Page 6 of Righteous Enforcer
Our guest sits zip-tied to a metal chair, head hanging.
Blood has already dried beneath his nose. Someone got impatient as they brought him to me.
"Dmitri Sokolov." I circle him slowly. "Did you get lost?”
He tries to sneer, but it’s not easy with a split lip and a swollen eye. He looks like an ogre.
“I didn’t think so.” I lean in, sniff, smelling the fear he’s trying to hide. Shortly, he’ll piss his pants.
Maybe even shit them, although most of the Morozova Bratva are strong enough that they don’t shit until that last moment before death.
I once had a guy I was torturing get a hard-on, which was really disturbing. I cut it off and choked him with it.
“So, what’s Ivan up to these days?” I ask.
"I know nothing." His accent thickens with stress. "Just a soldier."
I laugh. "We both know that's not true. You're Ivan's cousin. Family. Brought here… what… six months ago from Mother Russia?"
He flinches. Another piece of information he didn't expect me to have. “Did Ivan tell you that family gets special treatment?” I use my knife to gesture to all my torture toys. “Bratva family usually gets to experience all this. I mean, a gun is effective but oh, so ordinary, don’t you think?”
His eyes glance at my toys, and I see a quick flash of fear that he tries to hide.
“I don’t know why Ivan has his panties in a bunch. We didn’t kill Maksim. If anything, Maksim’s vile behavior got him killed. Ivan targets my family out of misplaced vengeance."
I press the blade beneath his eye, not enough to cut. Not yet.
“Dante’s man killed Maksim. Everyone at the wedding saw?—”
“Did they miss the part when my brother disavowed the man? He was no longer in the Dante family. We tried to make it right.” I shake my head. “No, Ivan is just like Maksim. Too stupid to see that he’ll be richer and more powerful if he’d stop focusing on vengeance. It will kill him. I promise you that.”
“He tells me nothing. I may be cousin, but I’m not told anything.”
I suspect that might be true, but it doesn’t matter. He surely knows why he was traipsing in Dante territory. "Your loyalty is admirable." I trace the knife down Dmitri's cheek without breaking skin. "But misplaced.”
Fear flickers in his eyes, but his jaw remains set.
"Ivan sent you here to die. He knew we'd catch you. The question is why? Did you do something to upset him?”
Sweat beads along his hairline as I lean close to his ear. "Did he tell you what happened to the last man he sacrificed? Pavel, wasn't it? Ivan had Pavel's wife believing he died a hero while he rotted in our basement for weeks." I sniff the air. “You can still smell his rotting corpse.”
His breathing quickens. Good.
I press harder with the blade, drawing the first thin line of blood. "Your girlfriend, Anya, right? Does she know where you are tonight?"
His eyes widen. "Leave her out?—"
"There she is." I smile, tapping my phone screen to show him the surveillance photo of a blonde woman with fake tits struttingher ass into a salon. “She lives just down the street from this location, doesn’t she?” Here’s what most of our foes don’t really know… We don’t fuck with innocents. Anya is safe from me unless she crosses me or my family. It’s lazy and shows weakness to go after innocents. I’m not lazy or weak. I go after my target and I always, always succeed.
A choked sound escapes his throat. "She doesn’t know anything."
"Tell me what Ivan is planning."
"I can't."
I slam my fist into his ribs, feeling a crack beneath my knuckles. He coughs, spitting blood onto the concrete.
"Everyone breaks, Dmitri. The only question is what's left of you afterward."
