As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) by Salla Simukka Page B

make some quick cash. He chalked this discipline up to the Estonians having seen how Sokolov dealt with disloyalty. No one wanted to experience Sokolov’s brand of justice. And of course, Sokolov took his orders from higher up just like everyone else. The hierarchy of power and fear kept everyone in line.
    Except for now. Now, someone had decided to take a little extra for himself.
    Terho hated the thought that a system that had worked so well up until now might be falling apart. He had done his own part without asking any questions. From the beginning, he was in this for the money, and he still needed it. If the cash stopped coming, his options would be limited. He hadn’t built himself a safety net for the future, even though he knew he should have. The amount he had in savings was pathetic. Of course, he could always burn Sokolov and company in revenge, but that was impossible without implicating himself with them. All that would be left was smoking wreckage.
    He couldn’t let that happen.
    Because negotiations hadn’t gone anywhere with Sokolov, he would have to try making an agreement directly with PolarBear. That wouldn’t be easy. Polar Bear wrote his own rules, and if he didn’t like the way the game was going, he simply knocked the other players off the board.
    Terho walked along the Tampere Highway and cursed himself for ever having gotten involved. Not only was it criminal, it was morally wrong. It was, no matter how many mornings he had spent staring out the window while his family still slept, rationalizing how the arrangement had its good sides. For the police force and for the community. He had received information from Sokolov that had helped the police capture any number of dealers and traffickers. They had cleaned up the Tampere underworld so thoroughly that Terho’s unit had received commendations from the highest levels of government. Terho had reminded himself of that as he watched the neighboring homes waking from their morning slumber. The slowly rising sun had mocked his self-deception though. He had to avert his gaze from the sun, pour more milk in his coffee, and look elsewhere as he continued lying to himself.
    Back then, years ago, taking the offer had seemed like the only viable option. Gaming debts and unpaid loans hung around his neck. Terho had drifted imperceptibility into a downward spiral of gambling. At first, gambling had been an easy way to relax and clear his head after a hard day at work, but little by little, it became a full-blown addiction. Playing online was far too easy, and he had to play for money so it would feel like something—so he could get the adrenaline rush he needed. He had also had a wife at home with expensive tastes, and at that point, Terho had still wanted to give her all the best the world could offer.
    And then there was Elisa, his daughter, whom he loved more than he had ever thought possible. Everything he had done had also been for her. So she would never have to be ashamed of her house or her clothes. Or ever worry about money. Too often as a child and teenager, Terho had been forced to lie and say a pair of flea-market jeans were actually new, or that a coat from his cousin was really from a trip they took abroad. The truth was that his father drank up their middle-class income. Terho had been so ashamed that he’d sworn off alcohol and joined the narcotics police, where at least he could fight against illegal drugs, since there was nothing he could do about the deadly drug called alcohol.
    Nevertheless, a predisposition to addiction had been passed from father to son. The need to get kicks from something, fast and without a lot of thought. But Terho had always made sure his gaming didn’t interfere with his family. It was his private, personal vice. He had even succeeded in cutting down how much he played compared to his worst addict years, but that still didn’t mean he could manage without a regular fix.
    For the past year, there’d been an