Perfect Opposite (19 page)

“Does this color go with my eyes, what do you think?” I asked casually
and waited for his reaction.

Alex
started to lift his head but then his features froze as his eyes reached the hem of my chosen piece. A dumb sort of expression passed over his face and it took a mammoth effort for me not to burst out laughing. He slowly continued up until our eyes met, then sort of pulled himself together and put on a serious expression.

“
It really sets them off.” his voice was even more gruff than usual, as if something had caught in his throat.

I lifted my chin in a bird-like motion and took a step back, drawing the curtain across with
a swoosh as the heat started to rise in my cheeks. My intention had been to throw Alex off kilter just a little, but then I realized that I’d wanted his eyes on me. I didn’t want to think of myself as vain, but I guess I’d secretly wanted to get a reaction out of him. Anyway, my decision to buy the babydoll had nothing to do with it. It really didn’t.

We were just leaving the store
, when a guy ran into me by accident as I was coming through a set of revolving doors.

“Hey, sorry, I didn’t...” he grabbed my arm so that I wouldn’t fall, because I’d lost my balance from the collision, but he didn’t manage to finish his sentence.

Alex jumped between the two of us and looked lethal as he grabbed the guy, seeming not to notice that he looked scared to death.

“Hey ma
n, I didn’t see her. S... sorry.” he stammered while Alex was scanning his eyes, not saying a word.

“
Oh, come on!” I sighed, “We only bumped into each other, for God’s sake. Stop making a scene.”

Alex looked the guy up and down once more, let him go and taking my hand up in his own headed towards the exit, dragging me behind him. I practically had to
run just to keep up with him, but he didn’t seem concerned about that. When we reached the parking lot I wrenched my hand free of his and stood still, just glaring at him.

“You can’t just lunge at people for no reason!”

“I am a little edgy today.” he grabbed my hand again and led me over to the bike, which was parked nearby.

“Yeah, that
's a good enough reason alright.” I tried to yank my arm free, but it was no use, “You know... there are places you can go to get treatment. Plenty of psychiatrists deal with anger management.”

I took the helmet he thrust into my hands and put it on my head angrily, cursing loud enough for him to hear.

By the time we got close to our
neighborhood
, it was almost dark. When the bike came to a halt at the lights near my building, I jumped off, pushed the helmet at him and raced round to the entrance. I was feeling around in my purse for a set of keys when two strong hands gripped me from behind.

“I told you…” I started to say, but this time I felt rough skin against my own as a cold hard hand came up to cover my mouth.

“Shut up.” whispered heavily accented voice as the sour smell of old sweat came to my nose, “or I promise you’ll regret it.”

Feeling a sharp pinch in the side of my neck
, I started struggling on instinct, but my body refused to move the way I wanted it to. The guy whose face I couldn’t see had me in a tight grip and I only managed to wriggle a little before my vision blurred and my whole body went limp. I could vaguely remember feeling my body being bundled into the back of a car, but it’s last thing I recalled, because then I blacked out completely.

***

I woke up feeling numbness in my hands and feet. The stench of motor oil caught in my throat and I retched, feeling for a moment like I might really throw up, but I didn’t. There was another smell too, like the building itself might be rotten.

I tried to open my eyes more fully, but they felt weighted down
. It was worse than any hangover I’d experienced. When I did finally get them to open, everything seemed out of focus and the same went for my thoughts, because it was like my mind had somehow been broken into fragments.

Disoriented, I finally made out a dim light coming from somewhere on the right. A single naked bulb was hanging from a cord on one side of the room, swinging a little to cast eerie, dancing shadows across the cracked plaster on the walls.
There was an old car nearby and various tools hung from the wall nearest to me, so I realized it had to be a garage. I had no idea how I’d got there.

W
hen I figured out that the numbness I was feeling came from ropes binding my hands and feet, a strong wave of panic engulfed me. I tried to scream, but only a muffled croak came through the rag tied across my mouth. Turning in each direction as much as my restraints would allow, I started twisting my hands ever more painfully, hoping somehow to get them free.

