Page 52 of Scarred Ruin

“Miss Brighten made a big mistake,” I managed.

“What do you want me to do with her?” There were some men in my employ who wouldn’t bat an eye or lose a minute of sleep in hurting or even killing women. Mario was not one of those, his pained expression proof.

“Get me everything you can find on the teacher. I need to know if she has any other friends.” Yes, it was entirely possible she’d been clueless in dating Andrey and sharing anything with him about the peril she’d placed my child in. However…

I moved toward the jerk, dragging one of the metal chairs toward him, flipping it around and straddling the seat. Andrey had been appropriately conditioned for the meeting, his face and lips swollen, cuts and bruises streaming across various parts of his body. My men were many things including thorough.

He was no stupid man. He knew his end of days was this moment.

That’s why he stunk to high heaven, his tee shirt soaked with sweat.

While I was known for being cautious in exacting punishment, what some might say was fair, I was also considered a sadistic individual.

As in I was fucked up in how much I enjoyed making them sweat.

Watching their emotions evolve as their temperature rose while their mind played tricks on them was thoroughly enjoyable. So what if I was a sick fuck?

I folded my arms across the back of the chair and the moment I lowered my head to rest on my chin, you would have thought I’d issued a savage blow by the way he recoiled.

In doing nothing more than watching him squirm, I learned a lot. Whatever information he’d provided had been minimal yet exactly what had been needed to enact the beginning of a well-thought-out plan.

Which was why I allowed him to sweat, the only sound other than his heart the old-fashioned clock on the wall ticking down the last minutes of his life.

“Tell me about Sara.”

The glancing blow was brutal, only I hadn’t moved a muscle.

“Don’t hurt her! Please.” The man was no fool. He knew exactly what I was insinuating and even though his lips were swollen, I heard his plea clearly.

“Then you’ll need to tell me what I want to know.”

“I swear, Mr. Aristov, I don’t know anything.”

He struggled with the zip-ties while sweat poured down his face. His eyes were wild with fear, pleading unlike him. He’d been a tough soldier, which was why seeing him in this condition provided more accurate information than likely anything he could say to me.

Sara had become a weakness.

No level of warning from my men against allowing emotions to interfere with business could control the heartstrings when they hit like a bolt of lightning.

“Who was the bald man?”

His eyes opened wide, at least as much as possible. “I don’t know.”

“Then why were you talking to him?” I pulled out a cigarette from my jacket, reminding myself it was a nasty habit. One I only indulged in when enjoying a ride. As soon as I flicked the flame on the lighter, he recoiled. “Just answer the question, Andrey.”

It had been a long time since I’d burned a man alive.

“He asked if he could bum a cigarette. I swear to God. Just some tourist. He has his wife with him. We chatted about the city since he was considering moving here.”

I took a long drag, blowing the smoke while I continued studying him. “And his questions?”

His chest rose and fell in panic as he tried to remember. “About the best places to live and traffic. And about…” He jerked his head up. “Private schools.”

“And you just happened to mention the only school you knew about in the area.”

Tears formed in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

That answered the question about how my daughter had been found. Given I couldn’t remember seeing a bald man on the street, there was a likelihood there were several crews working on destroying my world.