Chapter 14

Viktor

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Seven years ago

“Where is she?” My voice sounded too low, too weak to counteract the inky darkness, to give me the answers that I needed.

“She's gone, Viktor. I am so sorry,” the doctor in the white lab coat said. His facial expressions didn’t match his words, though. Even then, I understood that people lie to get what they want and to make their own lives easier.

“What do you mean?” I asked, my fists clenched at my sides. My brain refused to comprehend his words.

He took two steps over to me and put a heavy hand on my shoulder. “We did everything we could.”

I shook my head. “If you had done everything, she would be here!”

“I promise you, we tried,” the doctor continued. Another lie.

I knew my sister was sick. I knew it.

“I brought her here two days ago. I told you she was sick. You sent her home and told her she needed some over-the-counter meds and sleep!”

My sister didn't need more sleep. She coughed up blood. But we had no money for a doctor. I came here, offering them anything I could give, but they had no use for a young man like me.

“I told you,” the doctor said, his voice hard. “When she came here the other day, she was fine. She had a little bit of a cold. Tonight, she was in great distress, yes, but we did everything we could. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I can send someone out to talk with you?—”

I lifted him by his coat and threw him against the wall so hard his skull cracked against it. One of the nurses screamed while someone else frantically called for security.

I advanced on him. “You asshole. You could've saved her, and you did nothing.” I punched him again and again, and when he fell to the floor blocking his face, I kicked his ribs.

I knew how this would go. This wasn't my first rodeo. I had thirty more seconds before a team of “security guards”—half-assed, skinny dudes who couldn't cut it in real law enforcement—would come here and tell me to put my hands up, tell me to leave, and threaten to stop me.

I had just enough time to impart the lesson I needed to. I lifted the doctor and shook him. “I don't know why you're here or who the hell you think you are, but you let a little girl die, and it's all your fault. I want that on your fucking conscience.”

I could have killed him right then, right there. I could have ended him, but I didn't want his life on my own conscience.

I marched out of that hospital, everybody stepping out of my way. I was already too big for anyone to stop me, even the security guard.

No. It was just me now. All alone. And I was going to find someone who valued me, who could use my fists, my strength. I would never, ever let anyone weak or vulnerable suffer again.