Page 12 of The Payment

He leaned forward in a movement that was deliberately predatory.The smile he flashed was with all his teeth—like a shark scenting blood in the water.

“If you want to play that game, I’m salivating for it.But understand this,”—his words carved the air between them—“before I permit your final breath to leave your body, I will systematically dismantle everything you’ve built.You will end your days as nothing but bone and sinew, crawling through filth, begging for scraps like the vermin you truly are.”

His eyes burned with cold intensity.When he spoke again, each syllable dripped with the promise of marked devastation.

“Cancel that hit, Polov,” he whispered, the softness more terrifying than if he had shouted them out loud.“Or I begin tightening the noose.And I won’t stop until I’ve watched you choke on your own desperate gasps for mercy.Your empire?I’ll reduce it to ashes within weeks.Your reputation?Dust.Your legacy?Erased as if it never existed.”

He straightened and adjusted his cuffs with deliberate care.

“Consider carefully if aggravating me further is worth the exquisite suffering I’m positively aching to inflict upon you, which I have paused only because of Tatiana.Make the decision, Polov.The clock is ticking.”

As they turned to leave, Jarek stopped at the threshold, looking back at Elizabeth’s crumpled expression.

“She asked me to tell you something,BabushkaElizabeth.”He delivered the lie with perfect sincerity.“She said she understands why you never protected her parents...that fear makes cowards of us all.”

The wound landed precisely.Tears flowed freely over Elizabeth’s porcelain-like cheeks.As he strode down the hallway, the birds continued their morning chorus, oblivious to the human heart breaking inside the mansion’s walls.

Jarek

Lakeshore Drive NW, Berkeley Lake, Georgia...

The drive away from the Polov estate twisted through dense woods before emerging onto the main highway.Jarek sat in the driver’s seat of the black SUV.His posture was relaxed, but his energy crackled with wolfish satisfaction.He watched the mansion shrink in the rear window while savoring the taste of victory like fine whiskey on his tongue.

“Fuck, Boss.I love watching you in action.”Declan peeled away the prosthetic mask with practiced fingers, wincing as the adhesive pulled at his skin.“That Russian mobster quivered in his boots.I could even see him checking his response right at the end.”

Jarek’s lips curved into a razor-sharp smile.“And Elizabeth’s face when I delivered the supposed message from Tatiana?The woman nearly collapsed.”

He loosened his tie as he pressed back against the leather seat.The confrontation had gone precisely as planned—better, even.Gregor’s impotent rage and Elizabeth’s devastation were additional delicate sips of the revenge he’d been crafting for a decade.

“If he knows what’s good for him, that fucking hit had better be canceled by the time we arrive in Boston.”Jarek’s voice remained conversational, as though they were discussing the weather rather than murder contracts.

Declan tossed the mask into a specialized case and ran his fingers through his flattened hair in a familiar move.He glanced sideways at Jarek.

“And if it’s not?”

“Then it’s time to pull the plug on his association with the Sicilian Mafia.”The idea sparked a surge of anticipation through Jarek’s veins.“He’s been cherishing that alliance for the past thirty years.It would give me the greatest pleasure to yank that fucking magic carpet from under his feet.”

“Fucking A, Boss.”Declan cheered with excitement lighting his eyes.“We should do it whether he cancels that hit or not.”

“Yeah...it’s not off the table, Declan.”Jarek stared out the window as he watched the Georgia countryside blur past.“If Polov thinks his debt is paid in full with the white, delicate flesh of his granddaughter, he’s in for a surprise.”

The words left his mouth before he recognized the hot, visceral rage behind them.The sudden fury blindsided him.Not in a calculated and cold way like his usual anger, but raw and bleeding.His jaw clenched tight enough to crack teeth.

That the old bastard believed Tatiana was truly traded like currency—his own blood, his son’s child—sparked a revulsion in Jarek he hadn’t anticipated.Accepting Jarek’s casual bartering of her life, her body, and her future, as though she was nothing more than collateral damage in men’s games of power, was despicable.

It mirrored too closely what had happened to Lisbet and Emma.

His hands curled into fists, and his knuckles whitened as he tightened them.He had married Tatiana to destroy Gregor and had meticulously planned to use her as a weapon against her grandfather—yet Gregor’s willingness to sacrifice her burned like acid in his chest.The hypocrisy of his own reaction wasn’t lost on him.He had maneuvered her into position with the same cold reckoning, yet at the same time, he couldn’t stomach Gregor’s cavalier disregard for her humanity.

What the hell was happening to him?This wasn’t part of the plan.Tatiana was a means to an end.The perfect instrument to weaken Gregor to affect his complete destruction.Nothing more.

Declan frowned as he watched him closely and noticed his sudden tenseness.“Boss?”

Jarek unclenched his jaw with deliberate effort and smoothed out the tension in his shoulders.He couldn’t afford complications, especially not ones stemming from his own conflicted reactions.The path forward required surgical precision, not emotional entanglements.

“The old man thinks the ledger is balanced,” Jarek’s voice steadied into its usual controlled cadence.“That handing over Tatiana cancels out the blood debt he owes me.As if one life—even hers—could ever equal what he took.”He straightened his cuffs in a gesture that helped him refocus.

“I’m not done, Declan.He’s just too blasé about Tatiana paying his debt.He’s not feeling the pain I wanted him to, so I’m going to take everything from him.His business.His reputation.His legacy.Leaving him with his entire family hating him.And when he’s standing in ruins, with nothing left but the knowledge of how completely he has been destroyed—only then will I let him die.”

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