“For you.” Rustanov pulled the food Tommy had ordered out of the white-and-royal-blue paper bag himself and slid it in front of his prisoner.
Dignity wasn’t a thing Tommy could access anymore—if ever, considering what got him here.
He fell on the food like a starved animal, shoving the burger and curds into his mouth.
“You will be careful, Hanson,” Rustanov advised in that flat, uncaring way of his. “Eat too fast, and you are making yourself sick.”
Didn’t seem to mind me vomiting when you was beating the shit out of me.
But Tommy forced himself to chew slower. He paused for a moment, then asked with his mouth full, “You ain’t eating, too?”
“Nyet, I have dinner plans with Lydia after I am done letting you go.”
So his suspicions had been right from the start! Tommy had to swallow the big bite of burger down hard to keep it from lodging in his throat. Rustanov did have a thing for Lydia. That was the real reason he’d tried to warn everyone off her.
“I knew this wasn’t all over some damn dogs!”
“You are correct.” Rustanov gave him a solemn nod. “It is not just about the dogs you abused. It is also about woman you are thinking you can fuck. Even though she belongs to me.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me you wanted her?” Tommy’s anger spiked. “I would have backed off.”
Rustanov shrugged. Then said,“You will finish your food so we can go soon. I have meal with Lydia. Then it is last game of the season.”
Last game of the season...
That meant it was the end of February.
He’d been in this hell hole for nearly a month.
Salty tears joined the taste of his burger. But neither he nor Rustanov acknowledged them as he finished eating in silence.
“Ready?” Rustanov asked when he was done. “Do you want Stepan to bring you bottle of water or anything else before we go?”
The Russkie almost sounded considerate.
Funny thing, food. When he was starving, Tommy couldn’t think, couldn’t reason, couldn’t keep track of time.
But once he had something solid in his stomach, his sense of logic came creeping back.
“You’re just going to let me go?”
“You are learning your lesson,nyet?”
It was technically a question, but Rustanov’s hard tone made it sound like a statement.
“Yeah, yeah.” Tears burned in Tommy’s eyes. “I learned my lesson. I’ll never talk to Lydia Carrington again, man. Won’t even look at a damn dog. And as for my dad…”
While hanging from those chains, Tommy had spent a lot of time thinking about his life and the way he was brought up. It wasn’t hard to admit anymore. “I know he was a piece of shit. So you don’t have to worry about me. I won’t ever tell anybody about what happened here.”
Rustanov regarded him for a long, hard beat.
Then he said, “I trust these things you are promising me are true. Let us go now.”
“Yeah.” Tommy sniffed back his tears. “Let’s go.”
Stepan had blacked out the barn’s windows and kept the doors closed, so it was always dark inside.
But outside, the sun was setting, and the sky made for a beautiful purple-and-orange background, with Rustanov’s black truck in the foreground.
