Chapter 8 – Niko
Niko stood in the shower enjoying the feel of the strong water jets pounding on her aching shoulder muscles. She’d been up until four o’clock in the morning, supervising the arrival of the latest shipment, and after less than three hours of sleep, was up and getting ready for another day of planning.
She let her head drop onto the shower wall, and banged her forehead against the tiles, over and over, hard enough to know she’d done it, but not so hard as to leave a mark.
She hated her life.
Hated, hated, hated, almost every second of every day of her life.
She felt the tears prick the back of her eyes, completely unconnected to the pain she’d caused herself.
All those women she’d watched last night, being dragged from the back of one truck and loaded into the back of another, had been shocked to see a woman giving directions, ordering the men around, and making sure nobody started taking liberties with the cargo.
Most of the women had understandably been frightened, crying, or trying to stay huddled together for comfort.
The few that had dared to look up had spotted Niko instantly, and the stares of contempt and pure hatred she’d received had cut through her like a knife.
If only they’d known that the woman giving the orders was every bit as much a prisoner as they were. But they would never have believed it.
Niko added shampoo to her golden hair and using her nails on her scalp, scrubbed hard, as though by scraping her skin raw, she could wash away the filth she felt crawling all over her.
Eventually she needed to wash off the soap, so she tilted her head back to allow the water to hit her straight in the face, washing away the last of her tears. At least this would revitalise her skin, and stop her eyes looking quite so blotchy after her cry.
Grabbing the towel, she shut off the water, and looked at the bathroom floor before stepping out.
Her brother had this obsession with using these shithole apartments or crappy hotels wherever they went, and it wouldn’t be the first time she’d climbed out of the shower only to step onto a cockroach.
With the floor looking as clean as could be expected, she gingerly stepped out, wrapping one scratchy towel around her as she grabbed another one to dry herself off. She’d locked the bolt on the bathroom door, small as it was, but she wouldn’t have felt safe even if she’d had a deadbolt and padlock.
Her brother’s men were pigs, but as long as they followed his orders, which meant they could look as long as they didn’t touch, they could damn near walk in on her naked, and her brother wouldn’t lift a finger to either stop or punish them.
Niko hastily pulled on her underwear, covering herself quickly with a pair of jeans and a high neck t-shirt. The last thing she wanted to do was to give the men a view of her breasts, as they’d apparently been the subject of many a male fantasy since they’d started developing when she was just thirteen.
Which meant that for most of the last ten years, she’d been keeping them hidden.
That wasn’t the most comfortable thing to have to do, especially in the summer when the temperature in southern Europe could head up into the high thirties, but it was absolutely necessary if she wanted to blend in as much as possible with the men, and separate herself from the women they trafficked.
“Mama! Mama!” The banging on the bathroom door made her jump. “Pee now, mama!”
Tears instantly forgotten, Niko turned quickly and unlocked the door to allow her three-year-old son to rush to the toilet.
He was speaking to her in English as he almost always did, and it was funny to think Roman was already fluent in two languages at such a young age.
Roman was her absolute favourite person in the whole world, and the only one she loved without reservation.
“Come here, baby.” She picked him up and rushed him to the toilet. “Let me get your pants off before you wet them.”
Niko pulled Roman’s pants down a split second before he started peeing into the toilet, and she wasn’t entirely sure which one of them was more relieved.
“Mama, I’m not a baby anymore.” Roman insisted, patiently waiting for his bladder to empty. “I’m a big boy now. Noni says so.”
Ignoring the ‘Noni’ reference, Niko waited for him to finish.
“You are a big boy, Roman.” She ruffled his golden curls, the exact same shade as her own. “But even when you’re a grown man, bigger than Uncle Ilya, you’ll still be mama’s ‘baby’, so you’d just better get used to it.”
Obviously still too sleepy to argue, Roman just shrugged and headed for the door.
“Hey, buster! Get over here and wash your hands.” She scolded. “And while you’re about it, you may as well get those teeth brushed at the same time.”
As she supervised his hand-washing, and helped him brush his teeth, Niko’s stomach was churning with the thought that she’d have to leave her son behind again, this time for more than a week, while they got the latest shipment over to Rotterdam, to where the ‘auction’ would be held to sell the women to the highest bidders.
