Page 197 of Cashmere Ruin

“Let them go,” Matvey grits. “It’s me you want. Let the girls go and I’ll surrender.”

“Nah, I don’t think so.” Carmine snaps his fingers. Immediately, the room fills with henchmen. “Kill them all,” he commands.

It’s over.

It’s truly over.

I squeeze Matvey’s hand tight. “I love you,” I whisper.

Goodbye, May.

“NO!”

It’s Yuri’s voice. He’s standing between us and Carmine, uselessly trying to shield Petra from the guns.

Carmine’s hand rises to stop his men. “What gives, Yuri? Having a change of heart?”

“No,” he bites out. “I have a request.”

“Let’s hear it then.”

“Let me have him.”

Carmine raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Come again?”

“My brother,” he grits. “Myfakebrother. Over the years, he’s been horrible to me. Always ordering me around, kicking me like a dog. Treating me like a weakling.”

“Yura…” Matvey whispers, but Yuri doesn’t turn.

“I always wanted to teach him a lesson,” he insists. “Please. Let me prove I’m stronger.”

For one endless minute, I’m terrified Carmine won’t allow it. That he’ll drop his hand again and shower us with bullets, without so much as an instant to say goodbye.

But then his face breaks into a grin. “Sounds fun,” he declares. “Alright then. Go for it.”

“Matvey Groza,” Yuri says solemnly, “in the name of the code of honor, I challenge you to a duel.”

59

MATVEY

I never thought we’d end up here. But life has a way of making you pay. For mistakes, pride, arrogance, all of it. Every single misstep I made has brought me here.

This place.

This moment.

“The rules are simple,” Carmine announces. “If Yuri wins, he gets to decide the fate of the hostages. If Matvey wins, he gets the same honor. If no one wins, I get to shoot whoever I want, wherever I want, however many times I want. How’s that for incentive?”

The irony doesn’t escape me. Not long ago, I killed Ivan in a duel just like this, albeit with much fairer rules.

But that hardly matters now. Whatever machinations steered my hand, ultimately, I was the one who plunged the knife. He was my most loyalvor—my most loyal friend—and I repaid him with death.

If this is my punishment, it’s a fitting one.

Carmine’s men frisk us. The gun I stole from the guard is unceremoniously taken away. Petra’s, too, even though she has nothing to do with the duel itself.

They don’t frisk Yuri, but he hands over his weapon all the same.

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