Page 57 of Cruel Honor

Only to find Katya alone in the house.

“Where’s Evie?” I demand.

I can tell in her eyes she wants to lie to me, but then she sighs. “She’s gone.”

“Again?”

“She left. With Juno. She texted me. I think she’s gone back home.”

“This is her home.”

“Is it?”

I don’t even respond. I just leave and head straight for Juno’s house.

After banging on her door, Juno finally answers. “Dimitri.”

“You don’t seem surprised to see me.”

“I figured you would show yourself eventually.”

I barge on it. “Where’s Evie? Evie!”

“She’s not here.” She fiddles her hands together and can’t meet my eyes.

“Then where the fuck is she?”

“At Dima’s house.”

For a moment, I don’t think I’ve heard her right. “At … Dima’s house? The man who’s trying to kill her? The man I want to protect her from?”

“I presume so. I don’t actually know.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Juno,” I mutter and walk right back out of the house. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

“Because I can’t control her like you can.”

I shoot her a glare as I get into my car. Dima has been in hiding ever since I saved Evie. But if he’s been keeping an eye on her, and he finds her alone, he’ll kill her.

And I have to do everything in my power to keep that from happening.

EVIE

Dima’s house looks exactly as a I remember.

A ramshackle of a place. Peeling paint. Yellow grass on the lawn.

The metal of the fence creaks as I open the gate and walk onto the porch. I have my phone ready to take pictures and a small knife I took from Juno’s house before coming here. It’s not a lot, but hopefully, it’ll help in case Dima makes himself known.

I knock on the door, but no one answers. With trembling fingers, I try the knob, and the door opens right up. I know this is insanely stupid. But I have to put Dima behind bars, and if Dimitri won’t do it, then the task is up to me.

If Dima is gone, then Dimitri has no excuse to keep me married to him. In fact, it’ll be safer for me if he divorces me. Abram won’t want to kill me if I’m not an obstacle to Tatiana.

The smell hits me right in the nose as I enter, just like last time. And also, like last time, it reeks of death.

My steps are light as I walk into the house. Everything is quiet. Quickly, I head down to the basement and find the table Dima wanted to kill me on. Everything is there. The scalpels and the scissors and the knives. The straps on the table.

And the bloodstains on the floor and walls.

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