Page 24 of Twisted Cage

Swinging my gaze back to the altar, I shoot up the rest of the steps and advance on the hand-tooled journal, embossed with an N in the center and a little bee in the corner.

Nikoletta’s journal.

The journal her father found that had him sending her away from me. The pages where she confessed her fantasies of us while I was oblivious to the changes in her young, innocent heart for me.

Dropping my palms to the cool granite, I hang my head and squeeze my eyes shut.

Vlad.

This gesture has his name written all over it. He knows I’ll never be able to walk away and leave it here. He knows if I possess it, I will eventually crack it open. I will fight it, but right about the point I teeter on the edge of madness, I’ll devour her words as though they are the only way to thaw my frozen world.

Skilled in torment, he counts on his prey to succumb to their hearts. For love—an emotion he’ll never been capable of—to make them weak.

My gaze catches on the corner of an envelope tucked just inside the cover. I slide it out to find my name in Vlad’s handwriting scrawled across the front in jet-black ink.

I let out a slew of Russian curses and tear the envelope open.

Konstantin, Konstantin, Konstantin…

I hear his mocking voice in my head with every repetition of my name. I can’t wait to kill him. Slowly. Painfully. Life gradually slipping from his evil eyes.

My father charged me with destroying this journal, but where would the fun be in that? Oh no… I decided I’d much rather hold on to the steamy little piece of Nikoletta until it could prove useful. What better time than when you’re cracking under the pressure of not finding her.

She’s cunning. I’ll give her that. You’ve slaughtered hundreds in your search and still, a year later, nothing. No signs of her anywhere.

My little brother must have so many regrets about choosing you to be by his side. The formidable Konstantin Malikov, reduced to an unruly liability. Taken down by pussy. I used to think of you as a challenge, but now I’ve crossed you off my list, because why bother…

You’re doing a stellar job of destroying yourself.

-V

I slam my clenched fists on the altar, a deep roar of despair tearing from my chest. With a glare up at the cross looming over my head, I snatch the journal and eat up the distance, striding for the catacombs.

Straight to the crypt where my honor died exactly one year ago.

11

KONSTANTIN

I haven’t lit the candles we used that night since. But tonight… tonight, I will recreate that night I spent with my goddaughter here. The night I cut her dress from her lush body, but maintained my honor enough to look away. The night she challenged that very honor by stepping out of the tub and baring her body to me.

The first time I tasted her.

And despite it all, I still resisted her. But my resistance was futile. Because Nikoletta always held tremendous power over me. From the moment I cradled her in my arms nineteen years ago, she’d been my compass through this life. My every move, with her, because of her, and for her.

My chest aches with every ragged breath as I light candle after candle. After shedding my jacket and dress shirt, I pick up her bundle of secrets and pretend her hands were the last to touch the supple leather.

I lie to myself, desperately grasping for the illusion of closeness and connection.

Because without her, I am a dying man. Every bit of me withers under the loss. At first, I was able to hide it, but eventually, my men noticed. Then Nikolaj’s men.

And finally Nikolaj.

Vlad’s words hook themselves in deep because for once he is right.

They eye me warily as I crumble. The more I fall apart, the more bloodshed I unleash on the city in an effort to dig up even a scrap of information as to where Nikoletta may have gone.

Nikolaj will grow tired of cleaning up my messes. I’ve become a full-time job for him. The aftermath of my rage has burned up more favors with his politician connections and law enforcement than he can afford.

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