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There was a lot more to this story, I realized. I plopped down on the couch across from Kristoff’s desk.
“It sounds as if Viking was head over heels for Elena.”
He nodded. “That was his first mistake. He let her get under his skin. Bought a wedding ring and everything, thinking he could have a happily ever after. Then, as always happens with men like us, it all fell apart.”
I felt Kristoff’s pain, his despair, on an almost energetic level. He truly believed what he said. I nearly protested, but then reminded myself that I couldn’t keep butting my head against the same stone wall.
“At least Viking tried. If Elena betrayed him, that’s on her. You can’t fault him for trying.”
His gaze roamed over my body like a caress. “No, I can’t.”
Heat engulfed me. I tucked my hands underneath my legs to make sure they wouldn’t do something crazy like reach out to touch him.
“You said Viking’s mother was to blame,” I said, tracking back to the story. “What did she do?”
Kristoff leaned back in his chair. “She was living with some boyfriend back then. The guy had kicked Sy’s ass. When Viking saw his little brother bloody and bruised, he flipped. He cut off the boyfriend’s fingers.”
I grimaced at that mental picture. “That’s…”
“So very him,” Kristoff finished the sentence. “He got locked up for a few days. By the time I got him out, it was just in time for him to watch Elena get married to another man.”
I gasped. “No.”
“We witnessed it from a building across from the chapel they were in. Sy was with us, carrying his rifle. He offered to take both Elena and her new husband out. It was a guy who was from a rival gang.”
“I bet Viking couldn’t give the kill order.” Kristoff’s lips tightened. “He couldn’t, could he?”
“He didn’t,” Kristoff admitted. “He chose the long game and wanted to destroy her husband’s empire and eventually her with it. Sometimes I think he regrets it. On Church Bell days, he even blames me.”
“Church Bell days?” What was it with that song?
He looked grim. “Once a year, on the date Elena got married, Viking drinks until he passes out. That’s the day ‘Church Bells’ by Etta James goes on repeat from morning till midnight.”
I slumped onto the couch, feeling deflated. That was the saddest thing I’d ever heard.
“He must love her so damn much.”
“Love?” He looked surprised. “This isn’t a love story. It’s about betrayal.”
It figured that he’d look at it from that perspective. “I disagree. All these years have passed, yet Viking hasn’t forgotten her. If a man still drinks until he passes out to the same song every year, he’s in love. His love might have turned into hate, but aren’t those two emotions just different sides of the same coin? I’m talking about the kind of love that goes bone deep, that’s etched into your very being like a spell. The kind that made Emily Brontë write, ‘If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.’” I cut him a look. “The sort of love that makes a kind man like Viking lose his head.”
Kristoff threw me a glance. “Kind? Viking? Calling him kind is like calling the Terminator a family-friendly kitchen robot.”
“I’ve never seen him like this before,” I admitted. “At least now I understand.”
“No, you don’t.” His eyes bore into mine. “No one can understand what he went through that day.”
I might, eventually, I thought, but let it go. I couldn’t stomach the thought of Kristoff with another woman, while he clearly didn’t have the same problem with me.
“I just hope he’ll find peace somehow.”
“He will.” The way Kristoff voiced that didn’t sound like he meant letting things go the Zen way. “He’s already killed her husband, so he’s halfway to becoming peaceful.”
Poor Vicky. How horrible to be caught in the middle of a feud between her parents.
“He wants to get back at her.” I wasn’t naive enough to think that wouldn’t eventually happen.
“Once Viking is unleashed, it’ll be more like what the Romans did to Carthage. He’ll salt the earth and destroy her.If it had been me…” He looked away and took another gulp from his coffee.