My mind seemed to be somewhere outside my body, observing the scene as if it were some movie, and maybe I would have let myself believe that were true if the pain hadn’t been so real as I twisted my wrists and felt the cuts there deepen. When the burning sensation got too much, I could do nothing but go limp.

It wasn’t long before the sound of a creaking door came to my ears, accompanied by bright beams of light that lit up the entire room. Footfalls came from behind my chair and I tried to turn, but someone grabbed my hair painfully, bringing tears to my eyes in a flash.

“Stay still!”

With his free hand he brought his coarse fingers down on the back of my neck, which felt suddenly wet as I broke out into a cold sweat and recoiled against his touch. I struggled violently, but stopped when something cold and metallic pressed into my cheek.

“
Shhhh...“ he bent down as he whispered, so that his mouth came within a hair’s breadth of my ear, and again the stale smell of sweat and now some kind of food filled my nostrils.

“I don’t want to cut up your pretty face... not before
it’s time.” he hissed as he ran the blunt edge of the knife up and across my face.

“We had instructions to bring you here in one piece, but if you don’t behav
e, I’ll be forced to punish you.” I felt the cold steel of the knife press more firmly against my skin.

“I’m sure Khalil would understand.”

A palpable sense of horror made my entire body rigid and I stopped breathing altogether. My mind was racing and the voice of the stranger seemed far away, so when colored shapes started to form in front of my eyes I realized I must be about to pass out.

“Just be a good girl and don’t make any noise. Khalil will be here in
an hour.” with these words he left the room, closing the metal door behind him.

With all my strength I tried to pull my hands apart, making one more attempt to ignore the
burning pain around my wrists.

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but not from the sensation, rather out of anger, because at that moment I cursed my life and the fate that had brought me to this place. I saw Nikolai in my mind’s eye and hurled curses at him for his path in life. I saw Bethany and hated her for the simple existence she was blessed with, her worries that revolved around matching dresses and silly boys. Then there was Alex. I was furious with him for not keeping me safe, and more so with myself for trusting that he would.

He was right. I acted like an idiot, fooling around like no one could touch me.

I closed my eyes and felt tears trickle down my face, and they fell like the disconnected memories that were cascading into my mind. Some happy, other less so, and some that I’d buried long ago swam up from the depths to surface in my consciousness and I indulged them in the hope that they’d carry my thoughts away from the dreadful place I’d come to.

It wasn’t clear to me how much time I spent like that, but when I heard a noise from the direction of the door, I figured the final moment had arrived and felt almost peaceful as I bent my head, waiting for the inevitable.

So that's it
.

“Princess
?” a barely audible whisper reached my ears.

At first I thought I was hallucinating, but when two large hands gently cupped my cheeks and slowly raised my head, I flicked open my eyes and
blinked several times in disbelief. I wasn’t sure what shocked me more - the fact that Alex was there at all, or the terrified expression on his face.

“I thought I
was too late.” he breathed out.

With a couple of deft moves he freed my hands from the restraints and wrested the cloth from around my mouth, throwing it to the ground. I spat once on the floor, trying to get rid of the bitter taste that it left in my mouth. Alex just clenched his teeth and watched me, glancing every now and again towards the door.

“Alex…” I whispered, part of me still wondering whether this all might be a dream.

“I'll
tan your hide when we get home!” he leaned in, kissed me on the forehead and swept me up in his arms, carrying me over towards the door.

When we passed carefully through into a dim corridor, I held on to his neck more tightly, burying my head more deeply into his shoulder. Low, muffled voices and dog sounds came from behind a door further down.
Alex hurried past the door as quietly as he could and we were outside in a few strides.

The yard we were in was overgrown with weeds and untidy bushes, a bad smell
lingering around as though something might be dead in the tall grass. Old, and in an advanced state of decay, the house we’d left looked derelict from the outside. Glancing in the other direction, I saw that the entire neighborhood was made up of similar properties, all flaking paint and broken up porches. Here and there a lonely street lamp cast a dull orange glow on the squalor. It was obvious they’d brought me to one of the very worst parts of the city. I could imagine the cops didn’t even patrol these streets.

