Chapter 71

I couldn’t finish deciding whether to leave that basement to punch Kabir in the face or whether to stay where I was, pinned to the floor. Instinct was what kept me in my place, probably. He shrugged his shoulders, as if nothing had happened:

“Everyone knew it, of course; but they didn’t allow it. I wouldn’t be here if that were the case. The thing is, they couldn’t catch me,” he purred, with a certain annoyance. “Not even my illustrious older brother and his entire troupe of hunting leopards from the most arid African steppe. They are inferior, whatever they say, if it took them ten years to put a finger on me. But do you know what’s interesting? That it only took one dog to take me down. A dog that touched my fucking pride.”

I didn’t know how to take that either. Anyway, I kept pulling the thread:

“And to think that you wanted to make a rug with my skin and a pickle with my meat.”

“Who said I don’t want it anymore? You can always be hungry,” he answered me,