“These are your roots, my dear,” Roman told her. An easiness, and a level of pride played in his words. “You have finally come home. I only wish we’d been able to bring you here in a more pleasant manner.”
“You call kidnapping me and throwing me in the back of a truck pleasant? Breaking into my house with a gun?” Marina was much shorter than Roman, but she didn’t let him intimidate her. She faced him, hands on hips, and called him on the carpet. What did she have to lose?
“A gun?” Roman’s face showed its first authentic emotion since he walked into the room. “We don’t use guns. Violence of that nature is forbidden.”
“Why did you want me here? Why kidnap me? Or was it a way to manage my father?” As if it was going to be difficult to manage him. The man was a mere shell; standing next to his twin, Dad appeared even more frail and pathetic. She couldn’t imagine they needed her presence in order to influence him.
And she’d risked her life to come here. For him. Her skin crawled when she realized what a non-person he was. The vacancy that came and went from his eyes made her cold.
“You needed to be here because you are a Skaladeska. You are of our blood and we wanted to make sure you remained safe.”
“Safe from what?”
Roman looked at her, searched her face, steepling his fingers. “We are about to implement an operation that will capture the attention of the world, and garner its respect.”
“For what purpose? To let them know the Skalas live and breathe?”
“That and more.” He gestured to her chair. “Sit, please, my dear. There is no sense in stalking about the room when you can be comfortable. You aren’t going anywhere.”
She’d known that, of course, but hearing the words spoken so clearly was a blow. “Where’s Gabe? What have you done with him?” She sounded like a deranged heroine from a gothic movie, but she didn’t care if her words were panicked and clichéd.
“Gabe? So that is his name. He wasn’t quite as forthcoming with that information as I would have liked.” Roman smiled, his handsome face turning cold.
“You hurt him.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Am I to be tortured next, then?” she asked, standing again, pushing herself nose to nose with her uncle. Her uncle.
Roman laughed and turned to take her vacated seat. “Since you don’t wish to sit ….Of course you won’t be tortured. You are one of us. You are an important piece in this whole puzzle, so you will be nothing but honored.”
She didn’t believe him. “Where is he? If I’m to be honored, I demand that you allow me to see him.”
“Is he your lover, then?” Roman asked idly.
“No. And even if he was, it’s irrelevant. The man has done no harm—“
“I beg to differ, Marina.” Roman stood, towering over her. Anger burned in his face. “He brought you here, or you brought him here; it makes no matter. You are welcome, he is not. We do not allow outsiders unless they become part of our clan.”
“So you’re going to kill him?”
“Would it matter to you?”
“What a ridiculous question.”
“That may be so, but your relationship with him does matter. It is in my interest to know how the last member of our line is procreating or continuing it.”
Marina felt as if she’d been slapped. “What?”
Her father spoke for the first time. “Marina, it is important for us — Roman and myself — to know who will father your children and when that will happen.”
“It won’t happen. I can’t get pregnant. So you can release me — us — now and let us on our way.”
The two men stared at her, then Roman spoke, gently. “I am sorry for that, Marina. I see that it pains you.”
“I have accepted it.” She turned away, angry that her eyes had begun to fill. “Now that we’ve cleared that up, you can take me to Gabe.”
Roman sighed. “Marina, there are other issues to consider. I—“ He stopped suddenly and pulled a small device from a deep pocket. It resembled a cell phone, and Marina watched as he used his fingertips to pad through something on a small screen. Then he flipped it closed and looked up at her. “I apologize; we will have to finish this discussion at a later time. Victor, you will accompany me.”
Before Marina could react, Roman reached out his hand and smoothed it over her jaw in a sort of caress. “You will be well cared for. If you need anything, you’ve only to push that button.” He gestured to a small, oval indentation in the wall. She wouldn’t have known it to be anything more than an unusual decoration, but when she touched it, a soft whirring opened a panel in the wall displaying a computer screen.
When she looked back, the two men were gone; and she was suddenly alone with a menu-driven computer screen offering television, movies, games, food selections.
Guys and Dolls or Ms. Pac-Man?
35
Marina spent the better part of the next several hours exploring her room; or, rather, her suite of rooms; while she tried to come to terms with what she’d learned about the family she thought had died off decades ago.
She’d come to the uncomfortable conclusion that they were, indeed, in Siberia. Somehow that egg-shaped transport had brought her and Gabe thousands of miles in little more than three hours.
Her accommodations were as comfortable as any hotel she’d stayed in. The walls were the same white of the hallways and the other rooms she’d seen; they curved into the floor and ceiling in gentle arcs. Perhaps it was because of her caving experience, but it all reminded her of elongated tunnels and cave chambers.
There was one entrance to the rooms, and the rooms themselves consisted of a main area with a sofa that she figured out slid into a flat bed after messing with a panel of buttons, and a separate room that offered a toilet, shower, sink, and tub.
A hotel room and nothing more.
A prison.
Damn them.
And worry for Gabe topped it all.
Marina, galvanized by concern and fired by anger, examined every iota of the crack around the door. There had to be a way to make it open. She couldn’t remember how Roman had caused it to do so when he left with her father. She’d been distracted, as he no doubt intended, by the oval depression in the wall that turned on the computer screen.
She found nothing: no handle, no hinges, no little panel that opened to offer buttons or dials or even a slot to slip in a small pat as she’d seen her captors do. Nothing.
At last, weary and frustrated, she gave up and decided to try for some rest. If she was going to get out of here, she needed to have a clear head and strength — food would be nice too — and as difficult as it might be, she needed to sleep.
But before she succumbed to that, she poked around a little more in the area of the room far from the door. Since she’d spent the bulk of her time at the door, she’d missed the small cupboard and refrigerated chest tucked under a table.
There was food there. Dark, stringy meat that she thought might be bison or elk, thick, hearty bread slices, bottles of water, apples, grapes, plums, carrots, and celery. Interesting. Had they compiled these supplies specially for her, or did they keep them on hand for other visitors — or victims?
Again she wondered about Gabe. Concern knotted her stomach. If she got out of the room, she’d need to have something for him to eat too, if she could find him. Not to mention something to patch him up.
After eating, she took a quick, hot shower in an effort to get her body to relax, figured out how to turn the inset lights down to a bare glow, and curled up on the sofa. She had no idea when or if Roman would be back.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult to drift off to sleep.