Page 82 of Fractured Ties

Kolya snatched up the live jumper cables from the floor and checked to make sure they would snap loudly when he touched the two clamps together. Sure enough, they crackled and sparked with all the pretty colors of live electricity.

Lowering the cables, he smiled at the wide-eyed Albanian who suddenly couldn’t stop looking away from the items in Kolya’s hands.

“I love a good electrocution,” Kolya said.

Tomor’s gaze skipped to him. A lot of his fire and fight was draining right before Kolya’s eyes.

“Here’s how this is going to go,” Kolya said, taking a step forward.

Even as Tomor fought to move away from Kolya, he still managed to clamp one of the cables to the side of the man’s neck. The cables had been wired into a two-forty plug putting out forty amps, and would certainly kill a man within seconds.

A little touch of the other cable to the man’s stomach though, and—Tomor snapped back, went stiff, his eyes rolled back, and a gagged garble of unintelligible noise slipped from his mouth before Kolya pulled the cable back fast. It took Tomor a few seconds to regain his senses, and then another minute more before Kolya felt comfortable pulling the man’s gag down.

Tomor’s speech was slurred.

Slowed.

Confused.

Kolya reached out and smacked the man on his forehead. “Look at me, no?”

The Albanian did.

“I don’t want information from you,” Kolya said. “I know why you did what you did. I am just here to make you hurt for what you did to her. And because you enjoy putting your hands on other people, without their permission, once I am done hurting you, I will cut yours off, put them in a box, and mail them to your closest relative. A parting gift, we’ll say. Your boss will get the rest of you—my boss’s order. A message, if you will.”

Tomor’s eyes darkened with rage again. “He’s going to keep coming for her, Russian. Until he gets ger.”

Kolya nodded. “He can try.”

• • •

Kolya kneeled down beside a stiff Sumerki as the noise from the other side of the room picked up. He’d quickly gotten tired of the Albanian. The Reaper was there to step in and finish business when Kolya asked.

Sumerki’s big, yellow eyes watched Kolya, but quickly darted back to where the sounds of blood dripping and sawing echoed from the middle of the room.

“Come here,” he murmured, scooping the pup from his blanket.

He’d done well.

Stayed right in his spot.

Stayed quiet.

“Good boy,” Kolya said, running his hand down Sumerki’s back. The pup relaxed a bit—it was quite a bit of noise. “Someday, just you sitting there will be enough to make a man spill his fucking secrets, won’t it?”

“I thought he was going to bolt once,” Konstantin said, coming closer.

The first time he’d left his position at the wall all evening.

“I thought he would, too,” Kolya admitted. “Also, we have an issue.”

Konstantin frowned. “What is that?”

“The second attack—the one on you and Maya—wasn’t the Albanians.”

“Why would you think—”

“Valbon … he wants Maya. There was at least three minutes where you had no consciousness. You admitted it yourself. After the car rolled, no? Whoever it was had every chance to take her and they didn’t, Konstantin. It couldn’t be the Albanians. They have one purpose—they want her. The second attack wasn’t about her.”