Page 27 of Unhinged

Maybe I got sloppy.

Maybe I did it on purpose.

And now he’s here, Matvei Kopolov.

Yeah. I’ve done my homework.

I outplayed him once before, but he swore he would make me pay.

I’ve thought of him every fucking night since I escaped. I remember the way he looked. The way it felt under the heat of his intense glare. I remember staring at the marks of ink that showed him to be Bratva.

He looks even more raw now, like he just spent six months subsisting on a diet of pure vengeance. He still has an aura of quiet, controlled rage. But there’s something else—I don’t know.

I clench my fists.

Iknewhe was here. It wasn’t a phantom that stocked my shelves with food.

The bar is still full of people. I could try to slip out the back, but he’ll find me.

And I am so tired of running. So fucking tired.

Even if I escaped him, what next?

He’ll find me.

I have to play along for now.

I’m done trying to pretend that I won’t have to face what I’ve done.

I’ve never been weak, and I won’t cave now.

Even when I escaped him, I did so on my terms. I don’t know what he’s going to do with me, but I know this—I’m not getting away a second time.

So I don’t fight. Maybe he wants me to. Maybe he wants me to kick and scream or force me into submission. Perhaps he wants me to realize there’s no escape.

I know this: He gets off on my fear, so I won’t give him the satisfaction. Instead, he just tells me to clear the bar.

Of coursehe does.

I reason with myself… if he were going to kill me, I’d be dead by now. Instead, he meets my eyes…and winks.

Winks.

“Bar’s closed,” I say out loud with finality. I try unsuccessfully to hide the tremor in my voice because I know shit all about what he’s up to next.

I shut off the taps and fold my bar top—indications that I’m done. “Everyone has to go home for the night.”

Some businessman with a briefcase and half a glass of whiskey still in front of him shakes his head. “You don’t close till ten,” he snarls at me.

“We close when she fucking tells you we do,” Matvei snaps. “Get the fuck out of here before I make you.”

I stare at him.

I was never free. I was just delaying the inevitable.

But I am not surrendering. I’m not breaking. I’m choosing—to take whatever consequences come, even if he kills me.

“You heard her.” Matvei goes over to the door, opens it, and escorts everybody else out. “Out.”

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