Switched (10 page)

     Victor was going to find her and
kill her for running away and taking his money. Or he'd drag her back to
California and make her work it off playing sex slave to all of his friends.
He'd put his marks back on her and probably beat her for having them removed to
begin with. The weight of her body seemed almost too much to bear. She put a
hand on the wall to steady herself.

     “What was that all about?” Amy
asked, her cute blonde head peeking into Kali’s line of vision.

     Kali jumped slightly. She’d
forgotten Amy was standing there. “Umm.”

     “You look sick, like you’re going
to pass out. Are you okay?” Amy rushed to take Kali’s arm, leading her to the
couch so she could sit down.

     It was all a blur.

     “I’ll get you some water. Stay
here.” Amy disappeared into the kitchen.

     Kali could hear the cupboard door
opening and the water running, and seconds later Amy sprinted out of the
kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. She handed it to Kali and Kali took
a long drink. The cool water sliding down her throat brought her back from that
dark place her mind had gone to. “What am I going to do?” She asked aloud.

     “About what? Who’s Laura, is that
your real name or something?” Amy sat down next to her.

     “Something like that.” She set the
glass of water on a coaster on the coffee table.  “You know, I should go try on
those jeans.”

     “With the blue blouse,” Amy said,
her brows furrowing together as if the change in subject perplexed her.

     Kali didn’t offer an explanation;
she simply got up and went back to the bedroom. She took the shopping bags
filled with clothing from the closet and set them on the bed, then started
peeling off her clothes so she could change into the new jeans and the blue
blouse. Just when her life was starting to resemble what she deemed normal it
was all falling apart again. It figured. She had a loving Dom who treated her
well. Brad made her feel safe. He was an ex-Marine after all. She had friends
in Amy and Eric, and yet none of them knew or could know. What would they think
of her if they knew about her previous life as a full-time sex slave?  She'd
have to run again. She pulled the new jeans up over her hips.  They fit
perfectly. Right now clothes were the last thing on her mind. She needed a
stiff drink. Maybe vodka and cranberry juice.

     She paused, grabbing the blue
blouse from the second bag. Victor loved vodka; probably too much
. In Soviet
Russia vodka drinks you
, she mused. She started to laugh and realized Amy
was standing in the doorway watching.

     “What’s so funny?”

     “Nothing, just thinking.” She
buttoned the blouse then turned to Amy. “What do you think?”

     “Gorgeous. So much better than your
usual chic Domme gear,” Amy told her.

     “I happen to like my usual Domme
gear and I’ve been told chic suits me,” she smoothed the blouse and looked at
herself in the full length mirror on the bathroom door.

     Amy wandered into the bedroom and
sat down on the bed, pulling two more blouses from the bag.  “So, who’s
Victor?”

     Kali felt her teeth grind
together.  “I bet the red blouse would look even better.”

     “Why are you changing the subject?”
Amy wasn’t a naïve school-girl, after all.

     “You want a drink? I have some
vodka and cranberry juice.” She exited the bedroom still wearing the tagged
clothes.

     Amy followed. “Nope, I’m driving,
but I see this Victor guy makes you want to drink? Was he a dick like Paul?”

     Kali shrugged. Amy’s ex, Paul, was
an abusive jerk, too. But nothing like Victor. Victor was sadistic, and not in
a good way.  She took a glass out of the cupboard and took the vodka off the
shelf in the corner. Then she took the cranberry juice from the refrigerator. If
anyone could understand her dilemma it was likely Amy. "From the time I
was nineteen, up until about three years ago, I was hooked up with a guy who
was bad news. He was an abusive asshole. When I moved here it was because I
left him and wanted a fresh start. Remember how I told you at lunch that I had
once allowed a guy to control my life?"

     Amy cocked her head to one side.
“Oh. It was him?”

     She began pouring the vodka.
“Yeah.”

     “Well, Brad isn't going to let the
douchebag get within a hundred yards of you. You know that. Can't you just get
a restraining order?" Amy put the cranberry juice back in the fridge and
took the vodka and put it back on the shelf with a raised eyebrow.

     Kali took a long drink.  "I
could, but you don't understand. Victor is Russian mafia. A restraining order
won't stop a bullet. Not to mention Brad doesn’t know about him."

     “Oh. Well if you told Brad…” she
started.

     “I don’t think that’s a good idea.
I probably shouldn’t have even told you because it puts you in danger. The
guy’s a psycho.” She took another long drink, realizing that the alcohol wasn’t
going to change the fact that Victor was looking for her and if Misha was able
to find her, Victor wasn’t far behind. Not to mention the liquor wasn’t helping
her stomach. 

     "You think he would kill
you?" Amy's eyes went wide as she followed Kali back to the couch.

     Kali nodded and sat down, setting
her drink next to the glass of water.  "Maybe. If he didn't want revenge
first. When I left him I kind of took some money. I didn't have a real job
which means I had no money of my own. I figured it was the least he owed me for
making my life a living hell."

     Amy, despite being ten years her
junior, became the voice of common sense then. "I think you need to tell
Brad. He's got friends in the police department. He has old military pals who
still work in the FBI and CIA..."

     "I can't." She leaned
back into the cushions of the leather sofa.

     Amy gave her a puzzled look.
"Why not? You can't hide it from him."

     She let out a resigned sigh.
"If I tell Brad about my past will he really want to keep seeing me?"

     "You don't know that's how
Brad is going to react. Besides, I hardly think the fact that you dated a jerk
when you were younger is grounds for relationship termination. You’ll have to
tell him eventually. What happens if Victor shows up and you and Brad are out? 
Are you going to explain it then? In the middle of a restaurant after Victor
makes a scene or he’s shooting at you from a moving car? It seems to me
explaining it now is the only option.”

