Page 118 of Deadly Knight

He shoves his finger inside her and her body lurches, but doesn’t fight him. Her limbs are dead on the mattress and the side of her face tells me what I’ve known since the beginning.

She’s not present. She’s gone. Lost within her own mind.

All because of them.

He slides his fingers from her legs and traces cum across her stomach, lashing the final act onto her skin as though everything else wasn’t enough.

Then he walks away, chuckling. As he passes, he sticks the finger he had inside her into his mouth, his eyes alighting insick pleasure. I say nothing, letting myself memorize him too. When I have him strung up and dead, then I’ll be able to tell him everything I felt in this moment.

Alone. Alone and broken. Alone without the army who promised to always back me.

I vowed to follow the Bratva in loyalty and life, but where the fuck are they when I need them most?

Whensheneeds them most.

Vanessa parksbeside an industrial warehouse with broken windows that’s as abandoned as half the other buildings in the area.

“This it?” I lean forward in my seat to get a better look up the side of the building.

“No, it’s farther down there.” Vanessa points straight through the windshield, towards the end of the block. “We’ll go the rest of the way on foot since there’s likely to be people inside monitoring.” She twists in her seat to regard the two rows of people in the SUV, looking first to Anastasia. “Lev pulled the blueprints of this place. There’s a side and back entrance. Take the back. I’ll go through the front with Katya.” She points to the soldier beside Anastasia. “You’ll come with us. Protect her”—she gestures to me—“above all else. Everyone else, side entrance through the courtyard. It’s three floors. Offices, kitchen, visiting area, and communal areas. Top two floors have cells. Not sure where he’ll be, nor who’s inside. Katya and I will head up to the cells, second floor first and will deal with anyone in our way.Ana, find Mikhail and Andrei. I suspect they’ll be cozying it up in an office in-between torture sessions.”

Torture sessions. My stomach flips with the reality of what I’m about to do.

My hand reaches into my pocket, folding around the knife.

I’m about to do what I never could in the past, and fight.

“Everyone understand?”

We all nod, yet she stares at me, ignoring my response and only accepting a verbal murmur of agreement before opening her door. Everyone follows, and with a deep breath, I do as well, my sneakers thudding to the cracked sidewalk.

Beside me, Anastasia removes her gun, keeping it low by her side. The soldiers behind us do the same. Vanessa steps to my other side, taking the lead, but not before screwing something cylindric to her gun. The others have them on as well.

“Silencers,” Anastasia explains when noticing where my attention’s gone. “Shouldn’t attract nearby attention, nor alert others in the prison we’re here.”

Vanessa crooks two fingers in the air for us to follow. “Eyes up. We don’t know who’s in the surrounding buildings watching. How much warning Mikhail and Andrei will have.”

“I’m not shooting,” Anastasia announces. “Not until we know who else is trying to overthrow you. How many more ridiculous attempts by your father’s people there will be.”

“Hopefully this is it.” Vanessa’s lips pinch. “I’m thirty seconds away from rounding them all up and dealing with them as one. After this, I want my biggest issues to be with what Zeno and Serafina are dealing with.”

“Yeah, well, my father’s free game. Have at it. Lev left our papa’s fate up to me.”

Vanessa doesn’t reply, instead placing a finger against her lips as we approach another building, this one with a faded sign, the wordsPenitentiarybarely legible. She gestures at the side ofthe building and two soldiers take off. Anastasia winks and runs after them, lifting her gun.

Vanessa and the final soldier remain, each taking a position on either side of me. “Knife out,” she whispers. “You see someone, you stab. No questions asked, okay?”

“Okay.”

She presses against the metal door, checks we’re all in place, and then tests the handle before finding it unlocked. She throws it open, the soldier behind me catching it with one hand as Vanessa slips inside, a thud immediately following.

I step into the dim light, nearly tripping over the body Vanessa’s bent over, checking pockets before sliding the man’s gun into an empty leg holster.

“I presume each exit has one.” She stands, her expression grim as she gestures for me to follow her down the empty, eerie hallway.

Behind me, the soldier’s steps are nearly silent. Vanessa sticks to the shadows as she studies the open space. In the centre, there’s metal tables surrounded by a ceiling high fence, but above it are two floors, balcony style so any guard could see all the cells.

She cranes her neck, twisting every which way to see as much as possible. “He must be above us. All the cells I’m able to see are open.”