Page 57 of Bratva’s Vow (Bratva’s Undoing #2)
His voice echoed down the hall, and I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply. I’d heard that voice for over a decade. Why would he force me to do this?
Why?
I’d put him in charge of my kingdom. Of my fucking life.
“Maxim, I’m so sorry.”
I didn’t turn.
Archie stepped into the kitchen. “I know how much you cared about Wren. Can I do anything?” He approached me from behind, placed his hand on my shoulder.
It was his touch that did it. That drove me over the deep end.
I lost it.
I meant to string him on, to keep up the charade, to find out how far he was willing to go to act the innocent.
But I lost it at the repulsiveness of his touch. A touch that had once been a lover’s, a friend’s, a confidant’s.
I grabbed the knife from the block and drove it into his stomach.
He gasped. His body jerked, and he stumbled, but I held him up by the handle, keeping him close.
His eyes went wide, lips parting in disbelief.
“Maxim…” he whispered. “Why? ”
I shoved him up against the counter, my grip unshaking. “I know everything.”
His mouth trembled. Blood bubbled at the corner of his lips. He licked it. Swallowed.
“What do you know?” he rasped.
“That you poisoned Wren.”
His shoulders sagged. “So this is a setup? He’s not dead?”
“No.”
“Leo told you the truth.” He winced, placing his hands around mine, which still had the knife buried in his gut, but as though resigned to his fate, he didn’t try to pull away. Or he’d been with me so long he should know by now if he removed the knife, he would bleed out.
“We already suspected, but yes, he confirmed it.”
He swallowed and chuckled. “Bradley always said he was a simpleton. No wonder he cheated on the doc so much. His one chance to get revenge, and he blew it.”
I pushed the knife harder, and he cried out. He tightened his hand around my wrist.
“Why aren’t you asking me why?”
“No,” I said, voice thick with rage. “There’s no excuse for what you did. All that matters is that I trusted you and you broke it. When I suspected everyone else, you never crossed my mind. There’s no explanation that’ll be good enough for how cruel you’ve been to the man I love.”
He gave the smallest, saddest smile. “I’m going to tell you anyway because you need to know this is your fault. Maxim, you gave him the love I’ve been craving from you for almost a decade.”
I froze.
He leaned into the pain, like he needed to get it out before the end.
“It’s your fault, Maxim,” he whispered. “I did everything you wanted. I served you in every way. I gave you everything. My body. My mind. My heart. I sold my soul to the devil because of you. And what did you give me instead? A place at your table, but no food. What good is an empire when the man you love doesn’t love you back? ”
I stayed silent, not loosening my grip on the knife. So much bitterness poured from him. How had I missed the signs?
“I thought you didn’t know how to love, and I was fine with that,” he went on.
“You had all those boys in and out of your bed. They were nothing but pretty things you used and discarded. But I lasted the longest. I was the only one you kept close. I thought that meant something. Maybe you didn’t love me, but I was special. ”
“Enough,” I growled hoarsely.
His breath hitched. “But then he came along. Ignorant. Uncouth. So fucking weak . The most unremarkable boy you’ve ever been with.
And you—you fell in love. Real love. With him .
Why him? What was so fucking special about him?
He did nothing to earn your love while I worked like a dog for a decade, begging you for it. ”
“You don’t know what love is. If you did, you’d understand it’s not something you can force or earn.”
He laughed, bitter and broken. “But I deserved your love! I wanted to kill him the moment I saw what was happening between you two.”
“So the day he got stabbed?” I asked. “That was you?”
“No. That wasn’t me. Just another random day of someone wanting your head.”
“What about Stone? Was that you?”
Archie gave a crooked smile. “He wasn’t coming after you.
He was after Wren. He agreed with me that you were becoming irrational.
He hated that you humiliated him at the police station for Wren.
He was easy to manipulate. I promised him that as long as he helped me to get Wren out of the equation, I would help him to disappear, and he wouldn’t have to work a day in his life. ”
I gritted my teeth. “And Bradley?”
“Bradley was supposed to flirt with Wren. Just to prove what a slut he was. But he was useless. Couldn’t even get him to say yes to one single date where he’d get him drunk and take pictures of him fucking Wren.
I didn’t even have to convince him to go along with the plan.
After I told him about you and his father, he wanted to hurt you. ”
“I gave you everything. I would have given you half of everything I owned if you wanted it.”
I pulled the knife from his belly and stabbed him again, just below the ribcage.
He groaned but didn’t fight back. Blood spread through his shirt like ink. “But you wouldn’t give me your heart.” A thin smile stretched across his lips. “Fitting, isn’t it? That I die in the very kitchen where I poisoned the man you love. At least you’ll never forget me now.”
My heart stuttered. “What about Vova? Was that you?”
Archie’s eyes gleamed. “I thought if Vova got into trouble, it would be a distraction for you to stop searching for Wren, giving me time to find and get rid of him. I didn’t mean to kill Vladimir, but he panicked and put up a fight.”
My hands shook. Vova. The air seemed to leave the room, sucked out with my breath. More than just a cousin. A friend. A brother. Gone because of this man.
A rage unlike anything I’d ever experienced bubbled up in me. Not just for what he had done, but for the misplaced trust I had placed in him for years.
I yanked the knife out.
Archie crumpled to the floor, blood soaking the tiles in thick, dark swirls. He gasped like a fish out of water, one hand pressed to his gut, the other reaching for the edge of the island to drag himself forward .
I didn’t stop him.
Didn’t speak.
Didn’t breathe.
“You can kill me, but it won’t stop. If I die, everything I have on you will leak. Arkady will have everything he needs beat you at your game.”
One moment, I was in the kitchen with the knife, the next, I was in the hall, holding the sledgehammer. The same one Archie had used to crush Vova’s skull in the alley. I didn’t recall going to my office to get it but the weight of it in my hands was real.
Heavy.
Right.
It should be.
I would never forgive myself for Vova’s death.
The hallway was red with bloody footprints, crimson trails from where Archie had dragged himself, smeared handprints on the wall like art made by a dying man.
I found him a few feet from the door, his body heaving, one hand outstretched like he might still make it out.
“You won’t make it far.”
He froze.
Turned his head.
Saw what I was carrying.
His expression crumbled, and for the first time, a flicker of fear flashed across his face. “Maxim, please. I can still stop everything from happening.”
“This is for Vova,” I said. “He had nothing to do with this, and you fucking killed him.”
“I’m sorry! Max?—”
I brought the hammer down.
Bone cracked.
“Oh god, Maxim, please, have mercy!”
And again .
Flesh gave. Screams mingled with the sickening thuds, but the irreversible sound of death crawled closer and closer.
“Maxim!”
Hands gripped me from behind, tried to yank the sledgehammer from my blood-slick fingers. My chest heaved. My heart pounded like I’d run a marathon. My arms trembled.
Darius stood over me, his face green. I followed his gaze to the floor. To what was left of him.
Archie was a thing now. A flattened, unrecognizable mess. And I was covered in his blood. On my face, my hands, splashed across my clothing.
I’d done it.
I’d destroyed him.
He couldn’t hurt Wren anymore.
The hammer hit the floor with a dull, final clang. My arms ached.
“Get rid of it,” I said hoarsely. “All of it.”
Darius nodded, already pulling out his phone.
I turned and staggered back, stepping through blood like it was water.
I needed to catch a flight.
I needed to see Wren before he woke up and found out I’d broken my promise.