Chapter 15 #2
“She wasn’t very nice,” I tell him, and the boy’s untrusting eyes meet mine. “Was she?”
“No,” he finally says, and I bob my head a little too long in agreement.
“I think it’s better this way. Sue is mean, and you deserve something nicer than this.”
He doesn’t respond, just continues to watch me warily.
“I used to be like you. I know what it’s like. We won’t hurt you. We’re here to help.”
“Are you gonna hurt me too?” he murmurs.
That makes something flicker in my mind—a plea, a slap, then the rumble of a voice. You’ll never see the light of day again, boy.
“No, of course not. We’re here to help. We want to help you.”
That makes him blink, his small feet bringing him closer. “There are other kids here.”
“How many?”
“Six, including me. Three are in the basement, chained up.”
That makes my knuckles crack and my eyes ache. The feeling of metal around my wrists, the way I’d strain against them, wanting to be free.
Help! Help!
But no one was around to hear.
“We’ll get them. We’ll make sure no one hurts you again.”
He doesn’t move, obviously not believing me. He just watches. He’s distrustful, and I don’t blame him.
It’s hard to open up after things have been taken from you. Like freedom and choices and the will to live.
“Can you show me where everyone else is?” As I ask this, a girl appears at the top of the stairs, something in her hand. Something to hurt us with. A small plastic bat. As she moves closer, I see that it’s dented and useless, but she’s going to fight like hell.
It makes something terrible lurch inside me.
The way I used to fight. How I still do.
“You here to help or hurt?” she calls out, her Southern twang hoarse as if she’s been crying.
“Help,” I simply say.
The little boy I was talking to speaks next, his voice stronger than before. “He knocked Sue out.”
“You sure?” the girl asks.
“Yep. She’s half dead right here.”
I hear the patter of feet and see the girl and a little boy with his thumb in his mouth making their way down toward me. They eye Sue, and the sight of it doesn’t faze them. If anything, relief flickers across their dirty faces.
“Get the key for the basement. It’s around her neck,” the girl says.
Georgiy tugs it free, ripping it from her and handing it to me.
“Seems you made the right choice in knocking her out,” he says softly as his hand meets mine, the metal hitting my skin.
“I always do.”
He huffs at that, and I let the three children lead me to the basement door on the other side of the small, cluttered kitchen. My hand is shaking as I unlock it.
And what I find down there is unspeakable, the worst I’ve seen in years.
And I’ve seen so much, too much probably.
So I vow, in that moment, that Sue will die slowly, in pain the entire time.
And I’ll be glad to do it.
“And they’ll take care of them, right?” I ask Georgiy for the fifth time as he drives us down the road. Sue is in the trunk, tied up and gagged. We haven’t heard a peep from her. I bet that bitch is still knocked out.
I can’t wait until she wakes up.
I want her to know what’s happening to her.
“Yes, umnyashka. Anthony has made sure of it. They’re all being transported to the hospital. They’ll have everything they need there.”
“Thank you.”
“Anything for you.”
“They deserved better.”
“They did. And so did you. We’ll find out more when she wakes up.”
“And then we can slice her apart?”
“Mhm.”
I shimmy in my seat, my hand linked with his.
He’s driving us to an undisclosed location that Anthony was able to get hold of last minute.
A gift from Sebastian, he’d said. Apparently, that man has safe houses all around the world and doesn’t mind a little mess as long as the victims truly deserve it.
And this one does. What I saw in that basement is something I can’t easily erase from my mind.
I’m glad she’s going to die. I think the kids are, too. They promised not to tell. They promised to pretend they never met us.
And I believe them.
“Are we almost there?” I ask as Georgiy turns the car down another dirt road.
“I think so. It says it’s a mile down.”
I glance around, unable to see anything. The sun has gone down, nothing but the headlights of the car lighting our way.
“It’s cool out here. Creepy.”
“I knew you’d like it.”
