The Double

Ralavich’s men reached the door just as Konstantin stepped through it. They retreated uncertainly, pushed back by his sheer, intimidating presence.

Konstantin turned and saw me half-lying on the seat, dress askew, Ralavich atop me with his knee between my thighs.

I’d thought that I’d seen Konstantin angry: when people threatened his people, his empire. I suddenly saw that those times had been nothing. They’d been cold rage. This came from deep down, scalding and eternal.

This was love.

He didn’t yell at Ralavich or snarl threats at him. His eyes said it all. They said, you will not leave this plane alive.

I saw all the color drain from Ralavich’s face and neck. He scrambled to his feet and pulled me against him as a shield, one arm hooked around my throat.

“How?” I asked.

The pain in my voice made Konstantin tense. His scowl deepened and he wiped the edge of his finger across his lips, as if removing an unpleasant taste. “I knew,” he told me.

My chest went tight with emotion. He knew!

Konstantin turned to Ralavich. “And then I made that bitch tell me where he kept his jet.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. Flashing red and blue lit up the gloom outside. Konstantin hadn’t come alone.

The door to the cockpit flew open, startling us all. The pilot stared at the standoff, his eyes wide with fear. “The Feds are here!” he yelled. “Get that door closed, I’m getting us out of here!” He slammed the cockpit door and we heard it lock. A moment later, a rising howl came from the jet’s engines, deafening because the door was still open. The plane lurched, making everyone stagger, and then began to move off down the taxiway. The boarding steps toppled over with a crash.

Ralavich backed away from Konstantin, using the arm around my neck to drag me with him. I pulled and clawed at it, but he was terrifyingly strong and my struggling only made him cinch it tighter, cutting off my air until my hands and feet started to feel numb and heavy. “Kill him!” Ralavich spat to the two guards.

I froze as both guards put their hands under their jackets to draw their guns. But then they looked uncertainly at the moving plane. If they put a hole in it, I realized, we can’t take off. Leaving their guns in their holsters, they ran at him instead. I felt Ralavich’s arm relax a little. The men were professional bodyguards, both well over six feet and loaded with muscle, and there were two of them….

The first one came within reach. Konstantin grabbed his shirt, swung him sideways and slammed him headfirst into the wall. The man slumped to the ground and the second guard faltered and stopped. Konstantin glared at Ralavich. You. I’m coming for you next.

The arm around my neck tightened again.

Outside, I could hear shouting and gunfire. From what I could glimpse through the windows, Konstantin’s men were fighting Ralavich’s, and the FBI were arriving right in the middle of it. Then I saw Calahan, gun drawn, running alongside the plane as it picked up speed. He was trying to climb on board, but the open door was a good ten feet above the runway and without the steps, there was no way up. We were on our own.

“A hundred thousand,” Ralavich told his guard, his voice tight with panic. “A hundred thousand dollars if you kill him.”

The guard’s eyes narrowed and he ran at Konstantin, knocking him back and landing a flurry of punches. Konstantin gave a sudden grunt of pain as one hit his right arm. He hit back, but each time he used his right arm, he winced. A red flower of blood was spreading across his white shirt. He must have been injured, and the fight had opened up the wound. He threw another punch, but it was slower, weaker, and the guard blocked it easily.

A chill spread through me. Konstantin was going to lose.

Still gripping me tightly, Ralavich ventured nearer to the fight. “Did you know that I was the first to rape your mother?” he taunted.

Konstantin tensed... then grunted as he absorbed another few blows, weakening fast. I struggled helplessly against Ralavich’s arm. No! No, please!

“I was the one who beat her,” Ralavich told Konstantin. “I kept punching her because the slut wouldn’t tell me how much she loved it.”

Konstantin’s lips drew back from his teeth and he tried to launch himself towards Ralavich, but was knocked back by another punch to the face.

“It’s how I lost my virginity,” said Ralavich. “They say you never forget your first time.” He looked down at me. “I think that’s how I developed my tastes.”

Konstantin gave a yell of rage and dived forward again, but as soon as he dropped his guard, he took another punch and staggered back.

The pilot’s voice came over a speaker. “Close the fucking door! We need to take off!”