Having swept the stable, Alexey quickly changed clothes and hurried home. It was good that Makha came to the stable, and she took Ampere upon herself and looked after it. Alyosha needed to go home urgently, to check his grandmother, because she had been alone all night and he was worried about her very much. And then it was necessary not to be late for school because on the eve of the upcoming New Year holidays and winter holidays they were heavily busy with educational material.
All this distracted him from what had happened, he just physically did not have time to think about what had happened that night.
After school, he came home, had lunch with his grandmother, and again rushed to the stable. That's how it all went round and round.
But only all the same, though he didn’t want to think about it so much, he thought. But the worst thing was not even the thoughts that devoured him from the inside, but his body, which seemed to come to life and became beyond his control. Now he constantly had wet dreams with sheets and a blanket stained with involuntary ejaculation in the morning. In the dream, he saw “him”, felt his hands on himself, his lips, his tongue, and his breath. All this was so real that every time he woke up with a groan, realizing that this had happened to him again.
Lyosha did not know how to stop this madness.
***
In mid-December, his grandmother's health deteriorated. She could no longer knit, but only sat in her chair, and if she moved about the house, then slowly, sticking to the furniture and walls. After another examination, the doctor prescribed new medicines, for which almost all of their money was spent again.
It was good that Petrovich now paid him a little for the work with two private horses and also gave the interest from the rental when he was engaged with novice horsemen. These were mere pennies, but even they pleased Alyosha.
In addition to training with a rental, when he was given a weak rider, whom he taught the basics of horse riding, Petrovich allowed him with Makha to take horses for riding in the city. So it was called, when in the evening they saddled one of the training horses and went with it outside the hippodrome, getting up close to a night restaurant or casino. They waited for the rich, drunken visitors, who paid to climb a horse and walk on it. Usually, Alexey always walked alongside, leading the horse for the rein and making sure the client not to fall. From this work, he and Mashka received their interest, bringing the main money to Petrovich. Such a side job was mainly at the end of the week when people more often visited hot spots.
Today, having returned with a horse to the stable and froze to death literally to the bone, even though they were outside for only two hours, he and Masha quickly spruced the horse up, having unsaddled and put it in the loose box, and Lyosha changed clothes and went home. Makha knew that he had a sick grandmother at home, and therefore he could not linger for a long time. She said that she would finish everything with ammunition and would give out hay to the horses, and he could go.
Alyosha nodded in gratitude for this and quickly left the stable. Not having had time to go a few meters away from the building, he saw three cars approaching him.
Lyosha, like a rabbit blinded by the headlights, froze and did not move. The window of the first car opened slightly.
"Oh, athlete!" he heard a voice. ""Well, stop!"
Alexey had already stood and did not move. From the first car, an old Lincoln, three people came out and surrounded Alexey.
"Well, show your hairstyle, we want to see and make sure that you are a man," one of the old mobsters pulled his hand to him.
Alex abruptly jumped back and felt two others grab him. He violently began to fight in their hands.
"Hold him! Hold!"
"Take off his hat."
"Shit, he bites!"
Alexey heard voices and felt how they pulled a knitted hat from his head, which he always pulled almost to his eyes. His blond hair, gleaming in the headlights, scattered in different directions and covered his face. He evilly shook them out of his eyes and looked at everyone with a hunted look.
"Fag, didn’t you understand? Must we explain in Russian? We told you to have a haircut."
"Nazar, what will we do with the shaggy one?"
The window in the jeep standing nearby opened slightly, and Alexey heard Nazar's voice.
"Put him into the car. We should drive away from here. And then decide."
Before Lyosha could utter a sound he was pushed into the back seat of the Lincoln, at the feet of the mobsters sitting there, and was roughly pressed to the floor.
They drove a short time, and when he was pulled out of the car, he saw the train tracks and a platform nearby. It meant that they were near the hippodrome.
Pulling out of the car, they dragged him through the snow and tried to put him on his knees. He began to resist violently. That moment he opened some kind of internal forces, the presence of which he did not even suspect. Aleksey fought back, tried to strike, scratched, kicked, and bit.
"You see, what a lad!" the possy standing next to Nazar and Yefim exclaimed in surprise, watching this picture from the side.
"Only he doesn’t know how to fight," Nazar immediately saw that the guy, although desperately resisted, didn’t know how to fight.
"But he’s desperate," Yefim added, also contemplating everything that was happening.
