Page 31 of Orion Ruined

To my cock: stop making uninvited appearances!

She lifts her head sleepily and rubs her eyes.

“We need you in the kitchen. Now,” I order. I don’t even wait for her to look at me. I leave the door open and leave.

Five minutes later, we hear footsteps on the staircase, and she walks into the kitchen wearing a cami top and panties; her face, pure bliss. She looks at the floor, at the broken pieces of my cup. “What happened in here?”

Her eyes question me, but I don’t give in to her wily ways. I just glare at her, so she flutters her eyelashes at Kai and Logan, smiling. “What is it?”

She sounds so innocent. I could kill her just for that.

Kai takes a chair and places it between the three of us. “Sit down.”

“Kai, what is it? Logan?” She sits down slowly, like she’s biding for time.

Kai towers above her, arms crossed over his chest, his feet apart. “You lied to us.”

Logan approaches and he, too, looms over her. Their egos are hurt, and she needs to see who’s in charge. “We promised we’d keep you safe. And this is how you repay us?” His voice is gruff. This is what he sounds like before he slits someone’s throat.

I step up too, and narrow my eyes at her. She’s getting pure venom fired at her from three directions now. “I gave you the chance to tell us the truth, and now? I’d hate for my kitchen to be a mess again.”

She remains glued to the chair, craning her neck to look up at us, her eyes wide, looking petrified that these may be the last moments of her life. “Everything I said was the truth. Everything!”

“You didn’t tell us you used to work for Milan, did you now?”

Her eyes well up but she tries to hold it back, frowning. Her chin wobbles until she can’t contain the tears any longer.

“Are you still working for him?” I persist.

“That was not working,” she chokes out. “I was held there against my will.”

“Doing what?” Kai asks, but judging by the tone, he really doesn’t want to hear the answer.

Maisy’s eyes slam shut and more tears bubble beneath her lashes until they overflow and roll down her cheeks. She wipes them away with her hand and looks at us. “I was twelve! Do you know what it’s like to lose your virginity to an old, disgusting guy?” she blurts out, and I notice Kai’s fingers curling into a fist. “To be raped, to be totally at the mercy of that animal?”

She turns to Logan, then to me. I have no problem looking at her red eyes, rosy lips, and flushed cheeks. She can cry all she wants; in fact, I may want to keep her in this state for longer.

“I never lied to you. I just didn’t tell you some painful facts about my past,” she insists. “I had to work for him, run his books, and if I hadn’t run away, that stamp on my back would probably have been there years ago.”

“And yet you went back to work for the same guy?” I have to be ruthless. Cold. I want her like this, terrified.

“Do you think you scare me, Orion?” She raises her voice as she cries harder. “You don’t! You got nothing on what I’ve read and seen of what’s going on with the Slavs. Yes, I went back to work for him, because there’s a tape of me doing unspeakable things that I’m trying to get off the streets. But you know what? I got Jerry killed, and his wife too. What a fucking wonderful person I am. Getting people killed to get to what I want. Same as them, vile filth. When Milan found out I was still around, he sent Camila to take me to Zed, the pimp. She wanted me to see what it’s like living the life of a whore so I’d beg to work for Milan again. I ran away from Zed that night and came straight here. When I saw Camila enter your house I had to go after her. She was the one recording the videos. I was gonna torture her, take her eyes out, cut her tongue out–I don’t know what you mobsters do when you torture someone, but I was going to fucking kill that bitch!” She’s sobbing as she stands up and pushes us away from her. “Now I’m going to my room. Feel free to kill me in there, so you don’t mess up your fucking kitchen!”

She runs up the stairs and I hear the slam of her door.

I want to roll my eyes, but I can’t even get myself to do that. This is what fucked up looks like. This is the reason why I want order in New York. Why I want the syndicates working together. Kai and Logan regard me; I know we’re all thinking the same thing.

I shake my head. Milan will fucking die and the Slavs will cease to exist, that much I know. But I also know that we need a plan. One step at a time.

I do know that the thought of Milan raping Maisy makes me want to skin him alive, and I need someone dead today. “Isn’t Zed a pimp in your jurisdiction, Logan?”

“Yes, the fucker is.” Logan straightens up and takes the blades out of his pocket.

Kai looks ready to go, the four-finger metal ring on his hand already.

“We’re killing someone today, and it’s not gonna be Maisy,” I say.

They nod, and we depart.

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