Page 1 of Collapsed

Prologue

5 years ago

Ivan

If this mother fucker does not take his hands off of me, I am going to murder him where he stands.Andrei is upset that I blew up the dance studio at which Natalia attended, and I am being summoned into his office as we speak. He thinks Natalia is his or should I say his weak son Alexie’s. Both of them are wrong. She is mine. Mind to bend and break, to cherish and destroy. She has been mine since Andrei brought her under his wing. She just thinks she can step out on me with the bastard heir. But I keep showing her that she has no choice but to bend to my will, blowing up her dance studio was punishment for sassing me in the alley.

“Umbra, take a seat,” Andrei instructs me from the chair behind his desk as one of his other goons directs me to a chair across from him. “My boy, you shame me with your defiance. How dare you touch thePrintsessato angerMoy Mal'chik.And blowing up her dance studio for denying you…” he trails off, making a tsking sound while shaking his head. “When will you learn? Now, that is when. Due to your insolence, I am sending you to Chicago, where you will join a team that works for a private organization to solve crimes. I have already coordinated everything, and you will report to my informant while also keeping an eye on thesvin'ya zadnitsa.His name is Walter Ingram, and he runs a team named The Elite.” He pauses, rounding his desk before sitting back down on the edge of it in front of me. “Agent Ingram and a woman named Billy Beckford are assisting me in creating a new supply chain in Chicago for my auctions. Ms. Beckford is procuring the merchandise through her connections with Children Protective Services and will transfer them into our care at Cooters Clubhouse located in Las Vegas. Along with your assignment of becoming an operative of that team, you will also be supervising that portion of my newest business adventure and running it smoothly to make up for your childish temper tantrum. Do you understand me?”

How dare he speak to me in this way after everything I have done for him over the years?Do I understand him? Oh, I understand him, alright.I will show him who actually runs this Bratva. I will kill him one day. Then this Bratva and Natalia,moy ogonwill be mine, mark my words.

“Boy, I asked if you understand me?” he barks at me when I don't respond to him right away.

I lift my head, looking him directly in the eyes. “Yes, sir. I will go to make you proud.”

Two Years Later…

These past few years have moved slower than tar since I was banished from my home in New York and sent to babysit Ingram. Being undercover has given me a passion I didn’t know I had. Pretending to be someone else has a draw that I never experienced before. I like playing this game, molding myself to be this Kruz person every day. One day I will reveal who I really am to these people and that there is no line I won't cross, nothing I won’t do.

There is a wide range of characters on this team, and I take great enjoyment in getting to know them, only to store their every weakness in my mental database. I’m slowly getting into their heads, which will allow me to play with them until the time comes when I can destroy them. Manipulating them has been the highlight of this fucking mission that I’ve been forced into. Especially these alpha-type men. They think they are slick and know everything. They know absolutelynothing!Otherwise, they would know that there was a wolf among the sheep. The quirky, colorful-haired ditz is my next favorite. If I wasn’t so in love withmoy ogonthe wigged woman would be mine. MaybeMy Firewill see reason, and I could have both?

Marcela is too headstrong and sassy and the fact that she’s into women and not men fills me with rage. Maybe she just hasn’t had the right man yet. I should take her and break her and force her to change her ways. Don’t even get me started on the incompetent Conrad whose only job is to look good and type he’s a waste of human air. Stryker on the other hand if he wasn’t so uptight we could be friends but his bossy demeanor has me imagining him taking his last breath as my knife slides across his throat frequently.

Then we have the asshole I’m in the car with currently. King, we are often paired up together since we joined the team at the same time. He latched onto me like a drowning man would grasp onto a life preserve. King and I are driving back to the office together because the team just closed a case on a serial rapist who was targeting prostitutes. He would lure them into his car, only to roughly fuck them, leaving them beaten, bruised, and fighting for their lives. The fake persona I have created wouldn’t get along great with this man, but the real me knows he’s another alpha male who knows where women belong.