Finally, the mobsters holding him were tired of this resistance, and the blows they received from the kicker guy were rough, and this led to the fact that Alexey received several hard blows to the stomach, then to the face. And when he fell, they began to kick him, and he could only cover his face with his hands. It was good that he was wearing a demi-season padding polyester jacket and two sweaters. All these softened blows.
"Enough!" Yefim said hoarsely, seeing that Nazar continued to observe silently this picture. "What are you; you will completely put the guy to death."
"Well, he looked for trouble."
"Enough, I said."
"What are you, Yefim. Do you want us to forgive him? For that, it is necessary to give him a good lesson to understand for the future."
"That's right, to give a good lesson is not to cripple. There are scissors in the trunk, bring."
When they brought the scissors, from the look of Yefim, the guys immediately understood that he had decided. Alexey was quickly lifted from the ground and kneeled, they grabbed his hair. He tried to twitch, but got a few more blows to the stomach and subsided, and then he only heard the creak of scissors at his head and saw how his hair was falling down on the snow. The scissors were blunt, Lyosha sometimes felt that he was not being cut, and his hair was torn out along with the scalp.
Constant cries and comments were heard around him, but he did not hear that. Everything in his ears was noisy, blood was dripping from the nose, and a picture of what was happening was blurring before eyes.
Then he felt dragged under his arms forward and painfully lifted his head.
"Look, Nazar, admire. He became like a man."
Nazar, who was fascinated looking at what was happening all the time, now saw the face of a lad with a broken nose, bloody lips and tufts of remaining hair on his head. He casually glanced over his eyes and quickly looked away, realizing that he could not now look at the boy's eyes.
"Leave him. Let's go," Yefim spoke. "Petrovich is waiting for us. We have already lost much time on this one."
"Listen, we did give him the money for a haircut," one of the mobsters said, admiring Lyosha’s haircut, "somehow it didn’t work out well. Clearly, he spent money from a common cash fund, and who will return it? No, you understand us correctly," - he painfully lifted up Lyosha’s chin, - "if you had your hair cut, it would be all right. And in this case, it isn’t cool…"
"We'll turn on the meter. Tomorrow we’ll come for the money. You’ll return what we gave you, and if you don’t return, then the day after tomorrow the meter starts running, and by the end of the week, you’ll add a zero to that amount. Do you understand?"
Alexey was silent. Yefim spoke again.
"Let’s go. Tomorrow we will come and find out whether he understood or not."
Lyoshka felt that he was freed up, and he sat down in the snow. He saw the three cars turn around and drive out of the wasteland. He continued to sit, hearing the noise of an approaching train and the hum in his ears from the beat of his heart after all he had experienced.
Now he was scared. It had probably never been so scary in his life. He raised his eyes to the sky and burst into tears, biting broken lips and choking on tears.
When he felt that he was completely cold, Alyosha rubbed his face with snow, although it was difficult for him, as his fingers froze so that he could hardly obey him. He tried to get up but did not succeed the first time. He looked around, looking for his hat. It lay where they cut him. Limping, he slowly reached it. The lanterns from the railway were illuminating well enough a deserted wasteland, so he very clearly saw drops of blood on the snow and strands of hair gleaming with dim gold.
Alyosha was standing and looking at them, probably, they stand so over those who are buried, saying goodbye in their souls with something that cannot be returned. And he stood and forever buried his ended childhood, where there was a belief in goodness, justice, dreams of happiness and future in the illusory world created by him.
For the first time in his life, he faced real life in all its ugliness and disgust. He was hurt that the tale was over, and he realized that all this time he was deceiving himself. Here it was, real life, the one in which he would now have to live.
***
A pulled deeply cap and a scarf hid his tear-stained eyes and broken face from prying eyes on the train.
At home, he also managed to avoid attracting the attention of his grandmother with such a view. It was dark in the flat, he tried not to turn on the light and kept himself in the shadows all the time, his grandmother did not see well without glasses, and she felt bad again. Therefore, after feeding her dinner, he helped her go to bed, being glad that she did not notice anything.
That day, it was necessary to prepare food for his grandmother for the next day and there were also lessons, but he understood that he didn’t have enough energy for them. It was good that he had Genka, who, naturally, had never done his homework himself, but always found the opportunity to write it off from girls in their class. He could always sweet-talk anyone, it was his gift, and the girls listened to him and were led to his flattering speeches. Therefore, hoping for a friend to solve the problem of homework, Alyosha went to the kitchen.
