Page 230 of Toxic Temptation
“I want you to help ussave lives,” he tuts. “The lives of people who matter. People with resources, with connections, with something to contribute to society.” His tone grows colder. “Do you really think some welfare brat from the projects is worth more than a senator’s son? Is some illegal immigrant’s kidney more valuable than a Fortune 500 CEO’s?”
“Yes,” I say vehemently. “Every life is worth the same.”
I can’t sit here anymore. If I listen to another word of this, I’m going to vomit.
“I’m going to stop you.”
He just shakes his head. “You keep saying that, and I’m starting to fear you might be stupid. Stop us how? Better yet, stop uswhy? If we go down, you know who goes down with us?Kovan.And if Kovan goes down, then, well… Do you know of any frightened little boys who will be returned to their evil mother and stepfather?”
I can’t— I won’t— Fuck me, if I don’t scream right now, I’m going to go insane.
Ihor must see me suffering in absolute anguish, because he looks down on me in pity. “I’ll give you the room to think. You look like you could use it.”
Then he starts sauntering toward the door, whistling as he goes. But just before he leaves, he stops and turns back.
“One more thing, Vesper.” He exhales sadly, like he truly regrets whatever he’s about to say. “Whatever you’re planning to do, you should know: Kovan already suspects you’re getting too close to the truth. Why do you think he’s been avoiding you? Why do you think he’s been sleeping in another room, hm?”
I freeze in place.
“He knows you’re too proud for this nasty business. And he’s terrified that when you figure out who he really is, you’ll leave him.” Ihor’s laugh is soft, almost pitying. “The irony is, he’s right. Youwillleave him. The only question is whether you’ll destroy him in the process.”
I can’t speak. I might never speak again.
Ihor nods. “You’ll come around eventually. They always do.”
And then he’s gone. I sit there for what feels like the cruelest eternity. An endless purgatory of horror on horror on horror.
But eventually, the horror starts to recede. In its place, something new rears up. Something hot and fierce and untamable.
Anger.
I feel anger on behalf of every little boy and girl who suffered at the hands of that miserable son of a bitch. Ihor thinks he has me cornered, that I’m too meek and cowed and outsmarted to do anything about his evil.
But he’s wrong. Him and Jeremy are both so fucking wrong.
I willnotbe quiet. I willnotturn a blind eye. I willnotgo quietly.
I will do what must be done.
I pull up Jeremy’s computer and start typing.
79
KOVAN
“Can we go to the park?” Luka asks.
“I have to be at the hospital this evening,” Vesper says without looking up from her phone. “Sorry, baby.”
Her blunt dismissal snags my attention. Vesper never brushes Luka off like this. She might have work, but she always explains why, always promises to make it up to him, always gives him her full attention when she speaks to him.
Today, she sounds like she’s talking to a stranger.
I study her profile as she scrolls through whatever’s on her screen. Something’s changed. The shift happened yesterday evening when she came home from her last hospital shift. One minute, she was the woman who’d kissed me goodbye that morning; the next, she was this hollow-eyed stranger who barely acknowledged my existence.
“Everything okay?” I ask her.
“Yep.” She doesn’t glance my way.
