I want to—”
“A month before they were to be married … I don’t know the details of what led into it, just what happened, and what came after.” Konstantin’s voice roughened, thick with emotion. Anger, guilt, and more. Pav heard it all. “He held her for several days—we didn’t think anything of her being silent because she did that sometimes. But this time, it was because he had locked her in the bedroom of the house Vadim had bought for them. He raped her often … every hour on the hour, as my sister once told me. He beat her when she fought back and he taunted her.”
Pav’s jaw ached. How hard was he clenching his teeth? His fingernails broke the skin of his palms when he clenched his hands into tight fists. The rage simmered into a slow boil.
“How did he taunt her?” Pav asked.
“He made calls to us … to my father, and to me. One to Kolya, although he always hung up on Boris—he never cared to listen to the man talk. She would be at his feet, gagged and unable to ask for help while he talked to us like there was nothing wrong. As though it was just another day, and we had business to discuss. Other times, he would be actively assaulting her when he made the calls.”
Now, Konstantin’s voice was faint—oh, the anger was present, but something else was far clearer. Pain. The guilt. The regret. Pav understood, but what was done was now done. It had happened, and it couldn’t be taken away because someone wished it was so. The event was already over, and it left scars that couldn’t be ignored or hidden.
Guilt fixed nothing.
The regret came too late.
“How many days?” Pav asked.
“Five.”
Fuck.
“And that was his punishment once she had gotten free, and we went after him. Ten years for every day he held her,” Konstantin muttered. “Fifty years total in these cells, being kept alive only to make sure he wished he was dead for every single one of them.”
“Seems appropriate.”
“We thought so. There’s a problem, yes?”
“And what is that?”
He turned to look at Konstantin when the man kept quiet.
“The problem is that Viktoria thought he was dead. That’s what we told her. It was better for her to believe we’d killed him, when eventually, that’s what would happen to him once he’d served his time. She puts on a good front, doesn’t she?”
“She does,” Pav agreed.
“She’s so cold that you almost don’t want to be near her at times. The things that come out of her mouth? They cut you. And they’re not paper cuts, they’re deep, and they’re meant to kill. She does it to everyone else because it’s how she protects herself. Better to keep people away than let someone close and be hurt again. But she does it to us … she does it to us because she blames us. She doesn’t want to say it, she never has, but I know it. She blames us, and she should. We let it happen. And now he’s free.”
Yes.
That was … quite a problem.
“Someone is posted to watch her, right?”
“Yes,” Konstantin replied.
Pav nodded. “I would like to help.”
“I thought you might.” Konstantin made a noise under his breath, adding, “I didn’t acknowledge what I saw on the steps earlier tonight because I didn’t know what to say. A couple of years ago, she was an entirely different young woman. I don’t recognize who she is today, except when she’s near you … she reminds me of who she used to be. Tonight was a lot like how I didn’t want to point out the way you talked to her when she was here that day to do your tattoos, or how she reacted to you.”
“She’s terrified of me.”
“And she doesn’t want to be, either,” the man murmured. “I thought … this—you—might be a changing point for her, if given the chance. That’s why I invited you tonight. Another way to put you in her path. What would it hurt, I thought?”
Pav gave the man a look over his shoulder. “You shouldn’t meddle, Konstantin.”
“Sometimes, you have to.”
“Yes, but should you? That is a different thing.”
“I’m going to meddle again, but for different reasons this time,” Konstantin said, shrugging. “Starting tonight, actually. I’ll add you to her post—she’s comfortable enough with you that even if she is scared, she’ll allow you in. Someone should be inside the house with her, but I need the night before I can upset her