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That just leaves me. I hold Nikolai’s gaze as he takes all this torture and shake my head.
“You won’t even be good enough to be trash when we’re done with you,” I promise.
Between the three of us, we make him suffer. We take our time and we take turns, lashing out, delivering blow after blow.
I stomp on his other hand, and Vic breaks more ribs. When Malice lets Nikolai go, he ends up slumped over, breathing hard, trying to curl around his hurt places. So we give him a few more.
And then even more for good measure.
Malice stands over him when we’re done, and the look in his eyes would be close to feral if it weren’t so calculated. He picks up a lamp with a heavy bronze base from the nightstand next to the bed and hefts it for a second, holding it in hand like he’s weighing it. Then he brings it down hard on Nikolai’s head, crushing his skull with a crunch of finality.
The room rings with silence after that. The three of us stand shoulder to shoulder as we gaze down at Nikolai’s body, reveling in the death of the man who took something so precious from us.
Then a flash of movement catches my eye.
I glance over just in time to see the girl from the bed grab something from beneath the bed frame and dart toward the door. I almost forgot she was there in the heat of the moment, especially since she hasn’t made a damn peep since we burst into the room.
She’s fast, but I’m faster. Before she can escape, I grab her by the arm and yank her back.
Her clothes are skimpy and torn, and she’s drenched in Nikolai’s blood from being under him when he got shot.
She struggles wildly, trying to get away from me, and I hold her closer, pinning her to the front of my body with my arms.
“No. Please,” she whimpers, trying to wedge the rumpled coat in her hands between us so she can press against me. “Please!”
She tilts her head up a little as she works to free herself, and as I get a better glimpse of her tear-streaked face, I realize I recognize her. She’s the girl who ran into me the other night outside of Sapphire.
I remember thinking she looked upset then, but that’s nothing compared to how she looks right now.
Our struggle catches the attention of my brothers, pulling their focus away from the body on the ground to the petite one in my arms.
“Dammit,” Malice spits, narrowing his eyes at her.
The girl flinches at the harshness of his tone, shaking like a leaf in my hold. Her face is pale, almost white from shock and fear, and fat tears run down her cheeks. Her eyes are brown, but when the light hits them, little flecks of gold stand out in the dark depths, and it’s hard for me to look away for a second.
She looks so damned scared and broken down, and a part of me feels for her for having to see what we just did to Nikolai. She doesn’t even look like the usual kind of girl who would work in a place like this, and if it’s her first night on the job, that’s a hell of a first impression to get.
Those big, wide eyes lock with mine, and she freezes, recognition passing over her face as she realizes she’s seen me before too. We’re frozen like that for a second, and her wild thrashing slows as she blinks up at me.
Then the moment breaks, and the girl rips herself away from me, taking advantage of me being too distracted to hold on tight enough. She rushes for the door again, but Vic is there before she can get anywhere. He steps in front of the door, arms folded, his face set in a grim expression.
Off to the side, Malice raises his gun.
The girl immediately reacts, flinching hard and flattening herself against the wall like it’s going to protect her. Her chest is heaving, and she looks like a cornered animal, glancing around for anywhere she can hide herself.
Like this, I can see more of her. She’s got scars all up and down her right arm, and they look like the thick, deep kind left by something traumatic. There are more of them on her leg, disappearing up under the material of her torn slip, so I can’t tell how far they extend.
Her gaze flicks toward me while Malice holds that gun at her, pointing right at her head. There’s something in her eyes that calls to me, a look of hope, like she thinks I’m going to save her based on the little interaction we’ve had so far.
Fuck.
Usually, my brothers and I are a unit. We’re together on everything we do, and no one can come between us because we’re all on the same page.
But something about the look on this girl’s pale face makes me stop. It hits me harder than I expected, and before Malice can fire at her, I knock his arm out of the way, sending the bullet off target.
It slams into the wall next to the girl’s head instead, and she gives a little half scream, putting her hands over her face.
“What thefuck, Ransom?” Malice whirls around to look at me, his nostrils flaring.
