Page 89 of Soulless Rivalry

“Good,” Batista drawled, a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. “It wasn’t that hard, was it?”

No one answered him.

“You stay here and look over them,” he told three of his friends whose names I didn’t know and couldn’t care less about. His gaze then went back between Konstantin and me. “You two are coming with me.”

We walked silentlythrough the woods; the knife pressing against my throat quickly had me hyperventilating.

My hands shook and I struggled to breathe.

Batista was behind me and Luca was behind Konstantin. I had no idea where they were taking us until the sight of Old Joe’s Mill greeted me. My blood froze; knowing this had been Mia’s last known location made it even harder for me to breathe. I stopped walking, my legs somehow refusing to work anymore.

Behind me, Batista snarled and pushed me hard until my knees hit the ground.

“Don’t you fucking hurt her!” Konstantin’s voice boomed next to us, which earned him a blow to the back from Luca’s crowbar.

His grunt was the only proof that he was hurt because Konstantin was too proud and dignified to let it show in from of fuckers like Batista and Luca. Deciding I would take a little of his strength, I pushed myself back to my feet and started walking again, my cousin’s knife digging into my back this time around.

Once we made it inside, we were greeted by another familiar face: Lorenzo.

“You fucking coward!” Batista spat. “I’ll make you pay for that disappearing act you pulled.”

My cousin said nothing, simply hung his head, and looked at the floor, nothing to say in his defense.

“Make yourself useful and watch over these two while we fetch the rest of them.”

“You’re bringing them all here?” Lorenzo frowned.

Luca smiled. “Yeah. And then we’re setting this whole thing on fire with them in it.”

I froze, my eyes finding Konstantin’s, who again didn’t look scared at all, just fucking angry.

“Grab the gun from underneath the floor over there, Lorenzo. If any of them tries something funny, you shoot, understand?”

Lorenzo gulped, his eyes finding mine, guilt and fear shining in them. Luca didn’t like that and he reiterated, more angrily this time, “I said, do you understand?”

“Yes,” Lorenzo looked at him. “Yes, I understand.”

He got up and went over to where Batista motioned, grabbing a gun and taking a second to stare at it. Then he took off the safety and aimed at Luca. I gasped, eyes wide as I took in the scene in front of me. Lorenzo looked angry, like he’d finally had enough of being bossed around and looked down upon.

“What the fuck are you doing, Gavani—” a gunshot echoed around us and Luca crumbled to the ground, a shocked expression on his face as he tried applying pressure to his chest, but it was no use. I screamed in fright, using Batista’s momentary distraction to throw myself on the ground next to Konstantin, who immediately used his body to shield me.

Luca’s hard heaving was all we could hear for a few seconds, before he stopped breathing altogether, his body going lax on the ground while his eyes remained wide open, staring at the ceiling.

Batista looked at his friend’s dead body, not an ounce of pain etching his face, but fear instead. He slowly put his hand up in surrender, but Lorenzo didn’t seem to care; he pressed the trigger again, hitting Batista in the head.

He was a damn good shot. Arms wrapped around me, Konstantin pushed my body behind his on the ground. He’d managed to untie himself, something I suspected he could have done a long time ago but chose not to because I had a knife to my throat.

“Fuck, I hated those bastards,” Lorenzo breathed, taking a second to look at the bleeding bodies on the floor before turninghis attention back to us. His gun was still drawn, and he motioned for us to get up.

“Lo’? What are you doing?”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Elyssa, but I need to see that journal you mentioned earlier.”

“What?” I asked, confused as to why he would even bring that up now.

He didn’t even seem that affected by the fact that he’d just killed two guys, or the trouble he would get into because of it.

I was confused but Konstantin understood the situation before I did.

---