From the scarce food supply for lunch, he decided to boil the stew soup by adding there peeled potatoes, carrots, and onions. And for the second course, it was necessary to fry the cutlets and cook buckwheat. All this distracted from what had happened and made it possible to hold on, but when, having finished cooking, he went into the bathroom and put off the cap from his head, which he put on as soon as he went home so that his grandmother did not suspect anything, here his last strength left him.
He looked at his reflection in the mirror and wept, rubbing tears over the sunken cheeks. From there, from the depths of the mirror, the frightened look of his reddened and swollen with tears eyes looked at him. He saw a thin face with an unnaturally large swollen nose, with a blue-red cheekbone and a sore gore on the lips. But not even that finally knocked him out of a delicate emotional balance. He saw his hair, what was left of it. Uneven shrubs of light hair stuck out on the head, somewhere with dried blood from cuts with scissors. Lyosha did not recognize himself, he had never cut his hair short, but now it was almost a zero haircut, only sloppy, and therefore he looked pathetic and miserable. He found the strength and, taking a pair of scissors, he cut those uneven bushes of hair that rose above the overall picture. After smoothing it all over, he undressed, got into the bath and turned on the shower. The shower tap was old and rusted. Hanging over the bath, it constantly dripped, and therefore, on no longer white enamel bath, there forever remained traces of red-brown rust smudges.
It was cold to stand, he sat into the bath and, clasping his knees with his hands, buried himself in them, feeling the tears mingle with the trickles of water. In order not to freeze completely, he forced himself to wash and slipped into his room. There, getting into bed, he curled up, quickly fell asleep. For the first time after that incident, he did not have this dream, where there were such gentle hands and it was so good. That day, he did not dream, he just fell into the void and woke up, emerging from it at the sound of the alarm clock.
***
The evening at Petrovich went wrong. Nazar tried to drink, but it was all in vain. For the first time here, at the stable, he felt uncomfortable as if he was ill at ease. Naturally, no one spoke to Petrovich about what they had done to Lyosha because everyone had forgotten about it and switched to rest. But Nazar felt as if he was hiding a bad deed, and therefore he felt disgusting. Vodka had a bad go, conversations were unnerving, and he could not go to look into the horse eyes. Although it was nonsense. Why couldn't he? What did he do wrong? That was all right. They warned the boy, gave money and time. He didn’t fulfill their order and received. It’s nothing, he would only become stronger, but he even didn’t know how to fight, although he was desperate, fearless. Another one would beg, would whine. In front of his guys, grown-up men on their knees crawled more than once, shitted their pants in fear, but this one only looked like a beast, did not even ask for mercy. Then what was wrong? Why was this disgusting feeling inside, as if he had committed meanness? And in general, why did he think about this?
- Why aren't you drinking? - Nazar flinched from Yefim’s voice.
- I want into the bathhouse.
- To celebrate freedom? After all, having parted with Natashka, you are now a free person.
-I was free before, but this case should be well celebrated, - Nazar abruptly rose from the table. -Lads! Let's go to the bathhouse.
The guys happily supported this idea. Walking down the aisle, Nazar called up one of them:
- We'll go to that bathhouse, where we were last time. Call, warn to wait and prepare everything on the highest level. And the best wenches are sent; the last time they brought such terrible ones, that even after vodka the dick did not get up.
The possy nodded and began to carry out the order.
In this bathhouse, Nazar decided to score a full ride. At first, they drank, and he watched half-naked tarts dance on the table, and then how his mobsters had them in a circle. Then he, having reached the stage of animal lust, took three of them and went to the steam room, where they served him for a long time with their mouth. Having relaxed there, they moved to the pool, and only then to the room, which was completely occupied only by the bed, and here he fucked these three with some kind of mad frenzy. So, in the morning, after waking up from vomiting spasms, he saw a sheet in the blood and semen.
Having barfed out here, on these sheets, all the contents of the stomach, he reached the toilet, where he continued to vomit and where he was found by Yefim, who brought his clothes there.
- Do you know how the girls who were with me are? There is blood on the sheet... - Nazar tried to get dressed, although his hands were shaking and he was shivering from a hangover.
- I settled everything. I paid the penalty, - seeing the question in Nazar’s eyes, Yefim explained, - you fucked one into the asshole yesterday, tore a little. She will live, do not worry.
