Chapter 63

Hannah

Ivan quickly kissed Katya’s forehead and nudged her slowly toward the open door. I moved to the window, staring from the side so I would not be detected by Nikolai’s father. Piter, now holding a gun, looked at Katya anxiously and impatiently as he beckoned her forward.
“Ask to see Emmy,” Ivan whispered to Katya.
“I won’t come until I see Emmy,” Katya shouted to Piter, and presumably Yuri. Piter turned his head as if indicating to Yuri that Emmy needed to come out of the car for the exchange to proceed. I held my breath as we waited for the door to open. I aged ten years before I saw the door slowly open and Emmy’s loafered foot appear beside the car. Tears of happiness and anxiety roll down my face as I waited to see her.
As she emerged, she kept looking back inside the car, as if listening and responding to instructions. Yuri was obviously coaching her because she didn’t even leave the open span of the car door. She stood there looking terrified, her face tearful and uncertain.
“Tell him that Emmy needs to move away from the car before you’ll move,” Ivan quietly instructed, using the larger than average mail slot next to the right of the doorway to watch what was happening outside. I wanted Emmy to run, but Piter was currently holding a gun on her and she didn’t know he was following Ivan’s commands.
“Let Emmy move away from the car,” Katya instructed.
Piter, again looking nervous and agitated, gestured Emmy away from the car. Emmy’s expression melted into relief at the gesture, stepping gratefully toward Piter. Suddenly, her head snapped around as she turned to listen to Yuri from the car. When she looked toward us again her panicked expression returning. “He said I can’t move away from the car until Katya moves toward it. He has a gun aimed at my back and says he’ll shoot if she does not start moving in this direction,” Emmy relayed in tremulous voice.
“Fuck,” Ivan whispered. “Katya, I swear, I will not let him take you. Take two steps toward the car, but no more. Do it slowly. Demand that Emmy be able to move at the same time you’re moving.”
“I will only move forward if Emmy is allowed to move forward,” Katya insisted.
Emmy looked back into the car, waiting to get permission to move. She turned back to Piter and nodded her head.
Although looking terrified and conflicted, Katya took a very slow step toward the car. Emmy followed suit, at a slightly faster pace, obviously still very aware of the gun being used to control her. When Katya stopped after two or three steps, a barked order came from the back of the car, causing Emmy to stop, a squeak of dismay leaving her mouth.
Suddenly, out of the backseat came Nikolai’s father, moving up behind Emmy, holding his gun to her head as he wrapped his arm around her waist. “You think you can play with me, girls? You think you can fool me?” Yuri spat out.
Katya jerkily shook her head. Emmy didn’t even move, her eyes wild with panic.
“It’s okay, Katya, I won’t let anything happen to you,” Ivan reassured softly. Could he give me the same reassurances about Emmy? I didn’t dare ask. I think my vocal cords were frozen.
“Answer me!” Yuri demanded. Then he turned and pointed his gun at Piter. “You working for them, eh, comrade?” Yuri bit out, paranoia evident in his darting eyes.
“What? No! No, Pakhan! I am loyal to you,” Piter insisted, terrified at the implication of his disloyalty. Yuri stared at him for a moment, then shot him in the head. Katya and Emmy both screamed in horror and fear.
“Traitor!” Yuri screamed at Piter’s fallen body. He turned his attention to Katya. “Come to me, *malyshka*,” Yuri purred to Katya. It was creepy and disturbing.
“Do not walk to him, Katya,” Ivan demanded.
“Come to me, Katya, or I kill this girl here right in front of you,” Yuri threatened harshly, pressing the barrel of the gun harder against the side of Emmy’s head. Emmy closed her eyes, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she anticipated being shot at any minute.
Again, Ivan whispered instructions to Katya. “Try to stall him. I almost have a bead on him. He has Hannah’s sister blocking my shot.”
“Okay, I’m coming, but can I say goodbye to my good friend, Hannah, first?” Katya replied, trying to give Ivan the time he needed to get a shot on Yuri.
“Oh, no, little girl, there is no time for long-winded goodbyes,” Yuri responded indulgently, as if she were a child asking for a piece of candy. It was unsettling. “You must come now. We are about to start our life together. I have waited a very long time to have you, and I am not interested in waiting any longer.” The steel in his voice was clear. Katya needed to walk out to him now, or Emmy was dead.
Tears started to fall from Katya’s eyes in earnest now, clearly conflicted. If she ran back into the house, he would shoot Emmy. If she walked out to him, he would have her and do who knew what to her.
Katya took a slow, shaky step toward Yuri, whose expression lit up with delight and satisfaction. He was so focused on Katya’s tentative steps in his direction that he failed to notice the car coming up the driveway until it was screeching to a stop.
Yuri turned to look at the newly arrived car with infuriated shock, turning and pointing his gun at the new threat.
Seeing an opportunity, Ivan bolted through the door. “Emmy! Run towards us!” Ivan shouted, pulling Katya back and shoving her roughly into the house and pulling his gun and training it on Yuri, but clearly afraid to shoot for fear of hitting Emmy as she bolted toward him. Emmy broke away from Yuri’s distracted grasp and ran to Ivan jumping into his arms, holding him tightly in relief and residual terror. Ivan looked over to where Nikolai and Drago were carefully exiting the car and carried Emmy’s shaking form into the house.
I was torn in that moment. I wanted to see what happened between Nikolai and his father, but simultaneously wanted to make sure Emmy was okay. I ran over to her, but she was clinging to Ivan like a vine, burying her head in his neck as he tucked his gun in the back of his pants. He shot me a helpless look but wrapped his arms more tightly around her. I pulled Katya to me in a side hug and watched Ivan try to deal with Emmy as he walked over to the couch with her still in his arms. He bent over to deposit her on it, but she simply clung all the harder to him. Short of using his strength to disengage her grip, he couldn’t get her to let go.
Ivan gave me and Katya a look of what could only be described as comic levels of uncertainty and discomfort, if the circumstances were different. He sighed and sat down, pulling a shaking and still terrified Emmy onto his lap. Katya and I exchanged looks of total astonishment at Ivan’s unexpected display of sensitivity.
Then we all jumped at the sound of gunfire.