Page 50 of Cruel Bet

The hand stays there in mid-air, and it dawns on both of us that someone else is there. Their hand is wrapped around his wrist.

My addled brain can hardly comprehend what I’m seeing, as I realize it’s Nikolai.

He twists Luis’s arm back so far, I think he might snap it clean off, delivering another blow to his kidneys that sends him to his knees.

“Ow, what the fuck man, who are you?” Luis cries out in pain and confusion.

All I can do is stand wordlessly in shock watching the scene unfold before me. How is Nikolai here? Why?

“I’m your worst fucking nightmare,” Nikolai growls.

He rains down a series of blows on Luis, the other man doesn’t even stand a chance. With Luis subdued, whimpering in a bloody heap on the floor, it dawns on me that Nikolai isn’t going to stop, despite having won and incapacitated him. Even though he was attacking me, I don’t want him to die for it.

I can’t help myself from crying out, “Nikolai, stop! You’ll kill him!”

Nikolai doesn’t take his eyes off him, but he stops his frenzied attack. He stands there like a coiled spring ready to strike again, breathing heavily and clenching his fists, using every ounce of control he has, to do as I ask.

“Who is he to you?” he asks without looking at me, his voice eerily calm.

“He’s my neighbor, Luis. He’s lived next door to me for over a year,” I reply, my voice shaking.

Luis groans on the floor and Nikolai bends down to lean over him menacingly. “Is this true, Luis?”

“Yes, please have mercy,” he groans, before coughing and spitting up blood.

“It didn’t seem like you had much mercy for our friend here, why should I? Not very neighborly of you. Now, I don’t believe that you just happen to be your average run-of-the-mill neighborhood scumbag rapist,” he hisses, leaning over the still incapacitated Luis to grab him by the balls and squeeze. “So, if you want to keep your manhood you’ll tell me, who sent you here?”

“Nikolai, no one sent him, he’s just…” I start to say but to my astonishment, Luis interrupts me.

“Giovanni De Luca,” he cries, letting out big fat fearful sobs, his nose running like a pitiful child, “He told me to keep an eye on the woman and report back.”

“What did he want to know?” Nikolai demands, he tightens his grip on Luis’s balls and Luis screams.

“He wanted me to confirm everything about her, what she looked like, who she saw. When I told him about the child and her visitors, he told me to stay here, to get close to them as much as possible.”

“Why?” Nikolai asks through gritted teeth.

“I don’t know, I promise you I don’t. But he told me that when the time was right, I had to take the child, by any means necessary.”

The forlorn expression, terror, and fear on Luis’s face are all for himself. My heart hardens against him and at that moment I feel like I could kill him myself for ever being near my baby. The horror of how much worse things could have gotten dawns on me, and I want to rush to my daughter. But my rage takes over. I stride over to Luis, standing over him I kick him in the stomach, and he crumples in on himself. I can sense that Nikolai looks up at me, but he says nothing and makes no move to stop me. My gaze is still focused solely on my would-be rapist.

“What does he want with her? Is that why you attacked me tonight?” I demand.

“Fucking bitch,” Luis snarls, seeming to find his courage again.

Nikolai squeezes again and Luis cries out. “Answer the lady,” he demands.

“I don’t know why he wants her, I swear,” he pleads.

“So why did you try to fucking rape me, you bastard!” I scream kicking him again.

Nikolai lets out a small chuckle, seemingly amused by my rage and unperturbed by the violence of the situation. That seems to scare Luis almost as much as the prospect of losing his junk as Nikolai doesn’t have to prompt him to answer me this time.

“It just happened, I couldn’t take it anymore! You were asking for it.”

“No woman is asking for your fucking disgusting dick you creep!” I’m about to kick him again and really lose my shit, but Nikolai looks at me.

“Kukolka, go, check on the child. I’ll take care of this.”

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