Her scent is all over me, and it sends my mind racing. I was just inside her, yet I still crave her. She’s like a drug I can’t cope without. I need a hit constantly.
I search the room for her, but she’s nowhere. I made quite a mess of her, so she’s more than likely cleaning up. I take a drink from a server and down the contents. Vas-the-new-Volkov approaches, and I haven’t had enough to drink to deal with him right now.
“Vlad, or shall I call you brother now?” he asks, a smirk on his face. “You are marrying my sister, after all.”
I snort. “You can call me sir or master, Vas.”
He narrows his blue eyes on me, and I can imagine the ways he’s thinking of carving me up. I’d have the same thoughts if spoken to like that. Running a hand down his cheap suit, he watches the room just like I taught him. “Is that what Diana calls you?” he teases, trying to get under my skin. Foolish boy.
“In fact, it is,” I torment. “Or Daddy when the mood strikes.”
He grinds his teeth, then makes his first mistake. “Father and I have decided Irina will return home where she belongs. I have plans for her.”
Ice cold fury shrouds me in its chilly grip. “She belongs here, and no one is taking her away,” I grit out in warning.
“You get Diana, Vlad,” he says. “Irina returns to the fold.”
My fist clenches and I’m dying to ram it through his stupid nose like I’ve done hundreds of times when he answered to me down in the basement. Instead, I glower at him.
“Don’t come into my home and make demands of me,” I snarl. “It’s a death warrant.”
“It’s not a demand of you,” he bites out, ignoring my threat. “It’s of her.” He places his glass down and saunters off into the crowd.
I’ll kill him and feed him to his stupid daddy if he even tries to remove Irina from me.
She’s fucking mine.
I spy a server and make my way over to him, stopping when I overhear Vika speaking to Veniamin.
“It’s true, Ven, precious Diana and that old man, Anton, are up to no good behind my good brother’s back.”
“Your lies will get innocent people killed, Vika,” Ven grits out. “Diana is nothing like you, so stop projecting.” He grabs her arm, sneering down at her.
She snatches her arm and bites back, “I saw them with my own eyes. They were kissing like high schoolers at prom and then disappeared into her hotel room when we went away to buy my dress.”
My head begins to throb with information overload. Diana is fucking Anton? He’s as old as my goddamn father. Have they been doing that under my roof? Right under my nose for over a fucking month? Is that why she wanted him to come here with her? How did I miss this?
I miss nothing.
Anger explodes within me.
It’s not often I get blindsided, and when it happens, I make motherfuckers pay.
I march down to my office, needing answers, and flick the computer on. I bring up the first week’s feed from when they arrived in Diana’s room and fast forward until my heart stops.
Anton enters her room.
Goddammit.
I knew she wasn’t a virgin.
I can’t watch that old man rutting on her. I fast forward to him leaving her room and change to the corridor cameras. They must be stupid and have a death wish to do this shit in my house. It’s not the fact that Diana is fucking someone else, it’s the who, and the deceit—the brazen disloyalty. She told me she was a virgin and insisted on bringing that man here. Leonid will lose his mind over this. If it gets out that I allowed this to happen under my roof with no retribution, I’ll be a laughing stock.
I stare numbly at the screen, my mind racing with building anger.
It’s been ten minutes that Anton has been back in his own room when his door opens again.
How many times can he go at his age?
But it’s not Diana’s room he creeps into this time. It’s Irina’s. My heart feels like it’s going to burst from the ribs containing it.
No.
Please fucking no.
If she’s sleeping with him too, I’m going to be sick.
My guts coil as I click on the screen to her room.
“Vlad? What’s wrong?” Irina’s voice calls from the doorway. She floats toward me, and I have to hold up my hand to stop her. If this shows any signs of Anton and her touching, I can’t trust myself not to kill her.
I drag my eyes from Irina and glare at the screen. She’s asleep in her bed, oblivious to the fact that he’s even in there. He stands at the foot of her bed and pulls his cock from his slacks.
Motherfucker.
“Oh, God,” Irina cries out. I hadn’t even noticed her approach this side of the room.
Her eyes tear up, and she clutches her stomach as if to hold in the sickness she’s clearly feeling.
“It was him,” she gasps, almost choking.
“What was him?” I demand, my blood igniting with rage.
“I thought it was a dream.”
“What, Irina?!” I roar, losing it. I know what she’s going to say. I can feel it in my bones. I don’t want to hear it, but I need to.
Her eyes are wide and filled with terror like a deer caught in headlights.
“Someone touched me when I was a young girl,” she whispers, the tears in her eyes spilling down her cheeks. “Just once, and Diana’s presence scared them away. I thought it was a dream, but it’s coming back to me. I blocked him out, but now he’s so clear. It was Anton.”
