{SERGIO}
I was too weak for the dungeon steps, so I instructed Maksim to bring Vic up to my new hospital room upstairs. In the middle of the night, they dragged him in and threw him on a plastic tarp spread out on the ground by my bed. He moaned and curled into himself, his broken and bloody body trembling from the pain.
All right. This pleased me.
"Can you hear me, piece of shit?"
When Vic didn't answer, Karlen kicked him in the ribs. Vic dry heaved a few times, and after he quieted, I snapped, "Answer me."
"Yes... Don...Sakharov ."
"Know this, Vic. I will make an example out of you. They will whisper about the horrors of your death for years to come. You will suffer, idiot. You will suffer for spitting in the face of my trust and for what happened to my wife. The wife and sisters you were trying to protect from Kuznetsov? They receive nothing from me after your death, not even my protection."
"No, please," he wheezed. "Please."
