Page 15 of My Russian Protector

A gentle breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and a sweet floral scent fills the air. It catches me off guard because I expected a dark, dingy, dungeon with water dripping down the walls and shackled prisoners begging for a crumb of bread.

My feet stop on the concrete as they drag me to a door and inside a building. I’d like to fight but I know I have no chance. They take me into a room and set me in a chair then remove my hood and leave. I look around and realize I’m inside a wealthy person's home office, with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and rich, mahogany furnishings. I look out the window onto a lush garden that rolls gently downhill to a large pond.

Alex must have been right. My father must have taken on a new identity and done very well for himself in the process. My heart sinks as I’m confronted by the memory of my mother working her fingers to the bone to make a life for me once he left and eventually dying penniless. How could he do this to us? Why were we so easy to throw away?

The door to the office opens and my father enters. He’s balder and fatter than he was the last time I saw him, but I have no doubt that it’s him. When I look into his eyes, I see my own. My mother always said I had his eyes.

“Untie her,” he commands the younger man who enters the room behind him.

He removes the bindings from my hands, and I rub my chaffed and swollen wrists. My father sits down behind his ornate desk and folds her arms across his well-fed belly.

“Anna, look at you. You’re all grown up now,” he grins.

“No thanks to you,” I mutter.

“So, tell me. Why are you here?” he leans forward and peers into my eyes.

“You tell me. I didn’t abduct myself,” I refute.

“You know what I’m asking. Why did you come to Chekalin? Are you here to blackmail me? You brought a known killer with you. Were you planning to assassinate me?”

“I don’t want your money or your head. I just want answers,” I reply.

“To what questions?” he asks me.

I shake my head and roll my eyes, “What do you think? How could you just abandon your family? You left us broke. We lost our home. We went hungry, and my mother died trying to support me.”

“You know there was a price on my head. If I’d stayed, we would have all been in danger. Your friend Alexsander Alborov is not above using children to flush out their fathers,” he replies.

I smirk and say, “Yes, but you had the money to pay off your debt. You chose to run away and start a new life instead. Looks like things have gone well for you, too.”

“I can’t make you understand, but I assure you that I had your best interest at heart. What would you like me to do? Should I apologize for succeeding after I left? Would you feel better if you had found me in the gutter instead of this mansion?”

“Yes. Right now, I wish I had found you lying in a pool of your own blood,” I reply as my anger comes to a head.

“I’ve never wished anything but the best for you. I guess your time with Alborov has hardened you. I suppose he’s done his best to discredit me at every turn. How else could he convince you to let him kill me?”

My eyes grow wide at the insinuation, “He’s not here to kill you. I paid him to help me find you.”

“Are you that naive? There’s an open contract on my head and he’s honor-bound to finish the job. He’s been using you. Don’t you see? I told you he uses children to flush out their fathers.”

“You’re wrong. You’re just trying to turn me against him. He had no interest in you until I approached him. He promised me he wouldn’t kill you.”

“And you believed him? Why? Why would you be so quick to take the word of a hired killer?” he asks.

“From where I’m sitting, he’s more honorable than you have ever been. He doesn’t intentionally harm the people he’s supposed to protect and care for, anyway.”

“Is that what he’s doing? Protecting you? Caring for you?” he chuckles. “Let me tell you what’s going to happen next. He’s going to come here to kill me. When he does, my men are going to kill him. All that will be left to figure out is what to do with you. Killing you would tie up all of my loose ends, but you are my family.

“If I pay you off, I have no guarantee that you won’t come back for more when the money runs out. If you refuse my money, I have to assume that you’re standing on some misguided principle and that you might get emotional and turn me in. You are a beautiful girl. I could sell you off to one of my associates. He enjoys using up and disposing of beautiful, young women. That way, my hands would be clean. I just don’t know what to do. I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Now, I have to prepare to kill your lover.”

“Why did my mother marry a sick bastard like you? I made Alex swear that he wouldn’t kill you. I wish I hadn’t done that,” I shout as I try to absorb the emotional blow that he’s just given me.

“You’ll be staying here for a while. Get comfortable,” he replies. “Oh, and I’ll have a guard at the door so please don’t try to escape. He’s been instructed to beat you if necessary.”

He leaves and I hear the door bolt from the outside. I’m still trying to process the sheer ugliness of this interaction. I didn’t expect the man to be happy to see me, but I did expect some sort of emotional response. He was so cold and calculating that I wonder if he ever cared for me at all.

Maybe he’s a psychopath who’s incapable of loving anyone. Whatever the motivation, one thing is clear. Alex was right all along. All I can do now is hope that he makes it here in time to save me from the danger I put myself in. Why was I so bent on finding my father? What did I hope to accomplish? I should have packed up and returned to Moscow when Alex suggested it. Now, I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to see him again.

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