Page 41 of Angel's Forever

Nikolai sat there for a moment, quietly saying his name before answering me. “Vincent Forbes-Stuart…yes, I believe I do. He is from Detroit, isn’t he? I believe I met him once when I was there visiting Vlad, my friend.”

I was surprised that he admitted to knowing him. I had been expecting a straight denial. Perhaps I had underestimated this man. He was more intelligent than I’d given him credit for. I decided for the moment to keep the conversation lighthearted. There was no reason for him to get worried quite yet.

“Have you seen or spoken to him recently? Here in New York?”

“I’d heard he was here and causing some issues for one of the Italian organizations. That’s about it. I haven’t spoken to him recently.”

I pulled his phone out of my pocket and watched his face turn white as he suddenly checked his pockets to confirm that it was indeed his phone.

“Would you like to try answering that question again, seeing as I may have evidence in my hand that proves otherwise?”

He lowered his eyes to the floor, but didn’t respond, so I thought I would dig a slightly deeper hole for him to fall into.

“You see, Vincent has taken something that doesn’t belong to him. Someone very special to three of my Italian friends. She is also extremely special to me. Gabriella-Rose, my malyshka. Someone called Nikolai put one of my friends in hospital. Now, is that a coincidence or not?”

His eyes shot up to mine when I mentioned Gabriella was my little one, suddenly realizing that he had probably made one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

“He never told me he was going to take her. He just said he wanted to talk with her and I should put her guard out of action for a while.”

I stormed to my feet. The chair I was sitting on crashed across the floor as I pushed it back in anger.

“Put him out of action. You almost fucking killed him. Do you know who Gino Russo is?”

Again, the shock on his face was clear. Yes, he knew exactly who he had just beaten up.

“Yes, that’s right. The underboss of the Veronese family. You could have started an all-out war between us and them. It’s lucky that I know them well and said that I would deal with you myself. Now, I am going to ask you one last question, and this will determine your fate.”

His fate was already decided, but I hoped to make him tell me everything he knew by telling him there was a chance that I would allow him to live. All it would change was whether he died quickly or slowly.

“Where are Vincent and Gabriella?”

The color drained from his face, which either meant he didn’t know or Vincent had something on him that would stop him from telling me. I was sure, though, that whatever Vincent could do to this traitor in front of me was nothing compared to what I could do. I looked up at Aleksandr, giving him a small nod.

“Are you going to make me ask you again, Nikolai?”

“Mr. Koslov, I swear to you I don’t know. If I had known everything about the situation, I would have come to you right away. He told me he wanted to speak to her, honestly. I wouldn’t lie to you. I know exactly what would happen to me if I did. I really didn’t know how important she was to you.”

I could see the fear in his eyes, but he wasn’t giving me the answers I needed to hear. I was sure he knew more than he was letting on. Experience had taught me when a man was lying and when he was telling the truth. Half of what Nikolai was telling me was the truth, but half of it wasn’t. I just needed to know which part was which.

Two of my men were now flanking Nikolai, but he was staring at me, so he didn’t notice. I looked at each of the men and gave them the signal. Within seconds, they had Nikolai pinned to the chair and were tying him to it.

I walked over to the table that was at the end of the room behind a screen so that Nikolai couldn’t see it. If he had, he would have run out of here the minute he walked in. To say I was unconventional would be an understatement. I like to put the fear of God into my victims. I picked up the samurai sword. It wouldn’t remove any limbs, but it would inflict enough pain for torture purposes. While impractical in reality to use, I loved the way it felt in my hand. This was more for my pleasure than anything else.

I walked out from behind the screen and watched as Nikolai’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“Please, Mr. Koslov. I don’t know anything more than I have already told you. Please think of my wife and children.”

Now I knew he was lying. I walked up to him and placed the blade of the sword on his right wrist, slowly drawing it across the skin, opening it up and allowing the first trickles of blood to form and run down onto the floor.

“More lies, Nikolai? You aren’t even married, let alone have any children. Do you think I didn’t check my facts before I had you brought in here? Now that has caused your death to become slower.”

I followed the same routine on his left wrist, this time allowing the blade to go further into the muscle surrounding the bone. His screams, cries, and pleading were music to my ears. How I had missed this from being a soldier for my father. It had been years since I had done a hit myself, and to say it was exhilarating was an understatement.

“Mr. Koslov, please, I am telling you the truth. I don’t know where Vincent is. If I knew I would tell you.”

His pleas were doing nothing for me. It really didn’t matter what he told me; his fate would still be the same. He was a traitor and could never be trusted again, and he needed to realize that. I went back to his right hand, but this time further up the arm. The screams leaving his mouth were almost deafening, and I almost considered ending his life there and then just to shut him up. The sword easily carved through skin and muscle, and the crimson of the blood oozing out and pooling on the floor, turning the air with the distinctive metallic smell, was thrilling.

“Nikolai, you must realize by now that your fate had already been decided for you the moment you decided to go into business for yourself and become a traitor of the Koslov organization. Even if you had told me the whereabouts of Vincent, the outcome would still have been the same. It would have just come a lot sooner. Now I am growing tired of this, so I think it is time for me to say goodbye.”

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