Moving without making a sound, Alex took me to the back of the garage and lowered me gently to the ground, leaving one arm around my waist to keep me close. After his eyes had carefully scanned the area around us, he reached his hand behind his back and leaned toward me.

“Can you walk?” he asked quietly.

I nodded and opened my mouth to say something, but felt the words evaporate when my eyes came to rest on the gun he’d removed f
rom the waistband on his jeans.

“I parked down the street, but we have to be real invisible ‘
cause Khalil’s people are all over the place. If they realize too soon that you’re gone, we might not get out of here. OK?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, but took me firmly by the arm instead, pulling me along behind the house and towards the street. I followed mechanically, try
ing to ignore the stabbing pain in my legs.

When we reached a high, chain l
inked fence, Alex stopped and placed a finger over his lips to show that I should be quiet, then pointed at the ground. I understood that I shouldn’t move from the spot, and after I nodded, he tucked the gun back into his jeans, and removed a knife from around his calf. One second he was there in front of me, and then he was gone without a word.

Trying not to make even the smallest sound, I crouched between some long grass and the fence, hugging my legs to make myself as small as possible.
A cold breeze blew, bringing an icy chill to my skin, but I didn’t dare move to blow warmth on my hands. I kept my eyes fixed on the earth between my sneakers and stayed like that for I don’t know how long, studying the trampled grass and pieces of broken glass underneath me, and what looked like scraps of burnt paper.

All of a sudden
, Alex appeared again. I saw his legs enter my field of vision first and looked up to find his face. He wrapped his fingers around my hand and led me swiftly to the small iron gate which was our only way off the property.

The first sight that greeted me as we reached the gate was a body lying prone on the ground.

“I had to stun him.“ Alex gripped me tighter and led me down the street at a fast walking pace.

We’d gone around a fifty yards when he stopped in his tracks, flicked his wrist and arm in one fluid motion, and I heard the same whizzing noise in the air as once before. We started to run towards cars parked by the side of the road and as I passed behind one beat-up old blue Ford I saw that Alex’s knife had found its target.
A black-red liquid was soaking into the man’s shirt and tricking down into cracks in the road, spreading out in a growing pattern of branches.

A sick feeling filled a hollow pit in my stomach as we approached a sleek black Jeep. I crouched down to throw up, but Alex had other ideas and lifted me off the ground, making sure I tumbled through the now open rear door.

“Stay down.” he ordered and closed the door behind me.

And then, everything went to hell.

First came the sound of shouting, and then gunshots. I curled up in a ball on the floor, between the seats and against the door, put my hands up over my head protectively and let out a scream, unable to bottle it up. A few split seconds later Alex started the engine with a loud revving sound and I found my whole body pressed against the seats behind me as the car accelerated fast.

Alex wa
s driving like a man possessed and I rolled around like crazy in the back, banging my arms and my head painfully against the seats. I’d stopped screaming and my breathing became real shallow, as the world seemed to swirl around above my head. The gunshots had stopped, but it didn’t reflect on the motion of the car, which continued to swerve this way and that at God knows what speed.

Some time
later, the car showed sign of slowing down as sharp corners reflected less in the movement of my body, before it finally came to a complete stop. Cautiously, I raised my head to the glass to see Alex standing out of the vehicle and scanning the large underground garage he’d driven us to, as though expecting Khalil’s men to appear at any moment. Glancing reflexively towards the entrance every couple of seconds, he took a large black bag from the passenger seat and opened my door, offering his hand to help me heave myself out. I leaned unsteadily against the door, lifted my head and studied the long lines of cars for myself.

“You OK?” he asked and rested his eyes on me for a moment.

His face offered no answers, like so many times before, but his eyes glinted in a certain way, showing some unidentified emotion behind that familiar veneer of calm. His question seemed loaded somehow and I thought back to the man he’d slain in the street right in front of me. I looked away, and then down at my pink, girly sneakers. I knew he’d had no choice, but...

“
Well, I … I got thrown around a lot in the back…”

“I'm sorry...” again I felt his words were charged with an extra meaning, “I couldn’t risk it.”

