Nikolai shook his head. “No, that could be dangerous.”

“Please?”

With a heavy sigh, Nikolai snapped his fingers, watching me out of the corner of his eye. Something was so familiar about his movements, like a dance, like a dance he’d taught me and I’d memorized. “Galina, it’s Nik… how do you know Maya?”

“Petrov.” Galina said in a pained voice. “He thought I was pretty.”

The room seemed to tilt around me, leaving me breathless, blood pounding in my ears.

“Said I could make money once my parents died.”

Nikolai drew another vial of blood and pulled the band off her arm then pressed a cotton ball to the inside of her elbow. “What happened, Galina? You can trust me.”

Galina shook her head vigorously then started bucking off the table.

Cursing, Nikolai snapped his fingers again and said. “Sleep.”

She stopped moving.

I was horrified, not by what he did, but how easily he did it… had he ever done that to me? Would he?

I couldn’t look at him.

Fear and guilt gnawed at me while I stared at her expressionless face.

“My father… he wouldn’t… do you think?”

“He owns several lucrative businesses that have to do with girls just like Galina… I don’t just think, I know. I help as many as I can, Maya, and that is all I can safely tell you.”

“Okay.” I took two steps toward the door. “I’m… I need to go home.”

“Tell Jac I said it was okay to close early and take you.”

“Thank you.” I nodded and walked away, because I didn’t know what else to do, and screaming seemed to be out of the question since finding my voice was near impossible.

What was he involved in?

What type of lie had I lived?

And the bigger question… would I have ended up like Galina… had I stayed with my father?

One does not sharpen the axes after the right time, after the time they are needed. –Russian Proverb

GALINA WAS SICK, VERY SICK. The strain of syphilis had lain dormant in her body for far too long. The new strain had been rampant throughout the whorehouses, infecting at least four girls, killing two of them, though their demise wasn’t because of the disease, at least not fully.

It wasn’t something I could help her with. I could give her antibiotics, give her some treatments with my serum, but the infection had already weakened her heart. This new strain had become less and less responsive to any sort of drug. My worry was twofold, keeping the disease contained, but also making sure that I stayed off Petrov’s radar so that I had more time to study it.

If she was still working with the rest of the girls, then another dose of heroine, or whatever drug they gave the girls in order to keep them loyal, could stop her heart.

I didn’t see any track marks, which worried me. It was the cheapest way to inject a person with the drug.

Had he moved on to something else?

Or was he simply connecting an IV to their veins and feeding the drug that way? Sick bastard.

I wiped the last remnants of blood and tried not to think about what Maya had seen. There was no stopping it now, no stopping the rest of her memories from pushing forward. Odd that one of her first strong memories would be of childhood, and not of the most traumatic experience of her life.

Galina let out a soft moan as she came to. “Nik?”

“Galina.” I forced a pained smile. “I need you to move very slowly. Your body is sick. It’s weak.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

Sighing, I peeled off my gloves and washed my hands in the sink, my body tensing with disgust as I fought with my conscience to make her the offer I made every patient.

“How long?” she asked.

“I can’t tell, but your heart could stop if they force more drugs into you… It could be tonight when you’re working, it could be months from now. All I know is it will happen, eventually.”

She was quiet. “I trusted him.”

My stomach clenched.

“He was nice to me once my parents died, you know? Always bringing over food to my grandma’s house. He even bought me a red bike to match his daughter’s. He treated me like his daughter. I grew up adoring him, and then… when my bahba died, I had nothing. I was only fifteen.”

Shit.

“He told me he had a business, but it wasn’t legal to hire someone as young as me, so I’d have to sign a contract and keep quiet. But the money…” Her smile was hollow. “…was incredible. I was making more than my parents could dream of… I fell for the money, and when I started hating myself, they kept me there with drugs.”

She hung her head as exhaustion washed over her features.

“Galina, you know what I’m going to ask you.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“You have a choice. You  can choose how you die.” Why was I having trouble saying the words… offering her honor in her death? Maybe, for once in my life I was questioning if that choice was within my power to give? But going against my family’s wishes, against Jac, just seemed like asking for more trouble than it was worth. Besides, at least she wouldn’t live in fear, not anymore.

“Will you do it?” Galina said, surprising me.

After a quick nod, I gave her a prescription bottle of pills that by all appearances looked like morphine pills but were a placebo, sugar and powder. Then I walked her to the door.

“Done?” the guard, a new one, barked at her.

“She’s clear, but I had to prescribe something for the pain. Let Petrov know that it should be the same thing he’s been giving her but not to double dose her, or he’s going to kill a pretty face.”

The man grabbed the prescription and nodded.

“The other patient?” I asked, as I looked around the dark alley.

He rolled his eyes. “She went into the clinic hours ago, hasn’t come out since, and I can’t wait, put her in a taxi or let her sleep it off.”

“I’ve only seen Galina.”

“The older woman came and grabbed her, said you cleared it.”

“Right.” A tingling sensation washed over me. Jac had never done that before, she knew it was against the rules, knew what would happen if Petrov discovered her involvement and how we ran our side of the business.

“Same time tomorrow night, doc.” The car door slammed.

Slowly, I entered back into the building and searched every exam room for the missing girl.

Nothing.

The lobby lights were turned off, but the computer was still on. I went over to it to check the names, but only one was on the list, Galina. Who the hell had the other girl been? And where was she?

My eyes started to blur. It was time to go home, but first I needed to talk to Jac and tell her never again to involve herself in my business dealings. If I needed to put the fear of God into her, so be it. The last thing I needed was to lose more family.

In order to prevent crime downtown, law enforcement has doubled its cops on duty during the late evening hours. –The Seattle Tribune

JAC HAD TAKEN ONE LOOK AT my pale face and motioned for me to follow her to the door.

“Nikolai said you could take me…” My voice wouldn’t stop shaking. Damn it! What was wrong with me.

“Sure thing, honey.” Jac said in a sweet voice, like a switch had been flipped from earlier. I immediately felt comfortable once we were in her black Buick Encore.

I shivered even though I wasn’t cold.

Once we’d been on the road for a few minutes Jac started to hum, it was… eerie, the fact that she wasn’t talking.