Page 51 of Devious Knight

Limited editions mean a limited amount of something will be made for a specific year or a special occasion or something like that. The point is there are more than one of them.

Even if I wanted to recreate my sculpture, I wouldn’t be able to replicate the one I just lost. It would be different. Everything about my lady in the meadow would be new, and it wouldn’t be her anymore. It’s like death. You can’t replace a person. Everything that breathes and lives is one of a kind in their own way. Even when they have a twin.

Losing my sculpture also means losing my chance to go to Cambridge and study under Christian Degas. Those words in my head feel so wrong, but it’s the truth.

The application was very clear that once the project idea was submitted and approved I wouldn’t be able to change it. That is because the approval process goes through Christian Degas himself. Regardless of passing the entrance exams and everything else, he handpicks the students for the program based on their project idea.

So I couldn’t just whip up another one and slip it in, and since the closing date for submitting the completed sculpture is in two weeks’ time, I have no chance to make another. I’m fucking screwed because of Kade.

The sordid thought fuels me with more fury and I march over to the can of gasoline I brought with me. I open it and pour it all over the bike.

My audience stands about twenty feet away from me but I hear the audible gasps of shock when they realize what I’m up to.

In the Bratva you demand blood for blood. In the Knights you take whatever you think you are owed.

I am a child of both worlds and it’s time I owned it. Sometimes you have to be a ruthless motherfucker to get what you want and you can’t care about the consequences.

I won’t hide in the shadows shrouded by darkness. Let everyone see me take my vengeance.

I wait until the can of gasoline is empty before I back up a few paces and drizzle a line of gasoline the way Dad taught me on our camping trips.

I strike a match and toss it on the line I drew. The flames are as instant as a spark of light.

Fire follows the trail I made and when it reaches the motorcycle it blazes like hell.

Good. Step one complete. Now to face the devil.

I turn on my heel and walk away from the scene. Kade should either be having lunch at the café with the guys or somewhere near the football field.

“Izzy,” someone calls me.

It’s Thorne. He’s the only one who calls me Izzy.

I stop and look over my shoulder, following the sound of his voice when he calls me again. I find him standing on the second-floor balcony with Caspian and Eilish, who both look stunned by what I’ve done.

“Izzy, come back here.” Thorne moves away from them, trying to get to me, and I almost break character.

Thorne was one of the biggest bullies in high school, and everyone was scared of him. When he got here he was like the god of the underworld. But through all that, he never bullied me.

I don’t think I was supposed to know that when he left high school people stopped bothering me because of him. He stopped my bullies and became the big brother I never knew I had.

I appreciate him but I can’t let him fight this fight for me. Kade Gurkovsky is one bully I will deal with myself.

With that reasoning I turn and continue my pursuit, leaving the sound of Thorne’s calls with the blazing fire.

Two minutes later I reach the café and spot my nemesis sitting with his boys around one of the tables outside. They’re drinking coffee, and it sounds like they’re laughing. I wonder if the joke is me. I’m about to find out.

I steel my spine and relish the burst of power rippling through me. Setting fire to Kade’s bike is the wildest thing I’ve ever done. And it felt good.

That fucking asshole will lose his shit when he finds out what I did.

He sees me coming and straightens. The guys follow his stare, but they aren’t my concern.

I move faster, until I’m almost running toward him. Everyone is looking my way now.

When I see that sickening fascination wash over his face I want to jump across the table and strangle him. But even in my hyped-up state I know that won’t fly.

Kade is in the elite. And he’s the captain of their group. A man trained to kill Bratva style, where your enemy needs to be dead within thirty seconds of attacking you. He would take me down faster than I could blink.

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