Page 32 of Bratva Butcher

“Spend your time in this room wisely. The first round of the Til Death Games will commence a lot sooner than you think.”

Restlessness moved through the other prisoners. The guard glanced at his watch. “You have three hours left of this morning’ssession.” When no one moved, his brows slammed down into a frown. “Well? Get to it!” he barked.

Half the prisoners jumped and scurried off. The other half, though, did exactly what I did: stare, unimpressed, not the least bit intimidated by the guard’s outburst.

“These are the ones to watch out for,” Autumn whispered at my side, her eyes locked firmly on the prisoners still around us.

I grunted in agreement.In this, she couldn’t be more right.

There were a few prisoners I’d already deemed a significant threat, purely based on their build and demeanor, all of whom were now studying me as carefully as I was them.

People peeled off into their pairs. Autumn and I moved to one of the corners of the room, far enough away so we couldn’t be overheard but still close enough so that we could watch the others.

She shuffled closer to me, her body almost touching mine, and lowered her voice. “Alright, Butcher, it’s time to come clean. Tell me everything you know.”

I looked at her. She was only a few inches shorter than me. She’d somehow managed to tame that chaotic mess of red hair. It sat in a tight bun on the top of her head, the tiny tendrils too short to be put up framing her face.

I’d never been so close to her before—not without trying to kill her, that was. I could see all the little details I’d been too preoccupied to notice before. The spattering of freckles on her nose. The tiny flecks of brown in her eyes. The fullness of her lips.

Something stirred in my lower belly.

What—

“Butcher.” She clicked her fingers right in front of my face. “Focus now, daydream later. We’ve got to prepare, or have you failed to notice that you and I are currently public enemy number one?”

She had a point. A lot of the other pairs were watching us cautiously with a slight hint of fear and trepidation. Those who saw our fights in the ring when we first arrived would know what a significant threat we were individually, and suddenly, we were working together, making us an even bigger threat.

“Of course I noticed,” I hissed down at her, and now we were glaring at each other.

Again.

Honestly, it would be a goddamn miracle if we were actually able to work together efficiently.

“You know more about this whole thing than you’re letting on, and now that we’re” —she ran her tongue over her teeth like the word she was about to say left a foul taste in her mouth— “partners, the more preparedIam, the better for both of us.”

Annoyingly, she had a point. Again.

I put my arm against the wall behind her and leant closer. “Everybody here, whether they look like it or not, has the capability to end your life. The people Talon selects for his games are highly trained and highly skilled. The games would be boring if they weren’t.”

“What exactly is this Til Death Games? I’ve never heard of them before.”

“No, I suspect not,” I sighed. “You don’t exactly have the net worth for that kind of information.”

She arched an eyebrow. “And what do you know of my net worth,Butcher?”

“All I need to know. That it isn’t high enough. If it was, you would have received an invitation to attend. Now, do you want me to keep going?”

“What I want is for you to stop being such a stuck-up, snobbish asshole.”

“Snobbish,” I stated incredulously.

“I didn’t stutter. Yes, snobbish. Surely, this can’t be the first time someone has called you that.”

Yes, actually, it was. People didn’t speak to me the way she did. Most of them were too scared to. I’d flayed men alive for lesser transgressions.

“I amnotstuck-up, nor am I snobbish.”

“Right, and I don’t like to have my hair pulled and my ass spanked during sex,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes and looking out into the room.

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