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“Child?” Ruslan whips his head around to look at Halil.
“Yes. He’s only seventeen.”
Ruslan shrugs. “Seventeen is almost a man.”
“Almost is key in that sentence. If you look at him, he’s a scared boy.”
“He should be. He shot at my sister, and you expect me to show him mercy. I’m not an idiot, Ambros. You’re coddling him for some reason. Why? You obviously have an infatuation with Xava, so why are you trying to protect the person who almost killed her?”
Sister. There I have it. I finally know the truth. Xava is Ruslan’s sister, as well as the rest of the siblings.
“I thought Xava was your cousin.” I look him dead in the eye.
Ruslan isn’t happy he let that slip. His anger got the best of him, and he divulged information he didn’t intend to.
“She isn’t. She’s my sister. The youngest out of us all.” Ruslan looks over at the SUV and then back at me, sighing. “I’ll let her know I told you, and she can give you the details if she feels like it.”
“To answer your question, the only reason I’m being graceful through this horrific experience is because that child was sent to do a man’s job. You and I both know he isn’t who’s in charge. He’s not the one who ordered the hit. Someone else did. His boss accepted the job and sent him. So, are you going to hurt the man who hires children to do atrocious things, or are you going to hurt the child who got in a little over his head? A child who probably doesn’t have anyone else to teach him what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Ruslan looks over at Halil and swallows hard. “Fuck,” he grits out before heading over in that direction. I walk with Ruslan, and as soon as he’s over him, he’s speaking.
“I want to know who you work for. Tell me, and I’ll let you live.”
“Yabdullah Dudiyn.”
“Dudiyn?” Shock swarms over Ruslan’s face. He must know this man.
“Yes, Dudiyn.”
“How long have you worked for him?”
“Since I was fourteen. He… he took us out of the orphanage, and I’ve been doing small jobs around the city. Pickpocketing, stealing purses, and stuff like that. He told some of the older kids that we needed to start doing more, or he’d throw us back on the streets. He brought this job to the group of older kids and said if one of us didn’t do it, he’d start ‘taking us out’.”
“He was going to start killing you? I thought you said he was going to put you on the streets if you didn’t take different jobs.” Ruslan’s testing the boy to see if he’s lying, but I don’t think he is. I think that his boss is a piece of shit human who doesn’t give a fuck who he hurts.
“I did. He told us one thing, then took it to an entirely different level.” Halil shakes his head and runs his hands over his face before looking back at Ruslan. “I’m sorry I tried to kill her. I really am. I’m not just saying that because I think you’re going to kill me. I’m saying it because I didn’t want to, but if I didn’t show him that I would do something monumental, he’d hurt me or my younger brother.”
There’s a dense silence between us for a couple of moments while Ruslan takes in this information.
“Did he take a whole bunch of you from the orphanage?”
“Yes, about fifteen of us.”
“Do you know who hired your boss?”
Halil licks his lips nervously. “I overheard a conversation… what I know is that someone was betrayed by you, and they were doing this to hurt you.”
“Mmm, I see.” Ruslan takes in a deep breath. “Halil, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. By doing so, I’m giving you a task. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“You go back to wherever it is that you live. You tell him that Xava was shot, but you’re not sure if she’s dead. I’m sure it looked like Xava hit the ground, yes?” Ruslan looks at me.
“Yes, I covered her as we went down, but she could have been hit before I did that,” I answer.
“Good. You go and tell him that it was done, and then you let me handle him. Act like everything is normal for a couple of days.” Ah, so Ruslan has known Yabdullah for quite some time.
“Y-yes, sir. Um… what will happen to us kids after you handle Yabdullah?”
