Page 93 of Mistaken Identity
By the time I was done, Dima said, “Neither one of you get to worry about this one. I will. And I’ll make it hurt.”
I looked at him before shaking my head. “I’m going to talk to Creole. I’ll let her decide.”
“That’s her right,” Dima agreed. “But for what it’s worth, you are too angry to make it last long enough to really hammer the point home. I’m fully in control, and I can make him suffer for days, weeks, months if I want to.”
The thought did have a certain appeal…
“I’ll get back to you tonight.”
“I want to go,” she said, eyes blazing. “I want to go, and I want to do it tonight.”
I was already shaking my head. “I gave your dad the good news, too. Apparently, we’re going to have a full car.”
I got the message an hour ago from Apollo.
Dima had told me that he was doing the pickup.
And now I was trying to talk Creole out of going.
It wasn’t that I didn’t’ think she could handle it.
I knew she could.
I just didn’t want her to dredge anything up and make it worse for herself.
But, like always, I’d completely miscalculated.
My girl may be a sweet little thing to me, but she was a vicious little thing who deserved justice.
If she wanted to see this through, who was I to tell her that she couldn’t?
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go.”
When we got to Creole’s dad’s place, he was waiting out by the curb.
He smiled at his baby girl behind him as he got in and said, “This is like the best day ever!”
Creole smiled sadly. “Did you bring the picture I asked you to?”
“I did,” he said. “What did you want it for?”
“You’ll see,” she said.
When we walked into the safe house in the woods two hours outside of town, it was to find Dima setting up shop in the front room, with Goodwin tied to a chair over a thick sheet of plastic.
He was staring on with horror.
That horror turned to outright terror when he saw me walk through the door.
“Ahh, I see you remember me,” I murmured quietly.
I could feel Creole close to my back as she peeked at him around my arm.
But Creole’s dad pushed all of us to the side as he barged into the room, took two fast steps, and punched Goodwin so hard in the face that he fell backward.
His arms, which had been tied to the chair behind him, took the brunt of the fall, causing him to howl in pain.
“Fuuuuck!” he cried out, tears now streaming down his face.