Normally these trips only lasted three or four days, but with new players in the game, Ilya had decided that they wouldn’t follow the normal routes but would take a number of detours along the way. He wanted to make sure they didn’t give up the whereabouts of the safe-houses they had worked so long to secure, should anything go wrong with their new partners.
That meant leaving her son with Noni again.
Noni had been with the family all of Niko’s life, originally working for Niko’s parents, helping run the house and care for Niko and her older brother Ilya, and her younger sister Valentina.
When Niko’s parents and sister had been killed in a car crash when Niko was just thirteen, Ilya had kept Noni on the payroll to take care of Niko, while he took care of business.
As distraught as she’d been about the loss of her family, and the total chaos that followed it, Niko had never been under any illusion that Noni was there for her.
Noni was there for Ilya, working for him and reporting back to him everything Niko had ever said or done.
That was how Ilya had found out that Niko had her first crush on a guy.
She hadn’t exactly been a naive teenager the first time she’d met Vasili, so it wasn’t as though she was under the impression that it would be all flowers and chocolates. But Vasili was the first guy she’d met that didn’t work for her brother, and that alone made him a million times more attractive than anyone she’d ever known.
They’d met in secret, in between classes at the university where she was completing her studies, and for six glorious weeks, she’d been in love and happy.
Then Noni had found out.
Which meant that Ilya found out.
And Vasili disappeared.
Not just from her life, but from the university, and according to his distraught parents, from his home too.
Niko had been completely devastated, sick to her stomach thinking about what Ilya might have done with Vasili. By the time she’d realised she was pregnant, Niko was almost six months along, and even then, she wasn’t prepared to tell anyone.
She’d lost so much weight after Vasili disappeared, that everyone simply thought she was getting over him when she regained what she’d lost, and even added a few pounds.
She’d feared what Ilya’s reaction would be, once he knew that she was pregnant, and being under no illusion as to what her brother’s business was about, and the reputation he had for being violent and volatile, Niko had expected him to go ballistic.
Instead, he’d surprised her by taking to Roman from the first time he laid eyes on the child, and now the only thing worse than hearing her son quote his wonderful ‘Noni’ as though her word was gospel, was when Roman told her about all the fun things he’d done with Uncle Ilya, whenever her brother took him out for a few hours.
The only difference to Niko’s life following Roman’s birth, was that whereas when she was a teenager she’d been obliged to do as her brother instructed as he had sole guardianship of her, holding the purse-strings to the money their parents had left behind, now he had total control over her, simply having to threaten her son for Niko to do anything he wished.
Which brought her thoughts back full circle to the women she’d seen staring at her this morning, looking like they wished she would spontaneously combust where she stood.
They obviously didn’t understand that she was only involved in Ilya’s business because she had no choice.
Ilya had warned her that if she didn’t do exactly what he said, when he said it, he would hurt the only thing she loved in this world. And her big brother didn’t joke about these things. He had no sense of humour.
“Mama? Look, I’ve finished.” Roman lifted his face to hers, his lips opened wide as he showed off his beautiful white baby-teeth.
“Wow!” Niko pretended to shield her eyes from the glare. “They’re so shiny and clean. Good job, sweetheart.”
She picked up a towel and wiped the toothpaste from the corner of his smile.
“Come on, let’s get an early breakfast, hmm?” Niko smiled. “Just the two of us.”
“Ok, mama. Can I go in my pyjamas?” Roman grinned up at her.
“No, baby, you can’t go in your pyjamas.” She smiled. “But if you get dressed for me really quickly, I’ll see if they have chocolate milk for you. Ok?”
Roman was out of the bathroom so fast, Niko couldn’t help but smile.
If only she could just pick up her son, walk out of the hotel and disappear. Go somewhere Ilya would never find her. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
“Mama, mama! Uncle Ilya is here to take us to breakfast.” Roman’s voice was excited, as it always was when her brother was around.
Niko’s heart sank.
Great! Suffering through a meal with Ilya would make living in hell feel like a week at a luxury holiday destination.
Niko took a deep breath before walking back into the bedroom.
Smile, she thought. Your life really might just depend on it.