***
All the way to the Yefim’s house Nazar silently looked out the window, realizing that, having vomited everything out of himself, he could not get rid of this feeling of nausea that was in him. He could not understand what he had done wrong, that now everything was not his joy, and the worst thing was that he was constantly haunted by the feeling of guilt, although there was nothing for that ... He looked up to the sky, it was bright, blue ... it became disgusting in his soul again.
In the evening, when he, having slept off, was sitting in Yefim’s kitchen and was drinking strong tea, recovering from yesterday's spree, the guys drove to Yefim. After talking about business, one, already leaving, remembered:
- We, by the way, drove to the hippodrome. To this trimmed athlete. He did not give away dough. So we turn on the meter.
Nazar nodded glumly. Lads, shaking hands with him, left, leaving Nazar with his thoughts one-on-one.
***
In school Lyoshka’s hairstyle was taken by everyone with a bang. Of course, the teachers scolded him because of a broken face, saying that it was not good to fight, but they were very glad that now he became like everyone.
The guys from his class even began to respect him, seeing Alyoshka’s beatings, and they took the buzz cut as a gangster style. It did not fit at all with his thin hands, thin neck and bony figure of a skinny teenager, but still look like a gangster, now it was considered cool. The girls also began to show more interest in him, rather, even they finally noticed him, because before he was invisible to them, and now he had a broken face and the buzz cut. Probably, this image for them, too, was associated with the image of a cool lad.
Alexey humbly listened to all in his address and, after the end of the lessons, as always, he first ran into the house to check and feed his grandmother, and then rushed off to the stable.
On this day he had two pieces of news: good and bad. The bad one was the arrival of these people who had cut him yesterday. But today they only clarified whether he brought the money or not. When they saw that he shook his head negatively, they just left in silence. Alyosha did not know how to return the money to them. The worst thing was that he did not even know how much money there was at all, although what difference it made. He had a list of drugs for his grandmother in his pocket, and today, once again making some money from the rental, he would go to the pharmacy to buy something that he hadn’t bought yet.
The good news was that next weekend he was going to the competition. There he had to jump on Badminton and Vienna. This news at once erased all the adversities from his consciousness. He didn’t want more happiness in his life. He had some time to prepare. Competitions were to be held in Bitz, on the arena. Of course, when you trained on a parade ground on the snow and then performed indoors on the sand, it was difficult. But what to do if there was no arena here, so you had to train as opportunities allowed.
In connection with the upcoming starts, Petrovich actively took on Alexey, knowing that he would not let him down and win. Now Petrovich stood with him on the parade ground every day and trained him on one or the other horse. The stress was serious, but Lyosha was happy. So happy that he even forgot about everything. Everything except the grandmother and everything else disappeared and dissolved. And when by the end of the week these guys arrived and asked about the money once again, which he should return, Alyosha remembered for a long time what they said, because he had just sprung clean all the training. Petrovich praised him and went to the stable, and happy Lyosha walked his horse and dreamed of upcoming competitions. The mobsters looked at him unkindly and left without saying anything.
***
Sarychev Bank was located in one of the lanes, not far from Tverskaya Street. It was not the first time that the lads had visited it. It was not surprising that Sarychev behaved self-confidently and defiantly. It was impossible to approach him within gunshot because of the number of guards around him and in his bank. Nevertheless, Nazar got into his office, and quite officially, under the guise of a very wealthy client.
When bank employees could not competently answer Nazar’s questions about transferring his considerable foreign capital to the accounts of this bank, then Nazar was appointed by the manager himself that was Sarychev. Nazar was good at banking matters, he had a solid top five in Mathematics at school, and the whole banking business was interesting and understandable to him. Therefore, he was fluent in all banking terminology and was well versed in this area. They believed his conversations, swallowed them. He intelligently played possum with all the deputies of Sarychev and, after going through all the steps of the bureaucracy, got his audience.
Vladimir Leonidovich was sitting in a chair at the table. He quickly ran an eye over Nazar, who had dressed up in an expensive suit, shirt, and tie, with a very expensive Rolex watch on his hand. Sarychev pointed to a chair opposite him. He spoke first.
- I imagined you much older. My son is your peer. His name is Havre, he said thoughtfully, then, discarding the memories, he continued. - I am pleasantly surprised at your knowledge in the banking sector, and now I have to dismiss some of the employees who were so incompetent that they could not answer the questions of a bank client.
- You will also have to dismiss your guard that is so incompetent lets into the office of someone who will never be your client.
