exposing eyes, but she also looks at peace. Like she has the world at her feet.
I discover that is the case when she whispers in Czech, “The devil is dead. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
I want to burst into tears. I want to shout my relief into the humid night air, but instead of doing either of those things, I accept the hand she’s holding out in offering.
The wetness in my eyes jumps into hers when she drags her thumb against the week-old welts on my wrists. I was handcuffed to my room last week when I attempted to escape while dinner was being served. Vladimir’s goons put them on extra tight, hopeful the pain would discourage me from moving too much when they punished me with more than their fists. All it did was leave slash marks embedded in my skin and grew my determination to escape to an unprecedented level.
“Thank you.” My praise doesn’t feel adequate to truly express the emotions pumping through me, but they are all I have, so they’re all I can offer. “Thank you very much.”
The weeping wounds on my back sting when I trudge toward the door of my cell. It’s amazing how euphoric it feels seeing it hang from its hinges. It’s so badly damaged, it won’t hold a woman captive again any time soon.
The entanglement of emotions already holding me hostage take on an entirely new meaning when my slow trek to the stairwell that’ll lead to my freedom has my eyes locking in on a face I swore I’d never see again. “Ana!”
Forgetting about the pain rocketing through my back, I galloped down the stairs to greet the woman I went to hell and back for, praying the hard times are now behind me.
Ana’s eyes are as wide as mine, her cheeks just as pale. “Kristina, you’re here. How are you here?”
I don’t answer her questions. I can’t. I just wrap her up in a firm hug before sending my thanks to God. I fought the devil and won. That’s a victory worth praising even if I had to go to the depths of hell for it to occur.
Five
Trey
I stop assisting a badly beaten woman into the back of an SUV when Nikolai and Justine arrive at my side. I’m pleased to report Justine is uninjured from her time with Vladimir… if you exclude her massively dilated eyes and the nasty red welt on her neck.
“Is this everyone?”
While jerking up my chin to Nikolai’s question, I assist another two women into one of the SUVs that drove Nikolai’s men straight onto Vladimir’s battlefield. We lost over a dozen men to free Justine from the sex-trafficking ring Vladimir was planning to shunt her in.
It