A hand grabs the back of my neck and the other hand of the offending person grabs Vasilei’s collar and jerks us both up. “Go! Now!” Dimitri yells between us.
Dimitri is two years older than Vasilei and I and is in line to take over the captain’s seat for the southern part of the Brooklyn Bratva after the current captain announces his retirement. It’s a big secret, but Dimitri is already acting like he is in charge.
We both pull out of his grip and Vasilei turns on him with a smile while walking backward down the hall. “If you wanted my attention, all you had to do was say.” He’s making kissing faces at Dimitri.
Dimitri tries to keep a straight face, but one side of his lips tip up as he lunges for Vasilei. “I’ll show you attention. Come here!”
Vasilei turns and runs down the stairs, two and three at a time, and out the front door, almost knocking the door from the hinges as Dimitri runs out after him.
I trot down the stairs and turn to see Vana looking at the door with a smile on her face as she shakes her head. Vana was hired by Dimitri’s father to take care of all of us after Vasilei’s father died and then after Dimitri’s father died, she chose to stay with us. She’s the closest thing to a mother any of us know.
I tear off a piece of bread from the fresh loaf on the counter and cover it with strawberry jam as I walk past the kitchen, giving Vana an eyebrow waggle as I go, and follow them out the door.
“You’re late.” The captain says as we walk in, a scowl on his face. He doesn’t even look up from whatever he is reading.
“It was Brana’s fault.” Vasilei says and just barely jumps out of the way of my arm swinging in his direction.
Captain looks up at me, the scowl is there, but I know he’s not trulyangry. “It’s always Brana’s fault. I don’t think we could keep him on a schedule if we tied him to a train.”
I lean against the wall next to the window in my usual spot and wait for our assignment. Since Vasilei and I were locked in that room for two weeks before we escaped Serbia, if there is a window available, I always stay close to it when we are in any room.
The captain goes over our assignments for the day, and we wait patiently for him to dismiss us. “Brana, I’ve sent Nikolai ahead, so you and Vasilei will need to catch up.”
We nod and walk to the door together. Once we’re outside, I scoff and look over my shoulder to make sure no one can hear me. “Why does he always pair us with Nikolai? He’s a fucking asshole who needs to be put down.”
Vasilei shrugs his shoulders and shoves his hands in his pockets. “Fuck if I know.” Then he looks at me and smiles. “You never know, today might be the day he gets himself killed.”
“Do you feel lucky today?” I ask as I elbow him in the side. We both laugh and walk the five blocks to where we know Nikolai is.
The sound of whimpering and muffled crying is coming from an alleyway up ahead and Vasilei and I slow down to move next to the wall. As we peek around the corner, we see Nikolai on top of a girl that we both know, a friend of ours. He is raping her.
“Shut the fuck up, I’m almost done.” He hisses at her face.
Her skirt is up around her waist and he is holding her hands over her head with one hand and the other is covering her mouth. Everything turns red and I feel like my body is turning inside out.
Flashes of seeing my mother lying on the floor as the men took turns raping her for days rush through my mind. My sister curled into a tight ball at my side, hiding her face under my arm with my hand over her eyes.
When I come back to myself, I’m sitting against the wall and Vasilei is holding my shoulders and shaking me. He has blood on his hands and arms, and a little splattered on his face.
Something doesn’t feel right. I was just standing around the corner.How did I get here?
More crying is to my left and I look over to see the girl Nikolai was raping. She is curled up against the wall with blood on her clothes and she looks like she just saw a devil. But why is she looking at me like I’m the devil?
“Brana, look at me.” Vasilei pulls my attention back to him.
“What happened?” I ask. I look down at my hands and I am covered in blood. My hands and arms are covered and my clothes are soaked.
Vasilei looks at me like I have two heads and pulls his phone out. He keeps one hand on me and touches the screen of his phone with his other hand. I hear the line trilling and he shoves the phone between his ear and his shoulder, still keeping his hand on me.
“I need you.” He barks into the phone. “Brana went ape shit. He killed Nikolai.”
My head jerks in shock as I look around us and then I see it, Nikolai’s body is about five feet away from us and he looks like he’s been attacked by an animal. One of his arms is twisted at an unnatural angle over his head and there is a lot of blood where his dick should be. But where is his dick?
Vasilei rattles off our location and shoves his phone back in his pocket before he turns to me again. “You seriously don’t remember what just happened?”
I feel numb all over and I look around the entire scene again and then at Vasilei before I shake my head. “Did I do that?”
The girl starts to crawl away and Vasilei barks, “Don’t move, you have to tell them what happened.”
