“K… put down the glass.”
The commotion of her shattering the mirror has gained her an audience. The once-captive women eye her without a peep escaping their lips. My brothers are much more vocal. They tell her to drop the glass, or they’ll shoot her. One even goes as far as saying he looks forward to fucking her corpse when he sends her to hell for her stupidity.
He’s the dumb fuck I take down first.
K was smart to snatch-up the apple corer last night. It makes a quick and clean entry point to Bailey’s neck. If multiple strikes to his juggler don’t kill him, he’ll bleed out long before Dok can save him.
While wiping Bailey’s blood from my face with my equally bloody hand, I warn the rest of my brothers that I’ll remove their stomachs via their nostrils if they don’t immediately back the fuck down. “I swear to God, if anyone touches her, I’ll gut you like Bailey,” I add to my threat, lessening the number of guns in the corridor from a dozen to four.
Once I’m confident I have the situation under control, I step closer to K. She isn’t eyeing me like the violent killer I am. If I’m not mistaken, she looks pleased I stood up for her.
Her admiration has me tempted to kill again. I would if it weren’t Nikolai’s men surrounding me. Nikolai has only just seized his throne. He needs all the help he can get. Furthermore, half of these men aided in my recovery, so even with my desire for a rampage the strongest I’ve felt, it’ll have to stay on the backburner—for now.
With my eyes locked on K’s, and my hands held out to ensure her I mean her no harm, I say, “I need you to put down the glass, K. I can’t protect you if they think you’re a threat.” When she remains quiet, I step even closer. “Do you want me to protect you, K? Do you want me to keep you safe?” The tightness around my chest slackens when she dips her chin a few seconds later. I honestly hadn’t expected her to say yes. “Then, I need you to put down the glass.”
I don’t understand a word she replies while shaking her head. Her voice isn’t just faint since it’s barely used, she’s speaking a different language.“Vzal ji. Zlý muž ji vzal.”
“If this is about the orange, there’s a heap in the fridge. I was getting you a fresh one. That’s why I walked away.” I’m lying, and she knows it. I wanted her to show the strength she’s showcasing now. I just wish it were being done in a non-violent manner. One life should never be worth many, but as I stand here right now, I’ll kill them all if it guarantees K walks away uninjured.
She’s been hurt enough.
I can’t let her suffer more.
My voice is rougher when I ask, “Tell me what you want, K. Let me help you.”
“Jako jste tehdy tehdy? Nikdo mi nemuže pomoci.”Her already gaunt expression grows worse when she garbles out,“Chci být volný. Bez Ana to nedokážu. Tentokrát me zabije. Zemru.”
I can feel the fear beaming out of her, taste it on the tip of my tongue, but I’m still fucking lost as to what has caused the swift change in her composure. If it has anything to do with the nail-wide scratches scoured down her arm, I’m about to become as violent as her, if not worse.
Desperate for answers, I say, “I can’t understand you, K. You need to speak English.”
“Byla tady. Práve tady. Prišel a vzal ji,”she replies, stepping closer to the room where the women are huddled. Her change in position allows Dok to drag Bailey out of the hallway to check him for a pulse, but it does little to ease my hesitation. She still has four red dots on her chest. That’s four too many.
“I want to help you, K, but I don’t know how. You’re not making any sense—” My words stop, shunted by the shock of K redirecting the glass to her throat.
“Mel jsi pravdu. Mel jsi me zabít. Zasloužím si zemrít.” As tears fill her eyes, she locks them with me.“Ale pokud umru, tyto ženy také zemrou. To jim nemužu udelat,Trey. Nenutte me, abych jim to udelal. Prosím. Jsem unavený. Tak velmi unavený.”
“Step back!” I scream at Nero when he lines up the perfect kill shot. “Don’t shoot. She won’t hurt anyone.” I stray my eyes back to K, aware she is seconds from death but determined to get her out of this alive. “You won’t hurt anyone, will you, K? You just want to help them, right?” When she nods, agreeing with me, I suck in my first breath in what feels like hours. “Then you need to tell us what you want.”And for how fucking long you want it.With my last comment being more a personal reflection, I only say it inside my head.
My neck cranks to the side when a voice at the end of the hall murmurs out the last name I expected to hear in this confrontation. “Justine.” Eight walks gingerly down the hall, still feeling my anger from last night when he arrived at my room with Dok. I worked his ribs as good as I did Logan’s minutes ago, ensuring he knows K isn’t a gimmick to toy with me. “She understood K last night. Perhaps she will today as well.”
As much as it kills me to admit, he’s right. Justine communicated with many of the women last night, so perhaps she can help me get K out of this alive.
I jerk my head to the quad bikes stationed outside. They make the trip to the Popov compound ten times quicker than a normal mode of transport. “Good idea. Go get her.”
“Fuck no,” Eight instantly replies. “I don’t have a death wish.” He peers at K with the tip of the glass pierced through her skin before doubling the shake of his head. “You might survive Nikolai’s wrath from bringing his girl into this situation, but I most certainly won’t. I like my nuts, so I’d rather keep them a little longer.” He returns his eyes to mine. They’re brimming with an equal amount of truthfulness and cheekiness. “If Nikolai punishes me instead of killing me, I doubt he’s a finger-removing type of guy. I’d rather be dead than lose my nuts.”
“Fine.” Over his humor in an extremely volatile and dangerous situation, I shift on my feet to face Nero. “Ifanyonetouches her, even you, disobeying Nikolai’s direct order will be the least of your worries. Do I make myself clear?”
Nero has no problems holding his own. He is as feared by Nikolai’s men as he is respected, but he also knows I’m not one to be messed with. If you want to fuck a whore straight after me, go ahead. If you want to cut up my drugs with shit that could kill me and I’m stupid enough to give them a go, that’s fair as well. But if you mess with something that’s mine, which for some fucked-up reason is exactly what I consider K as—mine—you sure as fuck better be prepared to die for it.
“They won’t touch her.” Smirking, Nero strays his eyes over the two dozen or more men huddled around us. “I warned them this morning she was your girl, so they’d do best to listen.” He returns his eyes to mine. They’re tougher than stones. “But you’ve got to know I ain’t lowering my gun until Nikolai gives me the order. One life is never worth more than another. You know that better than anyone.”
Not in the mood for another one of his lectures, he’s worse than Roman when his gums get flapping, I jerk up my chin. After giving K a final reassurance that she is safe, and that no one will touch her, I hightail it to one of the many quads surrounding Clarks. The motors were built to give maximum performance, but I still thrash the living shit out of it over the rugged, sandy plains.
When I arrive at the Popov compound only minutes later, my brows stitch. It’s different than it was only twenty-four hours ago—as am I. It’s more settled, somewhat heartening.
Although my first thought is to head to the sleeping quarters on the top level of the mansion, something redirects the direction of my course. I want to say it’s intuition, but since none of my actions the past six years have been driven by that, I’m not willing to use it as an excuse. It is the thump of my pulse in my ears, an experience I haven’t felt in years, and it’s there because of K. I’m certain of it.
