AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My world screeches to a halt.
“What did you just say?”
“They can’t protect you like I can, Valentina. They’re frauds, pretending they have power over this city. It’ll all come crumbling down, and you’ll see. You’ll know that they can’t protect you.”
He’s talking out of his ass. He has to be. It’s desperation making him say nonsensical things. He’s trying to keep my attention. That’s all this is.
“Time to say goodnight,” Ezra grunts. “Mikhail. Remove knife. Lift him up.”
Andrei pulls me into his arms and holds my back flush against his chest. “Watch, Valentina. This is what we do to people who have wronged you.”
Mikhail lifts Liam onto his knees, then stands behind him and plants his foot on Liam’s spine, using Liam’s arms as anchor points as he leans back and pulls them in the opposite direction, as far as they can go . . . then farther.
I can’t watch. I turn my face away and clench my eyes shut, wishing I could cover my ears, too, when Mikhail starts cackling at Liam’s screams.
Andrei hums, grabbing my chin and forcing my head back around to the front. “Keep your eyes open, darling, or you’ll miss a very important lesson. Then we’d have to teach it again, and with a much more fragile subject.”
Fear grips my heart. He’s talking about my grandmother, a frail old woman who can’t fight back. Not that Liam is doing much fighting, either.
“You wouldn’t.” My voice is barely above a whisper.
“I’ve told you, zhena. When someone wrongs you, we punish them.” He buries his face in my hair and takes a deep breath. “Even if you think you love her, she doesn’t love you. Not in the way you think. I know it’s hard to accept, I know it hurts, but the truth fucking hurts, baby. It doesn’t care one way or the other if we bleed.”
I choke on a tidal wave of emotion. I feel like a little girl pulling petals off of wildflower, muttering to myself as I pick apart my feelings. I love him. I hate him. Right now, I’m not sure which is true. If he makes me watch Mikhail break Liam’s arms or Ezra beat him to death, I might hate all three of them, and if they do this to my grandmother, not only will my heart shatter into a million pieces, but I might strangle them in their sleep.
“You won’t touch her.” I reach behind me and grasp the back of Andrei’s head, scratching his scalp as I grab his hair and pull. “Don’t you dare touch her like this. I won’t forgive you.”
Andrei exhales harshly in my ear. “We’ll see if you still feel that way when you finally accept the truth about her.”
“Your truth. Not mine.”
“There is only one truth.” He presses his cheek against mine and angles our bodies so that we’ve got a front row seat to the carnage about to unfold. “Now, watch. Don’t make me tell you again.”
Ezra cracks his knuckles. “Hold him still, Mikhail.”
I watch in horrified silence as Mikhail pulls tighter, stretching Liam’s body until there’s nothing more for it to give. I’m waiting for a snap of bone when Mikhail finally stops pulling.
“I made promise.” Ezra’s voice rumbles low. “Promise to rip out teeth. Shall we begin, hm?”
I don’t want to see this. I don’t want to see this. It’s one thing to know Liam might die, but it’s another to witness it.
“Ezra,” I croak, “please. Stop.”
I’ve changed my mind. No one deserves to be beaten to death in a dirty back alley, not even my crazy stalker ex-boyfriend.
Ezra’s shoulders tense. He doesn’t turn around as he speaks to me. “This is who I am, lisichka. I punish.” He adjusts his posture, spreading his legs with one foot set behind the other. He rocks back for a split second, his fist pulling back with his weight, before he lunges forward, his fist pounding against flesh.
Again and again, he punches.
My scream catches in my throat. I’ve never witnessed violence before. The closest I ever came was with the photographer in the elevator, and that experience doesn’t even come close to this.
Ezra’s breathing remains steady the entire time, like he’s trained for this. Like this is what he does for a living.
A piece of my heart breaks for him. No one should have to make violence their specialty. Unlike Mikhail, who’s damn near cackling with glee, Ezra looks detached. Disassociated.
I want him to stop more than ever.
“This isn’t right,” I find myself whispering. “Make him stop, Andrei. Please. Don’t make Ezra do this.” I turn my begging onto my fiancé. If anyone can make Ezra stop, it’s his pakhan.