I grin, and he squeezes my hand as we bounce along until finally, a small shack appears in the distance.
“This must be it,” Georgiy says, and I nod my head, barely waiting for him to turn the engine off before bounding from the car and toward the trunk.
“I can’t wait to get started.”
Georgiy lets out a small laugh and joins me, leaving the headlights on while he pops the trunk. Sue is barely awake, her eyelids fluttering slightly as we stare down at her. She has terrible bones, I think. I doubt any of her would make nice jewelry.
Drool has pooled at the sides of her mouth, and her temple is crusted in blood.
She’s really disgusting, ugly even.
I think she’d look better with more blood on her.
She’ll look better coated in it entirely.
Georgiy huffs as he grabs some latex gloves from his pocket. He didn’t like how messy he got having to touch her the first time. He washed his hands in the kitchen sink like the surgeon he is. His skin was pink and fresh when he met me back in the living room.
“Go open the door and find a place to tie her down. And take the bags with you if you can.”
“Oh, I sure can.”
I nearly skip to the house, hearing the crunch of Georgiy’s feet behind me. The door to the small house swings open easily, and I push my way inside, flicking on a light as I go. It’s not as shabby on the inside as it appears on the outside. It’s actually quite cozy.
And the really nice thing is, a long wooden table sits completely vacant in the kitchen—the perfect spot for Sue.
Georgiy must have the same thought because he drops her down onto it. Roughly. With actual force. Her head hits the wood with a crack, and she groans.
“Grab the rope from the bag,” he tells me, and I do as I’m asked, producing a large bundle of it and watching as he deftly ties her down with no care for her comfort. She’s sprawled out, arms and legs outstretched, ripe for cutting.
I think I’ll start with her fingers first and make my way to her face.
Georgiy removes the rag from her mouth, and she sputters, her eyes growing wild as she realizes she messed with the wrong men. That we didn’t just want answers. We want justice.
“I have money,” is the first thing she says, but Georgiy just grins. Evil. So hot.
“We don’t want your money. We want you to bleed.”
Her eyes widen, and I smell urine permeating the room. Georgiy sighs, pulling out a mask and placing it over his face.
“I really am growing tired of that.”
“Oh, I love it. It means they’re afraid,” I say, and his gaze meets mine.
“Da. You’re right, umnyashka. Now, if you’d like to start on her, I’ll get changed.”
I don’t even hesitate, pulling out a handheld saw from my bag and holding it above her.
Her eyes flick to the saw and then to me. “I don’t know anything.”
“Tell me everything you know about Samvel and Emma.”
“I don’t know. I swear.”
“You do know something. Who bought them from you?”
“I don’t know his name! Just that he called from an unknown number and paid me with cash. I met him at a different location each time. A different city.”
“What does he look like?”
“I swear, I don’t know. He wore a mask, and the handoffs were always at nighttime.”
“How many children did he buy?” I ask, and she murmurs something, a prayer most likely. “Several. Wait, seven. Seven kids.”
“Seven?”
“Yes, that’s all I know. Now, please let me go.”
“Don’t think so. Not until I know everything.”
Georgiy appears next to me in his surgeon’s attire, making my cock perk up. He looks so damn good like that.
“Later,” he says when he sees my eager gaze.
I wiggle where I stand, accidentally nicking Sue in the process. She cries out, and Georgiy rolls his eyes as she starts to bleed.
“It seems she’s going to be a screamer.”
“She can dish it but can’t take it,” I reply, and Georgiy laughs.
Then it cuts off abruptly, his eyes moving to hers, something sinister moving through those depths.
“It’s a good thing we’re hidden away. No one is going to hear you. Not a single soul. So maybe if you tell us what we want to know, we’ll make it less painful.”
Well, I know that’s not true. We both agreed to it, to take her apart slowly until she’s nothing but bones and flayed skin. But if she believes it and tells us everything we need, then so be it. A little white lie never hurt anyone, right?
Right.