Page 55 of Kadra: The Unfeeling

I watch as the woman slowly transforms from a scared little thing begging for her life to the vicious viper she truly is. “I don’t have to tell you anything.” It was the wrong thing to say. In the next instant, Vitali lashes out. He doesn’t punch or slap the woman in the face and demand she tells me everything she knows. Instead, he tilts his head to the side and stares at the woman without blinking. He stays that way for so long, even I start to become nervous. I’m not going to lie. Vitali looks like something out of a nightmare right now.

Suddenly I’m feeling bad for the woman. The worst thing that could’ve ever happened to her was to end up here at his mercy.

Vitali looks at the woman without blinking for a couple more seconds and I sit there waiting for his next move.

At first, I thought he’s giving the woman a chance to change her answer, but that isn’t it. That is merciful and there’s nothing merciful about my Russian.

Vitali is deciding on what weapon to use. I was so busy paying attention to how he looked that I didn’t notice when he picked up a sharp blade and burnt the tip.

It all happens so fast that I barely register what’s going on. One second, he’s looking at the woman without blinking and the next he lashes out making the vile woman scream so loud even I wince. Vitali slashes the woman right on top of her collarbone. But as quickly as he used a knife to carve her skin, he tosses it aside and starts using his fists. Each hit came one after the other and precisely aimed. Blood splatters everywhere as the scene before me turns darker. It’s like a horror film. I have to force myself to look and not turn away when my stomach starts to revolt. “Vitali …” When I feel like he’s slipped away from here, I call out his name but he doesn’t stop. He doesn’t turn my way. It is as if he doesn’t hear me. It is as if he’s stuck in an ugly place he can’t get out of. As if the woman triggered him somehow. Shit.

I watch as he keeps punching the woman without slowing. Not able to handle looking at him this way, I shout, “Russian!” I sprung out of the chair without hesitating. Then I touched his shoulder gently and that made him freeze. As if my touch alone settled the raging beast inside. The anger. I relax when his breathing starts to become normal. Those gray eyes stare at me as if he just now realized I was here. For a moment there, he got lost in time and space. What happened?

“Ahhhh.” Breaking eye contact with Vitali, I look at Vitali’s victim. The crying woman coughing up blood at our feet managed to open one bruised eye and focus on me, but after a second, it was clear she had no idea who I was. “I want to know who hired you,” I say, managing to keep my voice firm, though I felt anything but.

All the while Vitali stood next to me with blood on his hands and some spattered across his face, yet his expression was as dead as it had been since the first time I ever laid eyes on him.

“Hired me for what?” Our captive asks, acting as if she’s innocent.

Reaching forward, I sink a finger inside the open wound on top of her collarbone making the woman hiss out in pain. “Don’t play stupid,” I warned her.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” She hisses, her eyes look crazed.

“The kids. You remember them, don’t you?” I don’t wait for her to answer. “Who pays you to take the kids from the streets and hand them over to the pimps?” I asked in disgust.

We know who the head of the organization is but I need everything else she knows about the kid’s location. I know they’re spread around the city. Hell, around the country. I need at least that so we can save those kids before the Beauregard family become reckless and decide to get rid of anything and anyone who incriminates them. Meaning, killing the kids to get rid of the evidence.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says through bloodied lips, breathing heavily through her mouth. “You’ll never get close enough to hurt him, you know.” the heartless bitch laughs.

“I already know about the Parisi hotels. Where else are they keeping them now?” I ask calmly. I watch as the woman takes a deep breath that most likely pains her and then opens her one good eye but says nothing. The evil woman is tough as hell, I’ll give her that but I have all day. I don’t mind prolonging her pain. “Do the right thing for once. Give us at least that. The locations,” I say, holding her gaze, “That’s the only thing we want from you.” The only thing we needed.

The woman grunts out a pained laugh, gritting her teeth after a moment and revealing bloodstained teeth. “Please spare me the bullshit. What makes you so much better than me, huh? Are you doing what’s right now? Is having your bitch beat the fuck out of me doing what is right? I don’t fucking think so.” I want to scream, yes, yes, it is because for me two wrongs sure as hell make a right. At least in my world. An eye for an eye. I don’t tell her that, though but I am growing tired of her. “You think because you got this animal here that’s going to make me afraid?” she laughs, coughing up blood again. Then she shakes her head, sweaty and bloody hair falling limp over her bruised face. “You’re all hypocrites. You’re all fucking alike.” she sighs before she continues. “They’ll fuck you up and laugh while they do it, you know? Your best bet is to walk away and let them be before you get everyone you hold dear killed.”

I frown, noticing her tone change from arrogance to disappointment. “Is that what happened to you?” I say as I take a step closer.

“You know nothing,” The woman said, lifting her chin in defiance. For a woman who has spent the past half hour being tortured, she isn’t quite ready to break. “You keep going down this path you’ll end up right there next to all the others. Dead and buried.”

Growing tired of going in circles, I ask, “Give me a location. That’s all I want.” I could care less if this woman lives or dies. I just want the kids. That is all.

Because as soon as we get the kids freed, the quicker we would be able to rid the world of Beauregard, his parasite son and everyone else involved in their sick business.

The woman jerks at her chains, her expression becoming more enraged the longer they hold. Before I even see it coming, she rears up and spits at me, the glob of red staining my black dress. Feeling rage start to bubble in my chest, I reach forward ready to strike the awful woman before I feel a charge in the air. “I figured a horrible woman like you didn’t have any manners, but that’s not only rude but disgusting, isn’t it? You don’t spit at people, and you certainly don’t spit at her.” Vitali whispers too calmly in a deadly tone that has me turning just in time to see him pick up a meat mallet. I barely have a chance to blink before I hear the crunch of bone, then a wail of agony. It doesn’t end for a long while as I stare across the room at the door we had walked through. The woman screams so loud, I start to get a headache.

I wait until her heavyweight hits the floor before I turn back around to face the woman. Vitali now stands with his arms folded back across his chest, a bored look on his face as he surveys his work as if he’s created a masterpiece while smoking a cigarette.

I look down at the woman. “Now, are you ready to tell me what I want to know?” I ask as I resume my stance, voice just as flat as it had been before. I touch my heel to her broken knee checking to see if she’s listening to me. When she opens her one good eye and stares at me, I speak again. “Or do you want him to continue? Trust me you don’t want that.”

The woman gave us everything.

Not even for a second, I feel empathy towards the horrible woman. Not once do I feel remorse for the agonizing pain she must be going through. She set her fate in stone the moment she decided to lure little kids into her trap and set them up for a life of pain at the hands of sick individuals. So her pain and ultimately her death means nothing to me. For me, ridding the world of this woman means peace to a small child somewhere, and what can be more precious than that?

And after we were done with her, we walked out of there with two kidneys, two lungs, a liver, and a heart. The teacher was terrible in life yet her death might just save many lives.

It was all the idea of the man who just took a life so mercilessly.

No one can say my Russian isn’t generous.

Chapter 18

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