Nazar's eyes flashed with yellow sparks, Sarychev had already understood who was in front of him. He did not call the guard, knowing that this young man, tall with the correct manly features, did not come to kill him. He came to him with an offer. Then he should listen to him.
He should listen to deny him.
Sarychev supposed to hear insults, threats, warnings from a gangster sitting in front of him in the form of a businessman. But, apparently, he was mistaken in him. Sangfroid of this young man was remarkable; he behaved as if he was really moving in the banking circle, and not in the world of crime. Nothing violated his image; he played his role to the end.
Saying goodbye to Sarychev, he went out.
Vladimir Leonidovich loosened the tie knot, now all the tension that he kept in himself broke out. The one who left his office was scary, really scary. This man would stop at nothing in his goal, he was prudent, talented and soulless...
Sarychev pressed the console, inviting the security chief to his office, knowing that from that moment he was declared war since he did not accept the offer to rewrite the controlling stake and put their manager in his club. Vladimir Leonidovich knew that he had already signed the death sentence. He understood perfectly well that in this scheme he was already superfluous. And now he did not know how to save his wife and son.
“It is necessary today to call my son and tell him not to come back under any events. Only time, perhaps, will solve everything. We need to wait. Such gangsters, like this one, do not live forever either.”
Therefore, he would tell his son to wait, and for at least five years not to return here. There would be hell. Those like this gangster were many and many more people would be finished off in this war ... But his son must live and return here when many would kill each other, and then it would be possible to take their places and take what had belonged to them.
Sarychev poured himself a glass of whiskey and drank in one gulp.
“But it’s still too early to write me off. We’ll fight. What did you say your name? Nazar ... an interesting name, it seems to mean an intent look. "
He remembered Nazar's wolfish gaze with yellow sparks and realized that he could not defeat Nazar.
***
Coming out of Sarychev, Nazar got into the jeep, the door of which was opened to him by one of the mobsters, also dressed in a suit. Yefim was sitting inside, he was silent, waiting Nazar to tell.
- He will not agree to our terms, as I expected, - Nazar loosened the tie knot and lit a cigarette.
- Why do you think so? He realizes that he has no choice. You’ve given him time to think it over and answer. Maybe he decides to give up.
- This man is not accustomed to giving in. All his life he was in power and never bowed before anyone, he always bent others. Therefore, we will not wait. Let him think that he has the time that I’ve given him to answer. But I changed my mind, and we will be ahead of him, - Nazar turned to Yefim, - has everything worked out with his wife?
- Yes. Guys are pursuing her; there are weaknesses in their security. As soon as you give the command, we’ll take her.
- Call. Let them take her and drive to the appointed place. Let's not waste time.
Nazar drew on his cigarette and, turning away from the window, let out a trickle of smoke, watching how it was melting in the air.
Yefim took the Motorola phone next to him and, extending the antenna, dialed the number.
***
That evening, Nazar again offered everyone to go to the bathhouse, where he immediately took two prostitutes, went with them to a separate room, and again furiously fucked them. Another way it could not be called.
The last time something inexplicable was going on with him. It seemed everything was as before, even better than before. Their business went well, the money arrived. Even the situation with the intractable Sarychev did not strain him, and with all this supposed prosperity he was not himself. And yet he was constantly irritated by the reminder of this Lyosha, as the mobsters, having visited him and asking about money, reported to Nazar that the guy did not return the money.
And today, after Nazar left the wenches, again one of his men raised the topic about the debt of a trimmed, which he was not going to return.
- Nazar, let's go to his hut. Scare. He is impudent. Remember, when he was cut, how he behaved. And now. We come, like, to pick up the dough, but he is as cool as a cucumber; without turning an eyelash as if he did not care.
The guys indignantly made a noise, supporting the decision to teach the one who did not respect them. All were already quite tipsy, and therefore the desire to fling an insult on someone did not disappear but only intensified.
-Ok. Let's go. Do you know where he lives? – Perhaps, Nazar hoped to stop this topic for today by this question.
- Yes. I have learned his address from Petrovich a long time ago. In Kuntsevo, he lives, not far from the platform of the Workers' Settlement.
- Go.
Nazar angrily got up and began to dress quickly. He was infuriated by this Lyosha and that because of him now he could not live in peace. Perhaps if the guys shook off money from him, everything would calm down and they would forget about him.
Nazar smoked all the way in the car and, without finishing a cigarette, threw it into the open window of the jeep. Yefim was silent and only looked at him strangely.
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