The Master (The Game Maker #2)(79)

“How did you discover Orloff’s lies?”

“On Christmas Eve, I sneaked into Dmitri’s room to assemble a train set I’d ordered for him. He wasn’t there. I found him in Orloff’s bed, with this chillingly blank look on his face. The man had made my brother spend the night with him, because even a sick fiend believed he should be close to his victim—over the f*cking holidays.”

That was why Dmitri had been blowing up the phone that particular day. And why Máxim hated the holiday.

“I attacked Orloff, but he was so much bigger than I was. When I regained consciousness, I was locked in the basement, my back flayed.”

His back. His scars. He’d carried them since he was a boy.

Máxim gazed past me. “Orloff wanted to break me, to silence me. The position was heaven for him—living in a mansion with so many luxuries—and Dmitri there for his . . . use. The man would’ve done anything to remain. So he kept me down there. I didn’t see the sun for . . . some time.”

“Wh-what? How long?”

“Half a year.”

My lips moved wordlessly. This nightmare only grew more twisted.

Eyes gone distant, Máxim said, “He provided me little food or water, keeping me without light of any kind. When I wouldn’t break, he revealed his buried rage, whipping me till his arm tired, reopening all my wounds. In that dark place, filth and blood caked my skin.” He shuddered. “It burned, itched, tormenting me. I was starved for sunlight. The longer I went without it, the worse the affliction grew, spreading over my body. It got so severe, I would dream about not having skin at all.”

My eyes watered as I imagined his pain. So many things made sense now. His words: Thirty-one years of misery is lifted. Abused by his father first, then by Orloff. For decades later, Máxim had been haunted by those memories.

“I sickened in that dank, freezing basement, and knew I’d die down there. So I attempted to behave as if he’d broken me, but I couldn’t deceive as well as Orloff. I’d been sentenced to death at thirteen. As each day passed, my execution neared.”

I barely kept my tears in check. “That’s why you asked me those questions about my memories.”

He nodded. He’d wondered what I’d been doing—while he’d been dying.

That was why he hated winter. That was why he always wanted the windows and doors opened.

And this man called me . . . his sun?

“Worse than anything was knowing that Orloff still abused my little brother. Everyone was gone. Protecting Dmitri was my responsibility. And I’d failed.”

“There was nothing you could do. You were a boy.”

“Aleksandr said the same, though I believe he could’ve come up with some way to escape and save his brother. In fact, it was Dmitri who saved me. The night of a bitter freeze, he woke from his haze long enough to comprehend I was about to die. He knocked the man out with a shovel. My brother knelt beside me, crying . . . as I strangled Orloff. I killed him before he could ever wake.”

Máxim had been forced to do that? As a boy? My heart broke for him and Dmitri.

He gauged my expression. “My family is surrounded by death and destruction. Aleksandr killed young. As did I. Only I did it with my bare hands when the man wasn’t able to defend himself. I crept out of that basement, some dark warped thing, desperate to kill. How can you not view me differently?”

“I do view you differently. I’m staggered by how brave you were to protect yourself and Dmitri from a monster.” I wish I were so brave! I clutched Máxim’s shoulders. “I can’t feel more fiercely about this. I hate that the weight of this fell on you. But have you thought about the children you spared in that man’s future? Or the ones you avenged from his past? And since Orloff was ready to let you die, why should we not believe he’d murdered before?”

My reaction took Máxim aback, but I needed to make him understand. “Sometimes people aren’t courageous enough to do what is necessary—adults aren’t.” In my position, Máxim would’ve met Edward head on, fighting. “All they can do is dream about being brave. You did what had to be done when you were just a boy. So yes, I see you differently!”

“I didn’t expect you to be so . . . vehement.” Máxim’s gaze flicked over my face, then slid to his right shoulder.

I was squeezing him? Self-conscious, I dropped my hands and cleared my throat. “What did you do afterward?”

He frowned at my reaction, but continued, “Dmitri didn’t want anyone to know what Orloff had done to him, so I got rid of the body in the woods. He was never found. We said he got drunk, went out before a storm, and didn’t return. No one particularly cared. Years later, I learned he’d been suspected of abusing girls and boys from his own town. Afterward, an elderly woman arrived as guardian. She didn’t hurt us, nor did she help us.”

“How is Dmitri now?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “He was displeased to hear of my relationship with you.”

Máxim had said he wasn’t ready for his brothers to learn of me. “And I pretty much announced myself.”

“He would have heard by the time of this wedding.”

“So some of the angry phone calls have been about me?”