Canary by Tijan

43

Ash

“This is your new room, sweetheart.”

She opened the door and inside were two beds. A little girl was sitting on one of them, a doll in her hand. She looked up…

I jerked upright, realizing I’d been leaning back against a tree.

A campfire was lit up in front of me. I was hoping it wasn’t the one used to burn everything else.

Jake glanced over, “You okay?”

I nodded, a quick move up and down. “Yeah. Nightmare.”

He frowned, his face lit by the small campfire he’d built. “I know you got Raize, but he ain’t here. You want to talk about it?”

I almost laughed. He had no idea. “No. Just...different life. How long have I been out?”

He shrugged. “An hour, or so.”

A snore came from the other side of the fire.

Bronski was still out, and the ground was hella uncomfortable.

Jake sighed. “I can do it. You want me to do it?”

Did I? “I don’t know.”

I also didn’t know why I didn’t just do it. Get it done.

It seemed so cold-blooded now, and maybe Raize was right. I wasn’t ready for this—to do it this way. Self-defense was a whole different ballgame, and maybe I was still sticking to some sort of line? I’d crossed over so many that sometimes I forgot I’d even had them.

“So, you have a sister, huh?”

I eyed him warily. Jake knew about my sister, but nothing else. We hadn’t talked about the cop and missing poster incident from earlier either—not that he or Cavers would ask.

“Yeah,” I offered.

When I didn’t say anything more Jake asked, “What’s going on with you and Raize?”

I frowned. “Thought the grocery store was our talk about him and me?”

He chuckled, reaching forward to poke the fire. “I’m bored. Give me something.”

“What about you and that woman of yours?”

“She’s free. Carloni’s dead.”

“Would you want to find her, if you could?”

He didn’t answer right away, staring pointedly at the fire. “No. I’d steer clear of her, hoping she got free and stayed free.” His gaze flicked back to me. “Can I ask you something?”

I eyed him. “About Raize?”

“No.” He grinned, chuckling before he got serious again. “About your sister.”

Oh. I steeled myself.

“Is she why you’re doing all this?” He gestured around us. “It’s kinda obvious you’re not the normal girl that gets pulled into this life.”

My heart felt heavy, because Brooke was one of those girls.

I just knew it. Felt it.

I hated it.

My voice came out raspy. “She got pulled in by a Romeo pimp.”

He made an understanding sound, like a grunt tinged with sympathy. “I’m sorry.”

I nodded, my eyes suddenly blurry. “Yeah.”

“Leo Gettsicky.”

Both of us jumped to our feet.

Bronski was awake and watching us, his eyes full of pain, his face one giant grimace. He shifted, trying to relieve the pressure on his arm, but he couldn’t move. He closed his eyes, resting his forehead on the ground, and heaved out a deep breath.

“Don’t suppose either of you is inclined to help me out here?”

Jake scowled, cocking his gun. “We’re supposed to kill you.”

“Of course you are. Let me guess—Maxim decided to make a move? He’s taking out Igor and Roman? All their men?” He looked between us. “Which doesn’t make sense. You’re both with Raize, and he’s with Roman. Isn’t he? Was our intel bad about that?”

“Shut up while we decide what to do with you.”

Bronski barely acknowledged Jake, his eyes only on me. Gritting his teeth, he was able to lift himself to a sitting position, though his hands were tied behind him, and he heaved another deep breath as his shoulders slumped forward. “That’s better.”

Jake snorted. “We’re so glad.”

I hadn’t spoken to Bronski.

“I wasn’t going to touch you again, when I sent a man to Raize for you,” he informed me. “I’d heard what you could do.”

My stomach rolled over, because I knew that wasn’t true.

“I mean it.”

“You’re a rapist,” Jake spat. “That kind of sick doesn’t change. You’re sick. You stay sick. Sick fucking monster.”

Bronski shook his head. “Right. Because you’re so much better? Raize doesn’t rape, but he has just as much blood on him. The dude is a one-man army. Do you even know what he can do? Can really do? How many men he’s actually killed?”

“We’ve both seen him in action. You can’t say anything to shock us.”

Bronski looked between us. “Is he fucking her?”

I shot Jake a look. I didn’t want anything said about that.

Bronski smirked. “That’s interesting. Are you two fucking?”

Jake heaved a sigh. “New topic, asswipe. That’s old.”

He fell silent. So did Jake.

