Page 174 of Bratva's Vow
I froze.
He leaned into the pain, like he needed to get it out before the end.
“It’s your fault, Maxim,” he whispered. “I did everything you wanted. I served you in every way. I gave you everything.My body. My mind. My heart. I sold my soul to the devil because of you. And what did you give me instead? A place at your table, but no food. What good is an empire when the man you love doesn’t love you back?”
I stayed silent, not loosening my grip on the knife. So much bitterness poured from him. How had I missed the signs?
“I thought you didn’t know how to love, and I was fine with that,” he went on. “You had all those boys in and out of your bed. They were nothing but pretty things you used and discarded. But I lasted the longest. I was the only one you kept close. I thought that meant something. Maybe you didn’t love me, but I was special.”
“Enough,” I growled hoarsely.
His breath hitched. “But then he came along. Ignorant. Uncouth. So fuckingweak. The most unremarkable boy you’ve ever been with. And you—you fell in love.Reallove. Withhim. Why him? What was so fucking special about him? He did nothing to earn your love while I worked like a dog for a decade, begging you for it.”
“You don’t know what love is. If you did, you’d understand it’s not something you can force or earn.”
He laughed, bitter and broken. “But I deserved your love! I wanted to kill him the moment I saw what was happening between you two.”
“So the day he got stabbed?” I asked. “That was you?”
“No. That wasn’t me. Just another random day of someone wanting your head.”
“What about Stone? Was that you?”
Archie gave a crooked smile. “He wasn’t coming after you. He was after Wren. He agreed with me that you were becoming irrational. He hated that you humiliated him at the police station for Wren. He was easy to manipulate. I promised him that as long as he helped me to get Wren outof the equation, I would help him to disappear, and he wouldn’t have to work a day in his life.”
I gritted my teeth. “And Bradley?”
“Bradley was supposed to flirt with Wren. Just to prove what a slut he was. But he was useless. Couldn’t even get him to say yes to one single date where he’d get him drunk and take pictures of him fucking Wren. I didn’t even have to convince him to go along with the plan. After I told him about you and his father, he wanted to hurt you.”
“I gave you everything. I would have given you half of everything I owned if you wanted it.”
I pulled the knife from his belly and stabbed him again, just below the ribcage.
He groaned but didn’t fight back. Blood spread through his shirt like ink. “But you wouldn’t give me your heart.” A thin smile stretched across his lips. “Fitting, isn’t it? That I die in the very kitchen where I poisoned the man you love. At least you’ll never forget me now.”
My heart stuttered. “What about Vova? Was that you?”
Archie’s eyes gleamed. “I thought if Vova got into trouble, it would be a distraction for you to stop searching for Wren, giving me time to find and get rid of him. I didn’t mean to kill Vladimir, but he panicked and put up a fight.”
My hands shook. Vova. The air seemed to leave the room, sucked out with my breath. More than just a cousin. A friend. A brother. Gone because of this man.
A rage unlike anything I’d ever experienced bubbled up in me. Not just for what he had done, but for the misplaced trust I had placed in him for years.
I yanked the knife out.
Archie crumpled to the floor, blood soaking the tiles in thick, dark swirls. He gasped like a fish out of water, one hand pressed to his gut, the other reaching for the edge of the island to drag himself forward.
I didn’t stop him.
Didn’t speak.
Didn’t breathe.
“You can kill me, but it won’t stop. If I die, everything I have on you will leak. Arkady will have everything he needs beat you at your game.”
One moment, I was in the kitchen with the knife, the next, I was in the hall, holding the sledgehammer. The same one Archie had used to crush Vova’s skull in the alley. I didn’t recall going to my office to get it but the weight of it in my hands was real.
Heavy.
