The Roadtrip

twenty-seven

are y'all liking everything so far?

-

"I see you tomorrow," Dimitri said walking us out of the club.

We stepped out and headed towards the car.

"Wi-be quiet, there still watching," He cut my whisper off. He opened the passenger side door and shoved me in.

He backed out of the lot and made his way to the main road. Once we were far enough away I still found myself scared to death.

"What the hell?" I cried out. "It had to be real Maria. It had to be," He said. Before I knew it tears were streaming down my face. "You saw them, this isn't a joke. They were ready to kill us right then and there," He said. I cried harder, my wrists still tied together.

Will sighed as he drove down the road.

"Maria..." He pleaded. "How did-did you-when?" I croaked. He turned onto a street and drove further down until the ocean came into view. He pulled over on the side of the road. "H-H-How did y-you f-figure-" I paused struggling to speak through my tears.

"Last night, when the girl knocked on our door and gave me this card," He said reaching into his pocket.

"The symbol right here, it's the Kazan Russian drug cartel," He said pointing towards it.

𓁷

"Maria, I told you I'm gonna keep you safe. You just have to trust me," He said. "How can I trust you?" I said. "You never tell me anything, I don't know what's happening or why. You can't just keep me this much in the d-dark," I said.

"T-T-Tell m-me what's happening," I said. He turned to look at me then he reached for my wrists undoing the duck tape. "Back in Oregon I counted a stack, remember?" He started. "I did the math, about a hundred stacks is a million. Do you know how long it would take us to clean a million?" He asked. The suitcase was seated in the back. "And last night, I lied, once I saw the little symbol I had to go make sure it was them so I came here," He said.

"Look," He pointed towards the ocean.

Two huge, ginormous boats far off in the distance. "Cargo ships, does this look like a port city?" He asked. This small tiny town could never be a port for any major cargo ship. "They were docked last night, much closer so I swam out to check out the names printed on the side, Northwest Seaport Alliance, they came from Seattle," He said. Last night he came back smelling like sea water.

"It's a cocaine factory town. That's why it's so empty. Its just the cartel moving serious amounts of cocaine into the country," He said.

"Will..." I started. "I know, this is too much for you, that's why I kept you in the dark," He said. "Maria, it needed to be real, I needed you to look like you were in terror," He said. I sniffled, "It's okay, you're okay," He said while cupping my cheek and whipping away my tears. I reached for his hand and pulled it off my face.

"How do you know them?" I asked. I couldn't take the secrecy. How did he know all this? How did he know the Russian drug cartel? How did he know the symbols? Who did he used to fight?

He sighed. "Tell me how you know all this," I said. Will looked down. "The less you know the better," He said. "Better for who? For you?" I accused. My chest felt like it was caving in. "You don't want me to know-that's it right? You don't want me to know about why you know them. Why they call you-you stylnen-whatever," I added.

I stared him down.

"You said you did some bad things to get money," I said. "What did you do Will?" I asked. "Maria...its better-No!" I cut off. "You don't have to protect me from everything, I can handle it. What did you do?" I demanded.

He sighed sitting back in the chair.

He was silent staring up at the ceiling. I was getting angry. He couldn't just shut me out like this. I wanted to know, I deserved to know who the hell I got mixed up with. Especially after what had just happened.

"Will, I swear-I was a fighter," He started. "For Miko back in Boston," He said. "They paid me to fight for them in these matches so they could make money off the bets," He said.

"You were a street fighter?" I asked. "I wish," He said. "There were no boxing rings or cages," He said. "No referee or big audience, no gloves or mouth guards," He added. "Nobody cared who I was or who I was fighting," He continued.

"It was just around thirty guys who would come together in this old concrete warehouse every few weeks and watch me and whoever I was fighting beat the shit out of each other," He said.

"There was no glory in what I did. No title or champion. Just beating each other until someone fell limp," He said. "Dimitri was the book keeper," He said. "I made enough for Ben's surgery," He said.

"But then it kept getting more expensive so I had to keep fighting. But that's the thing, nobody lasts doing that shit," He said. "What happened?" I asked. "They called me steel hands, that what it means. I was good, good enough to stay alive and win almost every fight. But while we were making money others were loosing it, a lot of it," He started.

"My last fight the guy pulled out a knife, cut through my back a few times and ran off with his people. It happened fast, they couldn't risk the Russians catching them," He said. "The cuts were deep, deep enough for me to be swimming in my own blood, deep enough for Miko and Dimitri to think I was just gonna die from bleeding out. But not deep enough to kill me," He said.

"They all left me there, I crawled out and flagged down a car on the nearest road. Barely made it to the hospital," He said.

"The last of what I had made got used up on my hospital visit," He said. "That was six months ago, Ben my brother was next on the list, he got his kidney just in time for me to be back on my feet. I started collecting cash state to state," He said. My heart ached for him. Everything he had gone through just to take care of his family.

"The money I sent them should be enough for some time but I already know it still won't be enough, once we get to Canada we sent them more, much more but it's only a matter of time before they catch us that's why we gotta cross the river and really disappear somewhere they can't come after us," He said.

"The river? What river?" I asked.

"It's not a real river, it's the passage they call the space between Alaska and Russia," He said. "We're going to Russia," He said.

-

hehe