The Girl Who Made Them Pay Read online

  “But me,” Tetyana was saying, “I was twenty-one. I mean, I am twenty-one. Should have known better than to get involved with them.” She turned to Win. “I allowed this to happen to you. I’ll never forgive myself for as long as I live.”

  “But I was with them way before you came,” Win said, reaching out to touch Tetyana’s arm. “They bought me when I was ten. It wasn’t you who did bad things to me.”

  Tetyana frowned.

  She’s angry, I thought, she’s furious at herself.

  “I could have saved you,” Tetyana said, “got you out three months ago, instead of letting it all go on.” She looked at Win and her eyes softened. “I’m not asking you to forgive me, Win. I want you to live a better life and I’ll do everything I can to make that happen.”

  “It’s easy to see things in hindsight,” Katy said, but I didn’t think she heard her.

  “All I wanted was to keep my brother alive,” Tetyana continued. “That’s all I was thinking about. Nothing else. That’s what I promised her just before she died.” Her voice faded to such a whisper that if I hadn’t been listening carefully, I wouldn’t have heard.

  “Promised who?” I said, my curiosity overcoming me.

  “My mother.”

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  We got three days in Luxembourg. Three blissful days. That was all.

  During that time, Katy’s rosy cheeks reappeared. Tetyana showed her more compassionate side, and to our surprise, an intellectual side we hadn’t seen before. Luc grinned and joked around though he was slowly getting the hint I wasn’t interested in a date.

  He wasn’t unattractive. But it was like having a cheeky brother around, one you cared for, but who annoyed you all the same. The perfect man for me, the one I daydreamed about, was older, wiser, with dreamy brown eyes and more buff. Yes, definitely more buff. When I stop all this running, I’m going to meet him, I told myself. With almost four billion males on this planet, he’s got to be out there, somewhere.

  Win had her ups and downs and remained reclusive, staying close but not saying much. One day, I caught her listening to a sparrow singing outside the window of our hostel room, with a soft smile on her face. How incredible it is, I thought as I watched her watch the bird, that someone can go through such an ordeal and still hang on to her humanity. It will take a long time for Win to open up, but that smile gave me hope. For her. For us all.

  No one discussed what had happened in London or Brussels. No one stopped to glance at a newsstand, or dropped into an Internet café to find out if anything had come out of the information we’d posted online. Like me, everyone wanted to put it behind us. We simply decided to live in the moment, a luxury none of us ever had.

  It was like we were on holiday. We explored the dungeons and the castle ruins. We tried new foods at outdoor stalls, picnicked on park benches and napped under the afternoon sun. But we always stayed on guard.

  Tetyana took her security duties seriously and gave us rotating four-hour shifts at night. This was helpful because Win had a habit of waking from nightmares every night, so someone was always up to calm her until she drifted to sleep again.

  Our van was parked under a tree at the back of the hostel lot, strategically placed so no one could read the license plate easily. And there it sat, remaining untouched. Renting cheap bicycles from the hostel was much more fun than driving, and made us look like student tourists. No one bothered us.

  Until our third day.

  We’d been lining up to enter the history and art museum that afternoon. It was an outing we’d all wanted to do, not because any of us were history buffs, but because we were eager to experience something completely different from our previous lives.

  Luc had stepped out to visit the washroom but came back running within seconds. His face was white. Something was wrong.

  Tetyana straightened up, her hand on her belt where I knew she had a gun. We stepped out of line.

  “What’s going on?” Tetyana asked.

  “We gotta get outta here,” Luc said, panting.

  “Why?” I asked stepping out to survey the area.

  He pulled me by the elbow. Motioning the others to follow, he ushered me into a quiet alcove near the toilets. Everyone gathered around him.

  “I saw Busboy!” he said. I noticed his hands were shaking.

  “Busboy?” Katy asked.

  “Who’s that?” I asked.

  “Hired gun. He shoots at point blank. Even the thugs are scared of him!” Luc spluttered.

