Deep Woods

“What do you want to do, boss?” asked Alik.

Ralavich’s eyes bored into me. “Take them both back to the cabin,” he rasped at last.

They let us dress, then they tied both of our hands and walked us all the way back to the smallholding, with Alik keeping a careful ten feet behind us the whole way, ready to shoot us if we tried to run. Ralavich brought up the rear, walking with difficulty and cursing.

By the time we reached the smallholding, the sky was growing lighter. The other members of the club were sprawled on the grass beside the helicopter, several of them nursing wounds. Even the attorney-general was there and he glared when he saw us, his hand going to the ugly bruise on the side of his head.

Ralavich had three of the guards from the mansion surround Cal. Then he jerked his head at the helicopter. “Everybody else in. We’re going back to the mansion.”

The other members of the club gratefully complied, the injured wincing and grumbling as they limped aboard.

Ralavich looked at the cabin. “Burn it,” he told Alik.

“No!” I turned to Ralavich in panic. “Please!”

But he ignored me. Alik went into the cabin and we heard things being tossed around as he searched for flammables. Then the sound of trickling liquid: the kerosene we used in the lamps, being emptied over everything. Alik emerged, lit a match and held it ready—

“Please!” I begged. I looked at Cal, who was staring at Ralavich in brooding silence. “Please don’t!”

Ralavich gave Alik the nod and he threw the match. There was a wumf and through the windows we could see the flames rush across the floor. I saw the bedding catch light. The curtains. Flames licked up the legs of the chairs and table Cal had made by hand. “No,” I breathed.

In minutes, the fire had spread to the log walls and the whole building was ablaze. Cal lowered his head in defeat and a hand crushed my heart. This is my fault! Everything he’d built was being destroyed.

But Ralavich wasn’t done.

“Make the man watch,” he told Alik. “When there’s nothing left, kill him.”

Sheer panic erupted upward, icy and all-powerful, stealing my strength. “No!” I screamed. I ran right up to Ralavich, stumbling on legs that had suddenly gone weak, my hands still tied behind my back. “No, please! Please, I’ll go with you! Please, I’ll do whatever you want!” I hated the pleading tone in my voice. I knew that I was giving him what he wanted. But it didn’t matter. I’d do anything to save Cal.

Ralavich looked at Cal, who had lifted his head and was glaring back at him defiantly. Then he looked down at me, as if considering. For a second, I dared to think that maybe, maybe, if I pleaded hard enough, I’d get through to him, that maybe there was some shred of humanity in him. I got down on my knees. “Please!” I begged. “Please.”

“There was a dog,” said Ralavich. “Where’s the dog?”

I looked at him in horror, then looked around. Rufus was nowhere to be seen. We’d left him sitting outside the cabin but he was nowhere in sight.

“Make sure you find it, before you leave,” Ralavich told Alik. “And kill it too.”

“NO! No please!” Tears were running down my cheeks, now. I saw Cal’s body tense, his hands closing into fists. He stared at Ralavich, murder in his eyes, but bound and with three guns pointed at him, there was nothing he could do. The panic was filling me, rising up like arctic water, threatening to drown me. This was my fault. Because I’d dared to stand up to him, because I’d kneed him in the balls. If I’d just submitted, maybe he’d have left Cal alive, or spared Rufus.

Ralavich ignored me. “When it’s done, call me and I’ll send the chopper for you.” Then he grabbed me around the waist and hauled me towards the helicopter. I was going back to the mansion. He’d use me, and then I’d be taken to Russia. It would be as if none of this had ever happened, as if I’d just submitted to him in the mansion instead of running. The only difference was, Cal and Rufus would be gone. Even the cabin would be destroyed. I’d ruined everything. The icy panic rose up over my chest, drowning me: I couldn’t speak. “N—N—”

Ralavich looked down at me and grinned and that pushed me over the edge. I felt the fight drain out of me.

He’d won. He’d broken me.

“Give her something to make her sleep,” he told one of the guards from the mansion. “She’s been up all night. I want her rested and ready for me.”

I glimpsed a hypodermic needle and then my head was being pulled to the side and held there, and I felt the needle jab into my neck. My muscles went floppy and I hung from Ralavich’s arms like a ragdoll.