Chapter 21
Zoya~
Listening to Marcelle lie had my blood boiling. I felt incensed that she was trying to blame the auction on me, regardless of how I had agreed to do it. She’d been the one to come up with the idea, and she’d been the one to admit that she hadn’t wanted to go to the auction alone.
As for the robbery, Kasimir had laid out all the connecting factors for her, and she was still trying to deny her part in all of it.
Yeah, screw that.
Stepping forward, refusing to be just a bystander, I asked, “And this imaginary person from the auction, how would they know my address when I used Montana’s ID, Marcelle? Even if they had recognized me from the diner, how in the hell would they know where I lived?”
Her eyes widened at that, but I wasn’t sure if it was from my questions or the fact that I was finally speaking, joining in on the interrogation. “Wha...what...I...I don’t know,” she stuttered. “But I didn’t have anything to do with it...I swear, I’d never...we’re...we’re friends, Zoya.”
That just pissed me off more.
“Is that why you threatened me at the diner?” I countered. “Is that why you came after me about how you deserved half of the money?”
Marcelle began shaking her head again. “No...no, I was just...that...I just thought that you’d want to share because-”
“To hell with this shit,” Aurora announced right before Marcelle let out an ear-piercing scream, and when I stepped back, I saw Aurora pulling a knife from Marcelle’s thigh, blood immediately oozing down her leg.
Stunned, I felt Kasimir’s hand wrap around my arm to pull me back, out of Aurora’s way, and I knew that he could feel my body shaking a bit.
While I’d known that the plan was to get the information out of her using any means necessary, being the na?ve nitwit that I was, I had expected a heads up before the torturing would begin.
“Now, that’s just a minor stab to your left thigh that will probably stop bleeding on its own since I didn’t hit anything vital,” Aurora told her. “But if you keep lying to us, then I’m going to skin you alive, starting with your face.”
“No!” Marcelle screamed. “Somebody help me! Please! Please!”
“Maybe you should start by cutting out her tongue,” Viktor suggested easily. “That fucking screaming is enough to give me a headache.”
“No, no, no...” Marcelle rushed out. “No, please...I’ll stop...just please don’t.”
Kasimir let out a loud sigh. “I’m thinking this is the part where someone needs to tell her how this is going to go down.”
“I’d love to,” Aurora quipped.
“By all means,” Viktor chuckled, proving just how much of a psychopath they all were.
I tried not to stare at where Marcelle was bleeding as Aurora said, “You’re going to die, Marcelle.
There’s no getting around that fact, no matter how much you cry, scream, or beg for your life.
Not only did you make the mistake of trying to cross me with the auction, but your greed injured Zoya and cost her mother’s life, something that we’d never let slide.
See, whether you knew it or not, Zoya is family, and it’s only a matter of time before that becomes official. ”
“But-”
Marcelle let out another scream when Aurora stabbed her in the same spot, something that I wouldn’t have thought possible if I hadn’t seen it for myself. The precision was astounding, and now I could see why Kasimir admired his sister-in-law so much.
“Now, as I was saying...you’re going to die, but how you die is entirely up to you,” Aurora went on. “We can spend days torturing you for simply being annoying, or you can tell us what we want to know, making the rest of this as painless as possible.”
“What...what do you want to...to know?” she sputtered, saliva dripping down her chin.
“Firstly, we want you to admit your part in all this,” Aurora answered. “Second, we want the names of the two men who attacked Zoya and her mother.”
“I...I-”
“And let us be very clear about what I’m asking,” Aurora said as she pulled the knife from Marcelle’s leg, making her cry out again.
“Wh...what?”
Instead of Aurora speaking, Viktor was the one who spoke next.
“We know everything there is to know about your family, Ms. Jensen. There is not one faucet of your life that we are unaware of, and that includes every single member of your family and friends. If you provide us with false names, we will annihilate your entire bloodline, and we’ll be sure to let them know why they are being exterminated. ”
“So, if you think that the joke will be on us once you’re dead, it won’t be,” Aurora said, picking up from where Viktor had left off. “We want the names of those two men, and you’d do well to give it to us.”
“We can also keep you alive long enough for you to see us kill off your entire family,” Kasimir chimed in. “I mean, if you won’t give us the names freely, then there are definitely other motivators that we can utilize, starting with your parents in Utah.”
“No...no,” she quickly rushed out. “Please...leave my parents alone...please...”
Just then, sympathy began creeping into my chest, and I hated myself for it.
She was begging for the life of her parents, and instead of giving the Korolevs the go-ahead to kill them in a bid to even the score, I felt her pain.
Having begged for my mother’s life for hours that night, I knew exactly what Marcelle was feeling right now, and I hated that weakness.
“Why should we?” Kasimir asked her dispassionately. “After all, why should you have your mother and father when Zoya doesn’t? Why should we take pity on you when you didn’t care about the devastation that you were leaving behind? And for what? Money?”
That’s when I realized that I was way in over my head with this.
These weren’t strangers that they were talking about killing; these were innocent people that I knew.
There’d been plenty of times when Marcelle’s parents had visited from Utah, coming into the diner to eat, Marcelle more than happy to introduce me to them.
I’d spoken to them on many occasions, and the very thought of murdering them just to get Marcelle to talk had my stomach roiling.
So, in a bid to keep this from spiraling out of control, I stepped forward again, then said, “Marcelle, this isn’t a movie.
The police aren’t going to come in here and save you at the last minute.
This doesn’t end with a happy ending, and I’m not telling you that to scare you.
I’m telling you that because it’s the truth.
These people don’t bluff, and if you don’t want your entire family paying the ultimate price for your greed, then tell them what they want to know. ”
Marcelle’s blue eyes flashed, showing her true self. “This is all your fault,” she spat. “All you had to do was share the money with me. So, if you want to talk about greed, let’s talk about yours.”
“Jesus, she really is stupid,” Aurora remarked absently. “I mean, who in the hell insults the one person who can save them?”
“Wait,” Marcelle rushed out. “Just...wait.”
“We’re listening,” Aurora drawled out like she was bored already.
“If...if I give you names...their names, will you leave my parents alone?” she asked, and maybe she wasn’t a complete monster after all.
“As long as you’re not bullshitting us, your parents will be fine,” Aurora promised her.
Marcelle didn’t say anything for a long time, her harsh breathing from the pain of her stab wound loud in the room.
Looking at her, I couldn’t imagine knowing that I was about to die and not be able to do anything about it.
Even giving up the names wasn’t going to save her, and I had no idea what that did to a person’s mind.
Finally, she said, “It was Daryll Joseph and Jim Giles.”
Kasimir looked over at me to see if I recognized the two names. “Lepestok?”
I shook my head. “The names don’t sound familiar.”
Marcelle looked up at me from the chair. “You know them,” she announced. “They’re the two customers that always sit in my section.” She grimaced before letting out a deep breath, seemingly accepting her fate. “Jim is always wearing a bright green cap.”
That shocked me.
“You recruited two random customers to rob me?” I squawked.
She shook her head. “No...I’m...I’ve been seeing Daryll for a while now.”
“If you’re lying-”
“I’m not,” Marcelle snapped, cutting Kasimir off. “I promised them both fifty-thousand dollars.”
“Fifty-thousand dollars?” I echoed. “That’s all that my mother’s life was worth?”
“They weren’t supposed to kill her!” she yelled. “It...they fucked up!”
Yeah, that wasn’t a good enough answer for me.