Page 91 of Beautiful Enemy

Sergei gets closer and closer to my room until he’s right there. I jump out from behind the wall and pistol whip him in the head, sending him staggering back.

Matteo shoots one of the guards dead in the head while the other fires at him. A grunt comes from Matteo’s mouth. Glancing back, I see that Matteo got shot in the arm.

“I’m ok,” he says, and in one impressive move, manages to shoot the guard who shot him, killing him instantly.

All the color drains from Sergei’s face as he realizes he’s outnumbered.

“You really thought you could kill me?” I kick him in the stomach. He falls to the floor with a groan. It’s satisfying.

“If you’re going to kill me, just get it over with.”

“I want to have some fun with you first.”

“Dante,” Matteo says, “if Sergei is here, then Erik and Viktor probably won’t be far behind. We have to leave. We have another safehouse lined up. We need to go.”

“In a minute.” I bend over Sergei and stroke his cheek, making him jerk away. “Don’t like being touched? Then maybe you never should have touched your daughters.”

“I never touched them.”

“You beat them.”

“That’s different. They needed discipline. But I never touched them… sexually.” He says the word like it’s dirty.

“I would love to make you suffer for hours but I guess I’m just going to have to end things here.” I stand back up and raise my gun.

Footsteps run towards me and then I hear the soft voice that has been haunting my dreams for the past few weeks. “Don’t. Dante don’t.”

I look over at Nadia. “You were supposed to stay in your room.”

“I know. But…” Her eyes fall onto her father. “I can’t see him die.”

“Then go back to your room.”

“I mean, I don’t want you to kill him.”

Sergei’s laugh makes me want to fucking punch him, so I do for good measure. He grunts and groans in pain after my fist connects with his face.

“My daughter doesn’t want me to die. See? I’m not such a bad father after all.”

“You are,” Nadia says, making Sergei frown.

“You don’t get to speak to me this way,” he hisses.

“You’ve made me afraid my entire life. You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”

I turn to Nadia. “I have to kill him. He needs to die.”

“No one needs to die,” she says as her eyes search my face. She’s so beautiful and innocent. It almost breaks my cold fucking heart. “We can make peace.”

Sergei barks a laugh. “Peace? With the man who kidnapped you? I don’t fucking think so.” In one quick motion, he pulls out a knife from an ankle holster and chucks it right for me.

I jerk out of the way and at the last second, I realize my mistake.

Because the knife lands right into Nadia’s arm. Her scream of pain hurts me.

“Shit. Don’t pull it out,” I tell her, clasping her arm. It’s lodged right into her bicep. “It’s not in too deep.”

“It hurts,” she whimpers.

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