Page 7 of Savage Little War

That voice, slick, amused, cruel, slides under my skin like a blade.

It’s Creep.

“Son of a bitch!” Dmitri bites out as he presses his hand against his bleeding nose.

“I know him,” I say.

Dmitri whips around to face me, not even focused on the pain any longer. “You recognize his voice?”

I nod as my lungs fight to remember how to work. Every inhale makes my chest ache as I stare at Milo, remembering all the sick things that he said to me. “He was one of them. One of the worst.” My throat tightens. “He threatened to… use me. He said he’d leave me on the side of the road when he was done.”

Dmitri’s face turns a deep shade of red, his fist already shaking before he slams it against the side of Milo’s face. “You. Sick. Fucking. Bastard.”

He punches Milo with every single word, bloodying his face up so much that I can barely recognize it.

I don’t try to stop him. I just watch, feeling the weight on my soul lift just a little as Milo gasps and cries out in pain. Even with all of that, he hasn’t felt a shred of what I suffered at their hands for weeks.

Dmitri eventually stops before he breaks every finger in his hand, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he kept going despite that. He shakes his hand and turns away from Milo. “I’ll burn him alive. Cut him up slowly until he bleeds out. Whatever you want me to do.”

All of that sounds like things he would deserve, but I hold my hand out. “Can I have the knife?”

Dmitri doesn’t even look surprised. He places the weapon in my hand, blood dripping off his knuckles. “I do still need him to tell me something.”

“What’s that?” I ask him, feeling a surprising wave of calmness settle over me. It feels like there’s finally power in my hands.

“There’s a Ferro smuggling hub in the city,” Dmitri says. “I need the location. It’ll hurt a little when all their drugs go up in smoke like the casino they burned down.”

I nod to him before walking over to Milo, the air feeling hotter and heavier than usual. A sliver of me wants to be scared in his presence because that’s how I always felt, but I’m angry most of all right now.

Angry that he tortured me. Pissed that he endangered our unborn child. Furious that he just hurt the man I love. Livid that he’s still alive to breathe air and experience another day.

“Out of everyone who tortured me, you were one of the worst,” I tell Milo as I tighten my grip on the knife.

Milo smirks at me, obviously not scared by the sight of me with a knife in my hand. He’s only seen me at my weakest, frail from starvation, bruised and bloody from beatings. “Pretty bird got her wings back. This is how you want to spend your freedom?”

“This is exactly how I want to spend my freedom,” I reply before slicing downward, cutting him from his temple to the corner of his mouth. The feeling of blade slicing skin makes me tremble for a second.

It’s that easy. Like a hot knife through butter.

“Ah! You bitch!” Milo spits out at me.

“All the others complained constantly about having to keep an eye on me and question me. You complained the least,” I say, remembering all the conversations that I overheard. “You wanted to torment me. You wanted to break me.”

“And we did! You were nothing!” Milo grits out.

Rage boils in my blood as I glare at him. “I was still alive. That was something.”

Milo scoffs. “You cried for hours.”

“But I never begged for anything, did I?” I snap at him before cutting his other cheek just to bring him more pain. He deserves it. He deserves more pain than what I could ever inflict.

“I’ll kill you this time!” Milo shouts at me as blood rolls down his face and tumbles off his jaw.

“No, you won’t,” I tell him as I lower the blade, blood trickling off the tip and hitting the ground by my feet. “You’re going to sit there and tell me where the Ferro smuggling hub is in Vegas.”

Milo lets out a cold laugh. “You really think I would tell you that?”

“You will if you want to keep the thing most valuable to you,” I reply as I step closer to him.