I was grateful to feel the weight of my gun next to my leg. I’d pulled it out when Bronski first spoke, but I hadn’t picked it up. It was ready to go, though. Just lift, aim, and pull. Then I’d be a different kind of killer.

I was still waiting, though I didn’t know why.

“You told Korkov your name was Brooke, but no last name. Got me thinking. Once the rumors started going around about you—the canary in the streets—I remembered where Korkov told me he’d picked you up at. Massachusetts. I don’t remember the town, but Maxim had a man working girls there. Picking them. Making them fall in love with him. A girl named Brooke came from that circuit, but she had dark hair, dark eyes. The face, though… I saw her last week and got to thinking. She still goes by Brooke. Same face.”

My heart pounded. My sister is alive?

Bronski tried to raise his arms, but he couldn’t bring them around. “She had a tattoo on the inside of her wrist. A four-leaf clover, or something like that.”

It was a pot of gold.

God.

I wanted him to shut up.

I wanted him to keep going.

“Wait. No. It was… What was it? A pot of something. Not like pot pot—dope. Pot of… what? I got it wrong. Not a leprechaun—a pot of gold! Yeah. That’s what it was.”

He knew her.

He saw her.

She was alive.

There’s no way he could make that up. No way he could guess that tattoo randomly.

Maxim?

Leo, my sister’s boyfriend, had worked for Maxim?

I’d had it wrong? All this time?

I thought Igor, not Maxim.

How had I gotten that so wrong?

Bronski laughed to himself and ended up coughing. “Fuck, my ribs hurt. But yeah. I got her, right? That’s your sister? I remember the story was that you approached Korkov. You wanted in the game, and he was all excited because he knew you were different. He told me you were a virgin—”

“Shut it, man!” Jake growled.

My body threatened to dry-heave, but not because of what Bronski had done to me. I had the power now. I wasn’t scared. It wasn’t that. It wasn’t even my sister.

It was because I knew now what I was going to do.

“Leo worked for Maxim?” I asked.

Both heads swung my way. Bronski’s eyes widened. He was surprised that I wasn’t affected by him, not in the way he’d been hoping. I could read it from him. His lips thinned into a frown. “Yeah, but you came in under Korkov who works for Igor. You got that wrong, huh? There was a time period where Leo was hanging out with Korkov, until Maxim shut that down and moved him to a different location.”

I nodded. “I got that wrong.”

Jake stood and pulled out his phone. “I’m going to make a call.” He pointed his gun at Bronski as he spoke to me. “None of the shit he spouts can be trusted.”

I knew that, and I nodded, letting him know I’d be fine.

Bronski watched him walk away, his eyes darkening, and he licked his lips. “What’s he doing? Who’s he calling?”

“He’s calling Raize.”

Bronski shifted his attention back to me. I could see the calculation starting. “Why would he be calling your boss?”

“Because he’s killing Maxim and his men right now.” I stared at Bronski, feeling dead inside—what he was going to be soon. Very soon.

But not in a cold-blooded way.

I couldn’t do that. I knew that now.

I knew my lines. I had always known my lines, but then I stepped over them. One after another.

This was another one, and this one I couldn’t step over.

I knew that now.

I wished I’d known sooner.

It was all about the lines.

He licked his lips again. He’d be making his move soon. His head swung back, looking toward where Jake had gone. “You guys moved on Igor, then Maxim? I got it wrong? It’s Roman making the move?”

I didn’t respond. That’s not the move either of us was waiting for now.

I just waited.

“Why’d you take me? Why not kill me there?” he asked.

“You know why.”

He fell silent. “Guess I do.”

Well. There it was. “You still rape girls?”

He looked at me. I saw no remorse, but he seemed to have lost his calculation. It was like he knew there were no more moves for him.

“Yeah.”

“You must enjoy that?”

He shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Right.” I lifted my gun and shot him.

He was as surprised as I was, but by the time he saw the gun, it was too late.

I thumbed off the shot and got him in the chest.

He fell back, blood spilling from him. He began choking, more blood spewing up and out of his mouth. He rolled to his side, then the other side.

He was trying to crawl away.

I frowned. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Then again, I didn’t know how any of this was supposed to happen.

I didn’t follow him. I didn’t have it in me to shoot him again. I already loathed myself. Raize was right. I was going to hold on to this for the rest of my life.

I twisted to the side and vomited into the ground.

Bang!

I froze before looking back.

Jake stood over Bronski, his gun smoking. The last shot was to his forehead.

Bronski was dead.

I threw up again.

I’d been wrong again. My last line.