where Sumerki sat down happily.
“You be good, yeah,” Kolya said to the pup, reaching in to run his palm over the dog’s head. “We’ve got shit to do tonight, and you need to behave or else I won’t be able to bring you anymore—this is a good teaching moment for you. Be good.”
Sumerki’s ear flicked.
Good enough for Kolya.
He closed the door, rounded the Hummer, and climbed inside the driver’s side. His tires squealed against the pavement as he left the lot—probably not the best idea, considering he was trying to stay under the radar for the night, but what could you do?
He was a little impatient.
He’d put this off only because Maya had distracted him and, frankly, fucking her was a hell of a lot more fun than listening to a man scream until he was dead. Then again … maybe they were both things he liked to do, just for entirely different reasons.
Yes, that sounded much better.
Sumerki perked in the passenger seat and climbed onto the middle section between the seats when Kolya pulled onto the freeway. He swore it was like the dog just knew where they were going because of the direction Kolya took and nothing else. He glanced over at the pup, and smiled.
“Be good,” he murmured again.
Sumerki peered back at him, and his tail wagged.
“You can’t be excitable,” he told the dog. “You have to listen and mind. Stay in your spot. Vashe mesto, Sumerki. Yes?”
The dog seemed to be hearing him, but Kolya would soon find out if the pup actually understood. He listened, for the most part—he was a quick learner, really. Tonight was really going to test that, though.
Maybe it was for the better.
If Sumerki was there … Kolya might not get so entirely fucked up in the act of taking a life that he forgot his own name.
But who was to say?
It was another thirty minutes before Kolya pulled into the Compound, and fifteen minutes of walking corridors and taking a flight of stairs, before he finally set Sumerki to his four paws on the floor again.
“You walk from here,” he said to the pup just outside the door. In his other hand, he’d brought along a fleece blanket from the back of the truck. “And then you stay in your spot.”
Peering up at him, Sumerki flicked his ear again.
“All right,” Kolya murmured.
In the basement of one of the Compound’s many warehouses, he took note of how chilly it seemed. And damp. Fuck, he hated dampness. It clung to everything and soaked right through a man’s bones.
Kolya knocked once on the two steel doors and stepped back to wait. A slate on the door was slid to the side, closed just as quickly, and then the locks clicked. The doors were opened for Kolya, and he was quick to step in beyond the threshold with Sumerki on his heels.
He didn’t bother to glance around—he didn’t care who was there or what kind of greeting they had for him. Sure, he still took in his brother in the corner, the soaking wet man tied to a chair with live booster cables resting at his feet, and the guy who’d opened the door for Kolya.
They called that man Zhatka.
Reaper.
He was the one who kept the chambers down here clean, or watched over a problem while someone else was busy. More often than not, he was the one keeping a man alive by any means while the man waited for his torturer to arrive. He was the one who listened to them beg and said nothing.
Kolya didn’t even know his real name. As far as he knew, the guy rarely left the Compound, and if he did, it was by order of Vadim to do … something. The guy never spoke, not to them, or to the men he was tasked with holding in one of the chambers until it was their time. He didn’t even know if the guy saw the daylight on a regular basis, but probably not.
“You brought the dog?” Konstantin asked. “Why?”
Kolya passed his brother a look and then dropped the blanket on the middle of the floor. He pointed to the fleece square with one finger, and Sumerki was quick to clamber into the middle where he sat his little ass down and watched Kolya.
Bending down to one knee, Kolya pointed between his eyes, and Sumerki. It was yet to be determined how well Sumerki would do, all things considered. It was probably going to get loud, and a