She stared ahead at the bars of her cells, eyes sore from running out of tears to cry.
Just when she thought her little brother had ruined her life enough, along comes the worst day of her life.
The moment the police commissioner had walked into her cafe with the JCI heads in tow, Katerina suspected there would be trouble, with the gut feeling being enough to alert Lovino. She had done her best to cover the group's tracks, but Arthur Kirkland already had warrants for everyone to be arrested on sight.
It was when they attempted to cuff her that Yao retaliated, pointing a gun through the serving window from the kitchen, and everything fell apart. A squad of policemen had suddenly stormed through the front door in response, and made their way into the kitchen. The JCI security chief had pulled her down to the ground beside the counter, so Katerina could only listen to the sounds of them shooting down Yao and Feliks.
She was crying her heart out all the way to the station, barely able to choke out words as the police questioned her at various points. By the time they wanted to know of any medical precautions, she hardly had enough of her voice left to croak about the 10-week mark of her pregnancy. The officer was kind enough to arrange for an immediate doctor's visit to confirm that the trauma had not harmed the child at all, and she appreciated that they gave her a single cell and a bit more hospitality.
Of course, there had been one asshole that was not as pleasant.
She was already in a miserable mood when she was put in an interrogation room. It was clear that Katerina was being questioned by an incompetent intern, from the way the young woman repeatedly left the room to speak to someone else. After a short while, Katerina demanded that the child's boss be the one to question her if they expected to do this properly. Less than 30 seconds after the intern left the room, Arthur Kirkland himself came in and took over the investigation.
Although their meeting in the cafe was the first time they had ever spoken in person, Katerina already knew she wouldn't like this man. Natalya had told her after the heist of Antonio's claim that the JCI shareholder was responsible for keeping their records flagged for so long, so it was obvious where the interrogation would be heading.
Perhaps it was a bad idea to imply that Arthur's wife is also Katerina's prospective sister-in-law, but she no longer gave a rat's ass.
Given the circumstances, however, Katerina had no other choice but to tell Arthur the truth. She spoke of how she and Natalya got mixed up with Im Yong Soo and the Dragon Triad, before allowing the Vargas twins and Kohler gang fugitives to make a new base at her cafe. They also discussed how she knew Madeline and Ludwig, and how the police officer got mixed into their shenanigans. She also confessed that Ivan and Antonio visited the cafe the prior week to arrange the heist.
The only item on the agenda she could stand firm on was that she had no idea where to find Ivan, Antonio or Mathilda.
Hearing footsteps, Katerina watched as an officer strolled by the cell. It was now Sunday night, and Arthur had told her that she would most likely be relocated to a nearby county prison Monday morning. The only other person whose fate she knew was Feliciano's, as Arthur had mentioned his testimonies while interrogating her. Natalya must have told the Italian about their family issues at some point, since Feliciano managed to take most of the blame on himself to help lower her expected sentence.
As much as she appreciated his kindness, Arthur still quoted 18 months as her expected jail sentence. That was more than enough time for Katerina to give birth in prison, and have the newborn taken away from her. With Yao dead, and both her siblings also wanted behind bars, she would lose her child forever.
"Чорт ти, брат," she muttered to herself.
It was Ivan's fault that this had all happened to her. If he hadn't fallen in love with another man's wife, the three siblings might have been able to live their lives in quiet, peaceful contentment without ever considering crime. At the same time thought, it was not entirely his fault. Mathilda was the crazed madwoman with a plan, he was simply devoted enough to help attempt her vengeance.
Whoever's fault it was, Katerina had no tears left to cry over it, and all hopes for her brother to change his ways and beg forgiveness had vanished into nothing.
"Stop right there!"
Katerina listened as a voice shouted down the hallway, before promptly being followed by plenty of female voices shouting.
"Piss off, bitches, I'm only opening two cells!"
Recognizing her sister's voice in the bold proclamation, Katerina immediately leapt from the bed and approached the bars. She couldn't see much down the hallway, but that didn't matter for much longer as Natalya and Elizaveta came into sight moments later.
"Katerina, there you are," Natalya gasped as the girls approached the bars, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine," Katerina replied as Elizaveta fumbled with the set of keys Natalya handed her, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm breaking you both out," Natalya explained as Elizaveta attempted a couple keys on the cell door's lock, "Ludwig is here as well, he's breaking out the twins down the other hallway."
"What's with the gun?" Katerina asked her sister as the lock clicked, "Did you kill someone?"
"Relax, you worrywart, it's only tranquilizer darts," Natalya explained as she backed up.
Elizaveta swung the door open, and Katerina rushed out to hug both of them at once. After a quick moment, they pulled apart.
"We better get going," Natalya instructed, "Elizaveta, head back the way you saw me come from."
With Natalya to her side, Katerina followed quickly as Elizaveta led the way back down the hallway. The women in the other cells were reaching out, begging to also be set free, but Katerina could tell from their haste that it would not be happening. They reached an open area, where Ludwig and the Italians rushed out from the opposite direction.
"Lovino!" Elizaveta called out, rushing ahead of the sisters to meet Lovino in the middle of the room and kiss him.
"Katya, Natalya," Feliciano called out, walking past the smooching couple to reach the sisters, "Are you girls alright?"
"Yes, we're fine now," Katerina replied as he hugged her, only to be interrupted as an alarm sounded above them.
"That is coming from upstairs," Ludwig reported as everyone was glancing to the ceiling, "We need to get moving."
"Come on," Feliciano encouraged, taking Katerina's hand and guiding her to follow Ludwig towards one of the exits.
"What is that alarm?" Natalya asked from just behind Katerina, "Have they caught onto us?"
"The police are locking down the other floors," Ludwig explained as they rushed down the hallway, "The others must be really getting on their nerves."
