Page 21 of Bratva Butcher

After being ushered from the airstrip with an unfortunately very alive Autumn (I’d hoped that, after her failed escape attempt, they would kill her right there and then, but nothing ever worked out my way), we were led through a town on the island.

The more we walked, the more evident it became that the place was so much more than it appeared to be. So much more grand in its design.

It appeared to be entirely self-sufficient. Of course, the extremely limited information I’d managed to dig up since finding out about its existence had suggested as such.

Even so, it was one thing to hypothesize and a whole other thing to actually see it with your own eyes.

With everything you need within walking distance, there’d never be any reason to leave.

It certainly explained how Talon had managed to completely disappear for all of those years. The egotistical bastard had even gone the extra mile and named all the businesses after himself.

Scardo Grocery. Scardo Auto Repair. Scardo Mall. Scardo twenty-four-hour Diner. Scardo, Scardo, fucking Scardo.

It honestly wouldn’t have surprised me if he had a twenty-foot bronze statue of himself right in the middle of town.

What did surprise me was the colosseum. It looked like it had been ripped right out of the page of a history textbook.

It was…magnificent. Truly magnificent. I had no problem admitting that…to myself. Outwardly, though? I didn’t even spare it a second fucking glance.

Iknewsomewhere, somehow, Talon was watching. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.

So, despite how impressive everything I’d seen from the moment I stepped foot on the island was, I refused to show it, keeping a bored expression plastered on my face.

Autumn, who had walked silently beside me the whole time, did the same. Shelookeduninterested in what was going on, but the eyes gave her away.

She had that penetrating gaze of a huntress: calculated, assessing, dark. Knowing what I did about this place, about what was going to happen, curiosity peaked.

How long would she last? Not to the end, that I was sure of.

There could only be one winner, and I had every intention of making it me.

IfIgot to be the one to kill her myself, though, well… That might make the whole ordeal completely and utterly worth it.

Chapter Eight

Autumn DeValos

I’m so fucked,I thought repeatedly as I was pushed and shoved down the cobblestone pathway into the colosseum. That place… Jesus Christ, it was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Absolutely incredible didn’t seem like a good enough phrase to describe it.

It was like an entire civilization was out there all on its own, cut off from the rest of the world. The rest of society.

I didn’t know Talon personally, but I felt like one walk though that town was all I needed to figure him out.

Spoilt little rich boy who never got Daddy’s love. It was so blatantly obvious that he might as well have a big neon sign saying so on every building.

Oh, wait, he does. Ha.

The overcompensation was laughable. Like when a guy with a small dick buys a huge, luxurious car.

“Small dick syndrome” is what I called it.

Couple that with the ego I’d witnessed on him at Dominik’s dungeon, and it was pretty fucking clear the man hadseveredaddy issues. All that shit aside, though, Talon had built himself a pretty impressive operation.

I catalogued everything, leaving no detail out; if I ever managed to get away from the guards, I needed to remember the way out.

Dimitri and I were led deep beneath the colosseum, down long, dark, twisting hallways and winding staircases made entirely out of stone.

Loud cheering echoed up to us from the bottom, like something you’d hear at a football or basketball game. The further down we went, the louder it became. It drowned out every other noise. The rattle of our chains. Thethump, thump, thumpof the guards’ heavy combat boots.

---