Page 21 of Poisoned Roses

My Russia.

The one where I am more at home because here I can be the man I am inside. I release him here to breathe again and tonight will be a pleasure for me and not so much for the man who is my current guest.

Leonardo Raikin.

Simeon and my men brought him here to pay the penalty for touching what’s mine. Family is everything to a Romanov, and Tia is now a member of that. She will be my wife and the thought of another man’s hands on her soft skin caused the blood to rush to my head and vengeance to swell in my heart.

I drive into the garage of a home that has seen much better days and as I exit the car, the scent of decay fills my senses. It was once a smart home. Most of them were, but desperation anddeprivation caused the downfall of a place where people used to thrive.

Once a smart neighborhood that was bombed in payback for another crime against humanity, and it was never raised from the ground. The inhabitants never returned and were rehoused elsewhere, making it the perfect place to conduct my business.

My men are waiting and nod respectfully. The glow from their cigarette ends the only light in the building outside of the moon.

It bathes the decay in healing light and I inhale deeply, allowing the rot to strengthen my resolve.

Leo is waiting as a reluctant guest in what was once the living area. It’s the largest room in the house and yet there is only one piece of furniture in the room. A wooden chair on which my guest sits, tied to it with a black bag over his head.

He is struggling, his pitiful cries music to my ears, the perfect symphony of misery to serenade his punishment.

“Leonardo Raikin.” My voice is deep, husky and chilling, causing him to still, the only sound in the room being his ragged breaths as he attempts to gain courage.

“Who are you?” He whispers from behind the dark hood and I don’t give him the satisfaction of an answer.

“You’ve overstepped the boundary.”

“What are you talking about?”

I approach, bending down and whispering in his ear. “You forced yourself on a woman tonight, and I don’t like that.”

He stills. “No – I –”

His denial only makes his crime worse in my opinion, and the air is thick with retribution as I allow him a moment of fear. He won’t know who we are, or what we are capable of, which is just how I like it.

“Men like you disgust me.” I hiss, loving how my words act as a weapon, causing him to flinch.

“You tried to take something of value that wasn’t yours. To steal a soul and to ruin a life because of whatyouwanted.”

“Please.” He begins to shake and the sound of him pissing in fear hits the splintered floorboards below his chair.

I glance toward Simeon, who shakes his head and stares with disgust at the piece of shit who fell into our line of sight tonight.

I nod to Oleg, who hands me my weapon of destruction—for tonight, anyway.

A claw hammer will do the job perfectly and as I cradle it in my hand, I whisper, “Now it will be my pleasure to take something of value from you.”

“Please, no, I’m sorry, you’re wrong. She was coming on to me for months.”

His desperate lies only cause the anger to swirl inside me like a darkening storm and give me the power to inflict the most savage blow to his knee.

The sound of breaking bone accompanies his scream of intense pain as I end his career in one deadly move. I swing again, this time shattering the other one, his cries like the most pleasurable symphony playing out in my mind.

His shins are next, followed by his ankles, the blood splattering and mixing with the urine on the floor below. He passes out and Simeon throws a bucket of icy water in his face, causing him to splutter and choke on the liquid as he inhales it into his lungs.

His legs hang limply beneath his shattered knees and I hand the hammer back to Oleg, who will ensure it is disposed of. There is nothing left to say, no words to gift this monster, because when he revealed his claws tonight, he didn’t realize a more powerful beast was waiting in the shadows.

Leonardo’s life has been spared for a reason. He will live with his biggest mistake for the rest of his miserable life. Like this town, he will fall into decay and ruin and scratch a livingamong the rats because he has trained for the one thing he can no longer have. His career is over, but his life is not. That is the best revenge there is because now he will live with his sin trailing behind him as he spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

I walk away, leaving my men to toss him into the gutter for the authorities to deal with. He won’t know who took him, who was responsible and even if he did work it out, he has no proof. There is no evidence and my crime will never be punished because even if the cops did discover it was me, they wouldn’t do a fucking thing about it.

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