Page 19 of Devious Knight

“Like fuck. This is not going to be fun. But… thanks.” I do need them. I hate needing anyone but they’re not like everyone else.

“So, what’s this master plan of yours?” Dmitri takes a swig of his beer.

“I’m going to eradicate them from the system. The Purge: Anarchy style.” I grin, proud of myself for coming up with such an ingenious plan. “I’m gonna fuck with them in ways they never thought possible and, unlike the pop culture film, I’ll have more than twelve hours to wreak havoc and chaos in their lives.”

Dmitri and Logan smile.

It would take an army to go up against the Malina and since I don’t have anything of the sort, I’m using intellect and malice.

“Sounds good. Where do we start?”

I pull a list from my pocket and slide it across the pool table so they can see. “These are all the top people in Boston and New York who have links to the Malina. We can start by destroying them. All their businesses, their contacts, everything. I’ve thought of all the right ways to hit them where it hurts and weaken them one by one until I have them just where I want them.”

“I love this idea.”

“Good. It will be like tearing pieces from a body bit by fucking bit until I reach the heart.”

“And what will you do when you get to the heart?” Dmitri’s smile fades. He knows what I mean by the heart. The main guy I’m after is Nickoli Chekov, the underboss of the Malina’s New York unit.

To get to a guy like that you have to get his attention. But to get him where I want him, I have to tie his hands behind his back and shove him into a corner in hell.

“I’m going to kill him.” I know I sound far too calm to be talking about killing a man like Nickoli. I already sound like I have the fucker under my thumb when there are vast differences between us.

He’s forty-five. I’m nineteen.

He commands a criminal organization across two continents.

I have Dmitri and Logan.

The odds are not in my favor when you look at it that way. But we’re Knights in training. That’s a big enough difference to give me the confidence to try.

In the Bratva you demand blood for blood. In the Knights you take whatever you think you are owed. A life for a life, or many more.

“Until I kill his ass, I’ll watch his world fall apart. Still with me?” I check because this assassination plot of mine could start a war.

They both nod.

“You know we’re still with you,” Logan replies.

“What about Isabelle?” Dmitri gives me a curious stare.

I know he’s wondering what I’m going to do with her.

“What does she get?” Logan adds.

“Whatever I think is suitable.”

“Does that mean you want us to play with the little doll?” Dmitri’s smile widens.

He’s just as fucked up as me and teeters on the cold and calculative side. He’ll play with his toys until he’s had enough of them, but whoever is unfortunate enough to end up in his lair will never see what’s coming until it’s too late. Logan is more direct. You know what you’re going to get with him from the get-go.

“You can play. But you leave her to me.”

“We can do that.” Logan glances at Dmitri, mischief filling his face like a mask.

“Just say when,” Dmitri says with a clipped nod of his dark-blond hair.

I lean on the table and widen my smile. “When. I’ve already begun.”

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