Page 112 of Cruel Promise

“You’re always on your bad side. I’ve never seen you happy.”

I used to be happy … before Anton betrayed me and literally scarred me for life.

Dimitri claps his hands. “Anyway, enough chit-chat. I want you to pay for going back on our business contract. I’ve already lost money because I’m not working with you any longer. I figured, why do you even need to have any power in this city? I can just take it all for myself.”

“You’d have to kill me for that.”

His grin is savage, a stark contrast to his witty remarks. “That’s the plan.”

Tensing, I set my glass down slowly. “If you’re itching for a fight?—”

“I am.”

“Then fine. Let’s fucking fight.”

Ava wanted me to find peace with Maxim. I have. But I never promised peace with Dimitri.

Dimitri lunges across the table and grabs my jacket, pulling me up. We both start throwing punches and kicks at each other’s faces and bodies. Dimitri lands a particularly hard punch to my abdomen, but I retaliate and land a hit to his pretty boy face. His nose crunches under the force of it. To say it’s satisfying is an understatement.

Our fight leads us over to the bar where I throw Dimitri down on the top of it and hit him so hard in the stomach, he groans. He reaches over and grabs a bottle of wine and hits it against my head. For a moment, I see stars.

“No fighting!” the bartender shouts.

We ignore him.

Dimitri tries swinging the bottle back at me, but I grab it and rip it out of hands. I smash it against the bar, leaving the bottle a broken mess of glass shards. Using one of the shards, I aim it for his neck, but Dimitri dodges out of the way. He kicks me in the stomach, sending me stumbling back.

Lunging over the bar, he grabs a bottle of his own and breaks it. He swings it toward my face, and I feel the slice of a cut on my cheek. It’s minor, but it’s there.

I can’t let Dimitri win this fight. What kind of man would I be if I lost to a pretty boy like him?

With a snarl, I run right at him and stab him in the abdomen with the glass shard. He manages to stab my arm with his own glass shard before slumping to the ground. I kick him in the stomach for good measure, sending him sprawling on the floor.

“Don’t get back up,” I warn. “Or I will kill you. I’ve killed men for less.”

“Then why don’t you kill me?” he asks, smiling up at me, his teeth stained red with blood. It definitely makes him less pretty.

“Because you have power in this city. You have followers. They’d come after me if I killed you. I’m trying to do the smart thing here.”

“There is no smart thing here. Only fucking anger.” He grabs my legs, and I fall to the ground, landing hard on my back. Dimitri crawls on top of me and holds the glass shard to my neck. “I could so easily kill you right now.”

The glass sticking out of his side is just waiting for me to use it, so I do. I grab the glass and twist it inside of him. He shouts and rolls off me.

“If you want to die,” I growl, “then fucking die.” My hand finds another glass shard, but by the time I raise it to kill Dimitri with, he’s already limping toward the door. “Run, you fucking coward.”

He doesn’t look back, and then he’s gone.

I slump against the bar, sweaty and breathing heavily. The bartender looks at me like I’m crazy, and maybe I am.

I limp out of the club myself and drive home, covered in blood.

AVA

I wake up to the sound of Nikolai walking outside my room. His footsteps are always loud.

We haven’t spoken since last night when I asked him to look into my mom. He’s been at work all day. I found myself strangely missing him today, and that’s the first time that’s ever happened.

I crack open my door and freeze when I see him. His white shirt is stained red. His hair is a disheveled mess. And his eyes are a little bit wild.

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