He reached out with the intention of taking my hand but I shrank instinctively from his touch before I’d had time to think about it. My reaction obviously affected him, because his entire demeanor changed. He closed his eyes for a moment and then seemed to gather himself once more, but with a little difficulty this time.

“We have to go.
” he said in low voice, pulled his black sweater up and over his head and handed it to me, still avoiding my gaze. “Put this on.”

“It’s OK, I don’t need....”

“You are freezing. Just take the bloody sweater. Please.”

I hesitated for a few seconds before taking it, then quickly put it on, feeling his warmth and his scent around me. I wa
tched as he opened the back of another car nearby, using a remote key. He dropped his bag in the trunk which made a loud rattling thud as it landed, as though it contained some very serious metal objects. It obviously wasn’t sports gear that he was carrying.

“I see you're ready for a war.”

Instead of answering, Alex went round to the driver's side door, opened it and motioned for me to get in.

“I'm afraid you’ll have to drive this next lap”.

“What?” I looked at him confused, “I can’t. I haven’t driven for years. We’ll crash somewhere!”

The last time I’d driven a car had been with
Vova sitting next to me, showing me how to reverse park, something I’d never quite mastered.

Paying no heed to my protests, Alex nudged me closer to the door and urged me to get inside. Closing the door once I was sitting, he walked around the front and got in the passenger side.

“You'll have to manage somehow.” he said sharply and pressed the key into my palm, “Drive.“

His tone let me know that protesting more would get me nowhere, so even though I was trembling hard, I got the key in the ignition and turned it, feeling the engine purr into action. Getting it into gear, I pulled away, gripping the wheel tightly
, turned and drove us down the row of cars, as Alex tapped an address into the sat nav.

There were hardly any cars on the road and I turned left, starting to feel I might be getting the hang of driving again. It almost felt good to have something to concentrate on. Feeling sort of hypnotized, I turned from the red arrow on the screen to the lines on the road, then back again. I kept the car in lane and drove like a sensible mom taking her kid to hockey practice.

Next t
o me, Alex moved his seat back and started peeling off his t-shirt.

“What... what
are you doing?”

I wanted him t
o be still, and not distract me, advertising his abs.

“Keep your eyes on the road!
” he snapped, at the same time tearing his t-shirt into two pieces with a loud ripping sound.

I shook my head and tried to concentrate on the white lines rolling by under the wheels of the car, but noticed that he was bending forward and attempting to tie one of the black lengths of cotton around his thigh. I turned to face him and immediately slammed on the brakes.

“Jesus! Who taught you how to drive!?” Alex yelled, but I wasn’t paying attention to his words.

I was breathing rapidly and my hands once again started to shake as I saw the red stain on his pale jeans, his blood visibly soaking into the length of cotton he’d tied there. It felt like someone had gripped me by the throat, and was starting to squeeze.

“They shot you!” I felt the words tumble out of my mouth. “They really shot you! Oh my God! We have to go to a hospital!”

“
Follow the arrows on the screen.” Alex was speaking through his teeth, tying the ends of his t-shirt into a knot.

“No, we have to take you to a doctor. You’re
gonna lose too much blood. God... Are you OK?”

“Sasha.”

“Where are we now? There must be some hospital close by!” I began nervously to pull at the rings on my fingers, feeling tears start to gather in my eyes.

Alex brought his face close to my own, lifted my chin with one of his fingers and forced me to look at him carefully. My eyes were wide open, and my whole body flinched when he gave me the order.

“Pull yourself together, now!”

“But...”

“Everything is OK. We’re going exactly where I told you to go. Is that clear?”

I blinked a few times
, then only nodded and started up the engine.

Taking the cigarettes from the
glove box in front of him, Alex lighted one and leaning in his seat, closed his eyes, acting as if everything was just fine. I was completely taken aback by his casual demeanor.

By following the instructions on the screen I was able to drive mechanically along deserted roads, turning every now and again, only occasionally meeting a car travelling in the direction we’d come. Every time I glanced over at this crazy person sitting next to me, bleeding all over the place, he looked paler than before and I wasn’t fooled. He was not OK.

