Page 98 of Forced Union

Dimitri doesn’t slow until Boris has no face left. All that remains is a mass of sunken gore and blood.

When my eyes meet Dimitri’s I see his rage burning bright. But there’s more too. I see the monster that lurks within him. The violence that feeds a part of his twisted soul. Here, right now, he’s in his element. This is the darkness where he thrives.

How did I never see it before?

Was I so blinded by his handsome face? Or was I in denial?

It doesn’t matter. I see him for his true self now.

He’s just like the rest of them.

“Kisa?” He reaches for me with a gore smeared hand. “It’s okay, malyshka, I’ve got you.”

Vehemently, I shake my head, cowering into the corner. “No!” I shriek. “Get away from me!”

The monster within him recedes enough that his gaze softens with concern. I screw my eyes shut, unwilling to witness him transform from a murderous brute into the semi-civilized man who fogs my brain with pretty words and sinful touches.

I won’t be duped again.

Right now I have clarity. No one can take that away from me. I see everyone around me for who they truly are. They can’t hide any longer.

I was right all along. They’re all monsters. I’m a monster too.

Monsters.

Monsters.

Monsters.

Dimitri touches me and I scream. I feel, rather than see, him recoil.

“Roman, take her to her parents house,” he says from a little further away. “I need to deal with Konstantin.”

Konstantin’s still alive? No, no, no.

He’ll come after me. I know he will.

“Arianna,” Roman says, his voice calming. Peeking through my lashes, I gaze at Roman. He’s squatting right outside of the cage. “We’re going to get you and all of these other women off this ship. I’m going to take you home to your parents. Do you understand? Sophia will be there for you, too. And Gin and Ravenna, even Ilaria if you want her with you.”

I stare at him. I’m sure he’s a monster too, but suddenly I’m too exhausted to care. My single nod is all he needs. He enters the cage and drapes his jacket around my quaking shoulders. Scooping me up, he steps over Boris’s mutilated body and carries me away from this hell.

Zoning out, I barely remember the boat ride to shore, or the car taking me to my parents home. Roman busies himself on his phone the entire time, frequently glancing over to check on me. By the time we arrive it’s evening.

Did all of that just happen in the span of one day?

It feels like a dream—a nightmare—instead of reality.

The front door opens and I’m immediately encircled in my mama’s arms. The last bit of strength I’ve been holding onto drains away and I finally break down. A sob tears from my raw throat.

I cry for what feels like an eternity. Only to fall asleep and be plagued by nightmares. Men with caved in faces, blood leaking down their bodies, pin me to a concrete floor and tear off my clothes.

I wake up to my own screams.

CHAPTER 48

Dimitri

He broke her. He broke my wife. My split and bleeding knuckles crash into his jaw again, but it’s not enough. The woman who looked back at me from inside that cage with terror in her wide eyes, who screamed when I reached for her, that wasn’t Arianna. That was a broken fragment of her soul.

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