Ivan and Nik snorted with laughter while Anton and I danced around one another, checking out each other’s weak spots. He lunged forward with the knife, aiming for my stomach, but I was quicker than him.
I slid effortlessly to the side and landed a hit square on his jaw. His head swung back, and blood spurted from the cut the tiger claw inflicted. He did a repeat lunge, and, once again, my fist connected with his face. This time with his nose.
Breaking it, I smiled as blood slid down his face. I chuckled as he grew frantic and lunged. I clocked his jaw again, and he fell to the ground, dropping the knife. Apparently, knife fighting wasn’t one of his strengths.
I kicked him hard in the ribs, and a satisfyingsnapgreeted me. “You ready to talk?”
He groaned, refusing to stand. The fucking coward wouldn’t even go out with a proper fight. I rolled my eyes at Ivan, who darted toward him, kicking the blade out of reach. Ivan and Nik hauled him to his feet once more and held him.
Anton wheezed through shallow breaths. “I know nothing, I swear.” He groaned, grabbing his ribs.
“See, I might be inclined to believe you, but the Crow here informed me you received a wire transfer a week ago. It was for quite a large sum of money. How much was it again?” I looked at my brother, grinning.
“Fifty thousand dollars,” Nikolai answered, leaning into Anton’s face.
“I swear I have no idea who he was. I was minding my business when a man came up to me and handed me a phone. He told me someone would reach out later. I swear that is all I know,” Anton said around another groan.
“Hmm. That’s all you got. No description or anything? That’s too bad for you.” I walked over to the table nearest me and fingered some of the remaining instruments.
Thus far, we hadn’t done anything other than beat him. Maybe it was time to kick things up a notch. I grabbed the baseball bat and strolled over, swinging it. He gulped. I nodded to Ivan and Nik, and both of them stepped to the side.
“Okay, okay. I honestly never saw the guy in my life. He was wearing a black hoodie and a hat with sunglasses. I couldn’t pick him out of a lineup to save my life. Literally. I swear all he did was hand me a phone and—”
“Yes, we know. Someone would reach out. How long were you in contact with him before you were paid?” I tapped the tip of the baseball bat against the floor in front of him.
“After I sent him the initial list and pictures of the girls? Maybe three weeks.”
“And that’s all you’ve got?” I gave him one last chance to give us information. I amused myself by dragging the bat along the ground as I circled him.
“He had knuckle tattoos—symbols and some other shit. They were foreign looking, and he spoke funny. That’s all I can remember. I swear, you have to believe me.”
“Explain the tattoos. And you say he spoke funny, like a lisp, or…?” I prodded him, finally feeling like we were getting somewhere. Nik had perked up as well and seemed interested in what he had to say.
“No, like foreign, another language,” Anton wheezed, his condition deteriorating by the minute.
Nik stepped up to him and shoved a phone in his face. “The tattoos, did they look like these symbols?”
“Yeah, yeah, exactly like that. Not in that order, but I remember one specifically on the back of the hand because it looked like letters backward. It was like a weird HMP or something.”
“Like this one.” Nikolai pulled up another image, showing it to me before Anton. It was a common Russian tattoo. It had a very specific meaning and was often associated with the Bratva.
“That’s it, that’s the guy. Should be easy to find now,” Anton said, sounding relieved.
Nik boomed with laughter, and Anton nervously joined him. Ivan spat on the ground and waited for Nik to fill him in.
“I doubt it’ll be that easy. Menya ispravit rasstrel,” Nik spoke in Russian, cocking his head to the side.
Ivan threw his head back and laughed freely, the sound echoing off the walls. I smiled.How ironic. Of all the images this shithead would remember, at least it was a good one.
Nikolai put the image in Anton’s face again. “This symbol meansonly execution will correct me. How much more symbolic can it possibly get?” Nik’s grin spread across his face, and Anton’s face fell as he shifted, catching on finally.
“Look, that’s all I have. I needed the money. I would never hurt those girls. I was paid to watch them, nothing else. I swear,” he whined.
“But we know you, Anton. You say you didn’t intend to hurt those girls, but you would have at some point, now, wouldn’t you?” I said, stepping back and placing the bat on my shoulder, getting ready to swing it.
“I’ve never hurt any little—”
I swung hard, hitting him square in the nuts. I couldn’t take his lies anymore. He doubled over and squealed like the pig he was. Several more swings of the bat made talking impossible for him, which was fine by me. He wasn’t going to give us anything else, but what he’d shared was at least a starting point.