"Wait, what others?" Elizaveta inquired, trailing with Lovino at the back of the group.
"Madeline, Ivan, Antonio and Toris," Ludwig answered, "They're running a distraction upstairs to cover the jailbreak."
"What the fuck?" Lovino shrieked, "You teamed up with them?"
"They were the only ones we could reach after you were all arrested," Natalya justified, prompting Katerina to look back with a frown, "I don't like it either, but it's better than nothing."
"They did all of this!" Feliciano yelled, surprising Katerina as he let go of her hand and also turned back to speak to Natalya, "The USB was rigged to give away our GPS location, and all the bank's cameras were left on! They tricked us into accepting the heist, so that they could put us in jail!"
"That doesn't make sense," Ludwig denied, slowing down at the front to keep himself in the conversation, "They told us that only a couple cameras were missed, and Toris claimed to have tried calling Feliks to warn you all."
"What a load of bullshit," Elizaveta refuted, "Feliks refused to exchange numbers with Toris in the spring. Even if they had, I was watching Feliks's phone the entire time on my charger, and Toris never called it!"
"What about Madeline?" Natalya asked, "She claimed that Antonio called her after she had left the cafe."
"The bitch sneaked out under our noses," Lovino revealed, "She convinced us to plug in the USB, before using an incoming phone call as an excuse to leave our sight and slip out of the building!"
"Speaking of Madeline, there might be another problem," Feliciano added on, "Ludwig, when you were with Madeline the other night, did she have you drink anything from a small vial?"
"Yes, she gave me an aphrodisiac," Ludwig replied, pausing at the doors to the next hallway to look at Feliciano, "How do you know about that?"
"I found the vial on the floor, and it was not an aphrodisiac," Feliciano revealed as the rest of the group came to a stop behind him, "It was a sleeping serum that Madeline gave you, she put you to sleep."
"That's impossible," Ludwig denied, "She wouldn't do that to me."
"Oh holy fuck, that's what I forgot," Natalya moaned, "It's true, Ludwig, Feliciano showed me the vial."
"You forgot?" Feliciano scolded, "How could you forget something like that?"
Katerina couldn't hear how Natalya defended that statement, as Feliciano continued his accusations while Ludwig also tried to get a word in. Once Elizaveta and Lovino entered the mix, Katerina reached her limit and snapped.
"That's enough from all of you!" Katerina shouted, making the others mute as she positioned herself in the middle of the group, "Whether or not Madeline is involved, it is clear that Ivan and Antonio are up to something with this jailbreak. I suggest we save the stories for later, and get out of here while we still can, unless you idiots want to get trapped in whatever their master plan is!"
The silence continued for a few moments, with the alarm blazing through the ceiling above them, before Elizaveta broke the silence.
"Katerina is right, we need to get out of here," she agreed, "Ludwig, lead the way."
Without a reply, Ludwig turned and pushed the door open in front of them, leading into the next section of hallway. The group followed in uneasy silence, and Katerina could feel the tension in the air threatening to break loose the moment anyone else said a word. They reached another door, and Ludwig motioned for them to wait a moment, raising his gun into position. He pushed his back against the door to open it, and allowed it to close behind him as Katerina heard a voice on the other side. A few moments later, Ludwig opened the door again, with the gun lowered back towards the ground.
"The officers are knocked out, we're in the clear," Ludwig reported, allowing Katerina and the others to enter the office area, where a counter blocked the way to a wall covered in keys. She approached the last door, and looked out its small window to see a small parkade with several parked police vehicles.
"What now?" Feliciano asked, prompting Katerina to turn back and see Ludwig behind the counter.
"The five of you will take one of the black vans to disappear," Ludwig explained as he pulled a set of keys off the wall and tossed them to Feliciano, "The licence plate number is on the tag, there's no GPS tracking on this unit."
"What about you?" Lovino asked as Ludwig came back around the counter, "Aren't you coming with us?"
"No, I'm not," Ludwig replied as he removed a lanyard from around his neck and handed it to Natalya with a USB drive attached, "I need to find Madeline."
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Natalya scolded as he walked past, "Madeline betrayed you!"
"You have no proof of that," Ludwig immediately countered as he opened a side door to a staircase, "If anything, she's also being misled by Ivan and Antonio. I need to get her out of harm's way while I can. I have your phone number, Natalya, I'll message you when I'm safe."
"Ludwig, don't do this," Natalya pleaded, following Ludwig into the staircase, "Come back down here, now! Please, don't throw everything away for her!"
Katerina watched as Lovino reached in to keep Natalya at the bottom of the stairs.
"Natalya, he's not coming back, and those alarms are getting louder," Lovino pointed out as he dragged Natalya back by the wrist, "If we don't leave now, we'll all get caught and locked up again."
"Lovino's right, we have to leave Ludwig to his own devices," Feliciano concurred, "Katya, lead the way."
Katerina glanced at the staircase door one last time, before turning to the parkade door and pushing it open. The twins were right, they had no choice but to leave Ludwig on his own.
No matter how remote his chances of escape had now become.
Author's Notes
Sorry for the long hiatus, everyone! As I mentioned in previous notes, I was doing two courses in a row towards my designation, and they were a lot tougher than expected. In addition, this chapter was difficult to properly write out, which is why it took six months of writer's block before I changed up the POV and rewrote the two thirds of the chapter in a single evening.
However, I am officially on break for the spring and summer, which gives me plenty of time to write out the remaining 11-12 intense chapters. Now would be a good time to re-read the story and refresh your memory on several key details, as the next chapter is going to be big.
According to Google Translate, what Katerina muttered was Ukrainian for "Damn you, brother," and is pronounced as "Chort ty, brat."