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“Admit that you knew who they were,” I growl.
He’s sobbing, tears and snot pouring down his face.
I make the same long cut to the other arm, but I push a little too hard. Blood pumps out of his arm to the beat of his racing heart.
“Admit it,” I bark in his face. “You knew who they were. You fucking enjoyed terrorizing them, didn’t you?”
“Please,” he whimpers.
I press the blade to his neck. Blood stains his collar. “Admit it or you die right now like the coward you are.”
“I knew!” he gasps. “I knew who they were. I knew why I was there.”
I press the knife in deeper. “And you enjoyed it.”
“I was just doing my job.”
I can feel the tendons in his neck straining against the blade. “You aren’t some fucking paper pusher. You were there to murder and kidnap people. You don’t get into this line of work without enjoying it. The same way I’m going to enjoy applying just a little more pressure and tearing through your jugular.”
He slips in the blood pooled at his feet and yelps as he falls into the blade. It cuts deeper into his neck, but he scrambles away from it. “Please! I have a family. A wife and kids.”
“So do I. And you tried to kill them.”
I rear back and plunge the knife into his chest. I drag it down, tracing around bones and carving through organs until he’s split wide open. He’s trying to scream, but he can’t find the air. His voice grows weaker and weaker until he goes limp, still suspended from the ceiling by his wrists.
Isay claps from behind me. “Feel better?”
I survey my work and shake my head. “No. But the fucker got what he deserved.”
“It’ll send a message, that’s for sure. Pavel can’t ignore this.”
No, he can’t. Even if it doesn’t lure him out, this man’s death will let Pavel know what’s waiting for him when he finally does show his face again.
I wipe my blade clean on the bottom of my shirt. “Find the man’s family.”
“What do I do with them when I find them?”
If I was Pavel, I’d order their deaths. I’d have them brought to me so I could show them what became of their husband and father one by one.
But I’m not Pavel or Akim. I’m not this worthless sack of flesh in front of me.
“Make sure they’re okay,” I say. “Set them up with some money until the wife gets back on her feet. Her husband was a piece of shit, but I’m sure he still paid some bills.”
He’s dead. I’ve taken my pound of flesh. I don’t need anything else.
50
LUNA
I’m crouched in the corner of the covered cabana with a book when Mariya finds me.
She pops her head around the curtain that shields me from prying eyes inside the house and nearly gives me a heart attack. “You don’t need to hide.”
I jolt so hard I drop my book on my face. “Can we not sneak up on the pregnant woman with high blood pressure, please?”
“Sorry.” Mariya pulls back the curtains, letting in some much-needed sunlight. I was starting to get cold in the shade. “I just thought you’d like to know that you don’t have to hide. My mom is out for the day.”
“She went out? Like, she left the premises?”
