We drank. A lot. The boys had made the mistake of saying they could out-drink a Russian. I wasn't having any of that bullshit now.
I bowed out gracefully before I got drunk, keeping it pretty steady right on the edge of tipsy. The boys followed my lead, but admired my ability to "keep up", as if I couldn't handle it or something.
As we drank they told me stories. Stories about growing up, their friends, their lives. They told me how they got into the whole business of murdering bad guys. They told me about how Rocco died. They told me about living in Ireland for eight years, and what brought them back to the states. Mostly they talked about their dad. Their stories were far more better than mine.
Murphy passed out around one in the morning. Head first on the kitchen table, arms and legs just seeming to hang from the chair. Conner and I moved away and into the living room in attempt to give Murphy some quite while he lay there, we'd move him into a bed eventually.
"So, what will you do after we take care of Vladimir?" Conner asked me, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Haven't really thought about it. Have to make it out of this alive first." I commented, leaning back in the arm chair with my knees up to my chest. "But hypothetically, if Vladimir dies and I'm "free to go", so to speak, it won't be too difficult to get started. Wiring money from my bank account without being detected will be a challenge, but once I get that done, it'll be a piece of cake really. Go anywhere I want, be anyone I want. Whole new life, whole new identity. It's very inspiring, isn't it?"
"Sounds like a whole lot more fun than being a sheep herder."
"Never tried sheep herding, for all I know it's a shit ton of fun."
"Shit ton is right." He muffled a laugh, being careful not to wake up Murphy.
That was when I saw it, just the faintest hint of lights coming through the curtains. "Conner." I said his name with all the seriousness I could muster, gaining his attention fairly quickly. "Wake Murphy up." I instructed him. He hopped onto his feet in no time and scurried over to his brother while I moved to the window. I pulled the curtain back ever so slightly, and in the distance I could see headlights.
"How close is he?" Conner asked, without needing any confirmation about what exactly was happening.
"About a mile." I said as I examined the distance, that was when I saw another pair of headlights. "And he's not alone."
"Murphy, get the fuck up." I heard Conner trying to wake Murphy, and Murphy groaned in annoyance.
"Where are your guns?" I asked as I started to shut the nearest lamp off.
"Under the floor in my closet." Conner instructed me just as Murphy was starting to regain consciousness. I ran into Conner's room, swinging open the closet door and looking down to see the latch door. I got out their guns, one for each of them but mine weren't there. I didn't have time to ask about my weapons, only get them theirs. "Under my bed is another latch, the crawl space under there is a lot bigger, you should be able to fit just fine."
"You think I'm going to sit in a crawl space while you-"
"Yes!" Conner cut me off as he took his gun. Murphy was up now, still a little sleepy looking but when I handed him his gun a sense of alert seemed to come over him as he took it. Conner gave Murphy the quick rundown of the situation but I stayed there with them in the kitchen before Conner finally turned to me and said, "Get in the damn crawl space!"
I wanted to punch him, but I knew if Vladimir saw me alive it would complicate the situation. Defeated, I turned to go back into Conner's room but not before Murphy grabbed my arm and pulled me back, "You don't come out of there until we come and get you, no matter what you hear, understand?"
I turned my head to look Murphy in the eyes, he looked so worried, but not for himself. "What if you don't come and get me?" I said this with heavy implications of an unfortunate event.
He smiled at me, trying to seem reassuring I'm sure, "Then I guess you're going to be under there for a long time." Murphy let go of my arm and I dashed into Conner's room. I crawled under the bed and carefully opened the latch to the crawl space up enough to slip right in. It was a tight fit, and it was too dark for comfort. I closed the latch once I was in and curled myself up.
It was quite. The tension was building. The crawl space was so dark, but I could see tiny itty bitty rays of light ahead of me; light from the kitchen coming through the floorboards. I maneuvered myself onto my stomach and "solider crawled" across the dirt floor of the crawl space over near where the light was. I couldn't see really, but I could hear.
"You awake yet?" I heard Conner's voice.
"Enough." Murphy responded.
"Better fucking be."
