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“What happened, Masha?” I repeated. “Tell me now.”
“I…I…oh, God…” she stammered, still sobbing.
“Masha!”
“I…I took…I thought it’d be a…a good idea to…to take a shortcut,” she finally said. “I…I decided to cut through Midler Street…you know, behind the Winged Apartments.” I could actually feel bile dancing up and down my esophagus. “I…I didn’t think….”
“Masha, what happened?” I asked for the millionth time, imagining the worst.
“I…I…” I heard her take in a deep breath. “I saw these guys…these guys, and they…Samara, I saw them shoot someone.”
It took everything in me not to throw up everywhere. “Masha, are you…where are you?”
“Home,” she cried out. “I…as soon as I saw them shoot the guy, I…I took off…off running.”
I turned, then started practically running down the street. While the entire world used all the new car services available nowadays, I hadn’t ever liked the idea of getting into a vehicle with a perfect stranger, so Masha and I used the bus when we had to, thankful for our car most days.
“Did they see you?”
“I…I think so,” she admitted quietly.
My heart started racing faster in my chest. “Masha, were they...did they look like Kotovs?”
“I…I don’t know,” she choked out. “It was dark, and I…I didn’t get a good look at them. As soon as…as I saw what happened, I took off running.”
“Listen to me,” I told her. “I’m on my way home. Lock the door and do not answer it for anyone but me. Okay?”
Just then, I heard a huge thumping sound vibrate through the phone, and there was no need to wonder how they’d found my sister. It would stand to reason that at least one of them would have chased her down after witnessing a murder. In her state of panic, Masha hadn’t thought about how she’d be leading them straight to our front door.
“Oh, God,” she cried. “They’re here. Samara, they’re here.”
I stopped running, so that she could hear me clearly over the phone. If I had any chance at saving my sister, then she needed to hear me and do what I said. From the sound of the pounding coming through the phone, it was clear that they were prepared to break down the door if she didn’t answer, and it was also clear that they weren’t concerned with waking our neighbors, letting me know that they were Kotovs without me even having to ask.
“Masha, listen to me,” I ordered, my voice firm. “Open the door, and before you do anything else, tell them to call Avgust Kotov.”
“Sama-”
“Masha!” I yelled, cutting her off. “Tell them to call Avgust, or else they will kill you.”
“I’m scared-”
“I’m on my way,” I said, doing my best to reassure her. “I’m on my way.”
Hanging up, I started running down the street, afraid that I might have a heart attack if I ran too fast or not fast enough. Luckily for me, the streets were rather empty this late at night, so I didn’t have to fight a crowd to get to my sister.
I was also struggling with the uncharitable thought that Masha had brought this upon herself by not waiting at the diner for me. All that she’d had to do was listen to me and wait for me, and now we were both possibly going to die for her irresponsible decision to walk home alone.
When I finally reached our building, adrenaline had me racing up the stairs to the fourth floor, and the rush of blood in my ears had me deaf to everything around me. I felt like I was going to pass out with fear, but I couldn’t let that happen. There were worse things than death in this world, and my sister had just encountered murderers that might be more than just murderers.
With the door to our condo unlocked, I was able to race inside, and when I did, I saw two men in our living room, my sister sobbing on the couch by herself. I wanted to run to her, but I knew better. Now, while I didn’t know who these men were, I recognized their tattoos enough to know that they were Kotovs, and that we were screwed.
As my sister cried on the couch, the taller of the two men said, “I am Alexei Kuzmin, and this is my associate, Ivan Kiselyov.” I glanced at the man with tattoos on his face, and you’d think that he was a block of stone with the way that he just stared at me. “It is my understanding that you know Avgust Kotov, yes?”
Though it was the coward’s way out, I’d do anything to save my sister, even if it meant walking through Hell to beg Satan for a favor. Masha was a good person, and after already losing our parents, the very thought of also losing my sister was enough to make me almost throw up. Besides, I knew enough about the bratva to know that they wouldn’t just kill her. The bratva were notorious for getting off on torturing people, and my vision dimmed with the possibility that my sister might meet that fate.
Finally, I said, “I do.”
“And how is it that you know Avgust Kotov?” he asked, and his simple question made my stomach tighten.
