Page 44 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 2

“Except that we’re not going to question them,” I reminded her.“We’re not snatching them up to ask them their version of events, Zoya.They will be in our custody for the sole purpose of revenge, and that’s not going to be a pretty thing.”

“I know that,” she bristled.

“Do you?”I challenged.“Because your reaction to Aurora stabbing Marcelle was very telling,lepestok.You were affected when you shouldn’t have been.Whether by her own hand or not, this was the woman who had orchestrated events that had led up to your mother’s death, but you were still affected by a simple stab wound.”

“Quit saying it like that,” she snapped.

That had my brow furrowing.“Saying what?”

“Making it sound like stabbing someone is just a simple daily occurrence,” she bit out.“Quit making it sound likeI’mnot the normal one because I had a genuine reaction to someone being stabbed.You guys are the ones who aren’t normal.You guys are the ones walking around with this idea that it’s not a big deal to just stab people at random.”

Okay.

She wasn’t wrong.

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea,” I told her, my irritation relenting.“They’ll be images and sounds that you won’t ever be able to erase from your mind, Zoya.”

“I want to be there,” she repeated.“Ideserveto be there.”

While I was still against her participating in any way, she had a point.I wasn’t the one who’d been shot and left for dead.I wasn’t the one who’d had to endure a beating at the hands of those assholes.I was involved because it was my duty to avenge Zoya, but the events of that night hadn’t happened to me; they had happened to her.

“I want to watch their eyes widen in shock and fear when they see me,” she went on.“I want to experience the moment they realize that they’re sitting in those chairs because of me.”

“Zoya, Aurora won’t be handling this one,” I clarified.“It’ll be me, and I am incapable of showing mercy to those who have wronged me or my family.”

“I’m not asking you to take it lightly on them,” she assured me.“I just want to be there, Kasimir.I want to remind them of how they didn’t care about my begging and pleading.I want to remind them of how helpless we’d been and how they hadn’t cared.”

She was killing me.

Fucking killing me.

“Baby, I get that,” I said, meaning it.“I understand the thirst for revenge better than most people.Still, that being said, the shit I do and see doesn’t haunt me afterwards.Will you be able to say the same once you see what I’m capable of?”

Instead of answering, she said, “I need this, Kasimir.Just like I needed it with Marcelle, I need this to be able to heal.I need to see the two men who killed my mother pay for what they did, and...and if it leaves me with some additional scars, I’m okay with that.”

“I’m not,” I shot back.“It is my job to make sure that you have no scars.”

“Too late,” she stated bluntly.“No matter where I go from here, that night has scarred me for life, and all I’m asking is for you to help me find a way to live with that.”

Well, fuck.

I let out a heavy sigh before saying, “Well, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”

“Consider me properly warned,” she retorted, taking her win.