Page 373 of Vicious Saint
I hear, but don’t see my feet as they stomp along the pavement, same goes for my hands when pulling the gun out of my hoodie pocket.
My lungs breathe the same flames raging inside my head, and a few steps later I’m across the small street of the restaurant. The flames have vanished, allowing me a view of the handful of men sitting around a table in the back.
I watch them laugh freely, breathe freely,livefreely without fucks to give about everything they took from me.
Like a killswitch going off in my head, every sense of rage, pain, and grief I’m burning in shuts down. Leaving me with nothing but a voice screaming for me to carry out my vengeance.
So, after a quick kiss to Carlo’s gold horn, I raise the gun and release the safety, marching across the street as I pull the trigger.
A deafening crack bellows into the night as the first bullet shoots through the window, leaving it to shatter in a ceremony of glass.
Then…I shoot another.
And another.
Until I’m standing in front of the restaurant screaming at the top of my lungs…unleashing six more shots back to back.
Seconds after the shooting stops, I’m out of breath, dizzy, and being hit in the head with something hard.
“Wake up sleepy head…” a distorted female voice says right before a sharp slap whips me across the face.
“What the…?” I mumble, heavy eyes blinking open.
The person in front of me appears fuzzy at first, but when I’m slapped even harder adrenaline kicks in to jolt me awake.
I find a woman standing in front of me, dark hair, early twenties, dressed in all black leather. With a familiar accent andface I can’t quite put my finger on. That is, until she sneers, “Hendrix Montgomery, didn’t I tell you we have to stop meeting like this?”
The dressing room. The club. The questions.
All that’s missing is the flirting and blonde hair.
“Leerie?”
“In the flesh. Except my full name is Valeriya Ivanov. Eldest daughter of Nikolai Ivanov.”
I attempt to lunge at her, but a sharp sting radiates down both arms, and when I look I find them outstretched with ropes fastened around my wrists. My ankles are in a similar circumstance, except they’re tied to hooks on the floor.
Fucking fantastic.
“Nuh-uh-uh.” Leerie wags a finger at me. “I suggest you save your strength for when Boris joins the party.”
I spit in her face. “Fuck you.”
Leerie swipes the saliva off her cheek, then sucks in an angry, ragged breath. “You really shouldn’t have done that.”
Add it to the damn list of stupid decisions.
“What does your piece of shit family want with me?”
“Have we not made ourselves clear yet?We want you dead for what your psycho father did to my brother. In fact, I traveled a long way from Russia to make sure it happens.”
“I didn’t even know who he was!”
“Yeah, well. You don’t have to know the king was your father in order to be deemed a princess.”
Struggling in the restraints, I bite out, “I’m gonna kill you, and your despicable father for what you did to Carlo.”
“Ha!” She claps her hands. “Funny you should mention Papa, because he’s on his way. And not very happy about the mess you made in his restaurant.”
