Page 19 of Bratva Butcher

“And yet, here you are.” The suspicion, the skepticism in his voice put me on edge.

There he was, poking and prodding again.

I held his stare, refusing to cower. Oh, he had a powerful stare. Dark and dangerous. The kind of stare that said, “I’ll end your life without even thinking twice about it”. But I’d looked into the eyes of pure evil before. The kind of evil that made fear curl down your spine.

Dimitri was a bad guy, sure. But I didn’t think he was anevilguy. There was a distinct difference between the two.

“If you’ve got something to say, go ahead.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“Then stop fucking looking at me,” I snapped.

He held my gaze for a few more seconds, no doubt to let me know that when he did look away, it was becausehechose to, not because I told him to.

Fuck. Him.

I’d figure out a way to escape on my own, and then, I’d leave him there to fucking rot.

Chapter Seven

Dimitri Volkov

From the moment Isaw Talon enter that basement, I knew what was going to happen, almost as if I had a crystal ball that could show me the future.

I knew he’d spend whatever he needed to buy me from my brother. I knew he’d stick me on a plane. Knew he’d fly me halfway around the fucking world to the private island he was always boasting about.

I knewexactlywhat he had planned for me.

The timeline matched. Every year, towards the end of April, the emails began for Talon’s Til Death Games. A gladiator-style tournament where people were pitted against each other and forced to fight to the death while an audience-filled arena watched on, taking bets on who would emerge victorious.

The invitation to such an event was extremely exclusive. What took place on that island wasn’t exactly legal, so not just anyonecould attend. The list usually consisted of corrupt politicians, sometimes world leaders, other criminals like myself and the insanely rich because of course, there was a buy-in if you accepted the invitation.

Two and a half million. Chump change to a lot of the people who fell into those categories, myself included.

I remember the first year I’d gotten one. Mikhail, a close friend of mine, had received one, too, and my surprise had matched his. We’d both presumed the bastard was long dead. Then, one day, he just popped up out of the blue with more money to his name than anyone I’d ever met and a list of credentials a mile long.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that his father had died, and being his only child, Talon had inherited everything. He’d used that money to create his island. To hire all of those people to work for him. And now he was using the revenue he made from his games as a way to increase his net worth even more.

It would never be enough for a man like him. In his eyes, there would always be more money to earn.

There was only one reason Talon had sent Mikhail and I invitations to his games over the years. It wasn’t because he truly wanted to see me. It was because he wantedmeto seehim. See all that he’d accomplished.

One of the last things I’d said to him all those years ago was that he’d never amount to anything. That he’d always be a spoilt little rich kid who had to have his Daddy fix all of his problems.

Plus, I had a sneaking suspicion that if I ever stepped foot on that island, I wouldn’t be stepping off.

Maybe it wasn’t such a ridiculous notion to take Autumn up on her offer to work together. I knew there was no way I was going to make it off that island alive. I had to do something. But I wasn’t much of a team player, especially with people I didn’t know. Didn’t trust. Didn’tlike.

I looked at her subtly from the corner of my eye. She was staring out the window, her long, red hair tumbling down her shoulders. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spent so long in the presence of another woman before, apart from my daughter. Of course, I interacted with women all the time. I had women who worked for me as guards, maids and cooks. But I’d never spenttimewith them. Never spoke more than a few words to them unless I was giving them orders.

I just had no desire to ever get to know another woman again. To ever get close to anyone else like that. I was perfectly content to continue living my life without someone by my side.

No one could replace my Yeketarina in my heart, so why bother?

Seeing, talking or spending time with other women held zero appeal to me after her death, so I never did it.

My current circumstances, however, were making it impossible for me to keep to that. Autumn waseverywhere. I’d had no reprieve from her or the powerful presence she exuded since Dominik kidnapped me.

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