Page 92 of One of Them

A shiver ran through Taya’s body. With her eyes closed, she pulled the elastic from her hair and let it fall free. She exhaled deeply, staring at the blood caked on her skin, yet didn’t ask to shower. To wash it all away. To erase him. As for me, I itched to lose any reminder of the excuse of a man who had once tried to trap her.

“They promised them a better life. Convinced them they’ll be married to a Bratva member and taken care of,” Lev expanded on his accusations.

“How did you find out?”

He stayed quiet, clearly dreading the truth, until I nudged his foot, warning him.

“My sister got involved.” The truth finally came out. “Malek told me he’d do the same to me,” he admitted. “If I made it to Russia, they’d trade me off.”

“But you didn’t. And you won’t,” Taya promised, still pacing around the room.

Alisa cut in, asking, “Is your sister…?”

Lev nodded. They killed her in retaliation.

Information spread quickly. A phone call was all it took; a chain reaction followed. There was nothing he could’ve done with him half a world away. Just stand by and watch it happen. An unfortunate example of how cruel this world could be to those who are indirectly involved. Being related to a traitor? That just added oil to the fire. Tortured, beaten, left to die. Still, compared to the alternative, it was a mercy kill.

“How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

Taya stared at the boy beside me, blinking rapidly, likely reminded of herself at that age.

She turned to my older brother, the Pakhan, with a silent request. Andrei understood. “I’ll look into it.”

A silent nod of gratitude, and we moved on.

Her blue eyes cut through the room’s darkness when she turned to the man next to me.

The wrath in her voice sent a thrill down my spine. “Did you know?” Her tone rose with each word. “I said, did you know?”

Orest kept his composure. “I found out recently,” he admitted. “It gave me one more reason to kill him. And I did.”

This fucking guy. I couldn’t stay out of it anymore, god knows I tried.

“In her fucking face.” I grabbed him by the collar, yanking him to my side of the couch. “What if the bullet went through her too? Hm?”

“I should kill you for that,” I growled through clenched teeth. Given our history, I warned him first. Any other time, the bullet would’ve come before the words.

“We should,” Lorenzo backed me up.

“Destructive bullets.” Ravager and Taya spoke in unison.

What?

“Like that makes a difference,” I muttered, puffing out a breath.

Orest remained calm, his words low, meant only for me. “We’re on the same path, Maxim.” He held my gaze. “The same way we were in the desert.”

All the new pieces of information didn’t make sense anymore. Orest wasn’t even American. Why would he have served?

The questions swirled in my mind, but before I could voice any, Taya’s expression silenced me. Her intense stare was a clear warning to back off.

She was handling this. And that was it. The protector role was hers now, but I wasn’t about to stop looking out for her.

She sat beside me on the arm of the couch, and I leaned closer, my arms slowly snaking around her waist.

“Where is Ilya?” Taya finally noticed his absence, glancing around the room.