  “Wait,” Tetyana said. “Who is this man and why do you think he’s after us?”

  Luc threw his hands in the air. “Because he’s with Staples, that’s why! I just saw them!”

  “Who’s Staples?” Katy asked.

  “Staples works for Fred. His job is to hunt people who don’t pay up. Busboy’s job is to shoot them down if they don’t cooperate,” Luc explained with a crazed look on his face.

  “Hold on,” I said. “We don’t owe Fred anything. Okay, except for that small deposit, but he can always find another supplier. Why would he—”

  “That’s not the point!” Luc almost shrieked. “You don’t make a promise to a drug king and run off like that. They think you’re tryna’ play them. It’s not the money. It’s his reputation!”

  We stared at him.

  “That’s when they send Busboy. He cleans everything and brings Fred’s reputation back.”

  “Shh,” Tetyana said, as a tourist walked by. “Keep it down, okay?”

  “You’re sure he’s coming for us?” Katy whispered.

  “Why do you think they’re here? In Luxembourg? Nobody comes here.” Luc’s eyes bulged. He looked like he was ready to tear his hair out. “Staples looked right through the window. I’m sure he saw me!”

  We stood silently, trying to digest this.

  “On the other hand, maybe he didn’t see you,” Tetyana said. “All the windows are tinted here.” She paused. “But we need to move. Tell me, what does this Busboy look like?”

  “Like King Daddy Tom.”

  “Who’s that?” I asked.

  “You’re American and you don’t even know?”

  I shrugged.

  “He’s a rapper from the Bronx. Got the biggest album this—”

  “Hey,” Tetyana interrupted him. “Just give me his description.”

  It took a minute, but we finally got to learn about Busboy and Staples. With all his suave charm, Fred was part of a vicious international gang with a reach across Europe, and he wasn’t someone you messed with. Or get involved with. But that was too late for us.

  Tetyana sent Katy out to flag down a cab immediately and asked Luc and me to hide behind her and Win in the corridor. Fred had only met Luc and me. So far, anyway.

  It took us ten minutes to get back to the hostel from the museum. We scooped up our clothes and bags, checked out within minutes and piled into our van, while Tetyana kept a sharp eye out. On the plus side, it would have been hard not to miss two young men with gold chains around their necks and oversized diamond rings, swaggering inside a student hostel in Europe.

  We were on the road again, this time heading west, back toward Germany.

  Luc stopped hyperventilating only after we left Luxembourg’s suburbs, but he still looked pale. When Tetyana asked him if he was doing okay, his response was curt. “You’ve no idea what those guys can do.” Then he lapsed into silence, focusing on the road.

  Tetyana put her shades on and leaned back in her seat. She looked asleep, but I was sure she was as alert as any watchdog. Katy, Win and I settled in the rear, huddled together, mindlessly watching the green forest zoom by us. The lump in my stomach had returned. I tried not to dwell on our uncertain future, but it was hard not to feel lost again. The past three carefree days already felt like a forgotten dream.

  Twenty minutes into the drive, Luc groaned, making us all sit up.

  “We’re running out of gas,” he said slamming his palm on the steering whee
l. “I completely forgot to refill. Merde!”

  We had to find a gas station, so we stopped at a secluded rest stop off the highway.

  While Luc was pumping petrol, we got out to stretch our legs and get hot drinks. Better than sitting restlessly in the van, I thought as I followed Katy out.

  Next to the gas bar was a small roadside motel set at the edge of the forest line. Built with rustic wooden logs, this looked like a place you’d find in the back roads of Canada, not in the middle of Europe.

  There was a café on the ground floor of the motel, doubling as a reception area. An open fireplace sat at the end of the room, with firewood piled around it. Next to it was a lone Internet station with a paper stuck to the monitor that said, “Free for coffee lovers only.” A young woman with her hair in a blue kerchief sat next to the cash register with her nose in her phone.

  It was mid-afternoon, just after the lunch rush and just before supper time, so the place was deserted. This place probably only attracted tourists and commuters, I thought.

