He closed his eyes and then began to whimper, the sound faint yet ferocious.
“Do you know what that is?” I asked.
He mumbled in Spanish and didn’t respond.
“I asked a question, Vargas,” I said.
He shook his head.
“It’s turpentine. An amazing substance. It’ll suffocate you eventually, scar your lungs until they stop working. But it burns slow, eats away at you layer by layer. And you’ll be awake for it all. I’ll make sure of that.”
“My wife! My kids! Where are they?”
Instead of responding, I tossed a match onto the bed and watched as the sheets and then Vargas were eaten by flames.
Vasile
“You probably should kill them too,” Sorin said. “The wife and kids.”
“Probably,” I said flatly, “but I think she’s smart enough to disappear. I don’t want any more innocents to suffer unless they have to, and I don’t think she cared enough to give her life for Vargas. Besides,” I said wearily, “everyone is watching, and while I will get my vengeance, I think the others might appreciate some restraint when it comes to the women and children.”
“I think so too,” he reluctantly agreed.
And then I went quiet, my mind full to overflowing with thoughts and emotions I could barely contain.
My hands tingled with the excitement of what I was about to do. It should have disgusted me, and maybe somewhere deep inside it did. But it also filled me with the first hint of satisfaction I’d felt since I’d found Fawn on that floor, my baby’s life seeping out of her. So it may have been wrong, but I wouldn’t pretend my vengeance wasn’t something I looked forward to with racing anticipation. Something that I would savor, relish, something that would, to whatever small degree, make at least one small thing in this world right.
Sorin, seeming to sense my mood, stayed quiet during the drive.
When I parked, I turned to him. “You and the others stay here,” I said.
He looked me up and down, but I couldn’t tell what he thought and didn’t care. My mind was already inside the abandoned warehouse, my body explosive with anticipation.
“I’ll be here whenever you’re ready,” Sorin said.
I got out of the car.
Thirty
Vasile
* * *
“Let me up, motherfuckers!” David yelled, defiant till the end.
Which was fine by me. He could yell all he wanted. It wouldn’t change anything.
I entered the building, breathing deeply, trying to calm my racing heart. I halfway wondered if when I saw him, I’d be so overcome, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from killing him instantly. I really, really hoped that wouldn’t happen.
I had plans.
Still, my hands shook with the energy that flowed through me, and with every step, my heart pounded a little harder.
And then I saw him, and everything stopped.
He hadn’t been touched, just as I had ordered, still somehow managing to look as if he owned the world. Even the fact he was bound to a chair with no hope of escape didn’t seem to bother him.
“So that’s how it is, huh? You’re supposed to be this big boss motherfucker. Your clan and your honor and all that bullshit, and you’re gonna do it like this? Kill a man without giving him a chance to fight back?” he spat.
“A chance to fight back like Fawn had? Like my baby had?” I yelled, my voice sounding monstrous even to my own ears.
He went quiet and something in his face changed. Then he said, “Look, Petran, I didn’t mean for that to happen. But we got a good thing here. You have to think about the other clans, the Peruvians, the Sicilians, everybody! I handle all their money. You’re gonna have a lot to explain if you do this.”
Almost dizzy with anticipation of what I was about to do, anger at what he’d done, I stepped closer as he spoke, and when I stuck my hand in my pocket, he stopped, face going alert with curiosity and wariness. I pulled the small needle-nose pliers from my pocket, not trying to hide them.
He swallowed nervously, and his eyes went wide.
“I’ll leave you alone. I swear, you will never see me again.”
“The first true thing you’ve said,” I said.
And then I stepped closer, the pliers tight in my grip.
Vasile
“I’m sorry,” David said.
He was fading, and so was I. These last hours had been taxing for both of us.
He turned the eye that he could still open toward me.
“You stole her from me,” he said on a thick, slurred voice. “She was mine. And then she wasn’t, because you took her!”
I ignored him and instead ripped the remnants of his bloody shirt off his body, exposing his arm. My gaze zeroed in on the fat, juicy vein that sat in the crook of his elbow.