Page 146 of Bratva Butcher

I winced. Sorrow shredded my insides.

“Father!” Aleksandr chastised.

“Tikhiy!” Dimitri yelled at him, and he snapped his mouth shut, his jaw clenching.

Usually, when someone spoke to me like that, I had tons of witty rejoinders to throw back. But this time, I had nothing. I was so caught off guard, I could do nothing but stand there completely dumbfounded as a painful ache filled my soul.

The lines of his face were hard, not a single shred of warmth or affection in his eyes as he stared at me with abhorrence. “Everything that happened between us was amistake. A big, fat, giant fucking mistake that I regret more than anything else in my life.” Pressure smothered my chest, making it difficult tobreathe. “My heart does, and always will belong to Yekaterina.My wife.Not some random woman who doesn’t even know what it means to love someone.”

A heavy weight settled over my heart. Tears burnt in the back of my eyes, and it took everything I possessed not to let them fall. With each word, he’d just hacked away at my heart, cutting it down piece by piece until there was nothing left.

“I see.” I cleared my throat and straightened my spine, standing tall. His words hurt, more than any physical pain I’d ever endured before, but there was no fucking way I was going to let him see that. See that he’d just broken me. My soul. My spirit.

How could I have been so stupid? This entire time, every moment between us, had been nothing but a lie. Every touch. Every heated look. Every kiss. Nothing but a lie.

I was an idiot to think he would choose me over her, but that was as far as I would allow my idiocy to go. I wasn’t going to beg him. Wasn’t going to tell him we had something special, even if he wasn’t willing to admit it. I had my fucking pride, and there was no way in hell I was going to let him turn me into some snivelling little bitch who begged a man to stay with her.

“I guess we have nothing else to talk about, then.” I went to walk away when I realised I was still holding the folder in my hands.

After what he’d just said to me, I should have walked away and not said a damn word about Sergei. ButIwanted to be the one to get the last word in.

“Oh, by the way,” I said, turning back to face him. “I didn’t come here for some midday booty call. I came here to tell you that the man who hired me to kill Dominik made a mistake. Dominik was never the intended target.Youwere.” I flicked the folder with the kill contract at his feet, and it opened, revealing a picture of Dimitri on the top page.

His eyes flicked down to it, and his brows creased in a slight frown.

“That man’s name was Sergei Volkov.”

He looked back up at me. Some of the initial anger he’d had when he first opened the door faded, as if reason was starting to worm its way back into his head.

I didn’t care.

It was too late.

The damage was done.

Without saying another word, I turned around and walked back the way I came. I kept my footsteps slow and unhurried, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing me run away even though that was all I wanted to do.

I waited until I got back to my car to let the tears fall.

And they didn’t stop.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Dimitri Volkov

Iwalked into thelounge room a few days after capturing Talon, unable to keep the smile off my face.

It was over.Finally, it was over. I’d caught the bastard responsible for tormenting me for months and almost killing all of my children, and he was locked in The Pit, available for me to torture anytime I damn well felt like it.

Revenge never felt so fucking good.

“Uh-oh, I recognise that smile,” Lukyan joked. He was sitting in one of the armchairs beside the couch—more like lounging, actually, because he wasn’t sitting in it the way it had been designed for. He had his back resting against one of the armrests while his legs dangled over the other.

Aleksandr was spread out on the couch, one foot resting comfortably on the coffee table in front of him, half watching whatever show was on the television.

“This?” I pointed to my face, a thousand-watt smile spreading out across my lips. “This is—”

“Your torture smile, I know. I’ve seen it many-a-times,” Lukyan chuckled. “I take it you went to visit Talon again?”

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