Kovit turned to her slowly. There was blood coating one side of his face, and his whole body shivered as he consumed the man’s pain. “I thought it was fairly self-explanatory.”
Nita opened her mouth, then closed it. She swallowed and said softly, “I thought we agreed not to kill the agents.”
“We did.” Kovit nodded agreeably. “But then this one woke up and saw both our faces.”
Nita’s stomach plunged. There was no way to make him unsee her face. And she didn’t want either of them in the police station answering questions about why they’d kidnapped INHUP agents and Fabricio.
Kovit shrugged, and voiced the words Nita hadn’t wanted to hear. “He has to die.”
Nita bowed her head and swallowed. Her hands shook, and she told herself it was from all the adrenaline still coursing through her system after chasing Fabricio.
“Please, I won’t say anything,” the INHUP agent sobbed beneath Kovit.
Kovit casually reached around and grabbed the man’s jaw, tsking. “That’s enough from you. No one believes a word you say right now.”
Then he casually jabbed his shoulder down into the agent’s back, causing him to scream. And while his mouth was open, Kovit used his other hand to reach in and spear the man’s tongue with his knife.
Nita jerked her head away before she could see what happened, but the shriek and the gurgling and the muffled “mahh tunhhh” the agent was screaming told the whole story.
Kovit hissed softly, and the shaking advanced up Nita’s arm like a disease, spreading throughout her whole body.
Would you like me to pull out his tongue, Nita? Her mother’s voice echoed in her memory, as clear as if she were here right now talking about mutilating Fabricio. I have some pliers in the other room.
“Nita?” Kovit’s voice was sharp. “Look at me.”
She took a shaky breath and turned her eyes to him.
His face was beautiful, each ripple of pain going through him making his skin glow with health, his hair shine a little more. He raised a bloody hand and slicked errant strands of dark hair off his face, the blood holding it back like pomade.
“This man has to die.” His voice was quiet and sharp. “Tell me you understand that.”
“I do.” But her voice was too soft.
Kovit’s mouth tightened. “This was your plan. You knew the risks. I asked you, repeatedly, if you were sure you wanted to do this, if you understood the consequences if it went wrong, and you said yes every time.”
She had. She just hadn’t thought it would go wrong.
But that was stupid. Every plan she’d made here had gone wrong.
The INHUP agent screamed again with his gurgling tongueless voice, and something crunched like breaking a piece of celery.
The shrieking got louder. He began to beg, a soft, whimpering sound, pleading for his life but unable to articulate the words anymore.
Nita swallowed. “I . . . This is just . . . Let’s just kill him and get it over with if we have to.”
There was silence, then Kovit whispered, so softly she could barely hear him, “I’m hungry.”
Nita’s stomach tightened. She couldn’t look at him. “Oh.”
“He’s going to die anyway.” Kovit’s voice grew stronger. “So I might as well get a meal out of him.”
Nita swallowed and nodded, but she couldn’t look at him.
Beneath Kovit, the man whimpered and renewed his struggles. Kovit snarled, and twisted the arm so the shattered bone ripped through skin and thrust itself into the air. The scream was enough to make Nita flinch.
Nita lay in her cell, powerless, listening to Mirella scream, the pressure from her voice tearing at her throat until her screams became gurgles of blood.
Nita wrenched her mind away from that. “I . . .”
Mirella screamed, high and harsh, the slightly mad sound of Kovit’s laughter beneath it like a perverse symphony.
Nita reached up and clutched her head.
She could accept killing him. There was nothing to be done. He’d seen their faces. It hadn’t been part of the plan, and Nita felt more than a little sick about it, but she couldn’t see a way out of it now.
But torture hadn’t been part of the plan.
Hypocrite. You asked Kovit to help you because of his skills, and now you’re going to be squeamish when he uses them.
Something tight and painful pulsed in her chest.
The man on the ground wept, his body twisted and broken. Kovit vibrated from the constant stimuli, but his face was cold.
Nita closed her eyes, trying to drown out Mirella’s screams. “I’m . . . I’m going to wait in the barn. Come get me when you’re done.”
She turned away before he could see her expression. She didn’t know what it looked like, but she knew it wasn’t something she wanted him to see.
She walked away quickly, as fast as she could without outright running.
“Nita, stop, wait.” A sudden crunch, and the whimpering increased, followed by agonized howling. Nita stole a glance and wished she hadn’t. The man’s legs were a mangled mess. He wouldn’t be running anywhere.
Nita closed her eyes and tried to burn the image from her brain.
Kovit approached and frowned. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” Nita looked away.
He hesitated, then in the softest voice whispered, “Are you afraid of me?”
Nita hesitated a moment too long, and his expression cracked and fell into something soft and real and painfully vulnerable before closing over in a dead poker face.
“No.” Nita said, but it was too late.
He was silent for a long time. Then, “You don’t like me eating.”
“No,” she admitted.
“You think it’s evil.”
“Of course. Not even you would deny that.” She glared back at him, bristling, defensive, though she couldn’t have actually explained why. She snapped, “Why are you pushing this? You stopped me from seeing that video because you knew this already!”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have . . . I didn’t want you to see that.” His eyes flicked to the body still writhing on the ground. He swallowed heavily. “I’m just nervous. Eating makes me feel better.”
“Like comfort food.” Her voice was flat. “You’re likening torturing people to eating ice cream when you feel shitty.”
He bristled. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t be crawling into that man’s chest cavity and ripping his organs out if you were in my shoes.” Nita flinched. “Fabricio got away and might report us. I’m meeting Henry in a few hours, and he might very well decide to punish me with death by INHUP. And I’m ravenous. Am I not allowed to enjoy a fucking last meal?”
But that was different. In Nita’s eyes, his comfort food was more monstrous than the crime he was worrying about.
“I don’t even get why this Henry thing is so hard,” Nita snapped. “Why can’t you just kill and torture him? He’s actively trying to kill you or bring you back to the mafia. I can’t think of a more deserving person for torture, except maybe Fabricio.”
“I’m sorry I can’t murder the person who raised me for ten years just for your convenience,” he snarled, mouth twisting cruelly, voice dripping sarcasm.