He goes back down on the fourth punch with blood pouring from his nose and a cut where the skin split against his cheekbone.
"Wait!" he cried out thickly around the blood in his mouth. "Think about what you're doing! About what they're making you do! You're falling for it, Konstantin! You're falling for it!"
I grab him by his collar and haul him back up onto unsteady feet. My fist stings and smarts from each blow.
"Tell. Me. Why."
"They're lying to you!" he shrieks out while trying to wrestle out of my grip. "After everything I've done for you? All the years by your side? You'd believe them over me?!"
"Yes," I snarl and I ball my hand into a fist, holding it aloft. "You have betrayed me and if you will not tell me why, then I will stand here and I will beat you within an inch of your life until you spit out your answers with each of your broken teeth."
"Okay!" Zangier wails and tries to cover his face. "Okay! I had no choice. You have to believe me, I had no choice!"
Disgust rolls through me in waves and I release him, letting him fall back down into the chair.
"You always have a choice." Beside me, Ethan moves closer with his furious glare locked on Zangier. "You chose to betray yourpakhan."
"No!" Zangier grunts and tries to sit up. "I was… I am being blackmailed. I only went along with it to save you the shame!"
"Shame?" I repeat the word with a snarl. "What shame?"
"I…" Panting, Zangier sniffs and wipes some of the blood away from his face. "If people knew you hired someone like me…"
Irritation swells and I pull my gun from my belt, aiming it straight at Zangier's head. "You have not earned my time or my patience."
"They're blackmailing me!" he yells, holding his hands up in fear. "They… they found out I like them young."
"Young?" Ethan's brief moment of innocence dissolves into immediate disgust. "Oh my fucking god…"
"They found out and they've been blackmailing me to pass on intel and sway your decisions. I only did it so you wouldn't get into trouble!"
The fact that he tries to spin it onto me, as if his disgusting acts have any blowback onto me is infuriating, but the real answer remains hidden.
"Who!?" I roar and I surge forward, slamming my gun into his forehead and forcing him back into the chair. "Who did you sell my secrets to?!"
"Mathew," Zangier gasps out. "Rose's brother. Mathew."
A chill sweeps through my gut and I move half an inch back.
Relief sweeps across Zangier's face. "That's why I tried to kidnap her at the river. I thought if I had her, I could use her to free myself from him. That's… that's why I did it." He leans up into the space I've left and his beady eyes lock onto me. "You have to help me. I've been trapped for months, boss. Months."
Mathew.
Rose's brother?
I glance at Ethan and he wears his surprise more openly on his face, but it quickly warps into disgust when Zangier reaches for me.
I step back once, lift my gun again and shoot him square between the eyes, then I put two bullets in his chest for good measure.
"Fuck," Ethan breathes out. "Mathew? Do you think he was telling the truth?"
I can't bring myself to answer, not until I've seen Rose.
"Take me home."
30
ROSE
