Page 13 of Hunter

I grab the tongs, their cold metal a perfect contrast to the fire burning in my chest. Without hesitation, I shove them into his mouth and, with one savage motion, slice his tongue clean off. Blood spills, gushing onto the floor, and his muffled screams fill the air, but I don’t stop.

Leaning in, I whisper, my voice steady and venomous. “Her name is sacred, too perfect to be tainted by a worthless piece of shit like you. Don’t worry, though—now you’ll never speak it again.”

The scream that follows is deafening, metal on metal as he thrashes, desperate for freedom, but I’m done.

“You’re useless to me,” I growl through clenched teeth, plunging the knife into his eye before turning and walking toward the door.

I hear him screaming behind me, his misery echoing through the walls.

“He can join his son in hell.”

I stop at the door and turn to my soldiers. “I’m done with him. Let him suffer for a couple of hours before finishing him off,” I say, not even bothering to glance back. Marcos doesn’t have anything left for me. The person pulling the strings didn’t trust him, or they knew he couldn’t handle the job.

“What did you get out of him?” Andrei asks, stepping in line with me.

“He was contacted by a middleman. Never met in person—just phone calls.”

“That’s it?” His surprise is evident.

I glare at him, frustration mounting. Marcos had nothing else to offer. He was a puppet—only useful for confirming what I already knew. Why waste more time with someone who didn’t know anything?

Wait…

The conversation with Marcos replays in my head. He baited me, switched the subject to get me angry. He knew mentioning Sophia and Elena would distract me, and he used my anger to his gain. He wanted to die.

“Yes, that’s all I got,” I snap. Andrei’s brow furrows in confusion. He opens his mouth to speak, but I stop him.

“Are you done questioning me?”

“Did the big, bad Maxim Volkov lose his touch?” he jokes, lifting my mood just a little, helping me shake off that strange feeling in my chest. I shouldn’t feel bad; Marcos made his bed.

“I can’t be perfect all the time, my dear brother,” I reply with a lighter tone, and he laughs. “He didn’t know anything. If the person pulling the strings told him something, it means they’re either stupider than Marcos, or they were lying to him to make him think he was in on it.”

I sigh, my heart aching. I'm in way over my head. The interrogation with Marcos only pushed me ten steps backward. I don’t know what to do next. I want to help Sophia, but I’m lost.

Andrei’s phone buzzes, and when he looks at it, his eyes widen. He mutters something about needing to leave, rushing off. I take my opportunity to slip away unnoticed.

I grab the doorknob and step outside, the bright sunlight forcing me to squint. With my hands shoved in my pockets, I pull out my car keys, their weight somehow grounding me for a second.

The moment I slam the car door, I scream, a raw, guttural scream that rips from my chest. I scream until my throat feels like sandpaper, until the air burns my lungs. I scream until I’m too weak to keep going, my eyes squeezing shut as my head falls back against the headrest.

I feel trapped, helpless—as if I’m sinking into quicksand, each movement only pulling me deeper. My body aches, every muscle and bone screaming at me to stop fighting. The thought lingers: what’s the point of continuing if she’s not here with me?

A tear slips down my cheek, the saltiness stinging my skin. I catch it with my tongue, the bitter taste of my own sorrow.

The memory of finding my mother’s head in a box floods my mind. I remember the anger, the sadness, the fire in my chest. Back then, I swore vengeance, a plan already taking shape in my mind. But now…now, all I feel is this overwhelming doubt. No matter what I do, no matter how much blood I spill, Sophia will hate me. Even if I get my revenge, it’ll never be enough.

What’s done is done.

SIX

MAXIM

My phone buzzes a few times, but I ignore it. I need a moment to hide from the world, to hide from myself. I need to regain control. The truth is, I lost my shit in there with Marcos. He may not have had more information, but maybe—maybe—I could have gotten him to set up a meeting with the middleman. But when he called her a whore, something inside me exploded. Hearing it come from his mouth felt like a desecration, like he was tainting the perfection that is Sophia.

No one will ever harm her again, not while I’m breathing.

I stare up at the sky, cursing a god I don’t believe in, making sure he understands—nothing and no one will come between me and my queen.

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