I was planning on prolonging his suffering for a month or longer, for exactly as long as Tatiana took to heal after he hit her in the face, but the coward gave out quickly. Sadly, despite resuscitating him several times, his heart finally failed. The bastard I caught in Detroit didn’t last much longer either.
Sav exhales slowly. “Did you find out what you wanted to know?”
I smile. “More than I was bargaining on.”
He juts his chin at the corpse. “Mercenary?”
“Freelancer. And not a very good one at that. Figures, considering how cheap his rates were.”
Sav shoves a hand in his pocket. “Teszner? He seems like a man who can’t afford proper rates.”
“Exactly.” I grind my molars together. “Same goes for the man I took down in Detroit.”
Sav considers that for a moment. “I assume he didn’t want his sister back because he missed her.”
“He promised he’d give the first man to return her to him a million from the money the necklace would’ve brought.”
Sav chuckles. “Definitely cheap, considering.”
Yeah. That necklace is worth hundreds of millions.
He looks at me. “What now?”
“Now I know what I’m up against.”
“Teszner will do everything in his power to get his sister back in his clutches.”
“He won’t succeed.”
“If you care about her, he better not.” He seems mildly intrigued. “How did they find her when your bounty hunters failed? Aren’t those men you hired supposed to be the best?”
“They are. Teszner must’ve had a hunch that Tatiana was going to run. The motherfucker knew she was pregnant.” He knew all these years, yet he didn’t tell me. He’ll pay not only for what he did to Lee but also for hiding that knowledge from me and for sending these men after Tatiana. “He bugged a stuffed toy Tatiana’s mother had bought for the baby.” I bet my life it’s that dinosaur. “The idiot put a tracker chip that works without a battery in one of the eyes. He obviously didn’t think his plan through because the chip recharged with kinetic energy like the ones wildlife conservationists use for tracking animals. A stuffed toy isn’t something an adult moves constantly. It’s something that sits on a bed or that a baby sleeps with. A child who’s old enough to walk may carry it around the house, but it’s inevitably going to be stationary for longer periods. Maybe that’s why the tracker signal was unstable.” I wave at the corpse. “They only managed to get a signal a couple of times. It vanished completely two years ago. The bug either died or got destroyed.”
I’ve got my money on the latter. I wouldn’t be surprised if Teszner did such a bad job in sewing the eye back on that it dropped off at some stage. The chip could’ve been washed down a drain or flattened by a shoe. If my guess about the dinosaur is right, that would certainly explain the toy’s missing eye.
Sav shakes his head. “Idiot.”
“Yep.”
He motions at Kent. “He’s surprisingly clean.”
“This was personal.”
“And you’re surprisingly calm.”
I shrug. “The kill is over.”
Tilting his head, Sav studies me. “Sometimes, Dante, I think you have DID.”
“Are you slapping labels on me, Sav?” I grin. “That’s not nice.”
“You must have a split personality if you can swing between this in the morning,” he motions at the rusted meat hook that squeaks as its charge sways back and forth, “and acting the perfectly eligible pretty boy bachelor at all those black tie parties in the evening.”
“Fuck you, Sav.” He knows I hate it when he calls me pretty. “You’re not any better.”
“Do you need help with the cleanup?”
“I’ve got it under control.”
