Kindle Edition
Category:
Action/Thriller
Type: Fiction
Pages: 397
Copyright: 08 June 2022
ISBN-13: 9798835173327
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
Kristina Volarevich goes from farmer's daughter to vengeful killing machine as she hunts down her family's oppressors.
At the tender age of fourteen, Kristina and her big sister Ruza witness the brutal murder of their beloved father. They are abducted, drugged and enslaved before joining the never-ending stream of young girls sold to rich customers.
Kristina, the gang’s sex slave poster girl, is sold when the gang pulls out of Romania, but she escapes. Her Romani heritage endears her to Begonya, a patron of Romani youth. Kristina recovers from the agonising pain of withdrawal and the accompanying depression but is consumed with revenge. Kristina, fearless and motivated, learns the arts of lethal violence from the Romani champions who frequent their farm. Setting a brutal daily training regime, she rapidly hones her skills, fed by the rage that burns within her.
Kristina sets out on her eighteenth birthday to find Ruza and kill the members of the gang that ruined her life. On her journey she befriends a cheeky Romanian tech head, a senior police officer, a mechanic, and a gutsy motorcycle racer. They all assist her, in one way or another, in eliminating her tormentors.
In Chief Police Agent Sasho Dvorksy’s own words, Kristina is ‘beautiful, but dangerous.’
Excerpt
It was mid-morning the next day that Kristina sat at a picnic table opposite the café where she last spoke with Chief Dvorsky. She sent a brief text message to his number and waited. A few minutes later, she saw him stomping around the corner. He was red-faced with anger. His eyes burned holes in her as he raised his finger to vent his frustration. Before he could say anything, Kristina smiled and pushed a big mug of coffee towards him.
“Sit down and have your coffee,” she said, “before you burst a blood vessel.”
Her calm, cheerful demeanour almost disarmed him. She was also quite beautiful when she smiled.
He sat, staring at Kristina as she sipped her coffee.
“We have two squad cars, a forensics team and the coroner at Dr Ursu’s residence,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Really?” said Kristina, feigning surprise. “Whatever could have happened?”
Her reticence only fanned his red-hot anger. “Not to mention the SHIT FIGHT in Sector Six! Pavel dead and two bikers in intensive care!”
“Oh, well I’m sure they will be excellent witnesses so you can track down the killer.”
The flustered cop just sighed, then put his coffee down to rest his head in his hands.
“Oh, Kristina, I should be arresting you right now. But that would implicate me. I’ve overstepped my authority, I’ve broken laws because…well, because I felt guilty, and wanted to help you find your sister. You knew this! After all I’ve done for you, how could you do this to me?”
“Do this to you? DO THIS TO YOU?” Kristina almost screamed. She stood up, hands flat on the picnic table. The sudden switch from cheerful to red-hot rage was startling, and now it bubbled just below the surface. It wasn’t without a great deal of effort that she reined it in. “Well, Police Chief Agent,” she spat, “arrest me, then. But let me make it crystal clear to you - if I spend the rest of my life in jail, it would be heaven compared to where I’ve been for most of my teenage years.” She leaned forward, like they were co-conspirators discussing their innermost secrets. “My life has been torn apart, but even the horrors I lived through are nothing compared to what my sister must be experiencing RIGHT NOW!” She thumped her fist on the table for emphasis, and several onlookers hurried past them.
Their eyes burned into each other’s. Dvorsky swallowed hard, unsure whether he should apologise to her or arrest her. In the end, he was the first to look away. Kristina backed off and sat back down.
“Now, tell me,” she asked, calmly, evenly. “What’s the verdict at the Ursu house?”
Dvorsky puffed out his cheeks and looked across the table at her. He thought to himself, what would I do if my daughter went through the same thing as Kristina or Ruza? Would I stop at nothing to avenge her? It was a scenario he didn’t want to think about.
“I only see incident reports, but any inspectorate can add links from their cases if they see any. This early in the investigation, there won’t be much, but there’s been some activity outside the Sector One jurisdiction. From what I’ve read, it’s looking like a murder suicide. His nurse pushed him in his wheelchair down the stairs. Then she overdosed on some of the many drugs she had at her disposal, probably propofol, although the official toxicity tests aren’t back yet.”
Kristina said nothing while she digested his account. Suddenly, Chief Dvorsky’s cell phone chirped.
“Dvorsky,” he answered. Kristina couldn’t hear what was being said, but she could tell by the glances he gave her that it was something to do with the Dragon’s ‘murder suicide’ or Nero’s fate, or Pavel’s. He just said “yes” a couple of times, then hung up.
He looked grimly at Kristina. “They just found a gun in Ursu’s house. In the Nurse’s quarters. A brand-new Glock 31. Identical to Nero’s and the one we found in the mechanic’s shop.”
He pocketed his phone and sighed.
“Why Kristina? I’m doing all I can to find Ruza, and I have these ‘incidents’ to deal with. What’s more important to you? Finding your sister, or revenge?”
Kristina didn’t blame Chief Dvorsky for his frustration. “Justice comes in many forms, Chief. If you can’t dispense it, maybe I can.”
Dvorsky’s face clouded. “Now look here, Kristina. I can’t have you talking like that. It’s over. You’re home now, so get back your life and forget the vigilante bullshit. These people are dangerous.”
“I will find my sister, with your help, Chief. But those bastards hurt a lot of people,” she said. “Ruined so many lives. They’ll never pay that debt unless someone collects it from them. And you underestimate me. I’m dangerous, too.”
The cop sighed. He lifted his face towards the warm sunlight. “Their deaths won’t bring justice to their victims unless they acknowledge it. They’ll commit other crimes, and we’ll investigate them with our fancy new technology. DNA testing, automatic fingerprint identification, dash cameras in police cars, computers and software and databases. Then, when they’re all in prison, they’ll have years to ponder their actions.”
“The victims spend the rest of their lives pondering their actions!” she spat. She was ready for a fight, but the cop wasn’t having it.
“That’s true, Kristina. That’s true. The world is a cruel place. But I came here to give you some news about Ruza.”
Kristina gasped. “You found her?”
“Not exactly. She was released in February 1997, given a Bulgarian bank account with about 200 Lev in it and put on a bus to Bucharest. The bank account was paid out and closed a few days later. All traces of her evaporated, but assuming she was using an alias, I did some investigating of my own based on descriptions, dates, hospital records, that kind of stuff. I came up with these names that best fit the criteria. Maybe they might mean something to you?”
He opened his notepad and handed her a list:
Mia Petrescu Drug use, poss. 9/9/96
Joyce Margate Drug use, poss. 18/3/97
Natalya Varga Drug use. 7/8/97
Daniala (?) Drug Use. 27/9/97
Maria (?) Drug Use. 3/1/98
“Natalya Varga!” Kristina cried. “It’s our mother’s maiden name!”
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