Page 131 of For a Price

JC Howell is one person on a long list of enemies I’ll slaughter. I wipe his blood off me like it’s nothing and rise to my feet. Rosita’s kitchen is splattered with the dark red substance but so is the rest of her apartment.

It’s trickled onto the carpet in the living room. It’s sprayed onto the walls from when JC’s gun went off and the bullet first struck her.

Katerina’s stopped begging her friend to hang on. She sits catatonic beside her like it’s finally sunk in what’s happened. She’s lost her best friend. The glassy-eyed, mouth agape expression she wears says this will be another traumatic experience she’ll struggle with.

Then there’s the matter of the little boy, who is now without a mother. He’s crumpled on the floor in a puddle of silent tears and blood.

Fuck.

This entire situation has become a huge fucking mess.

My phone rings from my pocket. I pull it out while my men collect the remnants of JC for disposal.

“Da?” I answer.

“Zver,” comes the smooth baritone of the pakhan. He sounds amused.“Kak vy segodnya?*?”

“Fuck off!” I growl into the phone. “This was you! This was all fucking you. You sent him here. You used him as a pawn, knowing what would happen.”

“Tvoy otets prav naschet tebya. Ty emotsionalen?*.”

“Eto pravda. Ya zol I razorvu tvoyu chertovu rozhu?*.”

“Yesli vy ne unichtozhite sebya pervym. Naslazhdaytes’ vremenem, poka ono yest.?*”

The pakhan ends the call on those parting words. The line goes dead in my ear. I swear under my breath and pocket my phone.

Katerina happens to look up at the same moment. The tears shining in her eyes have begun to fall. We communicate from across the room based off this simple exchanged look. The pain and sorrow on her face tell me what I’m already thinking.

We’ve played from the shadows long enough. We’ve strategized and conducted all the useful recon at this point.

The pakhan’smade it clear he’s waiting on the next move.

There’s nothing left but to fucking do it. War has been waged, and now the stage has been set for the final battle.

* Kak vy segodnya -how are you today?

* Tvoy otets prav naschet tebya. Ty emotsionalen -your father is right about you. You are emotional.

* Eto pravda. Ya zol I razorvu tvoyu chertovu rozhu -it’s true. I’m angry and I’ll rip your fucking face off.

* Yesli vy ne unichtozhite sebya pervym. Naslazhdaytes’ vremenem, poka ono yest -unless you destroy yourself first. Enjoy your time while you have it.

CHAPTER 38

Katerina

I can’t lookat Roman for the duration of our drive back to his base of operations. We’re both covered in blood for different reasons. He’s bathed in JC’s blood from stabbing him dozens of times to death; I’m soaked in Rosita’s blood from sitting beside her as she was shot. One moment she was sobbing beside me. The next moment her eyes were dimming, her expression vacant.

She’d betrayed me in the final moments of her life. She lured me to her apartment knowing JC would be there and that he would use Lucero to force me into trading places.

It was a move I’d never expect out of her, the woman who had been my best friend through thick and thin.

But could I really blame her when her son’s life was on the line? She was a mother first. She had to protect her boy if JC was threatening him.

Still, I’m left reeling from how close I came to being back in his clutches. From the way our friendship so abruptly ended. The last words I ever spoke to her were angry, pained ones over the betrayal.

“I’m so sorry!” she’d cried. “But I… I had to. He had Luc.”

---