by Robinson, M.
I did what I had come to do.
Fuck her senseless.
And then…
I slit her throat.
It was done.
Finished.
I wiped my knife across the white sheets, now stained red. This would be the end.
My finale.
My benediction.
I once swore to myself I’d never use my body to gain secrets, that I’d find a different way, but somewhere along the way, that changed, and I became this man I didn’t even recognize anymore.
Her eyes were wide open in shock, her mouth hung low as a trickle of blood dripped down her chin.
Natasha Drozdov.
Wife of Ivan Drozdov, the new leader of the Drozdov Family. Only none of us would accept him, and they knew it. We didn’t try to hide the fact that they were a sorry excuse for the Russian mafia. Five years ago, they’d broken away from the Petrov crime family in hopes of starting their own powerful hand.
They’d tried.
They’d failed.
They continued to try.
I just never imagined they would drag my brother into their own demise.
Without the support of the Five Families, they had a shit time trying to gain momentum. It didn’t help that every single family had an alliance with the Petrovs, which meant that their enemies were now ours too.
And Natasha?
I had recognized her that night at the bar when I kicked Tristian’s ass. I thought I’d gotten through to him.
I was wrong.
So fucking wrong.
She was a fucking pawn my brother had used, not realizing the longer you played with fire, the more it burned your skin until there was nothing left of you but ash.
Now she was dead.
I told myself it was necessary because it was. Though I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around it.
My brother’s betrayal.
His treatment of Eden.
I didn’t know who he was and what he stood for anymore.
After tonight, I was terrified I wouldn’t know who I was and what I stood for either.
It was necessary.
I had to do it.
There was no way out of it.
This was my life.
From beginning to end.
Inhaling a solid breath, I pulled out my cellphone to check the time. In three minutes, I would alter several lives, including my own, but the future was already decided.
Game.
Set.
Match.
I swiped past the time and clicked on my pictures, finding the file titled family.
Hundreds of photos of Naz filled the screen as I scrolled through them.
Eden assumed I was gone for half his little life. She didn’t know that there wasn’t a breath he took without me watching over him, like an avenging angel.
Fallen.
But still inherently good.
I would kill to keep them both safe.
Which brought me back to my current place and time. This situation I was in. Setting my phone on one of the glass tables, I pulled out a chair.
My knife was still in my left hand.
No longer carrying blood.
Maybe that was my own kindness, that when I took his life, I’d do it with fresh steel so he could see how much of his blood I’d spill, so I could count the ounces with a smile on my face, knowing that I was ending this once and for all.
It was either them or him.
And for the first time in my life—I chose Eden over my brother.
I chose her life over mine.
I chose her sanity.
Her safety.
Her future.
The sound of a key card sliding into the door hit me like a bullet between the eyes. I leaned back in my chair, gripping my knife so hard.
The door opened slowly.
It closed just as slowly.
And there I sat.
Waiting.
To kill my brother for the sins he had committed.
Tristian didn’t see me right away when he walked into the room. Just another reason he wouldn’t make it as a made man. He should have known something was wrong the minute he was inside this room.
Instead, he was thinking with his dick.
The power.
The money.
The control.
It was a high in itself. Tristian had always been weak, coming in second place to me. My fingers twitched to end him right then and there. Forcing him to tell me all his secrets until he was sick with all the truths.
“You’re late,” I announced from my spot in the corner.
I lurked in the shadows like the Grim fucking Reaper. Switching on the light, I sat there on purpose, wanting to see every single expression on his shit-eating face.
The minute he smiled at me, I knew he was too far gone.
Poisoned by his own thoughts.
Infected by the need to prove something to himself, to the world, to me.
He had everything already in the palm of his hands, I knew… because I was the man who had given it to him.
I felt sad in that moment.
Devastated that he still didn’t get it.
Would he? If I let him live?
He’d had it all.
Now it was my turn to take it back from him.
Tristian folded his arms across his chest. His pristine black shirt was tucked into his black pinstripe slacks like he was ready for a business meeting and not a quick fuck with the boss’s wife.
“Does Ivan know you’re fucking his wife?”
He shrugged, still not realizing what he had done.
To us.
The family.
His own flesh and blood.
“I should have known you’d figure it out one of these days. Took you long enough, Romeo.”
“Well.” I stood. “Give me a little more credit, brother. I figured something was up one year ago when I saw you with her—” I nodded to her dead body “—that night at the bar. I had you followed, and ever since then, let’s just say I could write a book on all the betrayals you’ve been involved in. You’re not just a rat; you’re a liability that needs to be put down, like the dog that you are.” I grinned. “Except, you were never useful in the first place, were you? Is that why you did it? Sold Family secrets to the Drozdovs? Was the money worth it? The power?”
