Page 164 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

Another groan.

Another spurt of blood.

His head is drooping forward uselessly on his thick neck, but he’s still awake. I pin his throat to the tree with my forearm.

“You motherfucker,” I hiss. “Where’s Esme?”

I lean in, putting pressure on his neck long enough for him to start spluttering desperately, before I release just enough for him to be able to reply.

“I will not speak,” he rasps.

Bad decision.

I pull out my blade and run his stomach through. He pales when I pull the dagger out and force him to look at his blood gleaming against the shiny steel.

“One more time,” I hiss. “Or there will be much more of this on the ground soon. Where is she?”

“Urgh… I don’t fucking know,” he burbles. “We were instructed to fan out and look for her.”

“Were you working with Budimir this whole fucking time?” I ask.

I’d trusted this fucker to protect Esme while I’d been gone. Of course he’d walked away the moment I had left.

“I had to choose a side.”

“Well, you chose the fucking losing side, asshole,” I snarl. “Budimir’s gonna be pissed when he realizes you had my wife unconscious on a bed and you still managed to lose her.”

“The bitch woke up and—”

I don’t let him finish his sentence. One quick slice of my blade across his throat finishes the son of a bitch for good.

He slumps to the ground.

But I’m not done with dear old Olezka.

I slit open the shirt he’s wearing. Using his chest as a canvas, I carve out a little message for my uncle.

I work fast and messy. Olezka won’t care anymore.

When I’m done, I stand up and look down at what I’ve written. The blood clots under the light filtering down through the trees, but it’s clear as fucking day.

Tvoi dni sochteny.

Your days are numbered.

“That’s a fucking promise, Uncle,” I whisper to the corpse that chose him over me.

I wipe my blade on the leg of Olezka’s pants and sheath it. Then I turn and keep running.

I don’t know why I think I can find Esme before Budimir does, but instinct is telling me to keep walking, keep searching.

She’s out there. She’s close.

I’m glad she ran. It’s the only thing that saved her from Budimir’s men.

But a sudden thought gives me pause.

Esme doesn’t know about Budimir.

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