     Kali didn't answer. No, she had
another option and that option was to run again. How did you tell your closest
girlfriend that you were going to have to leave? Just like she'd told Misha.
She was sure Misha had taken at least one beating for her.

     But again, Amy was young, not
stupid. "So you just disappear, Brad is left heartbroken, and you're safe
from Victor for what, another three years before you have to do it all over
again? Sounds like a lonely life, Kal. Maybe you need to take a stand and
refuse to let this guy from your past control you."

     "What I can't figure out is
what made him start looking all of a sudden." It was a stray thought
really. She hadn't even meant to say it aloud.

     Amy looked away guiltily.

     Kali cocked her head to one side.
"What?"

     "If I tell you you're going to
be mad." Amy cast her eyes downward, like a scolded child, to her hands in
her lap.

     A surge of fear ran through Kali.
"You have to tell me, Amy. This is my life we're talking about here."

     Amy's eyes began tearing up, but
she didn’t cry. "Brad asked Eric to have his investigator friend, Ted,
look into your past because you refused to talk about it. Brad doesn't like
secrets. I wasn't supposed to tell you..." Amy gave her an apologetic
look. "He had no way of knowing having someone look into your past would
spark your ex to start looking for you. Please don't be mad at him."

     She felt her entire body go numb. Obviously
Brad had found something otherwise Victor wouldn't have started looking and
Misha wouldn't have made the warning phone call. Fuck.

     "Kali?"

     She heard her name in the distance
and willed herself back to the present moment. Her eyes met Amy's.  "Amy,
what am I going to do?"

     Amy already had her cell phone out.
"We're calling Brad and Eric."  

     "So I'm going to call Brad and
then what? He's going to come clean that he's been spying on me? Which pisses
me off, by the way. Then he's going to be my knight in shining armor and save
me from Victor?" Yes, there was an edge to her voice, but she didn't care.
Amy was her friend and deserved to know exactly how she felt.

     Amy shrugged. "Well I don't
know about the whole
save you
thing. I just figured he would have some
ideas about hiding, self-protection, that sort of thing. I'm not an
idiot."

     "Sorry." Now she felt bad
for getting down on Amy. After all, Amy was really the only
close
female
friend she had out here. “I need another drink.”

     With cell phone on, Amy began
tapping in the number. Kali didn’t stop her. Instead, she got up and went to
refill her glass.

***

     It didn’t take more than twenty
minutes for Brad and Eric to show up at Kali’s after Amy’s urgent phone call.
He didn’t even knock, he just walked right in.

     “This door should have been
locked,” he announced loudly.

     “We’re in the living room,” came
Kali’s hard voice.

     Yeah, he was pretty sure she was
pissed at him. Vaguely aware that Eric had paused to close and lock the door,
he made his way into the living room to find both women sitting on the couch.
Kali with a drink in her hand.

     Brad looked down at Amy who sat on
the end of the couch with her hands in her lap and her eyes downcast. "Why
did you tell her, Ames?"

     "Because she needed to know
why the douche bag was looking for her again." Amy gave him a look that
said,
jackass
. "You have to take responsibility for the Russian
mafia hunting down your girlfriend whether you like it or not."

     Eric laughed but quickly stifled it
when Brad gave him ‘the look’.

     He sighed. “Amy, if you were my
sub, I’d cane your ass for that kind of insubordination.”

     Eric shook his head, “She’s right
though. It was you who hired Ted.”

     Brad motioned Amy off the couch and
took her place on the couch next to Kali. "Kal, I'm sorry. I had no idea
your ex was Russian mafia. But in all fairness, you could have clued me in. You
could have at least said, hey, I have a psycho ex who, if he ever found me,
would kill me."

     She looked him straight in the
eyes. "And then you would have asked why and if I didn't say anything you
would have nosed around in my past anyway. For the record, I am pissed you sent
a private detective digging into my life. I would have eventually told
you."

     Eric and Amy exchanged glances.
"Maybe Amy and I should go," Eric started.

     "No, hold on a minute,"
Brad said, stopping him. He turned to Kali again. He had to make things right
with her and he knew the only way to do it wasn't to try and justify what he
did, but rather admit he was wrong and apologize. "Fair enough. I'm an
asshole and I fucked up. I really didn't mean to cause any harm. Now that
that's out of the way, we need a plan. We don't have time to kick my ass. You
need to disappear so this guy has to get through us to find you."

     Kali let out a deep sigh.
"That just puts all of you in danger."

     "Kal, I served two tours in
Iraq. I think I can handle a little danger."

     "You'll have to stop
driving." She shook her head.

     "What?" Now she wasn't
making any sense.

     "Car bombs. That's one of
Victor's signature trademarks. He likes to blow up cars, preferably with his
enemies in them," she said offhandedly.

     The light bulb went off in Brad's
head. That explained a lot. More than the expense of a car and saving the
planet, it explained why Kali didn't own a car and didn't drive anywhere. It
also explained why she always looked at every car warily before getting in.

     “I’ll sweep my car for explosives
and detonation devices before I go anywhere. Or I’ll start taking taxis
everywhere,” he said, hoping Kali would relax a little.

     She gave him a weak smile.

     “You don’t believe me?”

     “I believe you.”

       “Good, now what I want you and
Amy to do is to put together a few bags, grab anything really important, and
take it to my place. You’ll stay with me for now,” he said.

       Again, she didn’t argue.

     He leaned forward and pulled her
into a hug and she relaxed into his arms. At that moment he never wanted to let
her go.