And that would kill me.
CHAPTER 40
KATYA
AFTER DRIVING FOR a while, we finally arrive at our destination. It's a dilapidated farm on the outskirts of the city. Weeds are overgrown on every part of the property with broken down farm equipment and pickup trucks scattered about. At one point in time, this farm probably was really beautiful; but now it looks like an apocalyptic mess.
"It's not much," Senga says, "but I only use this farm when I need to hide."
Why would she need to hide?I ponder internally.
I've seen a change in my little sister during the ride here; and quite frankly, I don't like it. She seems distant now, as if she's on an entirely different planet.
I try to brush the feeling off, thinking maybe she thinks the exact same thing about me. I mean, it has been over a decade since we've seen each other. It's not like our reunion was going to be as if time had stood still all those years ago and we would unite with a bond as strong as we once had.
The car pulls in front of the barn, and the back door is opened by yet another muscular man that could compete in professional wrestling.
How many men does my sister have working for her?I think to myself as I climb out of the back of the car.
Grabbing me by my elbow the moment I step out of the car, the man whirls me around, pushes me up against the body of the car and starts patting me down.
"Oh, Franc, is that really necessary?" my sister asks with a smirk on her face as she steps out.
I notice that she doesn't stop him, though, and Franc continues with his pat down. Seemingly satisfied that I'm not packing any kind of heat, he takes a step back and gives Senga a nod.
"Sorry," she tells me with a wave of her hand. "My men areprotectiveof me." She gives Franc a pat on his muscular chest like he's some kind of pet to her. "Sometimes too protective."
Senga leads the way to the barn, and I blindly follow her. I'm wondering why we're not going to the house, but Senga must have a good reason. Maybe the house is in worse shape, or maybe she has the barn setup like a home.
But when we get into the mostly empty barn except for several piles of hay, ropes, chains and some scattered farm equipment, my feet automatically stop before my brain can even comprehend what's going to happen next.
"Tie her up," Senga commands.
Even though I heard my little sister's words, I'm having a hard time believing she actually said them. But when two men come out of nowhere and grab me, her words finally sink in.
My little sister lied to me. She betrayed me.
But why?
I glare at the younger version of me, and the haunted look that I hadn't seen before is definitely there now. Something happened to Senga while I was gone, and I'm determined to find out.
The rope hanging from a rafter works in the men's favor as they tie me up with it. When they're done, I struggle even though I know it's futile. They tied my wrists too tight, and the rope is way too thick for me to break on my own.
Senga seems pleased with their work as she walks around me in a circle.
I don't want to believe that my own sister would actually betray me, but there's no doubt in my mind now. "How did you afford all this? The land, the men. How did you make your money?" I ask her, desperate to know the answer.
"I won my money through poker games and bets," she says calmly, continuing to circle around me. "Papa had been dragging me into the back of seedy clubs with him after you left. He would sometimes put me in place of his bets to, you know, sweeten the pot."
I cringe at her words. Papa did the same thing with me, and Pavel took advantage of my father's loss that night and took me in return for his debt.
"So I made sure he won every night. I learned how to cheat, how to count cards, how to do anything and everything I could to make sure he won…and that I went home to my own bed that night." She stops walking, and her eyes look out of the barn entrance into the distance as if remembering something. "But Papa loved the money I was raking in for him, so he kept taking me and betting higher and higher and higher. Finally, I cracked under the pressure and killed him one night when he was too drunk to remember his own name. I took his money and left that place."
She killed our father? "And what happened to Mama?" I blurt out.
Senga shrugs. "Who knows. Maybe she survived. Maybe she died on the streets. I left that poor, pathetic excuse of a woman to her own devices." Her eyes meet mine as she says, "She deserved to starve and die. She deserved it because she let Papa use me as a pawn all those years."
Tears well up in my eyes. In the blink of an eye, I lost my entire family — the one thing that kept me going for all those years. The one thing I wanted to return to. The one thing I was still fighting for.
