Page 37 of Wicked Deceptions
I don’t turn around. Frankly, I’m too afraid to move. I hear his footsteps on the kitchen floor as he paces behind me.
“Hello, Gerhardt.” I say. My voice is shaky, and I know he can sense my fear.
“Did you really think it would be that easy to evade us?” he asks in English.
“The war is over, Gerhardt. Germany lost. You don’t need me anymore.”
He steps around the table and is now facing me. He looks as if he’s aged twenty years. “You seem to forget what I told you, Katerina. You can never leave.” He sits in the chair across from me. “And, Germany will come back with a vengeance. I can assure you that.”
I look around the kitchen for a way to escape. I mean really, it’s just him and me here.Can I outrun him? Is he armed?
As if he could read my mind, he reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a gun.
Aiming it directly at me, he says, “You can’t escape. I have three men outside, and we are here to take you back to Germany. Back to me.”
“Gerhardt, no, please. We were friends once. I know there was a time you cared for me. You are not cold like the rest of them. You are human and caring, and if you don’t give a damn for me, then please, for the love of God, think about my child. I’m pregnant, Gerhardt, six months. If you don’t want to save me, then please save my unborn child.”
He looks at me curiously, and the calm in his eyes is replaced with downright rage. I don’t care. I have to save my child.
“You can tell them you killed me and forget I ever existed. They, too, will soon forget about me, and we can all just go on with our lives.” I try to plead with him. I’ve known this man for a very long time, and I have seen that he is not all business. He once cared for me. I am hoping it will work in my favor.
He laughs at my words. “Do you really think I am here becausetheysent me?” He shakes his head. “No, my dear Katerina,theyare all dead. Malcolm, my superiors… gone.”
I am confused by his words. “Then why are you here?”
He laughs again. “I am here of my own accord. You belong to me and nobody else. I am taking you home where you belong.”
“But—”
He cuts me off, waving his hand in dismissal. “You made me care for you. You made me fall in love with you.”
I’m so surprised by his words.
“Do you realize how weak you made me?”
I knew he had always hoped for more from me, but I always thought he understand we could never be. I cared for him, but not like that. More like a brother. We worked very closely together, and he was my mentor, my teacher, but I never loved him, not the way he wanted.
“Gerhardt, that was never my intention. I care for you, I really do. But you have always known it could never be more than that. I’m in love with Christian.”
“And what about Lieutenant Stanley?” The gun is still pointed directly at me.
“Lieutenant Stanley was a job. It was you who told me to make him love me. It was you who told me to get engaged to him.” And then it occurs to me. “And it was you who killed him, wasn’t it?”
“Oh no, Katerina, his blood is on your hands. Just like Christian’s blood will be on your hands by the end of the day. My men are en route to him now to make sure of it.”
“Gerhardt, no!” Tears begin to fall down my cheeks. “I’ll do anything. I’ll go with you, just spare Christian, please. I’m begging you, Gerhardt. Not Christian!”
He smirks. “It doesn’t work that way. I will not take you back to Germany while you are still pining and hoping to return to Christian. He must die.”
I must stop him, but I don’t know how. I don’t have a weapon, and if he is telling the truth, I can’t take him on. Plus, he has men outside. I can’t win this.Stall him, Katerina, maybe they will not reach Christian before he gets home.
“What really happened to Lieutenant Stanley?”
“We captured him and held him prisoner until the war ended. A few months ago, his body was delivered back to his homeland. According to this article, he ended up in Norfolk for a poor farmer to discover.”
Just then, we hear gunfire coming from outside. Gerhardt walks toward the window to see what’s happening when the door bursts open, and six men come inside, guns drawn. “Drop the weapon!” the lead man exclaims.
Gerhardt continues to aim the gun at me.
