Page 65 of Caught By the Bratva Beast

Maxim bends down grabbing Nicolo by the collar of his shirt and hauling him to his feet. Blood drips down the side of his face from where Maxim punched him, opening a cut on his cheekbone. He rips the gun from his hand and throws it across the room where one of his other men grabs it and tucks it into his waistband.

I peek around Nikita’s broad body, watching as Maxim wraps his hand around Nicolo's throat, shoving him back into the wall the way Nicolo did to me only a few moments before.

“You want to put your hands on my fucking wife? You stupid fucker. How dare you fucking touch her?”

Nicolo lunges forward, slamming his head into Maxim’s face, clearly going for his nose, but he misses. Maxim’s lip splits instead, bright red blood rolling down his chin.

He groans, but it doesn't drop him. Instead, his hand goes to his lip, wiping away the blood. He spits a mouthful of it to the side.

“Funny.” Maxim hauls back and slams his fist into Nicolo’s throat, sending him to the ground once more. He steps on his hand before he has the chance to crawl away. “Nobody puts a fucking hand on my wife. I don't care who you are.”

Nikita steps to the side, letting me by. I need to see this.

More than anything, I need to know that the man who killed my father—the same one who spent seven years manipulating me—is going to get every ounce of justice he deserves.

Maxim crouches down, his foot still on Nicolo’s hand. “You killed Aaron. You just tried to kill Pearl. You're nothing but a pathetic scum. A filthy fucking Italian through and through.”

Nicolo laughs, the blood in his mouth gurgling in the back of his throat. “You think you know her. You don't know the first thing about her or what she's got planned for you.”

Maxim pulls a gun out of his waistband, pressing it against Nicolo’s temple. “You mean the monster you created? The woman you shaped as a young child, teaching her how to kill, how to manipulate men. Insisting that it was her father's best friend who killed him and that she had to devote her life to hunting me down and killing me. I should thank you for my little huntress. She's as bloodthirsty as any mafia man. She hides it well. She's restrained. It's going to be beautiful watching her fucking destroy you for the pain you’ve caused her.”

“You think that she's going to kill me? She’s killed one person in her entire life. She doesn't have what it takes.” Nicolo looks past Maxim at me. “After everything I've done for you, after the life I've given you, you're going to stand here and allow this to happen?”

“You mean after you tortured me, trained me to put up with pain? After you let your men fight me on and off for years, jumping me when I was on my way home from school. You put me in a group home instead of raising me. Instead of giving me fucking counseling you just fed into the lies I already believed. The ones you told me when you found me on the ground beside my father’s dead body.”

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

Maxim sighs and looks at me over his shoulder. “What do you want to do, Pearl?”

“Give me the gun,” I say, my voice steady and strong as I step forward, holding out my hand.

“Gladly.” He spins, kicking Nicolo in the head, and knocking him to the ground before handing me the gun.

Nicolo groans from the ground, looking up at me, and when his gaze connects with mine, he starts laughing. “You’re not going to be able to do that. You think you have what it takes to play with the big boys still, and you don't. You've always been nothing but a scared little girl going in the direction that anybody tells you to go. You don't know what it is you want in life. You don't know what it is you're going to do. You're nothing without me.”

“No,” I say as I leveled the gun at his head. “I think what you mean is that I have everything without you.”

My heart races in my chest and it feels like a hand is squishing my lungs, forcing the air from them. The room becomes eerily quiet, not a single soul moving as I flip off the safety, my finger wrapping around the trigger.

“You wanted a monster,” I say, my tone sickly sweet as I step closer to him, “it's time to look at the fucking monster you created.”

The gunshot echoes through the empty warehouse, bouncing off the concrete walls stained with graffiti. And now Nicolo's blood. I stare at the body for a minute, the gun hanging limp in my hand before I drop to my knees.

Maxim falls to the ground beside me, pulling me tight into his arms. My body tremors. “You don't have to cry. I'm here for you. You did good, Pearl. Such a great little huntress.”

Laughing, I look up at him.” I didn't know how good that was going to feel. After all these years, I finally got to avenge my father.”

“You did. I'm proud of you.” He smirks as he cups my face in his hands. His lips press against mine, slanting slow and smooth, familiar heat and tension building between us as his tongue tangles with mine. When he pulls away, I'm breathless and all I want is to go home and forget that this warehouse showdown ever happened. I want to move on with my life.

Whatever that life is going to look like.

Maxim’s arms wrap tight around me like a vice, holding me in place as the people around us sprint into action, grabbing the body and dragging it from the room. Car engines start in the distance before everything falls quiet once more, leaving Maxim and me alone.

“Aaron would be proud of you if he were alive today,” he says, his voice soft as he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. He keeps my chin in his hand, forcing me to look at him as the tears start to track down my cheeks. “You did what needed to be done.”

“I killed a man who was like an uncle to me.”

“He killed your father.”

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