  We grabbed our teas and coffees and took a seat near the fireplace, as far away from the entrance and cash register as possible. Luc joined us soon after but refused to sit, his eyes peeled on the road.

  “Hey!”

  We turned around.

  While we were hastily debating our next steps, Win had slipped over to the Internet station.

  “You’ve got to see this,” she said in a loud whisper, furiously pointing at the screen. Her cheeks were pink, from either excitement or fear.

  We quickly gathered around her.

  She had the Guardian open to the front page. The headline screamed, “International prostitution ring foiled!”

  I felt a thrill go through me. The list of names and addresses we’d put out two days ago was broadcast for the world to see. Thank god.

  “Good job,” Tetyana said, giving Win a pat on her back. Katy smiled. Even Luc perked up and gave Win a high five.

  “Smart work, genius,” he said, making her blush.

  “Hey, do you think they know it was us who leaked this?” I asked.

  “Don’t think the police would figure out that easily. They’ll be too busy apprehending Zero and his gang.” Tetyana shook her head as if thinking this through. “My only worry is if Fred got to Vlad and Zero before the police and they’re now working together against us.”

  “And sent Busboy after us,” Luc said, looking like he was about to have a panic attack again.

  “We don’t know for sure,” Tetyana said. “Just thinking out loud, so let’s not jump to conclusions.”

  “But how did they know we’re in this country?” Katy asked.

  “Maybe they checked all the cities around Brussels already,” Luc said. “They had three days.”

  “Are we going to be safe anywhere?” Win asked.

  Everyone turned silent.

  “We need help,” Katy said. “This is scary.”

  “This weekend,” I said, as an idea whirled around in my head, “the Diplomatic Dragon Lady’s coming to Luxembourg.”

  “The who?” Tetyana asked.

  “She’s part of the powerful diplomatic community,” I said, “and she knows me. I worked for her. Maybe we can ask her to help us.”

  No one spoke.

  “Here,” I said, pulling Chef Pierre’s magazine out of my pocket. “See this?”

  Everyone slid up to peer over my shoulders. The photo of the castle in the centerfold still looked magnificent, but under the low lights of the café, it had taken a slightly menacing tone.

  “Looks like Dracula’s castle to me,” Luc said.

  “That’s her,” I said, tapping the photo of the tall woman in the white suit.

  “She looks like a president,” Win said in awe, taking the magazine from me to get a closer look.

  “She almost is,” I said. “So what do you all think?”

  “Baroness Agathe....party of the year...,” Tetyana read under her breath. “This Saturday? That’s tomorrow.”

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” I said. “She’ll probably fly back home on Sunday.”

  “Or go shopping in Milan,” Katy quipped.

  “How do we get to her?” Tetyana asked.

  “We can find her at the castle,” I said. “It’ll be a party. There’ll be tons of people so we can mix in.”

  “Mix in? Us?” Luc said. “At a posh party?”

  Katy’s face lit up. “I know. We can go as a catering company.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” I said.

  Tetyana and Luc still looked skeptical.

  “Do you guys have a better idea?” I asked.

  “Drive down to Sicily,” Luc said. “That’s what I keep saying.”

  “To your drug friends? And make it even easier for Fred to find us? No thanks,” Tetyana said, giving him a look. She turned to me. “How can she help us?”

  “I can explain what happened, how we exposed the ring, and ask her to talk to the police. She should support us, won’t she, after all we did? And if we’re with her maybe we can get immunity.”

  “Immunity?”

  “So the police won’t lock us up. So they can protect us from Fred and his gang, and maybe even help us to get to the airport, or wherever we want to go. We won’t have to keep running like this.”

  Everyone was looking at me thoughtfully, except for Win. She was busy tapping at the keyboard, the magazine on her lap, her head deep in something, oblivious to the rest of the world.

  “How do you know she’ll want to help us?” Tetyana asked, her brows furrowed.

