Nikolai yanked the slumlord’s phone out of his hand. When the man tried to turn away from the phone’s facial recognition, Nikolai grabbed his jaw and yanked his face into the frame.
Once the phone was unlocked and in my hands, I clicked on a text chain between him and Alisa. I scrolled to the bottom, noting how many texts she’d sent him that he’d simply ignored.
He’d regret that now.
“Last year, on December 18th Alisa texted you that her heater was broken. She said the temperature was supposed to drop below freezing, and you didn’t even bother responding.”
He flinched at my tone.
The couch creaked as I stood up from it. All I could picture was shivers racking Alisa’s body as she desperately sent out this message to him.
I flicked open a knife from my pocket.
The landlord tried to dash for the door, but Nikolai grabbed him before he could take a single step.
“Please,” he said as I approached him with the knife in hand.
“Interesting,” I said, bringing up the phone to my face. “That’s exactly what Alisa said on December 25th.Christmas. And yet you ignored her.”
Before he could even register the movement, I slashed my knife twice across his biceps, making sure to avoid any arteries. I wanted to make this last a while.
Although, I’m sure he’d prefer I didn’t.
“Next up, we have January 4th. Alisa told you her neighbor Layla had a newborn baby who couldn't handle the chill in her apartment. She begged you to just send someone out and fix her neighbor's heater.”
My heart swelled as I read the rest of the message. Alisa seemed far more torn up about the baby receiving warmth than she had been about herself.
“You ignored a fucking baby, because it was cheaper for you to do so.” This time I sliced near his collarbone, enjoying the screams emitting from his mouth.
I couldn’t help smiling as I read the next one. Despite freezing in this shithole, Alisa had scrounged up enough money to get Layla and her baby another apartment with a working heater.
Alisa threatened to break the slumlord’s kneecaps if he tried to retain Layla’s deposit for breaking her lease early.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t ended up breaking his kneecaps. Likely because he’d found another sucker to take the apartment, and he didn’t have to screw over the new mother to make sure he didn’t lose a few pennies.
Her threathad gotten a response though.
I paused my scrolling.
The slumlord promised he’d personally breakAlisa’skneecaps if she ever threatened him again.
Before I’d even finished reading his reply, I swung my foot backwards, and made contact with his right knee. A cracking noise echoed in the room. I smiled at the way his kneecap jutted sharply to the left.
Still, my anger was barely quenched when the landlord screamed and jerked towards the ground.
I nodded at Nikolai to hold him up.
“We’re not close to being done,” I said, flipping over the knife in my hand. “I still have more messages to read.”
Chapter forty-seven
Alisa
Lightness engulfed me even as I headed towards my father’s house. Not even a message that the Pakhan was meeting me there, or the possibility of a beating could break the high of this day.
I’d lived in this world of darkness and pain so long that I needed to hold onto any moments of happiness. I looked up into the night sky and smiled when I saw the first flurries of snow fluttering down.
It meant another night in the enveloping warmth of Dmitri’s house.
