Ruthless Creatures by J.T. Geissinger

I don’t know how long it is before Kage returns. It seems
like only a few minutes, but it could be hours. Days. Weeks.
When he comes back in, he kneels on the floor in front of me.
He takes my hands in his.
I try not to think about how much blood must be on them
and focus on his face instead.
“Tell me what happened.”
I swallow, closing my eyes to banish the image that keeps
playing on rewind of Viktor’s head exploding.
In a dull voice that sounds far away to my own ears, I say,
“I got a phone call from Maxim. He said you’d betrayed him.
Disobeyed him. He mentioned my parents. He said we all had
to pay for how I turned you against him. Then Viktor was
here. He asked where the money was. I told him about the
trust you set up for me.
“Then he…he was weird. He wanted to know where you
lived. If we’d been in contact. He acted like you weren’t
working for Maxim anymore. I didn’t understand what he
meant. Then it didn’t matter because he was going to shoot
me. I tried to run…Mojo bit him…then it all happened so
fast…”
I open my eyes. Kage kneels in front of me, squeezing my
hands, looking anguished.
Looking guilty.
“Why did he come? What did you do? What’s happened?”
He’s silent for a moment, then he releases my hands and
stands. He turns away, walks a few steps, stops, then turns
back.
His expression has wiped blank. When he speaks, his voice
is hollow.
“He came for the money. Like I did.”
I stare at him. It suddenly feels very hard to form words.
“Like you did? I don’t understand.”