Page 104 of Born into Madness
“Tell me what happened,” I say, noticing the way she flinches at my tone but not caring.
“I was dancing,” she says in a shaky voice as she looks around at the men in my family, probably wishing like hell Niki were here. “I saw her talking to Ben, and then when I looked over again, they were both gone. I thought maybe she’d gone to the bathroom and he had just left, but we always tell each other if we’re going to the bathroom when we’re at a party, so I knew she wouldn’t just walk off. I started searching for her, but I couldn’t find her.”
She starts crying harder, so I turn away and look towards the staff. “Line the fuck up,” I tell them.
“Sasha, you can’t kill the staff,” my dad warns under his breath as I walk towards them. They know who I am, and I see the fear in their eyes. When I reach for the handle of my knife and slowly pull it out, a few of the women gasp and one of the guys takes a step back.
I point the sharp point of the blade at them. “One of you is helping the enemy. Confess, and I give you my word it’ll be a quick death.”
They all look at me like I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I have. Maybe I never had it to begin with. Either way, they’re going to tell me what I want to know or I’ll kill every single one of them.
When no one talks, I look at Alexei, the manager on duty tonight, the one who’s been making the schedules recently. “Tell me who’s been working every night we’ve had an issue.”
Alexei isn’t a part of our Bratva, but he’s let in on certain things. He knows about the roofie incidents, and he’s also whip-smart, so I’m not surprised when he quickly starts calling out names and pointing to people. I motion for them to take a step forward. They do it, but it’s obvious they don’t want to. Out of the twenty people on staff tonight, seven step forward. Aside from one, they’re all women.
“I was working every night, too,” Alexei says before standing next to the lone man.
Damien walks over and stops right by my side. “How do you want to do this?”
I check my phone, making sure the dot is still moving and memorizing the location before I look to my family. In Russian, I say, “As soon as this dot stops, I’m going after her.”
“And we’ll be right by your side, son,” my dad says.
Before I deal with our employees, I look to where Pasha is standing in the corner. I point the knife at him. “Where the fuck were you when this was happening?”
Even though I know he’s scared, he meets my eyes and says, “I was watching her, or at least I thought I was. I’ve never met your fiancée, never seen a picture of her. Lev described her, and I thought I had the right redhead. She was the only one I could find. I still had eyes on her when you came storming in and told everyone to get the fuck out.”
The rage I’m feeling is all directed at myself, but my Uncle Vitaly still steps in front of Pasha and shakes his head at me. “Ican’t let you hurt him. You’ll agree with me when you’ve calmed down.”
“I’m not going to hurt him,” I say, but then I turn to the staff members who are still waiting, knowing the same isn’t true for them.
Alexei is the only one who speaks Russian, but I don’t mind if he understands what I’m saying when I tell Damien, “I think it’s one of the women.” I run my eyes down the line, and as soon as I make eye contact with them, they break it, each and every one, all except the blonde at the end. She doesn’t even lift her head.
“The one at the end,” I say right before I start walking.
Damien and Luka flank me while Val steps in front of Savanna and my Uncle Matvey and Roman walk behind the group. When I stop in front of the last girl, I put my knife under her chin and use the dull edge to lift her head.
“Look at me,” I tell her, and when she doesn’t, I turn my wrist just enough to let the blade nick her skin. Her eyes widen in surprise and she looks at me without thinking. Her eyes are blue, the eyebrows dark, and there’s something about her attitude that I immediately dislike.
“Are you working for Cupid?” I ask.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her eyes dart around, but no one is going to help her. Our Bratva doesn’t make a point of hurting women, but you can be damn sure we will if they put our family at risk.
“I think you do,” I tell her. “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about. You know who I am, right?”
She tries to nod, feels the sharp sting of my knife at her chin and quickly thinks better of it. “Yes,” she whispers.
I lean in just a bit so she’ll have no problem hearing me when I say, “I can promise you the truth is far worse than any rumor you’ve heard. My fiancée was taken tonight. You fucked over the wrong guy,” I pause and ask, “What’s your name?”
“Christine.”
“Well, Christine, you’re a dead fucking woman, but before I kill you, I want to know what you know.”
Before I start asking her questions, I switch to Russian and tell Pasha, “Get the rest of the employees out of here and give them a nice bonus to help them forget about what they’ve seen tonight.”
In seconds, he’s hollering for the others to follow him to the back. They don’t need to be asked twice. Soon it’s just my family, Savanna, who’s still standing behind Val, and Christine, the woman who’s about to die.
“Who took her and where are they taking her?” I ask.
