Series: Series by Ker Dukey
Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“Is she fucking dead?” he growls, squinting his dull grey eyes at me.
“No,” I lie, dropping my bag and bending down to unzip it. His eyes track my movements, straining when I remove a pair of pliers, a hacksaw, and a few daggers.
Viktor sits on the bed, crossing his feet at the ankles and splaying his hands beside him. "Make him bleed," he purrs, a feline sound escaping his lips. "I enjoy the color red."
This is why I always liked Viktor so much. He embodied death and carnage, never shying away from it. He looked into the darkness within death and the darkness looked back at him. Became part of him. Just like me.
Choosing to believe the lie, Sergei begins talking, “Alexey was told to find you. He did. He called me and said the bitch was with you.”
Slapping him across the face again, Rodion warns him, “Call her a bitch again.”
“Fuck you.”
“You’re not my type. Now when was this?” Rodion demands, snatching a push dagger from my hand and jamming it straight into Sergei’s kneecap using all his strength to tear through the bone and cartilage. Blood splatter sprays Rodion’s bare chest and the sight exhilarates me.
Beautiful.
“He looks like a painting.” Viktor grins at me, also enjoying the artistic show.
Sergei’s howl reverberates off the metal walls and sends a pulse straight to my dick.
Holding up a second dagger, Rodion waves it in front of Sergei’s face as a threat. “When?”
“A couple of years ago,” he gasps, his breath coming in harsh, painful bursts as he winces. “I didn’t want him to take on the job by himself. Your reputation precedes you, and I was worried for his safety.”
“Flattery won’t get you anywhere.” I flash my teeth, gripping the dagger still lodged in his knee and twisting, making blood spurt out when I yank it free. His screams fill the space. And Viktor gives me a round of applause when I shove it back in through the same hole.
Rodion narrows his eyes in disappointment, gesturing toward the vibrant red stain covering me. “You’ve ruined your sweater,” he says, with disapproval.
I bite back a laugh, the absurdity of the moment bubbling up inside me, and casually shrug my shoulders. “I’ll buy a new one,” I reply, recalling his words from when my watch got ruined weeks ago. Damn, that feels like a lifetime ago.
“Arghhh.” Sergei takes in a couple of ragged breaths when I tap the dagger. “He said he drugged your liquor, so he didn’t need me.”
Thoughts whirl in my mind and my stomach twists.
The night she left. Both Rodion and I got wasted. Usually our tolerance is much higher.
I look at Rodion who nods in confirmation. We don’t need to speak the words aloud. Our thoughts are one in the same.
“Yuri said Alexey had to kill you all if he found you together.”
Motherfucker.
Viktor straightens at this confession. It’s one thing to send spies to watch our business dealings, but to put a bounty on our heads, to authorize someone to kill us…
This is war.
“My brother never made it back from that job. I assumed you killed him,” he growls through gritted teeth.
Dumdumdumdumdum.
Not us. Alyona killed him and he’s why she left.
“Now where is my niece? Let her live.”
I grip the pliers in one hand and the hacksaw in the other. “She’s already dead, like you’re about to be, in around…” I look at my watch and smirk at Viktor. He said we had an hour. Fifteen minutes of that have passed. “Forty-five minutes.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rodion
Ieat up the road desperate to return to Alyona. Viktor offered to get rid of the white van after we burned Sergei’s body parts and we now owe him one. He seems to collect favors from everyone around him, effortlessly amassing them like the devil collecting souls.
Whatever. It was worth it.
“She left because Yuri sent someone to kill us,” Z says, fueling the anger burning up in my veins at that fact. His shoulders slump. “I’ve always known that she belongs to us, but we belong to her too.” He gently squeezes my shoulder, his grip warm and reassuring. It grounds me. “What she said about loving us this morning...” His words hang in the air between us, and my chest clenches.
“I know,” I say, my hands tightening around the steering wheel as I fight to steady my breathing. I stretch my neck to alleviate the tightness there.
Killing Sergei has given me some peace of mind, but I won’t ever be able to rest until Yuri isn’t walking this earth. “Yuri needs to die,” I state, matter of fact.
Rubbing his hands down his thighs, Z bobs his head in agreement. “We need to have a serious conversation with Dad about the situation. It’s important to think it through and plan so we can be prepared for all possible outcomes. It might be better to facilitate his death, rather than do it ourselves,” he says, fisting his hands. “In the meantime, we need to resolve things with Alyona.” He waits a beat, and when I remain silent, he continues, “There’s no point in pretending we won’t be together, Rodion. It’s inevitable. I don’t want to waste any more time feeling incomplete. Do you?”