Page 25 of Sapphire Tears

His eyes go wide when he sees me. The bag in his hand hits the floor with a thump. It’s dark and dusty in here, but there’s no mistaking what I’m seeing. He’s too close for me to convince myself of anything else.

“Adrian?”

“Kolya!” I hear June’s voice behind him, but I can’t take my eyes off my brother.

My brother.

He’s alive.

11

KOLYA

Adrian’s familiar features have disappeared under his beard, that skinny frame swallowed up by his baggy clothes. But I can sense the same simmering aura resentment I once knew…

Before he fuckingdied.

I’m about to ask him what the hell all of this means when he charges forward. He swallows up the distance between us in two huge strides, then lunges at me. His body smashes into mine and we hit the floor in a painful tangle of limbs.

I’m so dazed and taken aback that he gets the first blow in before I even think to defend myself. He punches me once in the face, hard. He’s rearing back for a second one when I finally come to my senses and knee him in the stomach before the next strike lands.

It feels like we’ve regressed back decades. Not much has changed. When he was a little boy, Adrian didn’t know the meaning of protecting himself. Now that he’s a man, he still fights the same way—all reckless offense, not a spare thought given to defending what matters most.

I smash my forehead into his. He grunts and rolls off me. If it were anyone else, I would grab my gun and end this immediately.

But it’s not anyone else. It’s my brother. Bogdan, Adrian, whoever the hell he is—he’s still my flesh and blood. I am still his keeper.

And I’ve beaten him senseless with my bare hands since the day he was old enough to take up a fighting stance.

This will be no different.

I straddle him and deliver a trio of swift punches to his gut and face. His skull cracks back against the tile floor and he grunts again in pain. He tries feebly to throw me off of him. It’s enough to toss me aside, but I pull him along with me and use the momentum to do a full roll and end up on top once more.

He catches me with a wild elbow that splits my lip open. I tongue the cut and taste blood, feel it dripping down my chin, as our hands scrabble for purchase.

It doesn’t last much longer. He throws another reckless punch, I bat it aside, and then I have the ultimate advantage, and he knows it. In one smooth move, I withdraw the knife from my boot and press it to his throat.

“Yield, motherfucker,” I snarl. “Or I’ll gut you like a fucking fish.”

He struggles for one more moment before he accepts his defeat. His hands fall by his side, though I keep my eye on them.

The son of a bitch came back from the dead just to spite me—there’s no telling what he might do to finish the job.

The sweat makes my grip on the knife handle unsteady. I adjust it, Adrian’s gaze fixed on me the whole time. He sees in my eyes what I’m drowning in in my head: the desire to kill him for what he’s done versus the desire to save him from himself.

“You’re supposed to be dead. I should kill you for this.”

He opens his mouth to speak, but it’s not his voice I hear.

“Kolya!”

June’s voice gets my attention. I look up to find her standing in the threshold of the door, the pitiful shower curtain thrust aside behind her.

She looks so ghostly. So thin. So lost.

It just makes me even more furious.

“What thefuckdo you think you’re doing with her?” I roar down at my brother, abandoning the knife in favor of wrapping a hand around his throat.

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