I wish I were writing with better news.
My heart thumps so loudly in my chest, I worry it’ll bruise my rib cage. I cling to the side of my bunk as I listen intently.
Robert left me alone this evening, so I went snooping for a music player in his office that I’d seen there a year ago. I know I shouldn’t have done that, but I was craving something different from my everyday routine and thought it’d be my only chance. I know you guys will understand why I did it.
But what I found… I’m not even sure how to explain it. There was a note, which I’ve included with my letter. I can’t believe it, but it says that Robert’s planning to sell me off! Like livestock!
“What?” Dex and I ask in unison as my blood starts to boil with rage. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“Hold on, let me keep reading!” Pete yells before picking up where he left off.
He’s going to hand me over to that horrible man and send me to Russia to marry him. I can’t do it. I just… I can’t. I’m leaving. Tonight. Now. I’m sneaking out while they’re gone, and I’m jumping on a bus to who knows where.
I promise to write to you as often as I can, but I won’t be able to give you a return address, as I can’t risk Robert finding me. I’m so sorry.
I hope you know how much your letters mean to me, how much you all mean to me. You’ve been the best part of my life these past nine months… or ever, really.
Maybe one day, when I’m not worried about being caught anymore, I can visit you. But I know it's too risky right now. I need to hide somewhere Robert will never find me.
Please know you are in my thoughts every day, and please don’t write as Robert will find it and read it, and I don’t want him to taint the only good thing I have.
Take care of yourselves,
Love,
Your Wren
The only good thing inherlife? We are all convicts, put away for life, and yet she sees us as her light?
A muffled yell jolts me from my trance, and I watch Dex scream into the pillow he’s wrapped around his head.
Jagger steps forward and pulls the envelope from Pete’s hand and stares into the opening, before tilting it and letting a small handwritten note drop into his palm.
“She said she included a note,” I say, remembering her words. Dex drops the pillow as we all stare at Jagger. His jaw works back and forth as his temple starts to pulse. He shoves it at me before dropping to my bunk, his head hanging in his hands as he stares at the floor.
Looking at the note, I read it aloud.
IS will send the subsequent three shipments (guns + parts) through the usual channels. First batch arrives by mid-June. Payment: $350k up front, another $400k a month later, followed by the second batch at the beginning of August.
RB will transfer WR to IS and the new batch to be sent through upon completion at the end of year. Wedding to take place in RUS.
“IS?” Pete asks.
“That must be Ivan,” I say as I re-read it.
“Wait—Wait wait wait…” Pete says, his eyes wide with worry. I’ve never seen him look this scared before.
“What?” I ask, a large ball of dread forming in my stomach.
“Russia, the initials I.S., guns. You don’t think that could be Ivan Sokolov, do you?”
“The Russian mobster?” Dex asks from his bunk. “Oh, shit! It fucking is!”
“We don’t know that,” I tell them with a frown. They both narrow their eyes at me, and I clench my fists.
“Yeah, we do. It fits with everything. Her brother fucking sold her to the biggest mobster alive!” Pete yells, trying to pace but with no room.
“What the fuck are we going to do?” Dex asks, his eyes bouncing between all of us, like we have the answers. “Can we call the cops or something?”