  “I don’t,” I said with a sigh. “I just know she’s the most important person I know in the world. She really liked my work. She chose me over all the other bakers in town and even gave me a security pass to the Foreign Department building. She’s here now. That’s all I know.”

  “So it’s a risk,” Tetyana said.

  “I didn’t say it was a perfect idea.”

  “It could make things worse for us,” Tetyana said and paused. “Then again, it could turn out well for us too.”

  “Fred’s gonna catch up with us one day,” Luc said. “We can only hide for so long.”

  “The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward,” Katy said. “Worth a try.”

  Tetyana nodded. “So how do we get inside the castle then?”

  “I can put us on their list,” Win said.

  We looked at her.

  “What are you doing, Win?” Katy asked.

  “Finding a way to get inside. Isn’t that what you want?”

  We peered at the computer.

  She pointed to a page with lots of letters and numbers on it, all of which looked like gibberish to me. Seeing the puzzled look on our faces, she flipped quickly through more pages and stopped on one that said, “Baroness Agathe to host event of the year.”

  At the top of the page was a list of distinguished invitees including the Diplomatic Dragon Lady. At the bottom of the screen was a short list of companies catering to the event, including the local butcher, grocer, florist, chocolatier and produce delivery company. Win pointed her mouse to this list.

  “I can add our name right here. Just need to fix the back end codes.”

  We looked at each other.

  “So what name do you want me to put?” Win asked, looking up at us innocently.

  “You mean...?” Katy paused. “Like a catering company name?”

  Win nodded.

  “Er, Better Batter Bakers?” I blurted.

  “Really?” Luc said, rolling his eyes. “How about Rebel Bakers?”

  “Sounds like a bunch of terrorists,” Katy said. “We’re supposed to sound posh if we’re going in there.”

  “No,” Tetyana said. “We need to sound avant-garde, edgy. European royals like that these days.”

  Everyone looked at her in surprise. For someone good at handling guns and bringing bad guys to their knees, she said the strangest things.

  “Red-Heeled Bakers?�
� I asked, pointing at Katy’s heels.

  “That’ll leave Luc out,” Katy pointed out.

  “I’m cool with that,” Luc said, with a shrug. “And for the record, I’m all for girl power.”

  “I know!” Win said.

  “What’s your grand idea?” Luc asked.

  “Red-Heeled Rebels,” she said. “That’s like a really cool secret club.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said.

  Everyone nodded.

  Tetyana shrugged.

  Win turned back to the computer with the serious focused look on her face again. She typed quickly, clicked save and refreshed. “How do you like this?” she asked when the page came up again.

  “Wow,” Luc said.

  “Nice job!” Katy said.

  Tetyana merely raised her brows.

  “It’s great,” I said, a little shocked to see our phantom catering company show up on the castle’s official website in a matter of seconds.

  “I feel better already.” Luc blew a raspberry. “Even Staples and Busboy won’t guess that’s us.”

  “I love it,” Katy said. “Just wish it was real.”

  I sighed. My mission was to get back to India, to Preeti. I’d already spent too much time running around Europe. I closed the magazine and tucked it in my pocket. “We’ve got work to do, guys,” I said.

  “Hey, Win,” Tetyana said, leaning over Win’s shoulder. “Would you mind checking that site for me again, real quick?”

  While we watched, Win brought up a page and scrolled down a chat forum, looking up to Tetyana from time to time.

  “What are you looking for, Tetyana?” I asked.

  “A name,” she said, her eyes focused on the screen. “A name.” When she got to the end of the forum, she shook her head and straightened up. “Can you clear the browser for me, hun?”

  Win pecked at the keyboard for a few seconds, then looked up. “Done.”

  We glanced at each other. Now what?

  Tetyana looked at me. “You’re right, we’ve got work to do.”

  “All right, Red-Heeled Rebels!” Luc said with a grin. “Let’s move it!”

  He grabbed Win by the hand, pulled her out of the chair and waltzed her around the café.