Page 84 of The Games of Madmen

Rodion narrows his eyes in disappointment, gesturing toward the vibrant red stain covering me. “You’ve ruined your sweater,” he says, with disapproval.

I bite back a laugh, the absurdity of the moment bubbling up inside me, and casually shrug my shoulders. “I’ll buy a new one,” I reply, recalling his words from when my watch got ruined weeks ago. Damn, that feels like a lifetime ago.

“Arghhh.” Sergei takes in a couple of ragged breaths when I tap the dagger. “He said he drugged your liquor, so he didn’t need me.”

Thoughts whirl in my mind and my stomach twists.

The night she left. Both Rodion and I got wasted. Usually our tolerance is much higher.

I look at Rodion who nods in confirmation. We don’t need to speak the words aloud. Our thoughts are one in the same.

“Yuri said Alexey had to kill you all if he found you together.”

Motherfucker.

Viktor straightens at this confession. It’s one thing to send spies to watch our business dealings, but to put a bounty on our heads, to authorize someone to kill us…

This is war.

“My brother never made it back from that job. I assumed you killed him,” he growls through gritted teeth.

Dumdumdumdumdum.

Not us. Alyona killed him and he’s why she left.

“Now where is my niece? Let her live.”

I grip the pliers in one hand and the hacksaw in the other. “She’s already dead, like you’re about to be, in around…” I look at my watch and smirk at Viktor. He said we had an hour. Fifteen minutes of that have passed. “Forty-five minutes.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Rodion

Ieat up the road desperate to return to Alyona. Viktor offered to get rid of the white van after we burned Sergei’s body parts and we now owe him one. He seems to collect favors from everyone around him, effortlessly amassing them like the devil collecting souls.

Whatever. It was worth it.

“She left because Yuri sent someone to kill us,” Z says, fueling the anger burning up in my veins at that fact. His shoulders slump. “I’ve always known that she belongs to us, but we belong to her too.” He gently squeezes my shoulder, his grip warm and reassuring. It grounds me. “What she said about loving us this morning...” His words hang in the air between us, and my chest clenches.

“I know,” I say, my hands tightening around the steering wheel as I fight to steady my breathing. I stretch my neck to alleviate the tightness there.

Killing Sergei has given me some peace of mind, but I won’t ever be able to rest until Yuri isn’t walking this earth. “Yuri needs to die,” I state, matter of fact.

Rubbing his hands down his thighs, Z bobs his head in agreement. “We need to have a serious conversation with Dad about the situation. It’s important to think it through and plan so we can be prepared for all possible outcomes. It might be better to facilitate his death, rather than do it ourselves,” he says, fisting his hands. “In the meantime, we need to resolve things with Alyona.” He waits a beat, and when I remain silent, he continues, “There’s no point in pretending we won’t be together, Rodion. It’s inevitable. I don’t want to waste any more time feeling incomplete. Do you?”

No, I don’t.

Not waiting for a reply he adds, “We’re telling her as soon as we get home.”

Fuck, I can’t believe she killed Alexey while we were unconscious, completely oblivious. We could have all died that night. She saved our lives, and we didn’t even know it. We assumed she got scared of what it meant to be with us and ran.

“We should shower first,” I say finally, attempting to ease the tension fogging up the car.

“After this morning, that sounds like an innuendo,” he says, the corners of his mouth curling into a wicked smirk as he shifts slightly in his seat.

I can’t help but chuckle at the sight. He's lounging comfortably in nothing but his black boxer briefs, the fabric clinging to every perfect inch of his cock. The casualness of him contrasts with the murder we just committed.

“Everything sounds like an innuendo to you.” I dip my gaze over to him, noting the semi hard cock he’s now sporting.