“You don’t know shit!” Tristian gritted his teeth; his eyes were wild, out of control. Almost knocking me on my ass when he claimed…
“You made me do this! You have no one to blame but yourself!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“Be the kind of guy that when he wakes up the devil says, ‘Oh shit! He’s up!’” —Mr. Villain
Romeo
“Holy fuck! You really believe that, don’t you?” I barked out a laugh. “I have given you everything! I can’t protect you anymore! And quite frankly, you don’t deserve my love for you! I was blinded into believing you did!” I flipped out my knife, blatantly showing him my intentions.
He jerked back, understanding my simple yet graphic demonstration. Narrowing his eyes at me, he stated in a matter-of-fact tone, “You wouldn’t kill your own brother. Despite your threats, you don’t have it in you. You just said it yourself, so put the knife away and forget about what you think you know.”
I saw nothing but rage as I braced myself, allowing my breaths to even out before I gave myself away.
I wanted to destroy him slowly, not lose my temper, and shove my knife directly into his heart.
Too fast.
That was too fast.
He deserved the opposite of that.
He deserved the worst of the worst.
He. Touched. Her.
He. Hurt. Her.
He was going to kill her.
Not only her but my son.
The one I fucking let him raise as his own.
“Knife, bullet, or choking?” I asked casually. “Your choice. I am a gentleman, after all.
”
Tristian clenched his jaw.
“You see…” I started pacing. “She told me everything. Apparently, I do fuck them and kill them, but at least I get the information I need first. All you had to do, Tristian, was take care of your family, and you couldn’t even do that!”
I saw my brother transform from someone I knew to the monster I always protected him from.
Me.
Except in this moment, he made me look like a saint.
I didn’t hesitate, spewing, “Tell me the truth, and maybe I’ll grant you some leniency and kill you fast and not slow.”
A cocky grin crossed his face.
“I’ll start it for you. Why? Was it the money? The power? Why would you want to go down this road?”
He shrugged. “I just told you. It’s all your fault. You should have never fucked my wife and knocked her up with what was supposed to be MY SON!”
“I let you raise him, did I not?”
“Oh fuck you, Romeo! So you knew? You knew Naz was yours?”
“I didn’t at first. Not until I met him. Saw him with my own two eyes. It’s why I stayed away until I couldn’t anymore.”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Save the dramatics and tell me what I want to know.”
“I loved Eden!” he sternly exclaimed. “I still love her!”
“You have a shitty way of showing it. Twenty-five million for her head. Twenty-five million for Naz. How do you even know Ivan Drozdov?”
“He was at my wedding. He asked me to cook the books for him, and I thought it would be a good way to make extra money for my family.”
“I see.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah. He used you, and you fell for it like the pussy you are. How did Eden come into play?”
“That was your doing.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“That night in my office during Naz’s birthday party when I found out about you and Eden. I set that plan in motion. Knowing that eventually you would win, and she’d leave me for you. I wouldn’t let that happen. You weren’t taking her from me, so I made sure of it. I went to Ivan and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. If he paid me twenty-five million dollars, then I’d kill Eden, and he’d make me a made man.”
Hearing him talk about Eden as if she was nothing made me see red. Through a tight jaw, I snarled, “You’re an idiot. You do realize he was going to turn on you, right?”
His eyes lowered, genuinely caught off guard by what I just said. “What do you mean?”
“Well, for one, he knew you were screwing his wife. He lied to you. He was going to rat you out after you killed Eden to gain alliance and respect from our family, you stupid fuck!”
His face paled.
“I didn’t think you’d have it in you. And Naz? What kind of monster kills his own son?”
“He’s not mine. He’s yours.”
“You raised him, Tristian. He thinks you’re his father!”
“I wasn’t going to do that until I learned the truth a few days ago!”
“And that makes it okay?!”
“I wanted to hurt you! I wanted you to feel like I have every single day of my life! Eden wasn’t ever mine, was she? She was just a consolation prize to the family accountant while she pines for the hero she’ll never have! It would have been better for you to just marry her; that way, she’d have you, and I could be the one fucking her behind your back!”
“Watch it,” I snapped. “It was only once, you know that, and I—”
“She was a virgin.” Tristian’s eyes locked on mine. “It’s how I knew. She came to my bed already claimed. I was trying to respect her wishes, respect her father. And she, apparently, was saving herself for you.”
I nearly dropped the knife as I remembered that night, the blood in the hotel room when I went back to talk to her, to apologize, only to find her already getting ready for her marriage to my brother.
I’d glanced at the bed, left a rose for her, and saw blood, but I thought I’d been too rough with her. Never once did I think she was a virgin. She’d been with Tristian for years up till that point.
Now I was the idiot.
“Ah, so the great Romeo Casanova doesn’t know everything. I’m actually shocked.”
“It changes nothing.”
