Page 105 of Twilight Sins

I spit on the floor in disgust. “You’re not giving me what I want and you ruined my shoes.” I kick him in the chest and he sprawls backwards on the dusty cement floor. “I was annoyed before—but now, I’m pissed.”

That’s not entirely true. I was fucking livid from the moment I looked in my rearview mirror and saw two of Akim’s men tailing me. They weren’t even being discreet. They weren’t trained well enough to know how.

It’s the third time I’ve been followed in a week and these soldiers are the fifth and sixth I’ve had to kill.

It’s becoming tedious.

“Tell me what Akim is planning,” I demand again. “Tell me and you live.”

The soldier barks out a laugh, sending blood dripping down his chin. “You’ll kill me either way.”

“I won’t. Not if you pledge your loyalty to me.”

“I was born with my loyalty running through my veins,” he hisses between his red-stained teeth. “I work for the Gustev Bratva. Not you.”

I roll my eyes. “Your commitment would be admirable if it wasn’t so fucking sad. What are you, a fourth cousin twice removed? A Gustev by marriage? Akim probably doesn’t even know your name. It’s why he sent you to tail me. Because you’re dispensable.”

“Akim chose me for this mission because he trusts me.”

I almost feel bad for the bastard. Almost. The fact that he’d happily run straight into Akim’s arms and tell him exactly what I’ve been up to all day is where my sympathy dies.

For that, he has to die, too.

I grab the man by the front of his shirt. His feet barely touch the floor.

“Haven’t you wondered where all of your friends have disappeared to? You are the sixth man I’ve killed this week.”

His bloodshot eyes widen.

“Sorry to break the news to you this way,” I continue. “But your boss sent you into the fucking lion’s den. You’re a distraction. Do you understand that? He knew I’d see you tailing me. And he knew that, after seeing you, I wouldn’t risk driving to the meeting I have set up today with one of your supposedly ‘loyal’ brothers.”

The man narrows his eyes. “No one would betray the Bratva.”

“Someone already has. You could be next,” I say. “Just tell me what Akim is planning.”

“Never,” he spits. “I’ll die before I double cross my family and?—”

I release him and put a bullet between his eyes before he can even finish. He said he wanted to die, so he can die. At heart, I’m in the wish fulfillment business.

I pull my phone out and text Boris. Just took care of two more of your brothers. I was followed again. No meeting today.

Boris has been my contact within the Gustev Bratva for the past year. He played a major role in getting us the intel we needed to take out Akim’s father, the previous pakhan. Now, he’s going to help me take down Akim.

That is, if I can ever make it to a fucking meeting without being followed.

I’m about to call a cleanup crew to come take care of these bodies when I get a call from Oleg. “What’s my sister doing now?” I growl into the phone. I don’t have time for more of Mariya’s shit.

This is the third time Oleg has called me today. The other two were to warn me that she demanded she be allowed to leave the house and then again to let me know she was clearing out the mall of lingerie and swimsuits.

She knew she was being followed and watched, which is the only reason she did it. She’s treading on thin ice as it is, showing up here unannounced, but she’s still trying to piss me off.

“Nothing. She’s safe back at the house,” Oleg says. “I’m calling about Akim.”

“Tell me what you know.”

He sighs. “It isn’t much, but I didn’t want to sit on it. The word going around is that he’s planning something. Big.”

I suspected as much already. There’s no other reason he’d be sacrificing his low-level soldiers so he can tail me. Plus, going after a woman I had one dinner date with is a bit desperate, even for him. But hearing it confirmed means he’s making moves. Word is spreading. He won’t be able to stay hidden for much longer.

---