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“Because you have been naughty and brought the enemy into our home.” I stumble back a step and shake my head, denying his claim. His eyes narrow as he slowly turns his head to look toward the gate, I follow his line of sight and freeze. He stares directly at Gage, panic rises inside me.
“Where’s my father?” I snap. Alek lazily turns to face me not caring that the crowd is demanding we fight.
“Away, I’m here to take care of the mess you have made so my dear uncle doesn’t need to worry.” Bile rises in my throat and I quickly swallow it back down. I need to clear my mind and block everything out in order to fight. I know I don’t stand a chance against Alek, he has always been good at everything he does. I won’t go down without a fight. I will give him everything I have and not stop until my dying breath.
“We gonna keep talking or we gonna do this?” I growl. He cuts his gaze back to me before letting it trail up and down my body, a look of disgust marring his face. I fight the shiver that wants to break free as his assessing gaze fills me with disgust.
“I’m going to enjoy this after knowing you let the bastard between your legs.” His cold harsh words have me fighting not to flinch away. I need to remember that he isn’t the person I once knew. Years away have changed him and made him into a monster just like both our fathers. There’s no warning when he makes his move. He moves so fast I don’t see it coming until I’m stumbling to the side and pain reverberates through my cheek. I try to right myself and get my feet under me, but I’m struck by a fist to the other side of my face. My vision turns hazy and I stumble backward until my back smacks against the cage, forcing the breath from me. I manage to get my guard up before he can land another blow. I grunt through the force of his hits and weather the pain, but when he alternates from punching to kicking me in the stomach, I double over. On my hands and knees, I retch and can’t stop myself from gagging.
I cry out when he grips my hair and yanks so hard, I swear I feel strands being torn from the roots. An anguished shout draws my attention. I flick my eyes to the left and see Gage gripping the gate trying to yank it open, his eyes wide and filled with panic. It shouldn’t bring me comfort knowing that he cares but it does. At least someone will care when I die. Alek grips my chin and tightens his hold on my hair. I close my eyes and wait, thankful he isn’t drawing this out and inflicting more pain on me when he and I both know he could have, no one would have stopped him. I tense as his grip tightens and try to prepare for what is about to happen, but the truth is, how do you prepare to die? There is nothing you can do, no matter what you try and tell yourself or even if you think you are ready. When the moment comes, you aren’t. All the things I wish I had the chance to do flash before my eyes. The yearning of wanting to be free and find love for myself hits me in the chest, and I feel the lone tear trail down my cheek.
“Fuck!” Alek roars behind me and then his grip on me is gone. At the sound of panicked screams and the unmistakable sound of gun fire rings out around me, I snap my eyes open. Chaos ensues, the screams of the patrons that came here tonight to watch me die, fight and push their way toward the exit. All they are doing is causing a fucking stampede. My attention is pulled to the gate when I hear my name being shouted. I see Gage, Krill and Vor trying to break it open. I pull my gaze from them to peer over my shoulder and gasp when I see Alek on his back with a pool of blood around him. That has me snapping out of my daze and I push to my feet and stagger, my head swims and I begin to feel dizzy. I close my eyes hoping it will help clear the dizziness from my head. The screams of the crowd and the piercing sound of gunshots do nothing to help ease the pounding in my head.
“Find the fucking key!” I hear Gage shout. I blink my eyes open to see Vor and Krill darting on either side of the cage to go in search of the guard with the key. Gage beckons me over with a look. I stumble the first couple of steps, until I manage to right myself before I fall flat on my ass. His eyes narrow as one side of his lip pulls back in a sneer. When I finally reach him, I collapse against the cage breathing raggedly. I can feel the light sheen of sweat on my forehead, guessing two nights in a row of getting the shit beaten out of me has finally taken a toll. My legs give out and I slide down the side of the cage until my ass meets the ground. Gage crouches down and grips the cage, I can see a war of emotions in his eyes.
Anguish.
Regret.
Pain.
Awe.
…longing.
“Is he dead?” My voice sounds strained to my own ears. It’s a stupid question but I need to focus on something else aside from the pain radiating throughout my body. I feel the tears building at the back of my eyes and will them away, I’m not an emotional person.
“Yeah, Ubiytsa (killer), he is.”
