He didn’t even look surprised to see us.
He coughed. “There you are.”
He spoke in heavily accented English, like he knew exactly who we were despite the masks.
Jagger, Vigo, and Bram had filed in behind Hawk and me. Now we faced Dimitri Markov like a firing squad.
He studied me, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he was facing down five masked intruders with guns.
“You have your mother’s eyes.”
Bram raised his gun and took a step toward Dimitri, but I put up an arm to stop him.
“Why did you do it?” I asked him.
I just wanted to know.
“Your parents were warned,” he said. “As were you. Fortunately for you, I’m an old man now, and while I have my… resources, I’ve found no one does a job quite like you will do it yourself.”
“I know why you killed my parents,” I said. “Why you tried to kill me. I want to know why you hurt those girls. Why you still hurt them.”
He made a sound liketsk.“You care. How very provincial. How very…kind.”
“It’s notkindto treat people like human beings. It’s just…decent.”
“This world is a dark one, my dear. You know this better than anyone.”
I hated that he was speaking warmly to me, like someone I could trust.
Someone I could like.
“He’s stalling,” Vigo said. “Waiting for one of his guards.”
Dimitri turned his palms to the ceiling. “My men think I’m going to bed. No one is coming.”
“So? Why did you do it?” I couldn’t help it. I’d come so far.
I had to know.
“You have no idea how boring it is to have everything you want, do you?”
“No. You took everything I wanted when I was ten years old.”
“Yes well, itisboring. Quite so, in fact. Nothing out of reach, nothing to want.”
Hawk looked at hi with cold eyes. “You sold those girls, used those girls because you werebored?”
Dimitri picked a piece of lint off his robe. “Does it need to be any more complicated than that?”
“It doesn’t need to be anything,” Bram said, raising his weapon. “It’s over. That’s what matters.”
Dimitri looked up.
Not at Bram.
At me.
And for a split second it almost bought me to my knees: how normal he looked.