Can't Let Her Go

He screams like a stuck pig and drops the knife. He never expected this. I kick him full force in the groin, and he bends over in agony.

“Not so nice when you’re on the receiving end, is it?” I growl.

A solid punch to his temple, and he hits the floor. I’m about to kick him in the head when the Goomba roars.

He must have heard Anakin’s scream. I don’t have much time, but I have enough to jump over the bar. As I land, I feel the Goomba’s big meaty fist miss my head by an inch. I have no doubt what will happen if he hits me. I grab a thick whisky glass and throw it at him as I turn. It misses his neck and strikes him in the chest … and does absolutely nothing.

But that split-second delay is enough.

Because Anakin always keeps a pistol under the bar in his town house and I’m guessing he has one here too. He’s a creature of habit and he likes to have his weapons within reach. I know that and I think the Goomba does too, because he’s lunging over the bar to get me before I can reach the gun. He almost does. His fingers grab my collar even as mine get the gun. As he jerks me back, I manage to stick the gun under my arm and pull the trigger.

The sound fills the room, but the Goomba doesn’t release me. I fire a second time. He grunts. I jerk away and whirl. He faces me, two bloody holes in his chest. He’s not going to live and we both know it. Yet, he won’t give up. A snarl fills his face.

I fire a third time.

The Goomba’s head jerks as the bullet passes into his brain. He’s dead before he hits the floor.

I pant and watch for a moment. I want to make sure he’s dead.

Anakin groans.

I climb over the bar.

On the floor, Anakin tries to move, but the pain in his useless arm is too great. He is whimpering and cowering like the coward he is.

Katya is sitting on her haunches over him.

I wonder what is going on until I see the knife in her hand. “Don’t,” I shout.

She turns to look at me, then she smiles sadly at me. Before I can do anything, she lifts both her hands and plunges the knife straight into Anakin’s chest. He starts to flop and that’s a bad sign. She’s hit something vital. His eyes bulge and blood comes out of his mouth.

Katya backs away … perhaps awed by her own action.

I didn’t want her to be the one who did it. I can tell her that this will haunt her for the rest of her life, but I think she probably knows that.

She looks at me, and her face is already showing the bruises.

I stand over him. His eyes find mine. I can see he’s dying. “You betrayed me,” he rasps. “You betrayed me.”

I shake my head in disbelief, then I crouch over him. I lean close to his ear. “Go to hell, Anakin.”

“I’ll be waiting there for you,” he gasps with his last breath.

I stand and go to her. I take the knife out of her hand. “I would have done it, Katya.”

“I wanted to share the burden with you,” she whispers.

I have seen grown men, hardened criminals who wouldn’t have had the guts to do this to the great Anakin. And deep respect for Katya’s incredible spirit rises in me, but with it comes sadness. There’s blood on her face and I wipe it away gently. “Oh, Katya. I didn’t want that for you.”

“And I didn’t want it for you.”

I hang my head. “I’m sorry, I was so pathetic I let him hit you. I wanted to stop him, but I couldn’t move. Please forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, my darling. You had your monsters to deal with. And you did. We’re in this together. Sometimes you fall and sometimes I’ll fall. We’ll forgive each other and carry on.”

My chest hurts. I never thought there was such goodness in the world.

“What do we do now?” she asks.

“Now, we find a way to blame a faceless robber. The doc is gone, so we have only our story to tell. I know the rest of the gang and I think I can convince them. They’re not in love with Anakin.”

“What about these bodies?”

“I know a service that takes care of stiffs. They’ll handle the cleanup.”

She frowns. “What will we do?”

“We’ll walk away. There are lots of people who will want to step into Anakin’s shoes and take over his turf. There will be wars, but we’ll be gone. We’ll be in Florida.”

Her eyes widen. “We will?”

“Yeah, we will.”

She throws her arms around me with joy. For the first time, I hold her as I’ve wanted to hold her since Sutgot. Now I have the right to do it. To tell her I love her. To offer her something: a life together, a family.

“I know you don’t love me, but I love you,” she whispers.

Tears run down my face. “Fuck, Katya. How many ways do I have to show you that I love you? You are everything to me. I love you with my body, my tongue, my hands, my dick. I might even have always loved you. From the moment I saw you, I wanted to make you mine, but I was a lost soul and I didn’t believe I was worthy of you.”

She touches my wet cheek. “You are worthy, Hunter. You are very worthy. I knew you were always meant for me. Always. But you kept pushing me away.”

“I was an asshole. I know.” I kiss her then, a desperate, happy, sad, lost kiss. “I couldn’t see how we could make it, but I know now, we are meant to be.”

She smiles, her face already swollen. “Do I look terrible?”

“No worse than me.”

She laughs. “That’s horrible.”

Sergei, one of Anakin’s security men runs into the room. He’s carrying a gun. I block Katya’s body and face him. “Put the gun away, Sergei. No need for loyalty to a dead man.”

For a moment, he hesitates. “Are you sure?”

I nod.

He holsters his gun and walks over to Anakin’s still body. He shakes his head in disbelief. The man he had feared for so long was dead. For a long while, he did nothing, then he kicked the corpse. “Good. It’s about time someone stood up to the sick, twisted fuck.” He walks over to me. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

As we watch, he touches a level in a shelf of books and it slides back to reveal a door. He opens it and switches on a light. White fluorescent light fills the space.

Katya and I follow him inside.

I hear Katya gasp in astonishment.

It is a torture room full of all kinds of elements of torment. Some I’m familiar with as they’ve been used on me, but others are a shock even to me. A tiny metal cage, bars on the ceiling with leather fasteners, the type of metal table you find in a coroner’s office, surgical utensils, whips, electric saws, a sort of rocking horse with a huge wooden dildo that comes out of it every time it rocks. It would have torn the insides of a rider. My God, what he did to those poor girls. What a racket he was running. Bringing in innocent virgins from backward little villages of Russia and paying off their dirt-poor uneducated parents. No wonder he got away with it for so long. No one here even knew they existed.

Even knowing what a sadistic brute Anakin was, it’s still a shock to learn he was a serial killer.

“This would have been my fate,” Katya whispers.

I pull her towards me and hold her tightly. “Not any more, my darling. Not anymore.”

Hunter

(One week later)

I wake up suddenly in our little apartment in Florida. The dream is still fresh in my mind.

I got lost. My parents didn’t sell me. I got lost in a funfair.

I was standing at the edge of the Ghost Ride crying when a man with shiny shoes approached me. He said he would help me find my parents. He took me by the hand and led me away.

“What is it darling?” Katya asks next to me.

I turn towards her. “My parents didn’t sell me, Katya. Anakin stole me from a funfair.”

She sits up. “What?”

“Somehow, I got separated from my parents. I was crying and he found me.”