Page 57 of Trapping His Assassin

He released his uncle’s neck. Benedikt coughed out, “I said I was sorry, plemyannik.”

“Once you take your punishment, you may call me your nephew again, but until then, you are no uncle of mine.”

I’d never seen Roman show such hatred before. Not even when I shot him the first time. Not even after all the attempts I’ve made on his life.

“I don’t understand. Did he betray you?” Maybe Benedikt sold Roman out, and this was payback. But then, why would I need to be here? Roman should be keeping me away from the business, not introducing me to it.

“Yes,” Roman hissed. “He deserves to die for what he has done.” He straightened and closed his eyes, breathing heavily out of his nostrils.

“And I’m guessing he’s too important for you to kill.” The Brotherhood wouldn’t kill one of their own if it was a mistake, or something like that. It was rare for them to kill traitors. The last one was Alexie Petrov, and he never ended up dying for his alleged crimes.

“Spot on.” Roman slowly clapped.

“Then what did he do?”

There was a moment of silence before Benedikt burst into laughter. He turned to Roman in shock. “You’re going through all of this trouble, and she doesn’t even know the reason?”

Roman grabbed his phone and started texting, while Benedikt took the pleasure of telling me what this was all about.

“Roman,” Benedikt spat blood at his feet. “Is doing this because I did my job, and I held a gun to the head of a threat.”

It took me one second to compute what he was saying to me. I turned to Roman, who was letting two servants into the cage. They had a rolling tray between them, with tools that he intended to use on his uncle.

This wasn’t right. Family should always come first, right? Wasn’t that what all the organizations preached?

Roman grabbed a spoon from the tray, and turned back to his uncle. “Let’s begin.”

The servants hustled out, and a man wearing a white lab coat came in with a huge bag. He stood off to the side, not speaking to anyone. Roman nodded an acknowledgment, and leaned toward Benedikt.

“Seriously?” Benedikt groaned. “I’m going to have to train all over again.”

“It could be your life,” Roman growled.

“Fucking pussy.” Benedikt raised his chin, and opened his eyes wide.

The man I assumed was a doctor stepped forward as if to approach, but Roman stopped him with one chilling phrase. “No medication.”

“Fuck,” Benedikt cursed.

I couldn’t help agreeing with him. I wasn’t sure what Roman intended to do with the spoon, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be anything good. Benedikt didn’t beg. He was pretty laid back for a man about to go through something torturous.

“You need me at your back.”

Roman shook his head in denial. “Alexie is arriving tonight.”

Benedikt stilled at the information. His shoulders slumped and his head lowered. My heart rate picked up. Seeing a strong man like Benedikt resigning himself to his fate, struck a strange fear in my heart I hadn’t associated with Roman before.

“Do it, then. Better you than him,” Benedikt said.

“Don’t move,” Roman warned.

Unfortunately, Benedikt wasn’t as strong as he thought. As soon as the spoon was forced underneath the skin below his eye, the thrashing began. The doctor assisted in holding Benedikt still.

He opened his mouth and started to scream, as blood started running down the side of his face.

“She is my fucking wife. You don’t hold a gun to my wife’s head. I don’t care who the fuck you are,” Roman muttered under his breath, as he focused on removing his uncle’s eye.

My stomach churned at the gruesome scene before me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Roman had the men cut his uncle down. He fell to the ground hard, but didn’t move otherwise. Benedikt was kneeling on the ground now in silence, blood dripping from his face. The thought that this was all happening because of me made my heart ache with guilt. I would look at this positively. Maybe in his own twisted way, Benedikt was trying to protect me, by ensuring that I didn’t end up murdering Roman, the next in line to lead the ruthless Bratva Brotherhood.

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