Page 107 of Twisted Cage

“You want to explain to me what the fuck you didn’t understand about my orders to keep an eye on her and not to let her leave the safe house?”

Body parts lay scattered in pools of blood from two hours spent dismantling six of the seven living men, one body part at a time while their screams battered my eardrums to the point of pain.

I turn to them then, flicking the teeth of the blade over my thumb in clear view of the little fucker who almost stole her from me.

Roddick glares at Nikoletta who stands there with one hand on her hip, the other clutching her knife, her curious gaze sweeping through the room. “Oh, I understood. I also understand that she’s eager to slice and dice the shit out of someone, and I’m good with it not being me.”

“But if I kill you…”

He slants a look at Nikoletta before jutting his chin at me. “At least I won’t be dribbling piss down my taint.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “What?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll give you a full report later. Just… let her fuck some shit up please so we don’t have to sleep in shifts with one eye open.”

I step up to the fucker bound to my chair and tap the side of my blade on his forehead. His swollen jaw is almost double its size, his face misshapen and a canvas of sickly green from watching the show and deep blue and purple from the bruising.

“If you’ll excuse me. This won’t take long and then, you and me, we’re going to spend some quality time together. You won’t be as lucky as these fuckers.”

I take the edge of the door in my hands and lean down until my face is just inches from Roddick’s. “Go.”

He shoots a glare at Nikoletta and leaves, closing the door behind him.

“I don’t know where you think you get off doing this without me, but you be?—”

I curl my fist into the front of her dress and haul her to the center of the room, pinning her against the steel support beam there. “You really think you’re up for this, Pcholka? This isn’t just some little girl swipe of the blade. The feral little killer I found at that commune better up her game.”

Her lungs heave under my hand. Cheeks flushed, she stares down at my bloodstained hands and licks her plump bottom lip.

Cool steel grazes over my forearm. The light catches the edge of her blade as she drags it over my skin. The flirty little threat has my hard cock twitching behind my zipper.

Her chest swells with a deep breath, and her eyes flare with excitement. And I know… she’s greedy for the scent of blood filling the air.

She’s hungry to deliver a special brand of Romanoff justice.

“He came for me, and when he did, he came for Lexi.” Her lethal tone rumbles with a promise of retribution as her hot glare slides to the man in the chair.

Our daughter’s name from her lips cuts me to the core with her betrayal. Will it fade? If it does, will it take days, weeks, months, years?

How long am I condemned to love the woman before me when all I want to do is hate her?

“This one…” I say as I step up the man secured to the chair. “He’s the one who tried to make Lexi an orphan. He’s the one who tried to send me to my grave before I even knew I was a father.”

A burst of life lights in the man’s surprised eyes as he glances between us.

“I told you she’s mine.” I crouch down in front of him, eyes on the rusted clamps I’ve grown fond of using to keep my subjects bound. The trick is to get them pinned nice and tight, the disk pressing into their hands and the tops of their feet until the first couple of bones snap. They get real compliant then. Eager to keep still so they don’t cause more pain.

“Why clamps?”

Her voice just beyond my shoulder sends chills racing over my skin. Then I feel the heat of her as she steps closer, her skirt brushing my bare arm.

“Because I have about twenty twists of motivation before they go clean through their hand. I have yet to find one who can hold out that long, but I haven’t lost hope. Maybe he’s the one?”

She scoffs behind me. “The way he whined like a little bitch when his jaw snapped? I doubt it.”

The guy jerks his hips in the chair, another burst of life—but we’ll take care of that soon enough.

Need courses through me with her so close. I swear I can feel her heart racing next to me and as much as I want to hold on to the hate, I want something else so much more. I reach back and wind my arm around her leg, pulling her up next to me.

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