A few minutes into our drive, King starts to speak. “I feel so bad for the women that were assaulted. I hope BJ gets them set up with therapy services or something to deal with the trauma. Hopefully, they can start new lives, better lives, if they can work through what they went through at the hands of that monster.”

I can only nod in agreement as he finishes his whiny sob story when in reality, all I want to do is criticize everything this buffoon did incorrectly. If it was me going after these women, they would never be able to get rid of the stain I left behind on their souls, not to mention this sorry excuse of a team would never be able to catch me. What I portray on the outside does not match how I truly feel; it never has in the few years that I've been a part of this team. The poor sap we just caught had the right idea of being forceful with those women. Breaking them and forcing them to do as he wishes, for them to pleasure him as they should.I’d do the same,but none of the victims hold a candle to moy ogon.

King snaps me from my thoughts of having Natalia tied and beaten as she bends to my will when he pats my shoulder from the driver's seat. “Hey, Kruz, you want to go get some drinks after we get the paperwork and shit done back at the office?”

“Yeah, that sounds great, can't wait,” I agree, but internally roll my eyes as I turn to look out the window. I’ll go to his stupid bar and drink his terrible beer, but I’ll hate it the whole time.At least while I'm enjoying my drink, I can imagine all the ways I could disembowel this long-haired bastard.

Just as we pull up into the parking garage, my burner phone vibrates in my boot. It’s the phone I keep on me every day, all day. The phone that only one person has the number to. Stepping out of the vehicle, King moves ahead of me on a mission to get to our office. “You go on, King. I need to smoke real quick,” I call him, and he nods before continuing to the entrance door.

Pulling out a cigarette, I light it up just in case I’m being watched. I bend down, acting like I’m fixing the laces on my black boot, and grab the phone. I quickly light up the screen, and my cold, dead heart almost burst from its cage at the text waiting for me.

Time to come home, Umbra. I have a gift for you.

Throwing my smoke out, not caring where it lands, I head inside to finish this paperwork. This turn of events means I actually have something to celebrate tonight. These fucking morons can celebrate the catching of a revolutionary, but I’ll be dedicating tonight to the fact I finally get to return home and take back what is mine.

Finally, I get to kill Kruz.

Conrad

“Hello…What’shappening?Someoneexplain to me what’s going on with this Ivan guy, and why are you talking about Kruz?” No one’s responding to me, but I have to trust in my team, knowing that they’re following the plan. So, I keep quiet and keep listening intently. From what I can gather, Kruz is alive and not… Kruz, but Ivan.Ivan?Ivan, also known as ‘Umbra’, the same person who blew up the bar, almost killing BJ, and has constantly had our girl on edge?Fuck, man… we let ourselves get played twice.

Everything has gone very quiet. I can only hear slow, steady breathing and the occasional footsteps. It’s been about twenty minutes now, and I’m starting to freak the fuck out. “Guys… Guys! Someone fucking answer me, god damn it!” I scream frantically into my headset!

Fuck it, I can’t just sit here waiting, doing nothing. No one’s answering me, and I’m getting increasingly angrier since I’m not with them in person to have their backs. I’m just sitting here blind, having no idea what’s going on in there. I pull out my phone, calling Marcela. The plan was to already have her heading this way after setting up the distraction at The Kandy Factory, but I can’t fight the eerie feeling I have in the pit of my stomach.

“Marcela, I can't wait for you, even if you’re only a few minutes away. I have to get in there like yesterday. Stay on the line with me. I'll connect you to my headset so you know what's going on,” I tell her quickly as soon as I hear the line connect.

“Okay, but be fucking careful, Conrad. You’re alone, and you haven’t gone into the thick of shit with us in a long time,” she warns me. “I’m speeding. I'll be there in like two minutes.” I can hear the worry in her voice for me and the others.

“Don’t worry about me, Marcela, I got this. Our team may be in danger!” I reply in a rushed tone.

Grabbing a gun and some extra ammo, just in case, I rush into the building. Trying to focus on taking deep breaths to keep myself calm and alert. I walk straight to the stairs leading up to the apartment, keeping my ears open for any noise at all, but it's eerily quiet.

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