I was about to ask her when my phone vibrated in my pocket. Seeing it was my brother, I left the room.
I’ll be back.
Chapter Three
Alina’s POV
There is something about bad occurrences: They show up suddenly and sweep you into a whirlpool of anguish until your flailing hands are unable to signal for help, and you drown.
It felt like I was in a dream, one I would do anything to wake up from. But, it wasn’t. If anything, this was worse than the worst nightmare I'd ever had. Just a few hours ago, I was a regular nurse at a small but reputable clinic. I had patients who relied on me for care and colleagues with whom I shared inside jokes. All of a sudden, everything was turned upside down. I couldn’t lift a finger to do anything about it.
I didn’t need any spiritual skills to know the outcome of the situation I was now in: Life as I had known it for the past year was over. Again. Even if help came and someone managed to pull me out of the whirlpool, I would never be the same person who fell into it.
While the world went on normally, my life was transforming into something I didn’t even understand yet. Something too dreadful to predict or imagine. Nothing good could come out of the Bratva taking a hold of me; I would be delusional to think otherwise. Although Liza, Roman, and a few others in the Bratva circle have shown me that the Bratva wasn’t all about violence and evil, the fact that I was being taken in relation to Vitya put me right in the face of danger.
As we drove through the city and I looked at shops closing and bars opening, I couldn’t help but wish I were anywhere but at the clinic earlier tonight. I didn’t doubt the Bratva's ability to find me at my apartment, but maybe, just maybe, they could have missed me if I’d seen the news earlier and had left the country or even the continent altogether.
Maybe I could be on a remote beach in Tanzania or the Seychelles right now.
I sighed, tired of sitting in the back seat of the car, surrounded by men who seemed under oath to remain silent and rigid.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked the third time, my voice tired.
“You’re coming with us, that’s all you need to know,” the bald guy answered from the passenger seat, not turning around to face me.
At least, someone thought to answer this time.
Chewing the skin inside my cheek, I rested my head against the cool window.
I thought of the different patients who would be expecting to see me in their wards tonight. Francesc, the ulcer patient, might stay up in his bed, convinced that I would show up as always. I imagined his teenage daughter pleading with him to rest for the night and promising to wake him the moment I stepped into his ward.
I wondered what quirky poem Hector had written for me. He had told me yesterday that he was working on another poem for me, and he’d let me see it when I came around today. Hector belonged to a small band that performed at different bars at night, but, from the number of bullet grazes he’d been to the clinic for, it was clear he had a different hustle during the day—when he wasn’t performing.
It pained me that I wouldn’t show up; that they would be disappointed when they heard that no one knew where I was after I suddenly left. Damn, they might even hate me now if they’d heard the news and taken it the exact way it was made to appear. They would most likely believe the nurse they knew and liked was an accomplice to a criminal. They would probably regret ever meeting me; maybe they would use me as a badexample when they tell stories about their stay at the clinic to others.
The shrill sound of a ringtone distracted me from my thoughts.
“Boss,” the bald man spoke.
“Okay, boss.”
I sighed again in mild disappointment. He’d clearly just talked with Konstantin, yet I couldn’t glean any clues or mention of anything that told me what to expect. On the other hand, though, I couldn’t say I was surprised at how everything was kept under wraps. It was how things were done in the world of power.
I’ll just have to wait and see.
**********
The man beside me undid the leather that bound my wrists as the car slowed to a stop in front of a large building. The bald man got out first. Then another guy from one of the other cars opened my door.
“Your bag remains with us,” the guy beside me told me as he got out on the other side. The bald man made signals to the two guys beside me, and they led me inside, with some other guys following us.
The house smelled of dust, and as we crossed the wide open space, I could see that it hadn’t been inhabited in a while. Even through the darkness, which was only subdued by the glow of moonlight through the wide, curtainless windows, I could see covered furniture scattered around. We made a right turn and went down a darker hallway.
“Get in,” the guy to my left instructed as the other guy pushed a door open along the hallway. “Guards will be out here.”
I did as he said, not missing the warning in his information. Not like I would try to run away when I didn’t even know where we were.
The click of the door told me I was locked in, just as was expected. My first instinct was to check the windows, just to see the surroundings and maybe gauge how far we were from the city. But two simple turns of my neck showed me how stuck I was. The room had no windows. Not even one. It was just stupid, dull walls and the door.