The rage that had been surging to the surface explodes. I rise to my feet, sending my chair hurtling away from me and grab my monitor. With a furious roar, I launch it across the room and it crashes against the wall. The sound is satisfying, but my fury has no hope of being snuffed out. The calm, collected man has evaporated. In his wake stands the beast—the monster ready to rain hell down on this earth.
Opening a cabinet in the back of the room, I grab my fish hook knife and a bundle of rope.
Someone is going to die.
“Vlad,” Irina calls after me. “Vlad!”
I can’t listen. I can’t stop. I’m going insane. My head is swirling with that motherfucker touching my woman, my Irina.
Dirty old man.
My face will be the last thing he sees as I cut him into fucking pieces.
I collide with Diana and Ven as I come out of my office like a tornado. Diana crashes against Ven, and he has to grip onto her to keep her from falling to the floor.
“Vlad?” Diana asks, fear written on her features.
Good, cunt. Be scared. Be so goddamned afraid. This shit ends tonight.
“Where’s Anton?” I growl so deadly, she pales and begins to cry.
“Vlad,” she pleads, her eyes spilling with tears of betrayal. She knows. She fucking knows what she did, and that I know too.
“Diana,” I snap.
She jumps at my tone. “I-I asked him t-to stay in his room t-tonight,” she stutters, sobs causing her body to tremble.
I take the stairs three at a time. Irina and Diana give chase, my name on both their lips as they call for me, but I’m faster than them both.
I kick open Anton’s door, and he jumps up from the chair he’s sitting in.
“What’s going on?” he asks, fear flashing in his eyes. He knows. He knows his life ends tonight.
I hit him hard with a closed fist, relishing the crunch of his jaw. His head snaps to the side, and then he’s attacking. But I’ve trained my entire life and easily dodge his punches. With quick moves he can’t keep up with, I wrap the rope around his neck, force him into the corridor, and tie the other end of the rope to the railing.
“Vlad!” Diana and Irina cry out in unison.
But it’s too late. I’m in a haze of rage, and nothing is dragging me back from it. I flick my knife out, and with enough momentum, I stick it into his groin, digging the blade all the way to the hilt.
“No!” Diana screams as I drag the knife up his stomach, tearing the flesh, cutting an opening right up to his chest. I stand back, then kick him over the railing.
Cries echo around me, and screams resound from below. A loud snap of his neck as it breaks and the splat of his intestines hitting the stone floor cause another ripple of screams.
Diana’s fists hit me with surprising force. “No! You monster! Oh God, what have you done?” She sobs hysterically as she beats and claws at me.
“He was an animal,” I growl, knocking her hands away from me.
“I love him!” she screams, her sobs broken.
I grab her wrists and drag her to her room. “Loved him. You loved him, Diana. But you can’t love him now because he’s dead. Now, collect your shit and get the fuck out of my house,” I roar. I slam the door, leaving her to pack her things.
Her sobs ricochet off the walls on the other side of the door.
Veniamin has joined Irina, and both are looking down at Anton swinging. I should have savored that kill, kept him breathing for a few days, relieved him of his putrid cock, then his fingers, hands, tongue.
“Did you hurt her?” Veniamin asks, glancing toward Diana’s door.
I can’t deal with this bullshit from him too.
“Are you also fucking her?” I bark, shoving him away from me.
He swings a punch, and it hits me in the jaw. My head snaps to the side, and I laugh. It’s real and from the gut. I spit out blood and hiss at him. “What a mistake that was, drug.” Friend.
I ram into him with a shoulder to his chest. We scuffle, slamming into walls and knocking pictures to the floor. A punch to his face, a punch to mine.
“Stop it! Stop it, Vlad, goddamn you!” Irina screams, trying to pry us apart.
Ven manages to force me from him, and I fall straight into Irina. I feel it, the weight of me colliding with her, and her legs giving out. She tumbles back away from me. I reach around to grab her, but hit nothing but air.
The soft thuds as she topples down the stairs stop my heart.
Both Ven and I rush to her aid, but she’s at the bottom before we can get to her, landing in the puddle of Anton’s blood and guts.
My father and Vas are standing at the bottom of the stairs glaring up at me.
Before I can reach her, Vas scoops Irina up into his arms. She stirs and flutters her eyes at me. Blood coats her skin and soaks her dress. Her eyes are pained.
I can’t breathe.
“I’m okay,” she mutters, attempting to push from his hold, but she’s too weak. “I’m okay.” His grip tightens, and he steps away from the bloody mess with my woman in his arms.
I sag, relieved she’s not seriously hurt. I start toward her, but Veniamin races down the stairs, knocking past me and out the front door.
Bastard.
My father glowers at me, rage in his eyes. I want to snatch Irina from Vas and run a million miles away from here. I’m about to do just that when a door slams shut and I see Diana with a bag in her arms tearfully eyeing the rope attached to the banister where her dead sicko lover hangs.
I drag my gaze back to Irina, but she’s gone.
