Page 8 of Red Waters

“Yes, being alive would be a plus.”

“None.”

“My chances of you having a change of heart? Setting me free?”

“It is very possible I have no heart.”

My eyes welled. Jesus. I believe him. My voice cracked, “Yury, why am I here?”

He lifted a brow. “You know my name?”

I swallowed.

“How unfortunate.”

Those two words sounded as if knowing too much was deadly.

“Refrain from using that name. Only Master.”

I knew I was begging for my life and future. “You said you want to profit off me. There is no way you could make enough to make all this hassle worthwhile. So, tell me the truth. You got the paperwork you wanted, and you’ve killed two people dear to me. What else do you want?”

He stared at me as if pleased I called him out. “Wants and needs are not the same.”

“Then what do you need from me?”

“Someone made the ultimate sacrifice for you. I… need to know why?”

I could feel my face heat up past the cold in the room. “What are you talking about?”

He pulled a mini iPad from his jacket’s inside pocket, handed it to me, then tapped the screen. As he sat back down, a video began. Beaten blue eyes peered up to the one filming.

I burst into tears.

Crash.

My shaky fingers reached out to touch him but stopped when he started to talk. His voice captured me, instantly. “Have you ever listened to someone sleep?”

I could hear Yury answer Crash from behind the recording device. “What the fuck for?”

Crash was on a concrete floor, dirty, and in rough shape. His surroundings looked like a garage. “Think about it. Have you ever slowed your world down enough to take the time to appreciate someone’s very breath? I know I hadn’t.” The scar above his eyed crinkling, Crash winced as he leaned back against a bare wall and rested bruised arms on his now bent knees. “Not until a fiery little redhead entered my world—my life—my pitiful excuse of an existence that ran one miserable day into the next, aimlessly.”

In my heart’s pain, I groaned, wanting to touch the young man in the video. Seeing him was a blessing, yet cruel. I literally hurt seeing him, knowing he was… gone.

Crash said, “I’d become so complacent, so unaware, yet so absorbed in my actions, and my actions’ results that a numbness overtook me and my thoughts. Not even an action-packed movie could hold my attention so I left the theater in search of water. I say water, but I think I was truly searching for air. For relief from the dead feeling in my soul. The unseen weight crushing my chest, begging for the nightmare that was my life to end.”

Yury studied me as I cried as quietly as possible to not miss a syllable Crash was uttering.

Crash smiled. “A breath of fresh air is exactly what I got as I turned the corner, seeing Franky eye that popcorn machine with nothing but pure determination.”

Yury’s voice echoed in the recording. “Who is Franky?”

Even captivity couldn’t keep Crash from sighing at the thought of me. “Whitney.”

“Oh,” said Yury.

Crash shook his head, his hair sticking to the block behind him. “‘Oh’ is right, Yury. More like Oh boy. I stayed back, watching her silently debate whether or not to take advantage of the old employee’s absence. I had to muffle my laugh, which was a shame because it was my first in more years than I can remember. I kept watching as Franky decided the prize was worth the risk and clumsily dove over the concession counter.” Crash started laughing, appearing lost in the memory. “Yeah, it was that night she woke me, but the night you want to know of, that was the night she stole me.”

I looked to Yury in the chair, silently asking him what night Crash was referring to. Yury pointed to the tablet, so I continued to watch.