I don’t want the details. Not really. But it’s the only thing I can think of that will keep him talking. From the corner of my eye, I can see Pasha creeping over the broken glass. He’s trying to slip in unnoticed, but I don’t know if he’ll manage. Upstairs, Josh’s frantic cries are growing louder. He’s screaming for his mother, and every second feels like the span of an hour.
“Shut that goddamn kid up!” Andrei screeches. “Or I’ll do it myself.”
“No!” Kat screams, fighting in his grasp. I meet her eyes, silently pleading with her not to move.
“Tell me what happened that night, Andrei. Tell me what you did to my mother.”
He sniffs, his leg bouncing up and down with an agitation that feels like the longest countdown of my life. I’m running out of fucking time, and he’s running out of patience.
“You want to know what happened to dear old mom?” he repeats. “I’ll tell you what happened. She was a weak fucking link, just like you.”
The floor creaks under Pasha’s shoes during his rant, but he doesn’t notice. Pasha edges closer, and I keep my attention focused on Andrei as he rages on, unleashing the story he’s kept bottled up for all these years.
“I fucked her, you know,” he tells me. “And she loved every second of it.”
I feel like I’m going to puke, and my head is moving on autopilot. “No. You didn’t.”
“I did.” He grins. “She threatened to expose everything she knew about Vasily. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut, but she couldn’t. She’d been talking to that neighbor of yours, betraying her own family. Vasily couldn’t stand the sight of her anymore. Everyone is expendable, Lev, even you.”
Pasha is encroaching. I can feel his presence, but I can’t rip my gaze from Andrei’s. I don’t want to believe what he’s telling me. I don’t want to accept that my mother’s final hours were so horrific.
“He told me to take care of her, and he left,” Andrei goes on, lost in the memory of the moment. “It was supposed to be my first kill. I had something to prove. He said there is nothing that comes before our loyalty, even our own blood. I tortured her until she vomited all over me. That was the first time I realized what I was capable of. That I was superior to my father in every way. He didn’t have the stomach to do it, but I did.”
“You’re full of shit,” I bite out.
“You’re just like her,” Andrei spits. “Too weak to do what’s necessary. That’s why we’re here, Lev. That’s how it all comes full circle. And now, you understand that the only person leaving here alive today is me.”
My fists curl at my sides as I take another step toward him. But as I do, the floorboard behind him creaks, and his head snaps to the left, colliding with Pasha as he lunges for him. In the aftermath, everything happens in a blur.
I lunge for Kat at the same time Pasha tackles Andrei from behind. An ear-piercing scream reverberates off the walls, and it can only be Kat’s. I’m trying to get to her, trying to throw my body on top of hers, but I’m too late.
A gunshot echoes off the walls, followed by another. And another.
And then, there is only silence.
***