Vince Donovan.

The closer he got, the faster he heart beat—at one point, it felt as if it were going to beat out of her chest. She’d learn to expect the unexpected when it came to this stranger, so her thoughts were full of ways in which he’d decide to torture her, and as the grand finale, kill her. She was almost sure that none of her brothers would care enough to risk their life in order to save hers—Katerina was as good as dead. She realized he had been staring at her eyes for far too long, which caused a frown to form on her face. The girl absolutely hated being compared to her sisters, and besides their last name, Katerina and Alexandra had nothing in common. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when he finally stood up and moved away, but it was short-lived. As soon as Vince took out the small bottle of pills, her heart started racing again, and she felt like she was slowly losing control of her body. Katerina couldn’t stop shaking, because she was vividly imagining every single thing he said. Junkie Katerina, walking through the strip as high as ever. And then came her personal favorite, Katerina lying on her bedroom floor as her life slowly slipped away in the form of an overdose. “You son of a bitch.” She didn’t even care about her tone of voice now, angry for allowing him to put herself in such vulnerable state. 

A light on the phone came on, followed by a ding sound, signaling that it was now recording. “So what do we have here? hm? A scared little lamb? And where is her hero now? Are you gonna stand idly by, Stefan? Hm. Are you gonna call up your men. Tell them that I need to be finished once and for all, as you continue to hide in the shadows like a little bitch?” “Or are you gonna be a man. A real man, and come save your sister. Because if you don’t- this girl will be dead by sunrise. And then, and then I’ll continue picking the rest of the apples from your families' tree. Mm.” Pushing another pill into his mouth, with the camera on him, Vince turned the phone toward Katerina, just as he forced his mouth to hers, using his tongue to push the medication down her throat. The forced kiss was near violent and when it was over, Vince stood up and faced the camera down on the young girl. “Do you wanna know where your sister is, cowboy? Or do you think she can sleep over tonight? I promise not to keep her up too late,” He laughed, stopping the video, and then sent it to Stefan. “It’s okay. The pill is only a boost. It’ll make you feel alive.” Walking across the room, Vince turned on an old radio. Rock music filled the confined space, and Vince placed the phone down on top of the speaker before lighting up a cigarette. “Look, I’m sorry about the kiss, okay? It was all just a show for big brother. I’m not gonna hurt you. I wanna make this as comfortable for you as I can. Tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you. I mean, we’re just hanging out. Nothings gonna happen. You’re just my light… to catch a bad moth. I’m not gonna break the bulb. I need you. You should feel flattered.” Exhaling the smoke from his cigarette, Vince turned up the music and entered another room.

When she finally met him face to face, she did remember seeing him around her home a few times. He wasn’t bad looking, and definitely looked like Alessandra’s time (although who wasn’t her type?), so she brushed away any bad feelings she had in the beginning. Katerina wasn’t one to play well with strangers, especially those who invited you to a party right off the bat, but she decided to accept the challenge, and looked forward to the feeling of accomplishment if she ever made it through the night without passing out or leaving the stupid party before it was over. A small part of her was screaming at her, telling her to stay, not trust him, but a prominent part of her was tired of the same monotonous bullshit she put herself through every single day. So she didn’t think twice when Vince showed up to her hotel, offering her to give her a ride in his car. She squinted her eyes at it, and actually thought it was kind of cool how people still didn’t take for granted the value of an old car. She wasn’t a die hard car fan, but she knew how to appreciate a nice ride. And this one definitely fell into that category. Katerina limited herself to nod and smile at his explanation, still not feeling a hundred percent comfortable around him. Something was just off. 

Resting her head on the leather seat, her eyes immediately dozed off into the scenery, until the following words coming from his mouth snapped her back into reality. He used to work for Joseph. Now that was something she definitely didn’t remember, seeing as she never took interest in the business in the first place. “Wait, what?” Alarm bells went off in her head. If he’d mentioned this a few minutes ago, she wouldn’t have dared stepped foot into his car, let alone accept the stupid invitation. If he worked for his dad, that could only mean two things… he either sold drugs, or killed people for living. Neither of those options were okay with Katerina. That wasn’t the type of company she wanted around—not anymore. Before she could even get a word out to protest, her whole world shut down and everything went dark. 

-

A strong smell, followed by a sharp pain in the neck woke the petite brunette up from her unconscious state. Her eyes took a minute or two to adjust to her surroundings, and her senses caught up not too long after. What happened? Her mind spoke out, but her mouth couldn’t formulate any words. She was trying her hardest to put two and two together, but all her attempts were unsucessful. Katerina felt like she had just woken up from a heroin high, but this was different. Uhh, my neck. Katerina was sitting on the floor when she took her hand to her neck, her heart almost stopping when she felt the cold metal that engulfed it. “What the hell?!”

And the words were finally coming out.

  For a long moment Vince just stared into the beauty of her eyes and the slightly-barely-noticeable freckles on her face. And then he said, “You look like her, you know? Your sister.” Maybe that wasn't a good thing. It would make this harder on him; Watching her break down. Though, she would deserve it. It’s what she did to him- without flinching. Standing back up to his feet, Vince moved across the room in a hastened pace and wrestled a bottle of pills out of his pant pocket. He popped three, and then stared down at the girl with smeared makeup. “You’re sober. You- You wanna stay away from things like this? “They’re uh, they’re methamphetamines’. They keep you alert. Focused. But there are side-effects to it, bad ones. I won’t bore you with the details, but I will tell you this, if you don’t listen to me, if you don’t follow everything that I say- I will turn you back into a junkie by the end of all this. You will have so much drugs in your system that you won’t even know what’s real, and what’s not. You see I don’t have to kill you- if that’s what you’re afraid of. I can just leave you lying out on the strip high as a kite and people will think hey, the girl lost it again. Let’s put her back in rehab. No one will believe anything you say. And even if they did- I’m a trained assassin. I could destroy your whole world in the blink of an eye. But I’m not that evil- just distraught. Your brother, your fucking, cock licking brother- he did this. He kidnapped me, he tortured me, and he fucked me all up. Your family they, they just keep threatening me. Your sister, she played me, man. She fucking, she fucking--” He was starting to sweat, and the tremors were back.