I nod and slowly start scrolling. There’s so many of them, but I take it one photo at a time, forcing myself to relax and remember that they can’t hurt me anymore. My finger stills on the mouse when I recognize one of the men.
“Him,” I whisper, pointing a shaky finger at the middle-aged man in a suit who’s beaming at me like he’s an upstanding citizen who’s never gotten so much as a parking ticket in his life. I know better, though.
Vasily clicks on the man and his information pops up. His name is Justin Wainwright, and I let out a soft gasp when I see what’s written. “He’s a fucking OB/GYN?”
I feel nauseated at the thought of this man examining unsuspecting women all day and even delivering their babies right before he leaves the hospital to go rape someone. Vasily grabs a piece of paper and starts the list. He starts it with Igor, and then draws a satisfying slash through his name before adding Justin as number two.
I start scrolling again, and by the time I finish, we have a list of seven men. They’re a mix of professions. A couple of doctors and politicians, one’s a lawyer, and there’s even a goddamn police officer on the list. We had to dig a little deeper to find a couple of them, but they’re all here except one.
“How will we ever find the one who wore the ski mask?”
Vasily stares at the list, and I know he’s memorizing every single name on it as well as their personal information. “Don’t worry about that,zolotse. I will find the bastard. I don’t care how long it takes me.”
When he grabs the pen again and adds a number eight and nine to the bottom of the list. I know one is reserved for ski mask, but I don’t know who the other is for.
“Why two more? Who’s the other guy?”
I suck in a quick breath when he turns his blue eyes to mine and asks, “What’s your dad’s name?”
Chapter 8
Vasily
Nina’s face pales at my question. I knew she wouldn’t like it, but I had to ask. I wait for her to tell me, and when she hesitates, I raise a brow at her and wait for the name.
“You can’t kill my dad,” she whispers.
“After everything he did, you want to protect him from me?”
“He’s my dad,” she says in explanation.
“And you’re his daughter, the one person on this whole goddamn earth that he’s supposed to protect, and instead he fed you to the fucking wolves.” I’m pissed, and I know my voice sounds hard and that it’s scaring her, so I force myself to take a deep, steadying breath. “Please tell me his name. I’ll find it out anyway, Nina. You know I will.”
“Promise me you won’t kill him.” She grips my shoulders, pleading with her big, dark eyes, and I can’t fucking deny her. I don’t think I could deny her anything.
“I won’t kill him, but I am going to make him regret his decision.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing that will stop his heart,zolotse, so stop worrying. I never go back on my word.”
“Richard,” she finally whispers, and I quickly add his name to the list.
My phone vibrates on the desk. Dr. Cabrini’s name flashes on the screen, but it’s in Cyrillic so Nina can’t read it. I grab the phone and answer it. The results will let me know how long I need to make each of these deaths last. They’re going to be slow no matter what, but I don’t mind tacking on some extra time. I say a quick hello, knowing she’ll get right to the point. She doesn’t disappoint, and when I end the call, I turn to Nina with a smile.
“That was Dr. Cabrini. Your test results were great. You’re negative on everything.”
Nina lets out a relieved sigh. “That’s great to hear. I thought maybe they would be because it was the one thing Ruby was strict about. Nothing like a rapidly spreading case of chlamydia to put a damper on your sex business.”
“That is very true. Ruby would lose all her business overnight, and there would be some very angry housewives throughout the city. I wouldn’t even need to go through the list. I’m guessing they’d take care of it for me.”
She scrolls back through the list of men, finding the photo of Justin. “I wonder if he’s the one who examined me.”
“Someone examined you?”
“Yeah, when I first got there and realized what was happening, I passed out. Ruby gave me a shot of something while I was out of it and when I came to, she said she’d had a doctor examine me. That’s how she knew I was a virgin.”
“God, baby,” I say, feeling like a giant ass. “That happened and then you come here and I do the same goddamn thing.”
