Beautiful Beast (Gypsy Heroes)

‘She’d wake up in the middle of the night screaming and thrashing, reliving it all. Sometimes she didn’t recognize me. She was half mad. One day she ran down the street in the middle of winter stark naked. I ran out after her, tackled her to the ground, and brought her back. I won’t tell you the rest of the stuff I went through with her. She was a broken bird. Totally helpless. I could have done anything I wanted with her, but I never touched her for months. So don’t come here with all your youth and arrogance and pretend you know how to take better care of her just because you fucked her a few times. Because you fucking don’t. You don’t know what we’ve gone through together.’

He laughs bitterly.

‘For the first time in my life I felt pity for another creature. She moved something in me. They say that everyone, even the worst killer, has a divine spark in him. She touched that spark. She made me good.’

For some strange reason I actually believe he is telling the truth. That at some level he cares for her. ‘If you truly care for her then give her your blessing. Let her be happy.’

‘With you?’

‘Yes, with me.’

He leers. ‘Why? Because you like the taste of her pussy? Eh?’

My jaw clenches. ‘Don’t talk about her like that.’

‘Look at you. You think you’ve got it all figured out. You think it’s a fucking song taking care of her? Are you ready for the flashbacks? Are you ready to be sitting in the middle of a classy restaurant as she freezes up like a fucking statue, or worse for her to start screaming her head off for no goddamn reason? Are you ready to chase her naked body down the road in the dead winter? Are you ready for her to start sobbing while you’re fucking her?’

The desire to sock him one hard, so hard he’ll never be able to talk again, is so strong I have to clench my fists and force myself to stand still. I take a deep calming breath. I will not let him rile me. No matter what, I have one objective and I’m not going to let anything stand in the way.

‘I’m not here for relationship advice, Lenny.’

‘You’re a young punk. What do you know about relationships? Do you think I don’t know about you? Tell me, what’s the longest a relationship has lasted with you?’

‘She’s different. In exactly the same way she touched that spark in you, she touched something in me too.’

He laughs with suppressed fury. ‘Yeah, I’m sure you believe that too.’

‘It doesn’t matter what you think,’ I say quietly. ‘I’m not here to convince you of anything. I’m here for the videotapes.’

‘What videotapes?’ he asks, but I see the furtive gleam in his eyes that he is unable to hide fast enough.

‘The videotapes that show every occupant in the lift getting off on the second floor of your hotel.’

‘What makes you think such videotapes exists?’ he asks slyly.

I look at him steadily. ‘You forget we know the same people. Everybody knows you have surveillance in your lift.’

He looks at me calmly. ‘The tapes are my property. As is Snow.’

‘You should have handed those tapes over to the police. It’s an obstruction of justice.’

His eyes turn mean. ‘Are you threatening me, boy?’

‘No, I have less incentive to give the tapes over to the police than you have. I want those men.’

His eyes glitter. ‘Revenge. Yes, I thought about it. But it seemed like a wasted effort when I already had the bird in my hand. In a way I owed them thanks.’

‘Just give me the fucking tapes. You got no use for them.’

He shakes his head. ‘You have a lot of balls coming here asking for this, asking for that. Who the fuck do you think you are?’

I’m done playing with this fuck. There

is only one way to deal with a psychopath. And it’s not by expecting empathy or giving it. The only way is to yank their greed chain. ‘You know the sweet deal you cut in Amsterdam?’

His eyes are suddenly sharp.

‘That’s my deal. You get any ideas about not playing along and I’ll pull the rug from under you. The Russians will be down by two million euros and guess who they’ll be coming after? How many breaths do you think you can take before they catch up?’