Page 4 of Corrupted Heart

Bile rises up my throat as he grins at his friend.

“Looks like Grisha sent us a thank you present for taking the seven kilos off his hands.” He turns back, his eyes landing on Alicia. “Dibs on the blonde.”

The taller one smiles darkly at me. “Fine by me. I get hard for Italian bitches.”

My gaze whips to Alicia and Irena, just as their horrified gazes turn to me, then to each other. The two men begin to approach us, when suddenly, Alicia winds back and hurls the duffle bag right at them.

“RUN!!” she screams.

For a horrible millisecond, I’m frozen where I am, unable to do anything but watch Irina and Alicia shove past the men and go bolting out of the alley. But then, I lurch into action. I whirl, sprinting forward to the mouth of the alley.

“Fucking bitch.”

My whole world turns to fear and ice as a strong arm wraps around my middle and yanks me back, hard. I scream as I’m thrown roughly to the ground, landing with a wince as gravel and grime bite into my palms and knees.

A weight slams into me, shoving me flat onto the ground as a gun cocks loudly.

“Please!”

The men chuckle. I choke in pain as my knee is torn up even more by the gravel, with the weight of one of the men on my back pinning me down.

“Since you asked so nicely, bitch,” one of them snickers. I hear the sound of a belt buckle opening. “You get both of us.”

Tires squeal on pavement, and my heart drops.

“Looks like your little friends left you, baby,” one of them growls darkly. “Guess it’s just you and us now.”

“Remind me to thank Grisha next time I see him,” the other guy chuckles as he starts to kneel down by my head.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God…

“Please—” I choke. “Please don’t…”

“Shut the fuck up and open your fucking?—”

His words abruptly stop with a sickening, gurgling sound. Wetness splashes the asphalt next to me before the man kneeling in front of me is suddenly yanked away sideways. The weight comes off my back, and I roll away and scramble to my feet.

To freeze in horror.

One of the men lies dead in a huge puddle of blood, his neck slit wide open. The other is a few feet up in the air, his eyes staring and terrified, pinned to the wall at his back with a hand wrapped around his neck.

A huge hand, at the end of a huge arm, attached to a huge beast of a man.

The guy squirming against the wall tries to raise his gun. Instantly, the huge man pinning him to the wall slashes with a blade. My would-be attacker screams, blood splattering the wall as he drops the gun and his arm goes limp. Deftly, the huge man slashes again.

My eyes go wide and my whole world turns to ice as the giant’s blade rips open the other guy’s throat. Blood gushes out like a tsunami as the huge hand lets go, letting the second attacker drop to the ground.

Wordlessly, his back to me, the huge, hulking shape dressed in black with a hood up over his head walks over to the duffel bag. He turns it upside down, dumping seven bricks of white powder onto the ground. I’m still frozen and unable to form words or complete thoughts as I watch him slash each plastic-wrapped brick open and dump the contents down a sewer drain.

Slowly, he stands, flexing his shoulders and straightening up tall.

And taller.

And taller.

My feet are rooted to the ground as the man slowly cocks his head. He twists around, and suddenly, my hand flies to my mouth.

He’s not just huger than huge.

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