Anatoli
"He's still in bed. Can't you come back later?" Uther's butler argues, trying to block my path.
"It's fucking eight o'clock. He should be up already." And it's Thursday, not even a weekend day. There's no reason for the asshole to be in bed sleeping at this hour.
Since I don't give a fuck, I push past the wiry little man and make my way up the steps to Uther's bedroom. The fool, however, follows, clearly afraid of me but more terrified of what his boss will do to him if he allows me to disturb him.
"Please, just wait," the man continues, but I ignore him.
I'm already cringing at the thought of seeing Uther again before the wedding, but I need to do this. I was really hoping Gytha would find something, but I know she would have exhausted all avenues before sending that message.
When I reach the landing and draw closer to Uther's bedroom, the distinct sexual sounds of moaning erupt from his room. I realize then why the butler was hell bent on stopping me.
When I glance back at him, he looks ashamed, an obvious suggestion of guilt.
Disgusted, I march up to Uther's door and practically kick it open just in time to see his nasty old ass moving rocket fast as he pounds into a naked girl kneeling on the edge of his bed.
Another naked girl screams when she sees me, and Uther stops, pulling out of the girl he was fucking.
When she scurries away to grab the sheet to cover herself like the other girl has, I realize they can't be any older than Avrora. If not younger.
At least Uther grabs a sheet and covers his dick, but he looks at me as if he still has some power.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" he roars, nostrils flared.
I look at the girls, and the two of them shudder. "Get the fuck out."
Within seconds, they grab their clothes and scurry out of the room.
"I'm sorry, sir," the butler attempts, but Uther waves him off.
"Just pay them and get the fuck back to work," Uther snaps, and I feel even more disgusted.
When the butler leaves, I close the door. Uther puts on his dressing robe and looks more like someone's dad instead of an old, dirty perv. He's still a disheveled mess, though.
His eyes are bloodshot and his curly hair wilder, grayer, and unruly. The same as his messy beard.
"Fucking around with young girls now, Uther?" I smile at my soon-to-be father-in-law.
"That's none of your business."
"Need I remind you that everything you do is my business." A quick glance around the room, and I see the mess. There are empty cigarette packets, food cartons, cans of beer stashed in the corner, and white powder splashed across the table as if someone was doing lines. The room is a wreck. Just like him. And it smells like animals have been living in here.
One short month has taken a massive toll on him.
"What the hell have you done to the place?"
"Don't worry, it will be cleaned before I leave."
"It better fucking be."
He still has two months before he needs to clear out of here. The look he gives me shows he would answer me with a bullet to my head, if he weren't as cautious of me, as he should be. My visit is unexpected, and I've only been to this house once before. That was the night I stormed into his life and threatened everything he owned. He was in bed then, too. That's how I knew which was his room.
"How is my daughter?" His eyes are glued to mine and hold that same pleading look they did the last time we saw each other.
"She's fine."
"You haven't hurt her, have you? Or done anything else?" His jaw clenches, and I know exactly what he means by anything else.
My lip twitches with a malicious smile as I mull over all that I've done with his precious baby girl who he doesn't realize is a full-grown goddess.
"I haven't hurt her."
When his stony face tenses, taking note I've only answered part of his question, I give him a shit-eating grin.
"What else have you done to her?"
"Nothing she didn't want."
His flinty gaze hardens even more, and so does his face. "What do you want, Anatoli?"
Time to cut to the chase. "I came here to find out if you knew the Butyrskayas."
His eyes narrow to slits. "No. I of course know of them, but I've never met them."
I stare back at him, not knowing if he's telling the truth. Men like him are trained to be professional liars, so I'd never know one way or the other. With people like him, you'd never be able to tell from the usual signs that they're screwing with you.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, I'm sure. Why are you asking me about them?" The wrinkles in his forehead deepen when he frowns, making him look like a bulldog.
This is where I have to play this conversation by ear. I'm going to mention the crest, only because I'm sure Avrora told me she'd told him about her nightmare about a million times. Of course, I won't give him the meaning behind the crest. But I'll see if he knows.
"The house I live in previously belonged to the Butyrskayas." There's a slight shift in his eyes I'm not sure is something I need to pay attention to. "Avrora recognized something that belonged to them."
"What did she recognize?"
"A crest. She's told me she saw it in her nightmares. It made me wonder if you might have known the Butyrskayas before her accident."
At the mention of the accident, his eyes become glassy and his face a dark mask of grief. "She's had those nightmares for years. Whatever she's seeing must be something imagined because we didn't know the Butyrskayas."
That's exactly what failure to find any connection means, but I remember how Avrora looked when she spoke about the crest.
She was certain it was what she'd seen in her nightmares.
All I have is her word. And my suspicion. But I'm not even sure I know what that is yet.
"Tell me more about her accident and where you lived before." I have brief details in my reports, but I want to hear him explain. Just in case I can pick anything up.
The press of his lips unveils his discomfort in the topic. "I'm sure you know we lived in Russia. We were only here when we were visiting family and friends during the holidays. However, before Avrora's accident, we hadn't been back to Boston for close to two years. When I got a permanent role here, we came back. I thought it would be good to take the family camping before Avrora started school. That's when the accident happened." He pauses, then draws in a slow, shallow breath like a man who's just been given terminal news. "Avrora was playing hide and seek with one of the kids at the campsite. She went off the trail onto a road... and, um, was hit by a car."
I know what happened next, but hearing the story like that makes me think of what Avrora must have gone through at that age.
"What's this really about, Anatoli?" He lifts his chin higher, seeming to regain his composure. "What the hell do the Butyrskayas have to do with me?"
His question is correct. What is this really about?
I am suspicious of him whether I have evidence or not.
I'm standing in front of the shadiest man I've ever met in my life, and his daughter recognizes a crest she shouldn't know about. Of course, something is up. So he must be lying.
If I didn't think something was up, or trust Avrora's judgment, I wouldn't have asked Gytha to check it out.
The problem is, if there's any link between Uther and the Butyrskayas at all, I'm not going to find it this way, so there's nothing more I can do here.
"Nothing to worry about now," I decide to say so he knows I haven't dropped the topic. "See you at the wedding. Make sure everything is ready for me."
"It will be ready." His hard glare tells me he wishes he could try to kill me again.
"Perfect, because every time I see you, I want to kill you and I have to remind myself why I won't give you death just yet."
One last scrutinizing stare, and I leave.
Maybe time will tell his truth.
Or it won't.
Either way, he will meet his end.