I nod, accepting his answer and not for a second feeling any type of remorse for my cousin, who was willing to end my life all because Vlad ordered it. I shake my head before leaning it back against the fence and closing my eyes, exhaustion weighing heavily on me. I know I should fight it and try harder to get out of here before Vlad or the Crows show up but I just don’t have it in me to fight anymore. I’m so fucking tired of waking up each day to fight. If it’s not in the ring then it’s at the club or at the shipping company I oversee for Vlad. I find it comical that aside from the skin trade his most successful business is the drugs. That is one fucking thing even he can’t deny I am good at. Because of me, Vlad has been able to export cocaine worldwide and never be caught. It’s such a fucking simple task and yet no one has ever thought to use the methods I do. Cocaine in its liquid form mixed into plexiglass, once hardened you can’t detect any traces of it, but once they are melted down, the components naturally separate without ever mixing. That means, you have ninety-six percent pure cocaine.
I feel my consciousness slipping away. The sound of the chain rattling tells me someone is trying to get in to kill or rescue me. I fight with everything inside me to open my eyes and push myself to my feet. My vision swims for a second before it finally clears, flinching when another round of shots rings out. Hands grip my arms and I try to pull free until I see its Krill. He curses beneath his breath and scoops me up into his arms before dashing out of the cage. Jostling in his arms makes me feel queasy, so I close my eyes and try to block out everything happening around me.
Gage
I watch Krill race from the cage with Anya tucked against his chest. I grit my teeth and pull my gaze from her as I turn to chase after my brothers. They race through some back door I didn’t even notice and keep running through the streets. People are scattered everywhere running for their lives. All hell broke loose when Vin shot Mav. Fuck, I knew he was a snitch bitch but I had no fucking idea that he was a Russian playing spy in my brother’s organization. Bishop and King trusted him. Me and Knight knew he was hiding something and were proven right when the fucker went missing.
“The car’s stashed just up there!” King shouts. I can’t see where he is pointing but keep following them. I have no choice, my cover is blown whether I want to believe it or not. There is no way that they don’t pin this on me. A beaten-up Honda Civic comes into view. Bishop races to the driver side while the rest of us pile into the back and front seat. Bishop rams the key in the ignition before planting his foot and getting us the hell out of dodge.
“Take your next left and go to the end, Vin will be waiting there.” Knight answered my unasked question without even knowing it, Bishop does as instructed and sure enough as we near the end of the road, Vin steps out of the shadows. I scoot over and ride bitch. He just manages to get inside before Bishop is planting his foot again. Vin manages to yank the door closed and shoots Bishop’s a glare, not that he can see it.
“You got the kill shot, right?” Bishop demands, when Vin hesitates, unease creeps up my spine. I turn to look over at him. The angry glint in his eyes makes me believe he didn’t get the kill shot.
“If he gets help within an hour he’ll live,” Vin grits out, clearly pissed at himself for missing the head shot. King turns to peer around his chair with an irritated look in his eyes.
“How the fuck did you miss? Aren’t you supposed to be theBloodhound?” King’s mockery of Vin’s skillset clearly pisses the big fucker off, so before they can get into, I cut in.
“What happened? You should have taken him out before he hit her!” I can hear the bite in my own voice, but I keep my face blank so the others don’t pick up on my anger.
Vin turns to face me as he answers. “Mav wasn’t on his own, I had the shot lined up and then I was attacked on the fucking roof.” I scan his face and that’s when I see the small tear on the shoulder of his shirt, a slight discoloration on his cheek which will no doubt turn into a bruise. Fuck. If he wasn’t on his own then that means–
“It was a setup.” Knight takes the words right out of my mouth. If Vin was ambushed on the roof then that means Mav set this whole thing up to draw us out. How the fuck did he know we were in Russia?
“We need to regroup and come up with a new plan. Gage’s cover is blown so we need a new way in.” I clench my fists, pissed off that what Bishop says is true. This was my shot at proving to them that I was worthy enough to be seen as an equal and I fucking blew it because ofher.
* * *
We pull up to an abandoned looking building, the place looks like it has been raided and burnt out. I follow the others out of the car expecting to enter the windowless building, when they veer right to head around the back, I don’t question it. I’ve never seen where they have been staying as we haven’t even spoken since the day I landed here weeks ago. I’ll admit, I had doubted that they would show tonight. I didn’t think I meant enough to them to even bother to help me but I was wrong. Them showing up tonight showed me that they do care, they may never say it but they took a huge risk coming to that fight outnumbered and outmanned.