“It changes fucking everything!” Tristian roared. “You stole from me! Don’t you get it? I had nothing! Not even her! Not Naz! I hate you! I hate you!”
“I’m used to people hating me,” I rasped. Deathly calm stole over me as I held out my knife. “Make your choice.”
“You can’t kill me.”
“Trust me, Tristian. You’re lucky I haven’t already.”
He charged me with his full body, slamming me into the wall, but I spun him around and kneed him in the balls. The smell of whiskey was faint on his breath as he swore and fell to his knees.
I swiped my knife across his chest; the blade went through his shirt, connecting with soft skin. All I saw was Eden’s face. All I heard were his physical threats against what was mine.
What had always been mine to protect.
Mine to love.
Tristian held his chest with both hands as blood started to ooze from the gaping wound over his heart.
“You’re weak,” I said through clenched teeth. “You were too weak to take what you think was yours because I led you to believe that! What’s worse is that I let myself believe that you were the better choice!” I sliced through the air distracting him. He covered his face, and I kicked him into the wall.
He slumped to the floor in a bloody heap. I pressed the heel of my shoe against his right hand. “At least I know my demons, every last one. While you? You pretended to be the white knight when you were the fucking monster the entire time.”
“Get off me!” he roared, trying to shove to his feet, but one arm was pinned while the other was held against his chest, trying to stop the bleeding.
“No.” I knelt down, pointing my knife at his hand. “One finger for daring to touch her in a way other than love.” I sliced down, cutting the tip of his finger clean off while he screamed in pain. “Another finger for betraying me. Your family. Your brother!” I sliced down on his middle finger while he squirmed beneath me. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.
I waited until he recovered and was staring at me, glassy-eyed but aware.
“And one more finger…for betraying yourself.” This time, when the knife came down, he looked at me, really looked at me, like he was seeing me for the first time.
Slowly, I saw the fight leave his eyes, replaced with a sickening fear that permeated the room.
He suddenly knew I would be the judge, the jury, and the executioner of his life.
His only brother.
The man he had once called his best friend.
“You’ll have to kill me,” he growled.
“I know,” I reaffirmed in a voice void of emotion. “Because if I don’t, the Russians will.”
Tears filled his eyes.
I shook my head in disgust. “You’ve been suffering in a pool of misplaced jealousy while you pushed the only person you’ve ever truly loved away.” The knife clattered to the floor. “I hope that the betrayal on her face, the fear, the sadness in mine… I hope that’s what you see when I take your last breath, and I hope to God you ask for forgiveness in this life before I send you to the next. Pray God is merciful because I won’t be.”
With a cry, Tristian shoved at me, but he was too weak. I slammed him back against the carpet, both of my hands around his neck, while he struggled against me.
His hands clawing at mine, scratching, dying for relief while I looked into his eyes and squeezed.
Harder.
Firmer.
I took his life with my bare hands.
For our family.
For Eden.
Especially for my son.
A solitary tear slid down my cheek, splashing onto his face. I couldn’t he
lp it, whispering, “Forgive me.”
His eyes widened and then shut completely.
His feet stopped moving.
His body went lax.
No more struggle.
No more fight.
No more air that he breathed.
I held onto his throat for a few more minutes until I knew for sure that he was dead and wasn’t coming back. I waited. Remembering all the times I had been there for him.
I had loved him.
I still loved him.
He was my brother.
My best friend.
And now, he was dead.
I stood, stumbling back. Realizing what I’d just done. I’d go to Hell for this if I wasn’t already headed there before. It was worth it.
She was worth it.
So was my son.
The last thing I saw before leaving that room and calling for cleanup was the moisture clinging to my brother’s face.
In his last moments, I wondered…
Did he cry for himself?
What could have been?
Did he cry for us?
Did he cry for her?
Or were those last tears selfish ones where his last thoughts were that while he rotted in Hell…
I’d be taking my Heaven.
Her.
Naz.
Mine.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“I’m sorry that you had to make me the villain of your story in order to stay in the light and keep the onlookers in the dark. Paint me however you need to paint me so the guilt doesn’t feel so heavy. I am light as a feather!” —Stephanie Bennett Henry
Romeo
Now
She’d screamed at me.
I’d said I wanted her fight back.
I didn’t want it directed at me.
Now we were at a standstill. She said she knew, but she didn’t. Not really. She didn’t know the blood that was on my hands.
She didn’t know why.
She shoved herself away from me until her back was to the wall, her eyes wild. “You killed Tristian, didn’t you? Just admit it! Say it!”
I opened my mouth, shutting it before opening it again. Whispering, “Who told you that?”
“Nobody! I saw it on my dad’s phone. So don’t try it, Casanova, don’t even think about seducing your way out of this or lying. I’m sick of your lies! Just for once in your life, give me the truth. I deserve the fucking truth!”