Page 114 of Born into Madness

My Uncle Matvey says from behind me, “The fuck you don’t. We’ve been around enough sex-trafficking bastards to know what we saw last night. Who were you planning to sell those girls to?”

“I don’t know,” Tom insists. “He doesn’t tell me anything like that. He contacts me and lets me know where I can pick up the pills, and then it’s up to me to sell them. I don’t know anything beyond that.”

I do a slow circle around him, and when I see his bony ankles, I can’t resist running my knife along the tendon that’s so clearly visible. Tom screams as I do first the left ankle and then the right. He flails on the hook as blood oozes from the deep gashes. He can no longer use his toes for support, so he swings gently on the hook while his feet flop uselessly beneath him.

“I’d like you to think a little bit harder,” I tell him. “You see, the reason I’m so pissed about this is that my fiancée was one of the girls that was taken last night.”

“Oh fuck,” he whimpers, finally realizing the trouble his ass is in.

“Yes,” I agree. “Oh fuck.” I walk around and face him again. “Where were they going to take her?”

“I didn’t know they were going after your girl. I just orchestrate the drug sales. I don’t check who they’re using them on. How can I possibly control something like that?” he asks, pleading with me for understanding.

“Oh, I don’t know,” my Uncle Vitaly says, “maybe don’t sell roofies to douchebags who are going to rape women.”

“That’s a good point,” my Uncle Roman says. “You got your ass into a nasty business, Tom. Makes me wonder about the kind of guy you are.”

“I’d say he’s the kind of guy who can’t get laid unless the poor girl is unconscious,” Mia says.

Tom’s face is growing paler by the second, and a light sheen of sweat has already broken out all over his face. The pain must be intense, but it’s not unbearable, not yet anyway.

“Who are you to judge me?” he snarls at us, letting the pain fuel his superiority complex. “Like everything you do is legal.”

“We don’t drug and rape women, you sick fuck,” my dad says.

“And we don’t sell them,” my Uncle Matvey adds, “but we enjoy killing the men who do.”

I shrug at Tom and run my knife over his hip, giving him a deep cut that bleeds a lot faster than his torn Achilles. When he’s done screaming, I say, “Some sins are worse than others. My family happens to think abusing women and children is as low as you can get. How unfortunate for you, right?”

“I don’t hurt kids,” he gasps around the pain.

“But, Tom,” I tell him, “you don’t know what they do with the pills after you sell them, remember? How do you know who’s being drugged?”

“There are rules,” he says in a shaky voice.

“Such as?” I ask.

I let Tom catch his breath, but my patience isn’t infinite, and when he starts to take too long, I bring the knife to his other hip to get him to hurry up.

“Wait,” he begs. “Just please wait a second.”

I give him ten before I start to cut. As soon as the knife pierces skin, he starts babbling.

“Girls,” he says in a rush, “young women only and pretty. College girls.”

“So Cupid has a preference after all. What are his exact instructions to you?”

“To sell the pills and to make sure we don’t get caught. A few of the frat guys were given special instructions to find a specific girl and drop them off at the house you raided last night. Once they did it, they got paid. Only a few guys knew about it, though. For everyone else, it was just selling the pills. That’s all I know. I swear.”

“And you told them to use our club? Not a very wise decision. Why our club?” I ask.

“That’s just where Cupid said to go. I think it’s just because it’s the most popular club near campus.”

“And your girlfriend Christine is there to help you all out by leaving the side door open,” I say. I give a soft laugh and add, “I killed your girlfriend last night, by the way. It did not take her long to rat your ass out.”

“Fucking bitch,” he groans as more blood cascades down his legs to join the ever-widening puddle beneath him. “Cupid would’ve had her killed for talking if you hadn’t done it for him.”

“We’re going to find him,” I tell Tom. “We have your laptop and phone, and our cousin is a hell of a lot smarter than this fuck. We’re going to find him and kill him.”