Page 25 of Devil’s Night (The Shadows of Darkness Universe #3)

Chapter twenty

Fool Me Once

Katya

I don’t hesitate, I can’t. The second Nikolai’s fingers graze the gun, I slam into him, tackling his broken, blood-soaked body to the floor with everything I have left in me.

The sound that explodes from the barrel as his finger pulls the trigger is deafening, the shot firing into the ceiling in a flash of heat and smoke.

I force his arm up, twisting it, trying to wrench the gun away, but I’m not strong enough.

Not fast enough. His head snaps forward, skull meeting the bridge of my nose with a sickening crack.

Pain explodes behind my eyes. I gasp, stunned, the metallic taste of blood already coating the back of my throat.

My grip slips. I shove him back with all the strength I can muster and roll away, disoriented, blinking through the daze.

But he’s not done. His hand fists in my hair like a leash, yanking me back toward him with enough force to make my spine scream.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Roman bellows, his boots pounding the floor. He and Echo rush toward us, but they’re seconds too late. I’m already locked in hell.

My fingers dig into my pocket, fumbling through fabric until they close around cold metal. The knife.

Without thinking, without hesitation, I rip it free and drive it downward, burying it in Nikolai’s stomach with a sharp, savage thrust.

His scream cuts through the air like a demon being exorcised, but he doesn’t let go.

Instead, his teeth sink into my shoulder, clamping down with feral desperation.

My scream rips from my throat, raw and blood-soaked.

The pain blinds me. Blinds everything. And then I feel it, cold, hard steel pressing against the side of my skull.

Echo's gun.

He still has it.

“Both of you fuckers stop right there,” he growls, voice slurred but full of venom.

Roman and Echo freeze mid-step. The tension in the room thickens like a noose pulling tight. Roman’s chest heaves. Echo’s eyes flicker, calculating, ready to kill, but not yet. Not if it means killing me in the process.

Nikolai laughs, a low, vicious sound that vibrates through his chest and into my spine. He’s enjoying this.

He wants this.

“Mmm… your friend doesn’t know about your little slut, does he?” he sneers, dragging the words out as he presses the gun harder against my temple. “Get up, Katya,” he hisses, blood dripping from his mouth, his wound leaking all over the floor.

I don’t move. I can’t breathe. My body shakes, my shoulder pulsing with pain, blood soaking the collar of Echo’s shirt.

Roman lifts his gun slowly, aiming it straight at us, rage burning in his eyes. “I will blow both your fucking filthy heads off,” he growls.

But Nikolai doesn’t even flinch.

“No, you won’t. Right, Echo?” he mutters, voice rough and mocking. He angles the gun higher, the cold barrel digging into my temple, smearing soot across my skin. “If he shoots me, I’ll fucking kill her first.”

Roman’s eyes flick to Echo. He doesn’t lower the weapon, but he doesn’t fire either.

“Good,” he mutters, like this is a game he’s willing to lose.

“Do not pull that goddamn trigger,” Echo snaps, voice low and lethal, the fury barely contained. He takes a step forward and slams a hand against Roman’s chest, stopping him. Roman looks at him like he’s lost his mind, but Echo’s voice is absolute. “Dimitri wants her alive.”

At that, Nikolai grins, blood curling at the edges of his mouth like paint on a dying canvas. “Sure he does,” he wheezes, eyes glassy. “Then open the door.”

“I’m not letting you leave this house,” Roman snaps, his voice slicing through the tension like a blade. His stance is rigid, gun still raised, his eyes locked on Nikolai with lethal focus. The words aren’t a warning, they’re a line drawn in blood.

Echo doesn’t respond at first. He barely glances at me, his face unreadable, his eyes cold. I can feel him calculating, weighing every option, every risk, every consequence. One wrong move and someone dies. Maybe all of us.

Behind me, Nikolai breathes heavily, his body shaking, soaked in blood and sweat. But even on the verge of collapse, he’s holding the gun with terrifying confidence. The barrel is pressed to my head, his grip in my hair like a leash. His body is failing, but his spite is alive and thriving.

“Step aside,” Nikolai rasps. “Or I’ll paint your wall with her skull. I’ll drag her outside, and I’ll put a bullet in her mouth before either of you can blink.”

Roman doesn’t budge.

Echo finally speaks, voice low and measured. “Let him go.”

Roman’s head whips toward him. “What the fuck did you just say?”

“I said let him go,” Echo repeats, eyes narrowing. “He’s dying. He won’t make it far. Let him think he’s escaping.”

“You’re handing him a loaded weapon and Dimitri's last living heir,” Roman hisses, rage coiling beneath his words. “You’ve lost it. ”

“He’s not taking her,” Echo growls. “He can barely stand. He’s bluffing.”

Nikolai chuckles behind me, the sound wet and broken. “Am I? Or did she just beg me not to leave her behind?”

Roman’s expression twists, disgusted. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Oh, you don’t know?” Nikolai sneers, dragging me back tighter against him, his mouth grazing my ear. “Your golden boy didn’t tell you what he’s been doing with your precious little Romanov? Didn’t tell you he’s been fucking her in that bed of his like she’s nothing but a mouth and a hole?”

Roman’s entire body stiffens. His face blanks for a beat, like his brain short-circuits trying to make sense of what he just heard. And then, his eyes go wide, his voice cracks through the space like thunder. “ Echo? ”

“He’s lying,” Echo says too quickly. “He’s delirious, he’s bleeding out. He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s saying.”

