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Ezra grumbles something Russian under his breath. He doesn’t let Liam go, but he doesn’t strangle him to death with one hand, either.
The club door slams open again, and within seconds, both Mikhail and Andrei are by my side.
Andrei blocks my view of Ezra and Liam, gently turning my head toward him and scanning me for injuries. “Are you dizzy? Nauseous? What should I check for, Ezra?”
“We should have gotten here sooner,” Mikhail hisses, storming over to Ezra and Liam. “I told you that we should have fucking followed her out here. She should have never been left alone with him!” He glares up at a blinking red dot hanging from the wall, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s a camera. Mikhail taps his phone screen before shoving it into his pocket. They must have been watching me from the club’s security feed.
“I promised her time to talk,” Andrei sighs. “And if you came out here with her, she wouldn’t have gotten a single word in.” He touches my throat gently, caressing a sore spot. “But it’s my fault he touched you. We should have been here. I’m sorry, zhena.”
I shake my head. I wanted time alone with Liam, he’s right. “It’s okay. I think I got my answers.” I swallow through the throbbing pain in my throat. “But there’s something I still need to say. Ezra, drop him.”
Ezra doesn’t follow directions.
I clench my jaw. That just won’t do.
“I said, drop him, Ezra. I mean it. Let him go.” I don’t want to pull rank on my men, but I am the only Baranova here. Technically, pakhan or not, they all work for me. It’s the Baranova Bratva. My Bratva.
Andrei says something in Russian, a harsh phrase I don’t know how to translate, and Ezra throws Liam’s body into the brick wall. My ex crumples to the ground like a rag doll.
That makes me cringe. I’ve never seen a person look so . . . lifeless. Liam gasps for air, choking on his own saliva.
Mikhail crouches in front of Liam, a switchblade glinting in the light as he flicks it open and shut over and over again. “You better talk fast, malyshka, because my patience is wearing thin.”
With Andrei’s help, I walk over to Liam. “We need to talk.” I place my hand on Mikhail’s shoulder and join him in a crouch. “You can’t keep following me, Liam. It’s not good for either of us.”
“He can’t follow you if he’s dead,” Mikhail mutters, flicking his blade.
I expect Liam to flinch, but he’s not looking at Mikhail. He’s looking at me.
“I had you first.” Liam smiles. At first it’s a soft lift of his lips, but then it turns wicked as he glances up my dress. “You’ll never forget your first, Valentina. I’ll always be right here.” He taps his temple. “I’ll always be with you. Even when they shove their dirty cocks in your mouth, your pussy will get wet remembering mine was there first.”
Mikhail strikes fast, plunging his knife into Liam’s shoulder. “In your fucking dreams, mudak.”
Liam grunts from the pain, but his eyes wander back up to my face, like he barely noticed the blade going into his flesh.
Mikhail keeps the knife in, gritting his teeth as he holds it in place. “If I pull this sucker out, it’s going right back in again. Talk fast, or I swear to God?—”
I squeeze Mikhail’s forearm and cut him off. He’s right. I don’t have a lot of time before one of my men decides Liam’s time is up.
“You shouldn’t have touched me, Liam. I don’t belong to you anymore. Really, even that’s debatable. We weren’t very good at staying together in the first place.” I crinkle my nose. We were very on-again, off-again, despite what Liam may think. I distinctly remember spending many evenings alone while he was off on business trips. I’d asked to go with him, but the answer was always the same.
Not yet. When you’re ready.
I never knew what being ready meant. Not that any of it matters now. I shake my head. “I’ll be honest, Liam, I came out here to try and save you.” I gesture around us. “See these men? They really want to kill you. I was going to tell you to run before they could get the chance. I thought that you deserved a better ending than this.” Sighing, I shut my eyes. “Now, I’m not so sure. You fucking hit me?—”
Someone behind me takes a step closer. I’m not sure who, but I know it isn’t good news.
“—so now, I’m wondering if I should even bother being nice. I doubt they’d let you go even if I asked.” I take a breath of sour, back-alley air. This really is a shitty place to die.
I was going to ask him questions, but now I’m just tired. A man about to die might not have truths to give, anyway, so I could be wasting my breath.
“You’ve followed me all though the city. You’ve been spying on me since I got here. Maybe even before then.” My stomach churns at how long I’ve known him, how long he could have been watching me. Were those really business trips, or was he watching me through the windows the entire time, jerking off behind a bush while I read a book or drew at my desk?
“Tell me why, Liam. Tell me why you did it. Did my grandmother put you up to it? Or are you obsessed with me?” My head throbs the longer we sit here. I want to get out of this dirty alley and crawl into a soft, clean bed. Take a bath and scrub the past hour from my memory. Curl up between my men and drift away into a deep sleep.
Anything to forget about Liam fucking West.
Liam laughs, the sound crackling in his throat. “You think they can protect you?” He tsks, clicking his tongue against his teeth. “Like they were able to protect your mom?”
