Bronski laughed to himself and ended up coughing. “Fuck, my ribs hurt. But yeah. I got her, right? That’s your sister? I remember the story was that you approached Korkov. You wanted in the game, and he was all excited because he knew you were different. He told me you were a virgin—”

“Shut it, man!” Jake growled.

My body threatened to dry-heave, but not because of what Bronski had done to me. I had the power now. I wasn’t scared. It wasn’t that. It wasn’t even my sister.

It was because I knew now what I was going to do.

“Leo worked for Maxim?” I asked.

Both heads swung my way. Bronski’s eyes widened. He was surprised that I wasn’t affected by him, not in the way he’d been hoping. I could read it from him. His lips thinned into a frown. “Yeah, but you came in under Korkov who works for Igor. You got that wrong, huh? There was a time period where Leo was hanging out with Korkov, until Maxim shut that down and moved him to a different location.”

I nodded. “I got that wrong.”

Jake stood and pulled out his phone. “I’m going to make a call.” He pointed his gun at Bronski as he spoke to me. “None of the shit he spouts can be trusted.”

I knew that, and I nodded, letting him know I’d be fine.

Bronski watched him walk away, his eyes darkening, and he licked his lips. “What’s he doing? Who’s he calling?”

“He’s calling Raize.”

Bronski shifted his attention back to me. I could see the calculation starting. “Why would he be calling your boss?”

“Because he’s killing Maxim and his men right now.” I stared at Bronski, feeling dead inside—what he was going to be soon. Very soon.

But not in a cold-blooded way.

I couldn’t do that. I knew that now.

I knew my lines. I had always known my lines, but then I stepped over them. One after another.

This was another one, and this one I couldn’t step over.

I knew that now.

I wished I’d known sooner.

It was all about the lines.

He licked his lips again. He’d be making his move soon. His head swung back, looking toward where Jake had gone. “You guys moved on Igor, then Maxim? I got it wrong? It’s Roman making the move?”

I didn’t respond. That’s not the move either of us was waiting for now.

I just waited.

“Why’d you take me? Why not kill me there?” he asked.

“You know why.”

He fell silent. “Guess I do.”

Well. There it was. “You still rape girls?”

He looked at me. I saw no remorse, but he seemed to have lost his calculation. It was like he knew there were no more moves for him.

“Yeah.”

“You must enjoy that?”

He shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Right.” I lifted my gun and shot him.

He was as surprised as I was, but by the time he saw the gun, it was too late.

I thumbed off the shot and got him in the chest.

He fell back, blood spilling from him. He began choking, more blood spewing up and out of his mouth. He rolled to his side, then the other side.

He was trying to crawl away.

I frowned. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Then again, I didn’t know how any of this was supposed to happen.

I didn’t follow him. I didn’t have it in me to shoot him again. I already loathed myself. Raize was right. I was going to hold on to this for the rest of my life.

I twisted to the side and vomited into the ground.

Bang!

I froze before looking back.

Jake stood over Bronski, his gun smoking. The last shot was to his forehead.

Bronski was dead.

I threw up again.

I’d been wrong again. My last line.

44

Ash

I didn’t want to be in my body anymore.

I decided this an hour later.

Not anymore. No, thank you.

So, I left.

I was gone, off, floating outside of my body.

It felt better this way.

Safer.

Not so scary.

I wanted to stay like this forever.

45

Raize

I’d had to send a text ahead of time to get the newest burner phone’s number.

Downer picked up after the first ring.

“It’s done,” I told him.

I was about to hang up when he said, “That girl you have?”

“Yeah?”

“Roman asked me to ask around.”

I didn’t like that.

“There was a poster about a missing girl that got our attention. One of our guys said they looked similar. Don’t know if you want to know this, but the missing-poster girl? I found the house she’s working from. You probably did her pimp tonight.”

“Maybe.”

He gave me an address and a name.

Yeah. That guy had been done tonight.

“So you know, we’re calling that house in—anonymous tip. Roman doesn’t work girls. We’ll be sending authorities to all those houses, so she’ll be rounded up by the government. They’ll be classified as sex trafficked.”

He gave me the address where she was, and I hung up and made a second call.

Jake answered after the first ring. “Boss.”

“What’s happening there?”

“He’s gone.”

“Who?”

He paused. “Her, then me.”

“Her?”

“Yeah.”

Okay then.

“We’re heading back.”

“Okay.”

46

Ash

The guys showed up and the body disappeared. I couldn’t tell you a time. That had ceased for me. I was in zombie mode. Nothing mattered at the moment.

Then Gus was licking me, trying to squish me with his wiggly body.

There was a lot of Gus.

I showered.

Raize helped me change my clothes.

In the days that followed, I remembered being told to eat, so I ate. Being told to drink, so I drank. Being told to lie down, so I did. I couldn’t fall asleep on command, but Raize had taken to holding me in his arms at night. That helped. It wasn’t normally like that. We slept together, but usually there was space between us. He liked to be free in case he had to jump out of bed.

And Gus had taken to joining us on the bed some nights. Other nights, he went with Jake.

“Where are we?” I asked Raize one day.

He and I were sitting on the patio in the backyard of the house where we’d been staying. It was nice. There were mountains around us, a creek down the path.

Raize looked over to me, and I looked down. There was a blanket on my lap.

That felt nice, too.

“We’re in West Virginia.”

That made sense. By the mountains. We must’ve been in a valley. Did they have valleys? I didn’t know much about West Virginia.

“Why?” I asked.

“We did a lot of bad shit. We need to lay low.”

Oh yes. Right.

I blinked a few times. “How long have I been like this?”