Page 93 of Kings of Cruelty

I look at my phone, and at Vasily. I think of everything my father could do with the information in my phone—information I’ve purposefully kept limited, but information all the same.

“Do not attempt anything stupid,” my father says, raising his gun toward Nikolai once more.

I hand the phone to Vasily with an annoyed grunt.

“If you hurt anyone under my protection—” I start, but my father interrupts me with a mocking laugh.

“I already have. And I will do it again and again, unless you start being a dutiful son and obey.” He points to the door. “Now start moving.”

I steel myself and obey, following Nikolai out the kitchen door. There are two men with Roman who start leading usthrough the mansion. I spot a corpse by the stairwell, a large bloodstain splattered against the wall.

“It will never be enough for him,” I say to Roman.

“What?” Roman digs his gun into my spine. “Shut up and keep walking.”

“It will never be enough for Father. No matter what you do.” I keep walking. One of the men at Roman’s side tenses oddly.

That’s Stepan, I realize. He’d been one of the men I’d personally picked to join the organization. It burns to have him betray me like this.

His movements slow when we get near the door to the garage.

Or maybe he hasn’t betrayed me.

“My relationship with Father is none of your business,” Roman mutters. He steps closer to me.

I brace myself.

Stepan suddenly shoves Roman away from me. Roman shouts, and his gun goes off. The bullet whizzes past me and embeds itself in the wall.

While they grapple, I go for the other guard. He’s focused on Roman and doesn’t notice me until it’s too late. I knock him into the wall, and his hold on his weapon loosens. I try to wrest it away from him, but he manages to hold on and fight me for the gun—until I pull the trigger and catch him in the thigh. He cries out and slumps to the floor, clutching his leg.

“Come on, Nikolai, Stepan,” I say. “We need to get out of here.”

Stepan slams Roman’s head against the wall. Roman cries out and slides to the floor. Stepan kicks Roman while he’s down, and Roman goes still.

We don’t have time to finish the job.

The three of us barrel through the garage door, and gunfire erupts behind us right before I slam the door closed. This willonly buy us a few precious seconds. I slam my hand on the button to open the garage doors. They all start to slowly rise up.

“Got the keys,” Nikolai pants as he reaches into his other pocket. “Can’t drive though.”

Stepan grabs the keys from him. “On it.”

We get into the closest car, the large black SUV. Nikolai and I get into the back while Stepan climbs into the driver’s seat. The door to the house opens and somebody aims a gun at us, but Stepan is already flooring it out of there.

“The front gate,” I say, wincing. “The SUV might be able to take it down, but?—”

“Boris is on it,” Stepan says. “It should… yeah, it’s already open.”

Fuck. If they find out Boris helped, they’ll kill him. They’d already tortured him, and I have no clue how he managed to rig this before they’d gotten to him.

I turn my attention to Nikolai, whose arm is still bleeding. I rummage under the seat in front of me for the first aid kit. It’s small, but it has gauze and bandages.

“I’ll patch you up until we can find a real doctor,” I say to Nikolai.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’ll be fine. Hurts like a bitch, but hey, now I’ll have another sexy scar.” The joke is half-hearted, especially since he’s staring out the window. “We are so fucked, aren’t we?”

I glance back at the mansion. They aren’t giving chase, but I assume tending to Roman is more important. My father has my phone anyway, and all of my cash, my files, my weapons.

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