Without any changes to my features, tears formed and rolled down my cheeks, and I just let them trickle down to my chin and drip down to my lap.

I almost never cry in front of other people. I never cried in front of my old friends.
I never cried in front of Tyler. I never cried in front of Nikolai. Not for real, at least.

Crying in front of people makes you vulnerable. It shows them your weaknesses, and they can use th
ose weaknesses to hurt you. And I don’t want to be hurt.

There are only three persons in the world who ever saw me cry for real
. The first was my mother. The second was Bethany. I cried in front of them because I knew they would never use my weaknesses. That... they would never hurt me.

T
he third was Alex.

I am crying
my eyes out in front of him now, and not for the first time, knowing that he will hurt me. I don’t know how I know it. I just do. And, somehow... I don’t really care.

With glazed eyes I looked down at the speedometer and watched the needle rise higher and higher. Paying no attention to the speed signs we passed, I gripped the wheel even tighter and let my foot come down harder on the gas.

The pains from the cuts on my wrists seemed to disappear and fears for my own safety flew out of the window. Khalil’s men became characters in some bad gangster flick I’d seen weeks before as everything lost its significance except for Alex.

When we stopped at a set of lights a half hour later, I quickly undid my belt and leaned over to put my hand against the side of his face.

“Hey
?” I whispered.

He opened his eyes, and I saw warmth reflected in them as he smiled. It was almost as though my concern amused him.

“I'm fine, Princess, really. They just nicked me. Don’t panic.” he took my hand in his and pulled my fingertips to his lips, kissing them softly, “Keep going, it’s green.”

“You are not fine!” I let his hand fall away from my own and took the wheel again, moving the car forwards, “If you pass out, I’m turning the car and taking you straight to a hospital.”

“There’s no need for that. Where we’re going there’s someone who can patch me up, a friend of mine. It won’t be the first time.”

“Is he a doctor?”

“Sort of...” he lit another cigarette and I heard it burn as he inhaled.

“What do you mean? Is he or isn’t he?”

“Mike’s a veterinarian.” he finally said.

“A
ve… Have you lost your mind?”

“Why? I am uncivilized savage according to you. Who better to treat me?”

“You dumbass!” I hissed, but realized all of a sudden that the screen was showing our destination up ahead and pulled over by the curb next to a small house with a picket fence. “I guess we’re here.”

I flew out of th
e car and up to the front door and pressed hard on the bell with my thumb, seeing with the corner of my eye that Alex was trying to get out of the car.

“You stay there!” I pointed a finger at him, “Don’t move an inch!”

He wasn’t listening to me, and I was just about to go over to him when the door opened to reveal a disheveled guy with a shock of long, wild red hair.

“Mike?” I asked cautiously.

The man at the door looked more like a mad scientist than a veterinarian, with his five-day beard and clunky black glasses. The fact they were resting at an angle on his nose made the impression even stronger.

“And who are you, if you don’t mind?” he asked sleepily, letting his eyes wander to the car when the door shut loudly.

“Ah shit! Again?!” he sounded exasperated as he ran over to Alex who was hobbling towards us.

“Occupational hazard
.” Alex answered.

“Why, of all people, do I always end up stitching you back together in the middle of the night? Did it ever occur to you to get shot in the morning?” Mike grumbled as he helped Alex up onto a cold metal table.

“
It is morning, Mike.”

“It’
s 5 a.m. My morning starts at noon.”

“I’ll make a note
. For the next time.”

“Can’t wait.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s nice of you to stop by when you’re around, but come on! The last time you came all sliced up. And before that it was with badly broken bones in your face. And now – a gunshot wound. Again. Maybe I’ll transfer to the ER with all the experience you’re giving me.”

“I'm glad to be of help
.”

While Mike was moving around the room gathering various bottles and shiny instruments, Alex leaned up on one elbow and looked for
all the world like he wasn’t worried. I just stood in the corner, wondering at the scene being played out in front of me.

“
I’m serious. When’s the last time you just stopped by to hang out. You know, a six-pack of beer and game on TV?” Mike tossed over his shoulder.