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“Start from the beginning,” Eduard said when I approached, fists clenched at my sides.
Ivan shook from head to toe. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth and his eye was swollen shut. “I cleaned up the mess, I came upstairs. I went to tell Sasha the guy wanted a shower and food but I couldn’t find him. His car was gone. So I went to watch TV. That was the last time I saw him.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “You didn’t call to ask me anything.”
“I thought maybe you went to get food yourself. It wasn’t important.”
“And then what happened?” Eduard prompted.
Ivan swallowed. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” I asked, eyes narrowed. “You watched TV and what? He summoned a pair of bolt cutters by magic? The Domovoy crawled out of the walls and handed it to him?” Unfolding my arms, I bent down and picked up the bolt cutters in question. “They seem real. Real enough to cut through the lock and let him escape. I wonder what else they can cut through.”
Even though Ivan’s wrist was duct taped around the arm of his chair, Eduard threw his weight on top of it, flattening out the kid’s left hand.
“No! Sasha, please!” Ivan tried to jerk his hand away. When that failed, he tried curling his fingers, but Edward kept them splayed.
Ignoring Ivan’s pleading, I wedged one of the blades between his pinky and his ring finger. With all of his struggling, he started bleeding well before I slammed the handles toward one another.
Ivan screamed. His pinky fell to the floor and rolled like a sausage link; the wound spurted blood all over my boots.
“Who did it? Who helped him? Was it you?” I yelled over his howling and the vigorous shaking of his head. “If it wasn’t you, then who was it? Did you let someone in the house? Tell me!”
“I didn’t! Sasha, please! I didn’t!”
“Who hit you then?” Eduard asked, grabbing a handful of his sweaty hair and yanking his head backward. “Who betrayed us?”
“I don’t know!”
Eduard and I exchanged a glance, getting a read on where the other person stood. He gave a slight nod, in agreement with my assessment. Positioning the bolt cutters on either side of Ivan’s ring finger, I raised a dark brow at Ivan.
Beads of sweat rolled into the one eye that was open, making him blink like mad. “God, no. No, please! Sasha! Don’t!”
Snip.
Ivan’s screaming tapered off into a sob. Choking on his tears, he gasped for air, his remaining fingers clawing at the arm of the chair. “I thought I heard something,” he wailed. “I went to go look. Then I saw you. You were standing over me.”
I grabbed his jaw, squeezing hard. “Are you sayingIdid it?”
“No! No! I don’t know! I never saw anyone else! But I heard them!”
“Why didn’t you say any of that before?”
“Because, because I failed you…” Ivan’s head slumped forward, held up only by my grip and the tape strapping him down. As soon as I let go, his chin fell to his chest and the sobbing renewed.
Exhaling, I swiped a hand down my face roughly. “Clean him up,” I muttered to Eduard. “And get him the fuck out of my sight.”
Eduard nodded and wandered over to his open duffel bag, pulling out a small butane torch and a knife.
I dropped the bloody bolt cutters on the floor and gave Ivan one last disgusted look before turning toward the stairs. He failed at guarding Roan. He failed at holding out during interrogation. For all intents and purposes, I should put a bullet in his head and cut my losses. He was lucky I had more important things to do — namely getting Roan back.
The torch sparked behind me. A second later Ivan’s scream reverberated through the basement. The smell of sizzling flesh wafted up the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Eduard called after me over the top of Ivan’s wailing.
“Taking back what is mine.”
I found him once before. I’d find him again. This time I’d make sure he didn’t escape.
