Anger boiled in my stomach, and I began to shake violently, my inner rage almost too much to cope with.

“No,” I snapped curtly, my voice sounding deadly even to me. Kisa jumped and I heard her hold her breath at my sudden change in mood. “I need… to remember,” I forced out.

“Luka?” Kisa asked and slowly began backing off my lap. “You need to calm down. You’re turning red. Your skin is scalding!”

Tipping back my head, I roared toward the night sky, releasing all the confusion, the rage, and the frustration that had been bombarding me over the last few days.

“Luka!” Kisa cried, and I could hearing her sniffing, sobbing as she moved from my lap and scurried backwards into the rocks.

“The driver had been shot, and men stormed the bus… Georgians… Georgians stormed the bus.” I began rocking on my knees as the scene played out. “They beat us, forced us into the back of the bus…” I sucked in a long, stuttered breath and looked to Kisa, who was now dressed and pressed against the rocks as though she were facing a monster.

She was. I was a fucking cold, sick monster. This was what they had made me… what they’d been ordered to do to me by…

“They knew my name,” I spat out. “Those men… they asked for me by my name.” I blinked, but the memory of my full name didn’t come. “Luka,” I said and hit the side of my head with my fist. “Luka… Luka… ARGH!”

I couldn’t remember my last name!

“Tolstoi,” a soft voice uttered against the breeze. “Luka Jakob Tolstoi… that was your full name. That is your full name.”

Shoulders sagging, I tilted my head to the side as I witnessed the expression on Kisa’s face transform from fear to sadness.

Feeling my legs shake, I fell forward on all fours, my hands fisting into the sand.

“Luka!” Kisa shrilled, and I heard her drop beside me, her hand tentatively resting on my back.

“They had been sent for me,” I rasped, all energy seeping from my body into the sand beneath me. “Fuck… I can still feel it. Like a fucking dagger, Kisa, a dagger.”

“How?” Kisa asked cautiously, her fingers running down my spine. “Why were they sent for you? How did you know?”

*****

“Luka Tolstoi. You’re coming with us,” the man with the gun said.

“Where? Where am I going?” I asked, but I got no answer.

“To fucking hell, boy. You’re going off the grid. Someone’s paid us a shitload of money to make you disappear.” The guy pointed to the other boys being dragged out of the bus. “You all are.”

“Why?” I asked. “Who ordered this?”

He smiled and shrugged. “You fucked with the wrong family, boy.”

All I felt was dread at his words. “Durov? It was Durov?”

The man looked taken aback, but then he laughed. “Well, at least you’ll know who’s to blame for what lies ahead. Abram made sure you’ll never ever return to Brooklyn.”

*****

Lurching to a sitting position, I stared at Kisa. “Abram… Abram Durov…”

“What? What else do you remember?”

“He organized for the Georgians to intercept the bus. He emptied it and burned the bus. They filled it with dead teens from the Gulag so there was burned bodies. But it was Abram. He ordered me taken.”

Kisa’s eyes shone, but her face was calmer now, numb. “He needed to protect Alik,” she said, nodding. “He needed you gone so no one would know Alik killed Rodion.”

My teeth gritted together and I lowered my head, taking a long, deep breath. “They never expected me to survive. They thought I’d be killed in the cage.”

We were both silent for a while, but then Kisa stood and held out her hand. I looked up into her eyes and saw only strength. “But you did, Luka. You did survive. And…” She took a breath and straightened her shoulders. Resolve had settled within her. I could see it in her face. “We need to get you back to the gym. You have a fight to win tomorrow.”

I watched my Kisa-Anna, and the anger I had fled my body.

I had to win this fight.

I had to reclaim my life or forever live in the dark.

Slipping my hand in Kisa’s and seeing her eyes shine with tears, I got to my feet and pulled her into my chest. Her gaze met mine, and I raked back her long brown hair with my fingers.

Her eyes closed. “You have to win the fight, Luka. Justice must be served. It is the way we live. Blood for blood. You have to do it for you, for us… but I want you to win for Rodion. He should be avenged.”