Blake Pierce - Almost Dead

The waiter returned and set a plate down in front of her, and Cassie dug in hungrily.

“You have traveled here all alone?” Vadim asked.

“Yes, I came here on my own, hoping to find Jacqui.”

“Why are you the one looking for her, and she is not looking for you, too?”

“We had a difficult childhood,” she told him. “My mother died when she was young and my father didn’t cope without her. He became very angry, as if he wanted to destroy everyone’s lives.”

Vadim nodded sympathetically.

“Jacqui was older than me, and one day, she just left. I don’t think she could handle it anymore. His anger, the shouting, broken glass on the floor most mornings. He had many different girlfriends, and there were often strangers in the house.”

A dark memory surfaced of herself, hiding under the bed late at night, listening to heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and the fumbling at her door. Jacqui had saved her. She’d screamed so loud that the neighbors had come running, and the man had sneaked back down the stairs. Cassie remembered the terror she’d felt as she’d heard him rattle the bedroom door. Jacqui had been her protector, until she’d run away.

“After she left, I moved out, and then my dad got evicted and had to find different lodgings. I got a new phone. He got a new phone. There was no way for her to contact us again. Now I think she’s trying to reach out. But she’s scared, and I don’t know why. Perhaps she thinks I’ll be angry because she ran away.”

Vadim shook his head.

“So you are all alone in the world?”

Cassie nodded, feeling sad all over again.

“Can I buy you a glass of wine?”

Cassie shook her head.

“Thanks so much, but I have to drive.”

Her car was a forty-five-minute walk away. From there, she had no idea where to go. She’d made no plans for accommodations. She’d been hoping to arrive earlier, and that the shop would provide a clue to Jacqui’s whereabouts, and she could then take the next step in her search. Now it was dark, and she had no idea where an affordable inn or hostel might be. She realized she might end up sleeping in her car, in the concrete parking garage.

“Have you accommodations for tonight?” Vadim asked, as if reading her mind.

Cassie shook her head.

“I still have to figure that out.”

“There is a backpacker lodge close by. A pensione , as they say here in Italy. It might be convenient for you. I pass it on my way home; I can show you where it is.”

Cassie smiled tentatively, worried about the price and also the fact that all her luggage was still in her car. Even so, accommodations nearby sounded more appealing than the long walk back to the parking lot. There was even a chance Jacqui might have stayed in those lodgings, in which case she should at least check it out.

She drained her coffee and ate the last crumbs of her panini, while Vadim finished his wine and sent some messages on his phone.

“Come with me. This way.”

It was still raining outside, but Vadim opened a big umbrella and Cassie walked close beside him, grateful for its shelter. Clearly in a hurry, he marched along so that she had to rush to keep pace with him. She was glad they weren’t dawdling, but at the same time she wondered if this guesthouse was out of his way and if he was making a detour in order to help her.

She caught glimpses of the surrounding buildings as they passed, trying to get an impression of where they were. Names of restaurants, stores, and businesses glowed and flashed in the misty drizzle; the unfamiliar language made Cassie feel as if her senses were overloaded.

They crossed a street and she realized that the traffic had died down. Although she hadn’t checked the time for a while, she thought it must be well after seven p.m. She felt exhausted, and wondered how far away the backpackers’ lodge was, and what she would do if they had no space available.

The sign on their right was a supermarket, she was sure. On the left, perhaps it was an entertainment of some kind. The sign flashed bright with neon. Not the red light district—if such a thing even existed in Milan—but not too far away from it, either.

She suddenly realized that they had gone too far, too fast, and all in silence.

They must have been walking for nearly a mile, beyond what any reasonable person would consider close by.

It was then that her memory caught up.

After the first crossroads, she had glanced left. Distracted and with the rain in her eyes she hadn’t taken in the sign she had seen—not a large, flashing notice but a more modest sign with black lettering on white.

“ Pensione .”

That was the word Vadim had used. That was the Italian for backpackers’ lodge, or at any rate a close equivalent.

“Why are you slowing?” he asked, and now his tone was sharp.

Ahead, Cassie saw the blaze of waiting headlights. There was a white van parked on the opposite side of the street. It looked like Vadim was heading directly toward it.

He reached out and in a split second of pure terror, Cassie realized that he had sensed her hesitation, and was going to grab her arm.

Too late, Cassie realized she’d been stupid and talkative and way too trusting. In her need for companionship, she’d shared with this stranger that she was entirely alone in the world and that nobody knew where she was.

Scenarios of kidnapping, trafficking, and abuse spun through her mind. She had to escape.

Even as Vadim’s hand closed around her wrist, she pulled it away, and instead he caught hold of her jacket sleeve.

Fragile and worn, the fabric ripped, leaving only a shred of polyester lining in his grasp. Then she was free.

Cassie turned and sprinted back the way she had come.

Head bowed against the rain, she fled across the road as the light changed. Shouts and curses from behind told her that the large umbrella was proving more of a hindrance than a help to Vadim. She ducked left into a side street as a bus passed behind her, praying he hadn’t seen where she had gone, but another shout behind her told her that he had, and was following.

She made a right turn onto a busier street, and as she weaved through the slow-moving pedestrians, she tugged her jacket and beanie off, in case their colors would help him to spot her. She bundled the garments up under her arm, and reaching another crossroads, she glanced behind her as she turned left again.

Nobody seemed to be following, but he might still catch up—or, worse still, anticipate where she was going and be waiting there.

Ahead of her, a beacon of hope and safety, she saw the “ Pensione ” sign she’d spotted earlier. She couldn’t see Vadim anywhere.

Cassie sprinted toward it, praying that she could get inside, and out of danger, in time.

The blare of music from the guesthouse was audible from street level, where a flimsy, white-painted security gate stood ajar.

Pushing it open, Cassie thudded up the narrow wooden staircase. Voices, laughter, and the aroma of cigarette smoke wafted down to meet her.

She glanced behind her but the stairway was empty.

Perhaps he’d given up on the chase. Now that she’d gotten away, she wondered if she had exaggerated the threat. That parked van might have been a coincidence. Vadim could just have wanted her to come back to his place with him.

Either way, he hadn’t done what he’d promised, and he had tried to grab her as soon as she’d hesitated. Fresh terror surged inside her as she remembered how she’d only just managed to pull away.

She’d been such an idiot to blurt out to him that she was alone, that nobody knew where she was, that she was on a wild goose chase for a person who might never be found. Breathing hard, Cassie chastised herself for her appalling stupidity. It had felt like such a relief to share Jacqui’s story with a stranger who would not judge her. She hadn’t realized what else she might be sharing, too.