Page 85 of Bound to a Monster

He moans with agony. I release him and get slowly to my feet. Jovan stares up at me with fear in his eyes as I get my gun and aim it down at his head. His wrecked arm hangs limp by his side. He’s sweating and breathing hard.

“I was dead already,” he whispers, pleading in his eyes. “You get that, don’t you? You gotta know, Lev, I would never?—”

“But you did.”

I pull the trigger and splatter Jovan’s brains across the room.

What a fucking mess. I stand there breathing hard. Replacing Jovan is going to be a pain in the goddamn ass. He had good connections back to quality fake watches, and it’ll take a while to figure out how I’m going to rebuild that network without him.

In the meantime, I have whatever stock he’s got left in this dingy, ratty place. And if I don’t take it, some other asshole from around here will break in the second I’m gone and load it all up.

Fucking Jovan. He should’ve been smarter than this. He could’ve given me what I asked and just kept his head down for a while. It would’ve been okay. Except everyone’s so afraid of the Zeitsev Bratva.

To the point of insanity.

That didn’t need to happen, but Jovan made his choice. The second he came at me, I had to send a message.

I’m not to be fucked with. Even as a dead man walking.

Chapter 34

Carmie

Daniel’s got mustard on his cheek. I keep looking at Luca and trying not to smile, and he keeps looking back at me and doing a shitty job of not laughing, and Daniel keeps getting more and more suspicious. Eventually, he throws up his hands.

“What the hell is with you two?” he snaps, glaring between us.

“Nothing,” I say quickly.

“You’re just looking very… good today.” Luca’s squirming with delight.

“You two are fucking children.” Daniel glares hard. “When will you grow up?”

“Probably never,” Luca admits. “You have mustard on your face.”

“Luca!” I throw a napkin at him.

He laughs as Daniel rolls his eyes and cleans himself off. I know it’s childish, but it’s fun to mess with our stuck-up older brother. Daniel can be such a perfect little prick sometimes, and it’s niceto see him get knocked down a little bit. Even if that just means letting him have food on his face.

It’s always been like this with us. Luca and I tease Daniel, and Daniel pretends like he hates it, but really we have a good thing going. The boys are super close and I’m like their little pet. Or that’s how it feels sometimes.

The deli’s crowded today. The guys behind the counter banter with the customers and there’s lots of laughter. It’s warm and smells like roasting meat and fresh bread. Luca leans back in his little chair and sighs as he watches an older Italian lady squeeze every single roll before picking two she seems acceptable.

“I’m glad you’re doing good, little sister,” Luca says, glancing at me. “Can’t be easy, what your husband’s going through.”

“Taking over his family like that.” Daniel’s lips press together. “Imagine if we killed our father?”

The thoughthadoccurred to me… and while I still love Dad and don’t actually want him dead, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

“You don’t know what his dad was like,” I tell them. “It’s not like he did what he did for no reason.”

“Killing your own dad though,” Daniel says, shaking his head, judgmental as always.

“Ease up,” Luca says, playing peacemaker. “Carmie didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“But I support him.” I sit up a little straighter when both my brothers look at me like I’ve gone insane.

“Right, because he’s your husband and that’s what you have to do,” Luca says like he’s making sure I still speak English.

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