Hotel Six: A Call of Duty Fanfiction

Chapter 46: Revelation

Buzz, buzz.

Buzz, buzz.

Buzz, buzz.

Jessica set her brows at the sound of her phone buzzing on the nightstand. "Please be Soap," she muttered. "Please, be Soap..." It wasn't Soap. "Damn it..." She answered it, placing the phone between her cheek and her shoulder. "Hello?"

"Sasha..?" came a breathless voice.

Her stomach tied itself in a knot at his voice. "... Vladimir."

"Hey," he continued. "I've been trying to call you for a week; where are you?"

"What's it to you?" she rattled.

He made an injured groan. "I saw your car on the side of the road and I couldn't find you, I was worried something happened to you."

She switched the phone to her other ear. "I didn't want any ties to you."

"Ties to me? It's just a car," he said. "The least you could have done is take it with you wherever you were going and spared me the blind panic I was in when I saw it."

"What do you care?" she asked.

Vladimir was deathly silent as if she had shot him in the heart. "... Sasha, I love you," he said quietly. "It scares me to think anything bad could happen to you."

Sasha mulled over her words carefully. "I've had plenty of bad things happen to me. You're better off not losing sleep at night over it," she said.

"But I do, and you can't make me not worry about you." His breathing sounded ragged as he grasped for something to say. "Please, honey, I can't keep going without you, I miss you."

"How do I know you're not just saying this so you can lure me back in and kill me?" she asked, her voice cracking despite her best attempts to sound strong.

"I told you, I'd never hurt you!" he pleaded. "I have no reason to hurt you."

"Except that, I left you."

"I don't care about that." His voice had softened to a whimper now. "Just come back to me." In her silence, he desperately searched for anything to convince her. "Sasha, please, I'll do anything, I'll be honest and tell you everything you want to know; I just need to have you back."

Jessica sat in shocked silence. "Anything..?" she echoed in Sasha's ear.

Shasha nodded to her. "You'll be completely transparent and tell me anything?"

"Anything," he replied.

"Tell me where you are right now?"

He was quiet. "... I can't..."

"Goodbye, Vladimir."

"Wait, wait, wait!" he said, scrambling to stop her. "I can't tell you unless you promise not to come to me until I tell you."

"... Go on," she said.

"I'm at my estate on the Russian-Georgian border in the foothills of Shkhara, but I won't be here long; I have business in Afghanistan."

"When are you leaving?"

"I don't know yet."

"Am I at risk with you doing all this?"

He chuckled sadly. "No, never, baby," he said. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'm too clever, they'll never catch me," he said, the confident rasp returning to his voice. "We'll make it out of this alive... I promise."

Sasha sat in quiet contemplation. "I hate what you're doing," she said softly. "... But I hate even more having to give you up."