This isn’t over.
This will never be over.
My entire body ripples with fury as I clench the steering wheel. Diana cries silently by my side. I can’t even feel sorry for her. My longtime friend royally fucked up. Sure, I was sleeping with her sister, but fucking her bodyguard under my goddamn roof? A man who preyed on her kid sister. Diana was disrespecting me in my own home. Lying to me. But worse, she was letting that bastard stick his cock in her—a cock he seemed much more keen on sticking into her little sister.
“Where are we going?” she murmurs, hugging her bag to her chest.
Ignoring her, I weave through the snow-covered streets. I didn’t even bother with a coat. My anger has heated my flesh to unhealthy degrees. Until I have my Irina back in my arms, I won’t calm or settle. I know Father is losing his mind over the scene we caused, but I can’t even bring myself to care right now.
All I care about his her.
Sweet Irina.
I need her.
I fucking need her.
“Are you going to kill me?” she asks, swallowing. She lifts her chin bravely and looks my way. I’ve debated it. But Irina’s sorrow would haunt me.
“Nope,” I spit out.
She sags. “I’m sorry if I hurt you—”
“You. Did. Not. Hurt. Me.” I jerk my head her way and spit out my words. “You made a fucking fool out of me in front of everyone.” At least if she were fucking Veniamin, it would have been with a respectable man. I would still need retribution, but Anton? He was nothing more than a servant. An old, dead fucking servant.
She starts to cry again. “Vlad, please…” She swipes her nose with her coat and sniffles. “I’ll do whatever I can to make it right. I promise.”
“You’re done,” I hiss out. “I don’t ever want to see your face again.”
“N-No, I can f-fix this,” she chatters, sobs cluttering her throat. She reaches my way and grabs my cock. “We can have sex. I can be a good wife. Please, Vlad. I can fix this. Let me fix this.”
I grab her wrist hard enough to have her crying out and jerking it away from me. “I’m fucking your sister.”
Her sadness melts away as intense fury overcomes her. “What? No! I don’t believe you.”
“She cries so good when I come inside her,” I taunt as I pull into the driveway of my location. “I like ruining her for any men. Kind of like how Anton ruined you. You’re a whore, and I’ll be damned if I’ll marry a used-up tramp.”
“You and I were friends first,” she tries. “Have mercy.”
“This is mercy, and not for you,” I seethe. “It’s for Irina.”
She bows her head as her shoulders quake with her sobs. “Tell me you’re lying about you and her.”
“Unlike you, Diana, she was a virgin.” I pause and smile evilly at her. “But I use the term lightly because I’ve fucked her nine ways from Sunday since then.”
“Ublyudox.” Bastard.
She starts rummaging through her bag and pulls out a gun. I’m already out of the car and stalking around the vehicle. Sleet mixed with snow pelts my face, but it does nothing to cool the anger bubbling inside me. I yank her door open and jerk the gun from her. She squeezes out a shot that echoes loudly around us, but I wrench it from her and toss it into the snow. Then I grab her by the hair in one hand and snatch up her bag in the other as I haul her to the massive estate nearly surrounded by thick woods. When I make it to the front door, it opens, and Ruslan stares at me in shock.
“What are you doing here?”
“Where’s Yegor?” I roar, pushing past him.
“Please,” Diana begs. “Don’t bring me here. Vlad.”
Her words do nothing to calm me. Instead, I drag her through the dark home until I find Yegor’s office. Inside, he sits at his desk, his fat belly out in front of him. Ven stands near him. As soon as Ven sees me, he pulls a gun and points it at me. Vika and Rus enter behind us and sidle up next to Yegor, a show of strength. Laughable.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Ven demands, his glare vicious and evil. It gives me satisfaction to see his eye is turning black and his bottom lip is split.
“You already have one cunt going to wear the Vetrov last name. What’s one more? You seem to be pretty into her, Veniamin,” I bellow. The control I normally have such a tight leash on is gone. Completely fucking gone.
Ven steps forward, but I stop his movements by shoving Diana hard into him. He catches her and keeps her from hitting the floor. I pull out my hooked knife crusted with Anton’s blood and rip apart her bag.
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” Vika snorts at Diana. The sound of the back of Yegor’s hand hitting Vika resonates around the room, and she hits the floor like a stone being dropped into the ocean. Another sign of power. It’s weak, and little does he know, I don’t give a fuck about Vika. Neither do his sons by the looks of it. Veniamin is too busy eyeballing me and comforting Diana. Pathetic.
“You’re a fucking asshole,” Ven snaps, hugging Diana to him. She trembles and sobs and it makes me fucking mental with rage.
“Begin training her,” I tell Ven icily as I shred everything in her bag. “Father wants a Volkov to prove their name in The Games. I think she’s earned that honor.” I toss the bag to the floor and pin her with a glare. “Have fun in hell.”