Then silence. Then I heard the familiar sounds of doors being kicked in. I heard the boots stomp across the floor, from both the back and front door. I heard shouting in Russian, at least three different voices (none were Vladimir). Then guns; then bodies dropping. I only heard two bodies drop. I heard Conner shout, "Fuck!" Then I heard another thud against the floor. More gun fire. More shouting. It all happened so quickly. Then another set of footsteps. These were slow, but heavy. It was Vladimir. I heard two more thuds against the floor, but they didn't sound like bodies, more just like two men being forced onto their knees.
"Where is she?" I heard Vladimir asked in such a bone chilling tone.
"Who?" Murphy spoke first.
I heard something, a quick shuffle then a gasp followed by a loud smack; Vladimir probably punched Murphy. "Like you don't fucking know!" Vladimir shouted now.
"Was she your girlfriend?" Murphy egged him on. "She was pretty, too pretty for you."
Another punch to the face by the sounds of it. "Fuck you Irish jerk off." Vladimir always was one for colorful terms.
"We killed her." Conner commented.
"Like hell you did." A different voice spoke with a thick Russian accent.
"Shot her in the fucking head." Either Conner or Murphy responded back, I couldn't tell which.
There was another silence. Silence wasn't good, not in this situation. I couldn't do this. I couldn't sit in this crawl space and listen while my brother killed Conner and Murphy. I moved as fast as I could to crawl back to the latch under the bed, and pulled myself back up out of the crawl space. As quietly as I could, I tip-toed over to the door of Conner's bedroom, which had been left cracked open ever so slightly. There wasn't much I could see, but what I could was Conner on his knees and one of Vladimir's associates with a gun to Conner's head.
"If she's dead then where's the body?" Vladimir asked, the twins remained silent. I heard another loud smack, and could see anger building in Conner's eyes. "You tell me or I beat the shit out this little prick here." Vladimir insisted.
I backed up a little, I couldn't wait any longer. Going with my first instinct, I ran out. I swung the door wide open and stumbled out of Conner's room. I breathed heavily and hunched over, putting my hands on my knees. "Vlad…" I whispered as I pretended to catch my breath.
"Val?" My brother's voice seemed shocked.
I looked up now to get a better look at the situation. Sure enough Murphy was on his knees at Vladimir's side, he looked swollen and beaten just from a few punches; after all, that was just how strong Vladimir was. Behind Vladimir and Murphy were two dead bodies. "They tied me up," I spoke to Vladimir in Russian, "Kept me under the crawlspace. They can't tie a knot worth a damn." I looked at both their faces; Murphy seemed fairly understanding of the situation, like he knew where I was going with this. Conner on the other hand, was less pleased. I could see the distrust and anger all across his face, as if he thought I was about to betray them.
"You bitch!" Conner finally busted out, only to have Vladimir's associate punch him so hard in the side of his head he fell over onto the floor.
The associate pointed the barrel of his gun at Conner's head and said to me, "Ms. Volkov," finishing in Russian, "Do you want me to shoot this son of a bitch?"
"Hell no." I answered in Russian. I walked over to where Conner laid on the ground, standing in front of him and looking down at him. "I want to kill this prick myself." I looked up at the other man Vladimir had brought and he handed me his gun without hesitation. I looked back down at Conner and as his eyes furiously glared at me I gave him one quick simple look of reassurance while I aimed the gun point blank at his head. I looked back over my shoulder at Vladimir, then at Murphy. I didn't need to say anything, didn't even need to nod. Murphy understood. I watched as Murphy lifted himself up off the ground and punched Vladimir in the cheek and in that same instant I turned my sights to the associate and shot him in the middle of his chest, next in the head. I turned quickly, keeping my gun ready to fire on a moment's notice, and saw Vladimir strike Murphy down so hard that when he fell I thought for a second he might never get up again.
Vladimir drew a knife from his belt, holding it up in defense. I saw the confusion and anger in his eyes as he looked at me. Me, his sister, protecting her once target from the murderous ways of her torturing brother. We both looked at each other with a simple understanding; an understanding that one of us was about to die.