Page 192 of Savage Reign

Though the feeling wasn’t like how it was when I was young, I still fucking hated feeling like this. I might be getting too old for this shit, considering all I wanted to do these days was stay by Mila and our two kids’ sides and not fucking leave.

And Mila being pregnant with our third kid didn’t fucking help one bit.

I let out a sigh and moved away from the car, leading a group of twenty men with me to an abandoned farmhouse. Movement from inside caught my attention.

Not so abandoned after all.

The bratva bastard had been getting too fucking brave for my liking.

Brave and stupid, considering they tried to blow up one of our warehouses. They were sending in more men from the East Coast to Chicago, hoping that with more manpower, they would be able to slowly chip away at our operations.

They had gotten more reckless after the news of Agent Jones’ death. On paper, it appeared to be an accident. A biking trip gone wrong during his vacation. Only a few men knew the truth. That the fucker targeted the wrong woman, and I had been there with him on his vacation, waiting for the best opportunity to strike.

But now with the fucker gone, the Bratva thought they could move more freely, and they decided to move in on our territory. It also didn’t help that we helped Finley break apart the Bratva’s engagement to Cara.

Hard for there to be an engagement when the groom suddenly disappeared, only for his head to show up on his father’s doorstep three days later.

I smiled, thinking of the fond memory.

The slight sound from the farmhouse drew me from my thoughts and reminded me of our new headache.

What the Bratva didn’t know was that we had men everywhere, and our numbers far surpassed theirs by a long shot. And I was fucking sick of going on the defense.

We were now attacking directly, killing anyone and everyone before they could even utter the wordmiloserdieout loud.

I signaled for my men to span out as we closed in on the farmhouse.

Everyone waited with bated breath for my signal, and when I was sure all the men were in position, I raised my arm and slashed it down.

War cries came out as we burst through the broken door and window. I had men stationed in the back in case any of them would think to leave.

I came across the first fucker and threw my knife at him. It hit the mark, getting lodged in the fucker’s throat. I watched as he gasped, blood making him gurgle as he fell to the ground. Hewas dead before I even pulled my knife out, and I made my way to the next one.

The violence and bloodshed usually worked to help take out some of my energy and quiet all the voices.

Now, I found it didn’t have the same effect as before; instead, I just wanted to get this done and over with and get back home.

The more fuckers came at me, the angrier I got that they were the ones keeping me from home, and the more painful I tried to make my hits.

It didn’t take long for us to destroy them. We were outnumbered, but we had the element of surprise on our hands. Plus, my men weren’t high off their fucking asses.

I shook my head in disgust when we found their loot. Most of the bags were opened, telling me the men here had been sampling them. Whether or not their pakhan knew about this was none of my business.

“Clean this up and burn this place down with the bodies,” I said before walking away. I didn’t need to stay for the aftermath. I didn’t need to be here. We were in the position of never having to get our hands dirty if we didn’t want to, but I found it good to remind the men why we were dubbedsavagesin the first place.

Less room for a revolt that way.

The short walk back to my car was quiet. Peaceful, even. Just as I was about to climb in, my phone vibrated. I took it out and found an unknown number on the screen.

I picked up but didn’t answer, waiting for the person on the other line to speak first.

I didn’t have to wait long.

“She died last night. I just thought you would want to know.”

Then the line clicked off, and I put my phone back in my pocket. When I left Lilliana’s apartment that night, I also had it set up so that if her name ever entered the system, I would bealerted to it. I didn’t want to check on her, but I also wanted to know if something happened, and sure enough, it did.

She died.

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