Page 25 of Viktor

I press my hand on Viktor's chest, finding his heart is beating fast beneath my palm. “It’s okay, just wait here.” I give him a small smile, a lie, because there is a bad feeling settling in my stomach.

With every step that officer takes me to a small room, I want to turn back and have Viktor hold my hand. But I’m a big girl. I can do this alone.?

I’m guided to a small room with a desk and two seats, the officer sits on a chair opposite the small plastic chair that he gestures for me to sit, a sympathetic look passes over his face and he shuffles the paper. “Your brother is Dmitri Koskovich, correct?” he asks.

My brows dip, and I nod slowly. “Yes, he is.”?

My hands start trembling; I just know what this news is. He gets in trouble with the men he works for. He hadn’t been answering his phone, and I haven’t seen him since the night of my show weeks ago. Nothing. I kept telling myself he is involved in drugs and will turn up soon… but it’s too late.?

“I’m sorry, Miss Frost. We found your brother’s body late yesterday.”?

Any other words he says are drowned out by the deafening roar of disbelief spiralling through my head. All those times that I could have called and left a voicemail instead of hanging up in frustration.

I could have checked up on him, but I was busy. Being selfish and putting myself first. My career.?

“Can I see him?” I whisper, my heart like a lead weight in my chest.

Another person is abandoning me. My dad left when I was a kid, my mom is with her new boyfriend traveling the world and rarely answers her phone. My brother was all I had left.?

The officer scratches the back of his head and a solemn look flashes across his face.

“I’m not sure that’s not a good idea. He had to be identified using dental records.” He huffs out a breath, and an uncomfortable silence descends on us.

He was unrecognizable.

Images of his face cross my mind, and I try to shake them away. He must have been scared. What kind of monsters could do something like this??

I’m still sat on that uncomfortable plastic chair in the interview room for thirty minutes as they speak to me, one- or two-word answers coming from me for everything they ask. I’m not sure there is anything I can do. “Just find who did this.”?

Eventually, they let me go.

He was murdered. They don’t know who did it, and it’s likely they never will. He was involved in gangs, and their theory is most likely another dealer that he screwed over.?

The click of my heels is the only sound I register as I walk through the corridor back out into the waiting room.

Viktor sits on the chairs fingers tapping on his knees, when he notices me he rushes over, concern written on his face. He pulls me close. “What happened? Are you okay?”

I don’t hold him back, instead only lean into his chest and tell him the truth.?

“Someone murdered my brother.”?

He stays silent for a moment, then holds me tighter. I pull myself from his embrace. “I need to go home.” I turn and leave, hiding the tears that won’t stop falling, and his footsteps follow. He takes me home, no questions.?

We don’t talk, we don’t touch.

We just lay in my bed while I try not to imagine all the ways Dmitri died and why they couldn’t show me his face.

I don’t go back to sleep.?

The sun rises hours later, and Viktor sits up. “I need to go to a quick meeting, then I’ll take some time off to stay with you.”?

I nod and turn away.?

His footsteps disappear, and the door closes downstairs. I try to go back to sleep, but it becomes impossible. I keep asking myself if there is anything I could have done, anything to stop it. Maybe if I never asked him to come to my shows or begged more often to quit the gangs.

When the sun has fully risen, I give up and throw on some sweatpants and a t-shirt. Again, I avoid the mirror, knowing there will be dark circles under my puffy eyes.

A loud knock makes me jump, and I peek out the bedroom window and see it’s Damien. I’m not sure if I want to see anyone today, but the knocking comes more insistent. “I’m coming!” I call out.

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