Page 15 of Fractured Ties

Early betting, so to speak.

They would get a look at the goods before the animals ripped each other to shreds in their terror and instinctual natures. Laugh when they stuck their fingers through too-small cages, and then managed to pull them out just in time to save them from getting bitten off by a terrified dog.

Probably someone’s pet they’d stolen from a front yard. Likely starved, beaten, and terrorized until all the animal understood was survival.

And he was the monster.

Right.

“Are you deaf?” Kolya asked, turning on the stool to face Anatoly.

“What?”

“Glukhoy—deaf, you stupid fucker,” Kolya uttered before he pointed to the door. “What does that door lead to?”

Anatoly’s gaze narrowed, and he swore he saw the man’s hand twitch like it was going to come up and smack Kolya.

Try it, he wanted to say. Give me a fucking reason—I didn’t get enough to satisfy me with the first fucker today.

Anatoly stayed in his spot, and his hand never moved again. Smart, really.

Christ.

The guy was still working every nerve Kolya had left.

And that wasn’t very goddamn many.

“It leads to the offices,” Anatoly spat through his scowling lips. “Mind you, Ivan’s got hallways up there leading into everywhere else, too, and a couple of doors that’ll lead to the exits at the side of the building.”

Kolya didn’t want to bring Maya’s name up again. He didn’t want his brother looking at him in that way again, either—like he had grown a second fucking head.

All because he noticed and asked about a woman.

“She likely took off,” Anatoly added after a minute. “The woman isn’t fucking stupid, despite what her father likes to say about her.”

Kolya’s cheek twitched. “You think?”

He didn’t like that.

He didn’t want her gone.

“What?”

“That she took off,” Kolya muttered.

Konstantin was looking at him in that way again.

“You okay?”

“Fuck off, yes,” he told his brother. “Mind your own.”

Konstantin just nodded.

Asshole.

“If she’s smart, she did,” Anatoly replied, “but I know Ivan likes to keep her here sometimes, too. Maybe that’s why she was around tonight. Who fucking knows?”

Wait, what?