do,” Eli insisted.
“What?”
“Revenge.”
“I don’t know,” I said, getting up and pacing my office. “It’s a stretch. Do you have a photo of what this Viktor looks like so we know who we’re dealing with?”
He scrolled through his cell phone. “The only photo was from when he first came here nearly thirty years ago, so you’ll need to use your imagination and picture him as a man in his fifties.”
I took the phone from him and scanned the grainy photo from the immigration database, imagining what this man would look like after having aged several decades. He had dark hair and gray eyes. They were haunting and I couldn’t help but feel as if I knew those eyes. I continued to study the photo, mentally adding a few wrinkles on his face, graying his hair…
Time stood still as the photo transitioned from a man in his twenties to one in his fifties. It all became clear and dread coursed through me.
“Fuck,” I hissed, shoving Eli’s phone back at him.
“What is it?” he yelled after me as I ran out of the office.
“I know exactly who that is!” I responded, my phone up to my ear, anxious for Mackenzie to pick up.
Mackenzie
MY EYES FLUTTERED OPEN, scanning my surroundings. I was somewhere I didn’t recognize. It looked like a beach rental that hadn’t been used in months, maybe years. A thin layer of dust had settled on the modest furniture in the living room, the only light coming from the setting sun filtering through the rips in the curtains. And sitting across from me in that musty living room was the man I thought I trusted, sharpening a long blade.
“Richard,” I hissed, my eyes narrowing on him as I fought against the rope he had tied around my hands, securing me to an uncomfortable chair. I tried to ignore the pain in my head from where he had knocked me out with the barrel of his gun. Everything about him seemed different. His gray eyes that once made him seem distinguished and prominent now made him appear malevolent and sinister.
“Ah, look who’s finally awake,” he said in an Eastern European accent, taking me by surprise. My pulse raced, venom pooling in my veins at how easily I had fallen into his trap… How easily we all had.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked maliciously, his hooded eyes staring at me.
“Sharpening a knife,” I quietly responded, a chill spreading through me.
“What a rather astute observation.”
“What are you planning on doing with that?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.” His lips turned up at the corners. “One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tells me how a movie’s going to end, completely ruining it for me. It makes me…” He shook his head, a wild look about him. “Hell, it makes me really just want to…kill someone.” The vein in his neck engorged, he pressed the blade into his finger and blood seeped out of it.
I swallowed hard, trying to fight back the bile forming in my throat.
“Well, I think it’s sharp enough, don’t you, Serafina?”
I cringed at his use of my real name, feeling utterly stupid for not seeing all the signs earlier. Now that he was sitting here, it all made sense. I flashed back to the night of the wedding, remembering how brooding and quiet Richard had been. It was in stark contrast to the man I knew him to be. The entire night, he had been studying my father, his eyes trained on him.
“So it was you all along, wasn’t it? You killed my mother and Charlie? You’re the one who set my father up to take the fall for all those crimes?”
“Yes…and no,” he said, getting up and stalking toward where I sat with my arms tied behind my back. “Yes, I killed your mother, Charlie, and quite a few other people. However, I didn’t set your father up.”
“So Mr. Mills did that?” I asked, wishing it wasn’t true. I didn’t want to believe the man who had been like a second father to me would do something so hateful to his neighbor and best friend.
“More or less, with a little bit of my urging.”
“Why?”
“Because your father had it coming to him!” he growled. I flinched, the fierceness in his eyes and voice making my hands grow clammy. “He was no hero. He didn’t deserve to live when so many other people…true heroes, people