Page 33 of Nobody Wants Me (Volkov Bratva #5)

T he Butcher

I needed to get some air.

Fear is not something I have dealt with in a long time, but I wasn’t afraid for me. No, fear did not bother me. I feared for Freya.

Eric was a sadistic piece of shit. There had been a couple of times over the years when I could have killed him, but because it hadn’t been worth my time, I had left that piece of shit to rot.

Now, he had Freya. One of the nicest, sweetest, loveliest people I had ever known, who didn’t deserve to be on anyone’s list. She didn’t deserve to be going through this, and it angered me. She should be free and happy.

Harris did this.

The Grid did this.

And I hadn’t put a stop to it.

“Are you okay?” The Beast asked, stepping outside.

There was no need to worry about any attacks. Now that The Grid had what they wanted, they would leave us alone, as if it hadn’t happened. As if they hadn’t kidnapped someone we know. Freya was just another paycheck.

“He’s going to destroy her,” I said.

“We’ll figure it out.”

“And then what? Deal with the consequences? Taking from The Grid ... there is no way any of us will come back from that,” I said, looking at him. “Unless we take The Grid down with us.”

“We know The Grid is weakening. Now is our chance to strike. Ivan is already getting the van ready. We’re about to target everyone with any kind of association with Eric The Tool. We’ll find her, and we’ll handle it.” He went to reach out to touch me, but I took a step back.

The Beast and I ... it was complicated. We had accepted our differences, but that didn’t mean anything had changed. We were killers, fighting for the same spot.

I don’t even know why I wanted to be one of Ivan’s Brigadiers.

A nice life, a good life was not possible.

I made my choice to be what I was so many years ago.

I can even see my uncle and how he looked at me, warning me that the life he offered was not a good one.

How I would come to hate it. He was so right. My uncle was always right.

But there was no mistaking I was good at what I did.

Killing people came easy to me. Death hadn’t affected me in a long time.

I killed men and women. I destroyed entire families at a request. Not many people know that for a short time, I was an exterminator.

Sent in to deal with those people that slowly became too powerful, and were pure evil, or too good.

I didn’t keep that job for long. My uncle helped me out of it, one of the few jobs he did just before he died.

He had warned me about being an exterminator, and when I asked him for help, he came.

Yes, many people would think my uncle was a piece of shit for helping his niece to hunt, kill, and to do so without blinking an eye.

But he had also been there for me when I needed him most. He never forgot my birthday, and he wouldn’t allow me to forget.

He told me it was the little things in life that would give me an anchor on reality, as opposed to .

.. nothing. I missed him so damn much. I missed him more than anything.

The Beast held his hands up. “We’ll be waiting.”

“You go ahead,” I said. “I’ll catch up.”

They never knew how I found them. None of them knew I had attached GPS’s to most of them, and could find them within a blink of an eye. Just like I knew where Freya was being held.

The Beast nodded and he turned to leave.

Alone, I pulled out my cell phone, typed in the code, and accessed Eric’s tunnels.

His torture chambers. That was where Freya was being held.

I attached one into Freya’s clothing. Just a tiny little piece within her wardrobe, and they were activated by her body heat.

I knew exactly where she was, and why I was standing outside—because I was taking my final bit of air.

When I went for her, the guys needed to be behind me.

I would call them at the right time. This needed to be a one-person job until they arrived and picked up the pieces.

This was a death mission. I would not survive.

Putting myself in Eric’s hands, and that of The Grid, meant death was sure to happen.

I only hoped I died before they got hold of me.

The debt was calling, and they were coming to collect.

****

V ictor

Killing people was easy. I’d been doing it all my life. According to my father, what made a good leader was the ability to kill without even thinking about it. Just running your blade over the throat of your enemy, gutting them.

We had killed four of the assassins associated with The Grid.

None of them knew where Eric was, and with each “no” answer, I was getting pissed.

What was more, The Butcher hadn’t joined us, which made me start to question her alliance.

Ivan trusted her, but she hadn’t come. The Beast had told us she would catch up.

“What now?” I asked, looking toward Ivan.

Little by little, The Grid was falling, but I had known of organizations like this to rise up, if given even a smidge of a chance.

