“He suffered? He must suffer first.” The veins on her neck stood out. Her words came in a slow staccato through gritted teeth. “Tell me he died a long painful death.”
Hawk didn’t move a muscle as she continued holding on to him. “All knife wounds are painful, Tatiana,” he said softly. “He suffered, but not as much as I wish he had, now that I know what he did to you.”
“You don’t know. You don’t know everything.” Tatiana sat back in her chair.
“Tell your story to the reporters downstairs, then. You know they are there. Show them the scars, Tatiana.”
Amber covered her mouth as Tatiana began to cry. Oh God, it was so heartbreaking to finally see the girl showing her grief, as big teardrops rolled down her cheeks. She didn’t know which she preferred—the unemotional girl or this sad creature sobbing in low moans.
“He made me feel…dirty. He made me lick his toilet bowl. He killed me inside,” Tatiana said, her words barely audible through the sobs. “I’m glad he’s dead. I wish I was there to watch him die.”
Hawk reached out and traced one finger down Tatiana’s wet cheeks. “There are others like him. You have to try to help the other girls by giving this interview. Michela, Judi Kay, and Kia are doing it for their friends who are still missing. Don’t you want to, too?”
“I don’t have any friends!” Tatiana said.
“Amber and Lily,” Hawk reminded her gently.
Tatiana nodded, finally giving Amber a glance. “Yes. I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s okay,” Amber said. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Tatiana.”
“I’ll do it for your friend Hawk,” the girl said, suddenly coming to a decision. Her voice was still hoarse from crying, but she was more composed. “He did me a favor. I’ll return it now. Help me walk downstairs?”
“I’ll carry you,” Hawk offered.
“Careful of her ribs,” Amber said, when Tatiana nodded her permission. She watched him lift the young girl up with a gentleness she hadn’t seen in him. “Here’s a hanky, Tatiana. I’ll bring the crutches.”
She followed them, listening quietly as Tatiana started to tell Hawk the things the dead Sarunas had done to her during her captivity. She wasn’t waiting for any interview. Her story was pouring out of her as if Hawk had turned the tap on.
She moved ahead so she could open the door. Every eye in the room focused on Tatiana, who ignored them all even as she continued talking. The reporters never said a word as she went on. And on.
Every horrifying humiliation. Every bruise and how she got them. Amber listened and wanted to kill all the Sarunas in the world.
16
Hawk anticipated there would be an argumentafterward. He had seen it coming from the expression on Lily Noretski’s face. She had barely kept her cool through the interview.
The two reporters were now gone, with three hours of taped conversation in their possession, the most powerful segments of which were Tatiana’s, her hoarse voice filled with wretched hatred. Hawk didn’t think he would ever forget any of it, or the expressions of growing horror on the men’s faces as they listened to her halting account.
“You have no right, no right at all, to make her relive her ordeal.” Lily glared at Amber.
The girls had gone back to their rooms. “I didn’t make her, Lily,” she said.
“What did you say to her? She hasn’t said one word, not to you, not to me, all these months.” Lily raked a hand through her short hair. When Amber gave her a short account of what had happened upstairs, she continued, “You don’t know what you might have done to her psychologically. We agreed to be extra gentle with her.”
“I’ll take total responsibility,” Hawk said from the doorway. He didn’t want the two friends quarreling.
“You lied to her to get her to talk,” Lily accused, turning to face him.
“No, I didn’t. Tetovo’s one of Dilaver’skafenasand I have seen what Sarunas can do to a girl.”
“And you didn’t stop him before, even when you were standing right there,” Lily sneered, “so why should I believe you really killed the bastard? You and Brad, one playing on the inside, the other the almighty chief of some NATO department, both of you have the power to stop this at one time or another, yet you choose not to. How could you? And you’re worse, Mr. McMillan. You’re actually in that place, participating in the fun.” She paused, her eyes growing flat. “I could kill you just for that.”
That Hawk believed. There was a look in her eyes that reminded him of war veterans who had been in the combat theater too long, especially those who had seen and done too much that crossed the line, with no relief of downtime or family ties. Yet Lily had Amber and other friends, as well as these girls, so why did he suddenly get the feeling that she was desperately hiding something from the world? It was just a gut feeling he had, from years of having been deployed in and out of bloody arenas; he had dealt with men who had so alienated their humanity that they had turned into killing machines. Why did he get the same vibes from her?
Since he didn’t reply, Amber spoke up. “Lily, you know why Hawk’s in there.”
“Oh yeah, right, silly me. Bigger things in the world and all that,” Lily said.
