Page 64 of Tangled Souls

One bullet rips through the prostitute’s head. His.

One bullet hits Mikhail’s shoulder and has him stumbling back and dropping his gun. Mine.

Hendrix and Wolfe are there then, subduing Mikhail for the trip he’s about to take. Even though there might not be neighbors close by, the questions we have to ask are going to take some time. He’s earned a trip to the warehouse and our special room.

As I look down at Mikhail’s bleeding shoulder, it doesn’t feel quite real.

He’s been lurking and waiting, biding his time while stewing on thoughts of revenge. But now he’s here at my feet with a bullet in his shoulder and zero hope to see the sunlight again.

“I’ll fucking kill you,” Mikhail’s eyes are wild as he looks at the four of us standing over him.

All I can do is shake my head. We are kings. He was never more than a pawn.

CHAPTER 24

KIRILL

When I walk into the basement room to find both of our guests—and yes, I’m using the term very loosely—waiting for me, I can’t help but grin. It’s not a nice smile and Adam, who starts wiggling in his chair, knows it. Mikhail doesn’t seem bothered.

Not yet at least.

I clap my hands together, the sound reverberating around the room as the guys file in behind me and pick spots where they can see the action. As they settle in, I don’t look away from Mikhail. He’s not rattled by it, though.

Which is just fine by me.

Those who believe they are unbreakable shatter in the most satisfying way.

My eyes drift over to Adam. The last time I visited him he had started to believe his cousin would come for him and liberate him from my clutches. I knew the truth. It was never going to happen, but desperation can lead to delusion.

“How has it been trying to run your organization without Adam as your right-hand man, Mikhail?” I don’t take my eyes off Adam as I ask the question.

Always so fucking full of himself, Mikhail laughs. He actually throws his head back and sounds like a movie villain who thinks he’s immortal. But this isn’t a movie. And Mikhail is just a man.

A man covered in blood with a weeping wound and a reckoning coming.

“My right-hand man?” Mikhail gasps the question incredulously, the amusement clear in his voice. “He’s nothing to me. Expendable,” he spits the word.

Adam pales and I can’t help but smirk. Triumph rushes through my veins as I prowl closer to our guests.

“I told you,” I murmur the words to Adam.

His head drops to his chest as if the weight of the world is bearing down on him. Maybe it is. “I know,” he whispers. When he looks back up at me his words are broken, “I’ve already told you everything I know. He was never worth my loyalty; I realize it now. I thought because he’s family that it would be different. I’m sorry for the role I played in his game.”

I nod and pull my gun. The sound of the shot is jarring, but I don’t look away as the bullet embeds itself in the middle of his forehead. His body goes limp, the ground behind him painted with the last second of his life.

It will find its way down the drain. Just like every other life that has been taken here.

When I look over at Mikhail, he has a look of glee on his face. I wasn’t expecting anything else, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a shame. He became twisted up into something unrecognizable a long time ago.

Even if I hadn’t killed his father, he would have ended up as this man. It might not have been my basement he ended up in, but it would have been another. I have no doubt about it.

I’m glad that I stood between him and this city before he could hold real power in his hands. I might not be a good man, but I’m better than the monster in front of me.

“Thank you,” Mikhail’s tone is conversational, “you just did me a big favor.”

I make a humming sound as I tuck my gun away and pull out a knife. Part of me wishes it was Oaklynn’s knife, there would have been a certain poetry to it, but it is what it is right now.

“You have been a thorn in my side for far too long, Mikhail,” my voice is cold and detached. “You’re bad for business, a loose cannon that can’t be trusted.” I smirk at him and add, “Even your father thought so.”

---