He pulled his knife out of the head of the guy he had just killed. “We move onto the next one.

One by one, the hours ticked on, and it was starting to grate on my nerves. Killing people was not helping.

“Where the fuck is The Butcher?” I asked, turning toward The Beast.

“She’ll be here when she’s ready.”

“Am I the only one who is finding that super convenient of her?” I asked. “No one else wondering how the fuck this came to be?”

“Stop,” Ivan said.

“She is the only one not here, and we’re no closer to finding Freya. What are we doing? Killing a bunch of people that know absolutely nothing about what we fucking need!”

Ivan moved toward me, and he gripped the back of my neck.

“I get it,” he said. “I get that you’re angry right now.

I know you need to get her back, trust me, I know.

Do you think we’re the only ones working this?

Rage and the Evil Savages are doing what they need to do.

Slavik, Andrei, Ive, and Peter, they are all on this.

It’s not just us. I’ve got everyone working to get where we need to be.

We’re going to make this work. Of that, you have my word.

The Butcher is solid, okay. I know you have your doubts, but trust me on this one.

She has your back. She has all of our backs, and you’re going to be grateful for it. We’re going to get her back.”

I trusted Ivan. I had put my life and everything in Ivan.

“I hated her,” I said. “She did nothing wrong and I hated her. She is the most precious thing you have given me and at the beginning, I treated her like shit. She doesn’t deserve this.”

“We’ll make it right.”

I didn’t know how we were going to make this right. There was nothing we could do but wait. I wasn’t a patient man.

Freya didn’t deserve us to be waiting around. She had to live. There was so much I wanted to do for her, to give her.

And there was nothing I could do. Killing was all I had to offer.

****

I van

It had been a long time since I felt helpless.

I had done everything with control. I’d been the one to make the decisions.

That little boy who had been taken to be killed was a long time ago. I’d not been short on speech in a very long time. I always knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. Words came easily to me.

Ever since I had gotten into Harris’s world, it seemed words had failed me.

I was not afraid of Harris. He was just another rich guy with sick twisted fantasies, and a means to .

.. control. Did I know he was part of The Grid?

No, I hadn’t. Did I know he’d taken my half-sister and kept her a secret all these years? No, I hadn’t.

I didn’t like to be the one who wasn’t in control.

From the moment I had ever met Freya, it had been one revelation after another.

Trying to get to know my sister was proving to be a difficult thing.

Now they had her, and that to me was just unacceptable.

I hadn’t taken the time to get to know her and now she was gone.

I needed her to come back. I had to fix this.

The Butcher not being here didn’t alarm me. I was used to her coming and going as she pleased. She had a way of finding shit out, and everything just fell into place.

Taking down The Grid was now my number one priority, but it would seem Eric had other plans.

I made my way outside to the car, and that was when I felt my cell phone buzzing. I was tempted to ignore it, but right now I needed some good news. Seeing who it was, I frowned. The Butcher was calling me.

“Where are you?” I asked.

She gave me her exact location. “I want to say, Ivan Volkov, it has been an honor to serve you. The Beast is the better option when it comes to being your Brigadier, and I know we’ve technically been running the show together these last few years, but he is the better choice.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m not going to make it,” The Butcher said.

“Bethany,” I said.

This made her laugh. “I should have known you would know my name.”

“Of course.” I gripped the phone tightly. “You do not need to do this.”

“Yeah, I do. She’s a good girl, Ivan. We both know that.

She is a good girl with good standards, and this doesn’t need to happen.

I can get her out. It’s not going to be easy, but I can do it.

You’re going to need to get here, and I’m going to lead her down to the end.

The entrance will not be accessible. I already had it rigged to blow up in thirty minutes, long enough for me to make this call, and to tell you I am going to die, and I am okay with that. ”

“Don’t do this,” I said.

“You’re a good guy, Ivan. Keeping you alive all those years ago was the right thing to do, but now it’s time to pay the price. Goodbye.”

She hung up. I stared down at my cell phone.

“Who was that?” Victor asked.

He was not doing well. I had to wonder if the son of a bitch had even realized he was in love with my sister, or if I should tell him he was.