Page 109 of Lies He Told Me (Bratva Crime Syndicate 1)

Behind me, my men are out now, too, guns blazing. The music muffles everything. It’s fucking chaos.

The air is punctuated with roaring gunfire. Inside, some of the idiots have had time to find their weapons. No matter. I cut them down first.

There’s so many Skull Kings to be gunned down. Old and young, veterans and rookies alike. Many are easy targets: drunk, staggering, pathetic, or merely buzzed and surprised.

It’s satisfying to be back in the thick of it with my men. Peaceful, almost. I belong here.

When there’s nothing left moving ahead of me, I walk towards the last room. The music keeps blaring.Bam-bam-bam—the bass rattles my teeth. It feels good. It feels right.

I kick in the door to the back room. Its occupants don’t notice, too lost in their own pleasure. It’s a Skull King fucking a bartender. I shoot him in the back of the head while she screams. Lucky girl. She doesn’t have the tattoo that, for the others, signed their death warrants. I leave her alive but terrified, huddled in the corner and crying black mascara tears.

My men and I do a final cursory lap of the place, finishing off any half-assed kills. And then we leave. In and out like a scalpel excising the tumors from this city.

The tension in my head has dissipated. Everything seems hyper-clear. There’s nothing like the high after a long-overdue kill. And yet, even as we kill the last Skull Kings desperately trying to hide from our wrath … it’s not enough.

I can’t stop thinking of Joy. I need more blood—to drown her out, if nothing else.

I look at the ugly hulk of a building—The Skillet, they call it; fucking pathetic—their club and stomping grounds, and I know the truth of the matter. Skull Kings breed like rabbits. This place will be full of them again by dawn tomorrow. Unless …

I catch Stefano’s eye. “Finish it.”

“Boss?” Ludmil asks.

“We’re not finished here.”

“But—”

I’m already turning to Stefano, nodding.

“Everyone out?” I ask the others.

“Everyone still living!” Radovan replies promptly.

“Good,” I say. “We’re going to leave the Skull Kings with a final present. A fiery one they won’t soon forget.”

Stefano smiles wide and reaches into his backpack. He lights something, throws it, and seconds later, the building goes up.

Ah, beautiful. Faster than you’d expect.

Then we leave, fire and death in our wake. Only then do I feel satisfied.

25

Joy

My feet wander. I don’t pay the slightest bit of attention to where they’re taking me. All I know is that I have to get my head sorted before I see Gavril.

My belly twists with the knowledge: Mom was wrong.

I did make the same mistakes as she did. I trusted the wrong man. Turned a blind eye to the things about him that I didn’t want to see, then got upset when he turned out to be as terrible as I feared.

Really, I saw this coming. I just chose to ignore it.

As soon as Gavril and Ludmil sidestepped what his job was—no, before that—as soon as that woman said, “He’s a dangerous man”—no, before that—as soon as I laid eyes on Gavril Vaknin, I knew.

Yes, that’s it. I knew even then.

I knew in the gaze he gave me, the stare. There was something about it … something predatory. I knew it, and it scared me, but more than that, I liked it.

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