But Roman is already looking at me. And he sees it.

The way my eyes flinch. The way I don’t deny it. The way my silence screams louder than any confession ever could.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Roman mutters, stepping back like the air’s been knocked from his lungs. “You slept with her?”

Echo’s jaw clenches. “It wasn’t like that.”

Roman rounds on him. “She’s a hostage. You tortured her.”

“It was torture, not pleasure,” Echo bites out.

“That’s not better!” Roman shouts. “You’re supposed to be watching her, not crawling between her legs while her father lines up hits on our people!”

“Oh come on,” Nikolai drawls, voice slurring, “Don’t be mad. She liked it rough. Don’t you, Katya?” He jostles me, hard, and the gun shifts against my skull again.

Roman’s gun rises again, this time with more fury than control. “Let. Her. Go.”

“Shoot me and I shoot her,” Nikolai grins. “We all go down. How’s that for balance?”

Echo moves fast, hand on Roman’s arm, holding him back. “Don’t. Not here. Not like this.”

“Not like this ?” Roman hisses. “You already made this .”

Echo doesn’t respond. The guilt in his eyes flickers for a second, but then it’s gone. Walled off. Buried. He turns to Nikolai, voice steel. “You walk out. You take the car. You don’t take her.”

“I’m not asking,” Nikolai mutters. “She’s my leverage. She’s my fucking insurance.”

“You’ll be dead before you make it to the next street,” Echo says. “Take the car. Walk away. You touch her again, and I swear to God-”

“What, Echo?” Nikolai rasps, pushing the barrel hard into my temple. “You’ll kill me? Get in line.”

Then suddenly, without warning, he shoves me forward. Hard.

I stumble and fall, hitting the floor with a grunt, my shoulder screaming from the impact. I twist onto my back just in time to see Nikolai lurch toward the door, bloody and limping, dragging himself like a corpse with a heartbeat.

The keys jingle.

The car door slams.

Engine roars to life.

Echo and Roman don’t move. They just watch him drive away, red taillights disappearing into the black.

Silence swells between the three of us.

I lie on the cold tile, heart pounding, throat raw, vision swimming.

Roman stares at Echo like he doesn’t recognize him.

Echo stares at the door like he’s already planning the next kill.

And me?

I stay where I am.

Because no one’s coming to help.

How could I have been so delusional?

How could I ever have believed there was more beneath Echo’s touch than possession?

That the way he held me meant something, that the heat, the chaos, the aching softness buried beneath his violence was real ?

Maybe it was always just in my head. A sick fantasy I built around a man who used my body like a weapon, a reward, a distraction.

Maybe he never saw me as anything but another broken thing to bend to his will.

Maybe he would’ve let Nikolai shoot me. Maybe he wouldn’t have blinked.

The question burns in my throat as he looks at me now, stone-faced and silent, his expression unreadable. The same eyes I once thought held depth now feel bottomless in the worst way. That same stare from the basement. That same hollowness that watched me cry, watched me break, and never flinched.

“Are you hurt?” he asks flatly.

The words feel like a slap. Not concerned, just protocol.

Before I can respond, Roman speaks, voice low and venom-laced.

“Katya Romanov,” he mutters, pacing slowly behind me. “Quite the fucking mess you’ve made.”

Then he moves, hard and fast.

The air is ripped from my lungs as I’m slammed back onto the tile floor, the shock of it stunning me into silence.

Cold steel clasps around my wrists, the sharp click of the cuffs biting into my skin.

My knees scrape against the ground, my shoulder burning from the earlier fight.

My hair spills around my face as I’m forced down, body pinned like prey.

I look at Echo. I stare at him, eyes wide with horror, mouth trembling, a scream stuck in the back of my throat.

“E-Echo?” I sob, the sound jagged and small.

Do something. Say something. Stop this.

But he just stands there. Watching. His throat bobs like he’s trying to swallow words that won’t come, like there’s something crawling beneath his skin, but he doesn’t move. He doesn’t speak.

Roman isn’t finished.

“You’re lucky I don’t put cuffs on you after what I just saw,” he spits at Echo, shoving my cuffed wrists behind me.

“I already texted Noah. Our men are on the way. So why don’t you tell me what the fuck is going on here?

Was Nikolai right? Are you fucking her? Have you been keeping her here like a goddamn pet? ”

The words feel like acid. I squeeze my eyes shut, heart slamming against my ribs, trying to disappear into the tile beneath me. Roman’s voice is too loud, too real. Echo’s silence is worse.

“E-Echo?” I whisper again, voice cracking, tears streaking down my cheeks.

He steps forward. My eyes flick open. For a moment, I think he’s going to stop this, that he’ll shove Roman off of me, that he’ll kneel beside me and finally, finally be the man I imagined in the dark.

But he doesn’t.

He just cocks his head, eyes icy, jaw tight, his expression hard and void of the man I thought I saw in that bed.

And then he speaks.

“No…” he says quietly, almost thoughtfully. “It was just business.”

The words slice through me like a blade, clean and deep. I blink once. Twice. I can’t breathe.

That’s all I remember before his knuckles find my chin.

A flash of pain. The crack of bone on bone.

And then,

Darkness.