Page 160 of Cruel Romeo

“Care to guess what I’m going to do next?” My foot grinds hard into his ruined, bloodstained chest. “I’m going to wipe out the Danilo name. Starting with you.”

“You—” he gasps, coughs halfway through. “You ain’t gonna do shit. I have two brothers and a father who’s still kicking. You kill me here, they’re going to hunt you for the rest of your miserable life.”

“Am I supposed to be scared?” My heel grins harder. Anatoli lets out a bloodcurdling scream as one of his ribs gives out under the pressure. “Look at me. Do I look fucking scared to you?”

He must see it in my eyes: I’m not lying.

“Then you’re as dumb as they say,” he mutters, but I can see the fear etched across his face. There’s no hiding it now. He knows he’s going to die.

But psychotic little bastards like Anatoli Danilo don’t fear death as they should. Their last thought is always for payback. Even now, he’s thinking how he can stick it to me with his last breath.

Think again, motherfucker.

“Let your brothers come,” I whisper. “I’ll kill them first. I’ll enjoy hearing them scream.”

“You fucking bast?—”

“Then I’ll get to your father. Kill him last. Let him know he’s left no legacy in this world, that his bloodline ends with him.” I press the mouth of the gun into his forehead, hard. “Every last trace of the Danilo name will die by my hand.”

“You wouldn’t—” he groans. “You wouldn’t fucking dare.”

“Wouldn’t I?” I snarl back. “You took my family from me. Now, I’ll burn yours to ash.”

Anatoli’s face twists, blood slick on his lips. Then he lets out a hoarse, broken laugh. Unhinged—just like him. “I’d like to see you try. We’re the Danilos. We don’t break easy like you Gubarev fucks.” He spits a glob of blood on the ground. “Did I ever tell you how your father screamed when we got him? Did Dimitri? Oh, wait. That’s right—he can’t. His brain is vegetable soup.”

“Shut your fucking mouth.”

“Should’ve been you in that car,” he wheezes, still laughing his crazy laugh. “Your brother was smarter. He wouldn’t have done this. Wouldn’t have been this fucking dumb—blyat’!”

Crack.Another rib breaks under my heel.

“You wanna talk siblings?” I can already taste the ugliness of the words that are about to leave my mouth. But I’m seeing red, and right now, restraint isn’t even in the fucking picture. “Tell me, how was your sister looking the last time you saw her? Wouldn’t you say she was glowing?”

His eyes widen. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I’ll tell you what I’m talking about.” I lean closer. “She’s carrying my heir, Anatoli. She’s pregnant by me.”

Fury flashes on his face. “Liar.”

“I don’t need to lie. She’s mine now. In every way. I fucked her until she begged, filled her up until she swelled with my child.” I bark out a cruel, nasty laugh. “Tell me, how does that feel? To have the last hope of your bloodline polluted by me?”

“I’ll kill you.” He’s foaming now, but he can thrash all hewants. He’s not getting out from under me. “I’ll kill you, you fucking bitch!”

It twists my stomach to talk about Sima like this. Like she’s a thing, a piece in a game. She hasn’t been that for a long time now.

But Anatoli doesn’t know that. And letting him die in peace is not my style. Not after everything he’s taken from me.

His eyes burn with hatred, but beneath it, I finally see it. That flicker of bone-deep dread that tells me he believes me.

“Goodbye, you piece of shit.”

I pull the trigger. The shot blows half his skull clean off and jerks what’s left of his head back into the gravel.

Blood sprays, he twitches once, and then he’s still, his body slack under my heel.

For a moment, I just stand there and stare down at the corpse of the man who took everything from me.

Then I step back, wipe the barrel against my sleeve, and turn towards the shadows.