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Lena from Katya and Jake. Lena's old neighborhood looked a fucking war zone but it had
been easy to get in and out without being seen. Knowing that Grisha had been behind
Katya made the similarities between that day and this one so very eerie.
He slipped into the backyard through a side gate and made his way to the door
leading into the kitchen. Even before he stepped inside, the thudding beat of music met
his ears. If Grisha was hurting Eric, he'd want that noise to cover his sins.
The vomit-inducing odor of decomposition punched Nikolai right in the face when he
entered the house. He prayed that it wasn't Eric's dead body he smelled. Vivian would
never forgive herself if she lost him to murder.
He walked across the kitchen as quietly as possible. It looked exactly as it had the last
time he'd been here. The tile, the countertops and the faded paint colors were exactly the
same.
But the two blonde corpses propped up at the dining table were new.
Hadn't Ivan said Eric had left with two blondes? No doubt these were the unfortunate
women Grisha had paid or manipulated into luring Santos away from the reception. He'd
obviously taken them home with him and then what? Had they attacked him? Had
Grisha been lying in wait?
In that moment, Nikolai realized that Grisha had gone off the fucking deep end. His
ghoulish fascination with posing the dead was pure insanity. This might have started as a
stupid territorial tiff and simple jealousy back in Russia but it had gone to crazy places
Nikolai probably couldn't even comprehend. Grisha was mad and extremely dangerous.
Suddenly the gun tucked into his waistband didn't feel like enough protection. He
questioned his decision to leave without informing Kostya. A little backup would have
been nice right about now.
Thumping upstairs got his attention. Was it the detective? Was he still alive? Injured?
Bleeding to death?
Nikolai gathered his courage and climbed the stairs. The bitter metallic stink of fresh
blood grew stronger as he cautiously ascended to the second floor. Knowing Grisha's love
of twisted sentimentality, he smartly guessed that Santos was in the master bedroom
where Nikolai had shot Vivian.
With his heart beating in this throat, Nikolai pushed open the door. He hesitated
before stepping inside the strangely padded room. Grisha had covered the windows and
walls with sound-dampening paneling. He'd taken a page of out Kostya's playbook and
tacked plastic over the floor. The amount of preparation revealed Grisha had been here
for some time, waiting for his chance to strike.
Suspended by his ankles from a reinforced box mounted to the ceiling, Eric struggled
to free himself. His hands were tied behind his back and he'd been gagged. His naked
body sported so many bruises and tiny nicks. The razor thin cuts covering his belly and
back and chest were similar to the ones Nikolai had seen on those bodies dumped at
Samovar. Blood and sweat pooled on the plastic beneath him.
"Jesus Christ." Nikolai's harsh whisper sounded incredibly loud in the room. Eric's
panicked gaze skipped to his face. He twisted to see better but had to keep blinking
because of the blood rushing down his face.
Nikolai glanced around the room but didn't see Grisha hiding anywhere. No doubt he
was lurking in some other part of the house. Rather than seeking him out, Nikolai rushed
to Santos' aid. The man was wounded but he could still be useful. Two were much better
odds than one-on-one.
Wordlessly, Nikolai jerked the blade out of the boot sheath he wore everywhere. He
tugged the gag out of the detective's mouth before sawing at the ropes binding the other
man's ankles.
"Hurry," Eric hissed. "He's in the bathroom down the hall. I think he keeps his crack
pipe there."
"Crack?" Nikolai managed to get one of Eric's legs free. The added weight jerking on
the detective's still-bound ankle made him grunt. Nikolai tried to hold him up as he
sawed at the second set of thick knots.
"This guy is high as a fucking kite and out of his mind. He's smoking crack and
snorting meth. He's a total psychopath." He shuddered violently. "I think he was making
it with those dead girls. The sounds from down there "
"Enough." Nikolai cut him off with a hiss. He didn't want to hear all those disgusting
details. He wanted to get Eric free, kill Grisha and get the hell out of here.
"Ah-ah-ah." Appearing in the doorway, Grisha menacingly wagged a sawed-off
shotgun at them. "Are you trying to steal my toy?"
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