Page 85 of Wreaking Havoc
“Bossy,” Sascha chided, even as he let himself be pivoted.
But Kai wasn’t accepting half answers. “You’ll keep your eyes where I tell you, yes?”
Sascha huffed. “Yes, yes.” While he had no objections to the way Kai bridal-carried him whenever Sascha pulled off the damsel act, he didn’t actually feel like fainting today.
“I have a surprise for you,” Kai told him, an alarming amount of mischievous glee in his voice.
“If I open my eyes to you holding up a severed head, I swear to God—”
There was that startled squeak again.
Unable to hold in his curiosity any more, Sascha opened his eyes.
Huh.
Kai—looking for all the world like an owner wrangling a wayward pup—was holding a boy by his shirt collar,
Or not a boy. A young man? Probably early twenties, but it was hard to tell. He was short and way too thin, small by anyone’s standards but even more so compared to Kai’s massive size.
His dark hair was shorn close to his scalp like the other Mafia drones, but where on them it had looked vaguely intimidating, on him—with his enormous dark eyes and dazed expression, visibly shaking in Kai’s hold—it reminded Sascha more than anything of a fuzzy baby chick.
“Who—?” Sascha started to ask.
But Kai interrupted, grinning smugly, shaking the guy lightly. “You wanted a friend, zaychik. I told you I’d procure one for you.”
There was so much wrong with that statement that Sascha didn’t even know where to begin.
But then Kai’s captive spoke for the first time. “Y-You’re not going to kill me?” he asked, wide eyes darting between them.
Kai made a disgusted noise. “Why would we?”
“Because you killed all of them?” the guy pointed out, not unreasonably. “And Mr. Caruso, he’s m-m-my—”
“Boss?” Sascha guessed, after it didn’t seem like Kai’s captive would finish.
The little chick shook his head furiously. “Stepdad,” he corrected.
Sascha didn’t remember hearing that Luca Caruso was married. “What about your mom?” he asked.
The chick shook his head again.
“Well then, um, I guess Mr. Carusowasyour stepdad?” Jesus, what was Sascha supposed to say here?Your father figure was an evil dick and we had to do away with him? He didn’t have any experience with this. Papa had died suddenly of an aneurysm, no Mafia violence required.“Are you going to want vengeance or something?” he asked.
That brought out a low growl from Kai.
The little chick gave another terrified squeak, staring at Kai like he was the devil incarnate. As far as this poor guy was concerned, he probably was. “N-No!” He looked over Sascha’sshoulder at something, his voice taking on a firmer note. “No.But…” To Sascha’s horror, tears filled his big brown eyes. “They all know I was here, and now… They’ll come for me. They’ll kill me. I have nowhere to go. No one to help. You should just kill me now and get it over with.” He closed his eyes tight, like he was already waiting for the fatal blow.
And here Sascha had thoughthewas the one with all the Mafia dad trauma.
He supposed he had to be the grown-up in this situation. “Did you have anything to do with this trafficking plan?” he asked.
The guy opened his eyes the tiniest bit, shaking his head warily. “But I didn’t—I couldn’t—couldn’t stop it.”
Well, then. Sascha knew a little bit about feeling powerless in the face of mean men with big guns.
“I don’t smell any soul rot on him,” Kai pointed out gruffly.
Sascha honestly wasn’t sure what that meant, other than Kai hadn’t deemed this guy evil enough to do away with.
