Page 74 of Hear Me Roar

“Where's Hazel?” Isnapped.

“Oh, she's somewhere around here. Proved to be too rowdy for my taste. Had to send her away with Maksim while I dealt with mywife.”

Send her away… While he dealt with hiswife…

A red veil hastily clouded my vision, shooting me into a silent rage I could barely contain. If he hurt either one of them, he was going to hear me fucking roar,afterI ripped his eyeballs from their sockets and stuffed them down histhroat.

“If you hurt her, I swearI’ll-”

“What? You’ll kill me?” The quirk of his brow revealed how amused he was. “I think not, Mr. Carr. You try, and I will be sure Maksim tortures her in every brutal waypossible.”

“Dimitri…” I growled, balling my fists at my sides, to which he held a handup.

“Do as I say and everyone lives. It’s really quitesimple.”

“What do youwant?”

“Your help,” he saidsimply.

My fucking help?“My help, withwhat?”

“I am a man of many trades, Mr. Carr, and with those trades come dealers who I negotiate certain terms with, to ensure all goes as planned. I do not usually have any problems with them, but every now and then, one will stray from our agreement, thinking they have the upper hand. Nikolai Kozlov proved to be one of them, costing me a great deal of money. Not to mention all the goods I losttoo.”

How in the ever-loving fuck was this relevant? Was I missing the bigger picturehere?

‘What does this have to do withme?”

“Nothing, and everything,” hedeclared.

I motioned for him to continue because I still wasn’tfollowing.

“You’re the key to getting my money back,” he explained, waving his hands in the air. “Here, I’ll show you. Feliks,Kazimir.”

The windows worked in my favor once more, revealing two men inching toward me, who I hadn’t known were at the back of the room, baleful expressions on theirfaces.

Are you fucking kidding me rightnow?

I stood rooted in place until they closed in and, because of my hinderance, I’m sure neither one of them were expecting an elbow to the face. Their groans erupted in tandem as they stumbled back, giving me the opportunity to spin in place and lunge for the one in closest range. With his attention trained on his nose, I rammed a fist into each side of his head and kicked him right in the fucking balls, just as number two bound up behind me and wound an arm around myneck.

Wrong move,bro…

Grabbing hold of his arm, I whipped him over my back, and slammed him onto the ground, throwing a swift foot to his gut that curled him into a ball as he sucked in a giant heap of air. Both men laid still on the ground; one knocked out, the other wallowing in pain. Panting, I turned back to Dimitri, mentally talking myself down from doing the same to him. He deservedit.

“You want more?” he asked, his tone impressed, so I waved my hands challengingly withouthesitation.

“Bringit.”

A sinister grin spread across his face as he brought his fingers up to his lips, whistling for yet again another two men, who came barreling into the room. This time, I didn’t stall. I went straight the one on the right and tossed a fist dead-center in his face, stumbling him back onto his ass. Just as I spun around, I reached out for the next one, flinging him into the wall with a vicious grunt. Tearing a page from my girl’s book, I wailed on him with those heavy-handed hammer punches until blood dripped onto my knuckles. I won’t lie, he got some in, too, but I hardly felt them through the rush of adrenaline surging through my body. Releasing him, I spun back to put dude one out of his misery, but he’d already scrambled out of the room, droplets of blood spattered onto the ground, revealing his trail. My eyes darted back to where Dimitri stood, my chest heaving as I tried catching mybreath.

To my surprise, he clapped, nodding in approval. “And this is why I need your help. I’d say, let's send some more in, but I’d rather you preserve yourenergy.”

“I still” –pant – “don’tunderstand.”

“Gladiator fights, Mr. Carr. Are you familiar withterm?”

“Yes…”

“Well, I have friend who makes most of his money by renting out different locations to hold these fights. Tickets to see fights are not cheap and some bystanders like to bid on fighterstoo.

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