Chapter 103 The Reckoning
Gavin's Pov.
The smell hadn’t left me yet.
Even after we’d moved the girls out, even after Kane’s men had scrubbed what they could from the concrete floor, it still clung to the inside of my nose like a ghost refusing to leave. Piss and decay and bleach, I had to stand outside for a while before the feeling of throwing up went away.
The fourth guard was still tied to the chair where we’d left him. Kane had made sure of that.
I walked in and the man’s head shot up immediately, his one good eye locking onto me with the kind of raw terror that can’t be faked. Blood had dried down the side of his face. His shirt was soaked through with sweat, clinging to his chest in patches.
I pulled up a chair and sat across from him. Kane stayed standing behind me, with his arms crossed.
“I’m looking for Alexei Petrov,” I said.
The guard’s jaw tightened. It seems like they have been trained into silence. It’s not like that will do him any good today.
“He’ll never talk,” the man said, shaking his head. “Not to you. Not to anyone. You could do whatever you want to him, and he still wouldn’t give you a damn thing.”
I said nothing. Just looked at him.
“And how did you even find this place?” he continued, his voice rising slightly now, cracking at the edges. “Nobody knows about this. Nobody. We’ve been running this operation for two years and not a single person has ever…”
“Wrong answer.”
Kane’s voice came from somewhere behind me. He sounded almost bored. I didn’t have to turn around to hear Kane's knee connect with the tight of the man.
And he didn’t just hit anywhere. He hit a spot, just above the inner side of the knee. The way the man's face turned red showed that the effect of that hit was immediate.
The man’s entire body was seized. A sound tore out of him that sounded more painful than a normal scream, it was like he was growling. His back arched against the chair, the zip ties biting into his wrists as every muscle in his body contracted at once.
Then he started crying in a loud, ugly undignified manner.
The tears cut tracks through the dried blood on his face, his whole body was shaking so hard the chair rattled against the concrete.
I let him cry for a moment. Then I leaned forward.
“Look at me.”
His eyes found mine through the tears. His eyes looked unfocused and desperate.
I held his gaze and kept my voice low.
“Talk to me,” I said. “Or I will go after everyone you hold dear. Every single person. And when it happens…when they suffer for what you refused to give me right now…you will have only yourself to blame for it.”
I let that land. And watched it settle behind his eye like a stone dropping into water.
He knew I meant it. That was the thing about people who had seen real evil in their life…they could always recognize it in someone else. And right now, looking at me, this man could see exactly what I was capable of. What I was willing to do.
The crying didn’t stop. But I watched the stubbornness in his face crumble. The last wall came down.
“Alexei…” he choked out, wiping his face against his shoulder uselessly. “Alexei came to check on the…on the goods. He…he checks every five days. The next one…the next check is in…” He swallowed hard, another sob shaking through him. “Five minutes. He’ll be here in five minutes.”
I held his gaze for a long moment.
Then I smiled. “Thank you,” I said.
Then I stood up and turned to Kane.
Kane was already looking at the door. His weapon was in his hand, loose at his side, his posture relaxed but ready.
I walked back toward the shadows near the entrance and waited.
The guard was still crying behind me. I didn’t look back at him. There was no point.
——-
Four minutes and thirty-eight seconds.
That’s how long it took for the warehouse door to open.
The man who walked in was tall. Broad in the shoulders, narrow in the hips, he probably did a lot of gym work. He wore a dark coat, it was expensive but understated, and he moved with the confidence of someone who had never once in his life been afraid of walking into a room.
Alexei Petrov. He made it three steps inside before he saw the guard in the chair.
To his credit, he didn’t show much reaction. Only a slight widening of the eyes. A fraction of a pause in his stride. That was all. Then he looked up and found me standing in the shadow by the door.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then I stepped forward, out of the dark, and let him see my face clearly.
“Alexei Petrov,” I said.
His jaw set. He didn’t answer me, but I didn’t need him to.
Kane moved behind him without a sound. I watched Alexei’s eyes flicker to the side, I’m sure he was checking for how soon the men he came with could enter the warehouse. Men like Alexei were always ready. He looked smart but apparently not smart enough.
I closed the distance between us. Stopping right in front of him, close enough that he had to look up slightly to meet my eyes.
“We have a lot to talk about,” I said.
The guard in the chair behind us let out one last sob.
Then Kane put a bullet through the back of his head.
The sound echoed off the walls of the warehouse and then disappeared into the dark like it had never happened at all.
Alexei flinched. Just barely. Just enough for me to see.
I smiled again. “It’s just us now,” I said quietly. “Let’s begin.“