“She doesn’t want you.” The boy stepped closer and, dropping his voice, said, “Durov, she’s mine, and I’ll kill you if you touch her again.”

Durov smiled a cold, unnerving smile. “I’ll get her some day, and there’ll be nothing you can do about it. I couldn’t leave her alone in that bikini. I had to touch her. I want to fuck her.”

Without thinking, the boy drew back his fist and, fueled with rage, sent it straight into Durov’s psychotic face, the sheer force of it knocking him to the ground.

“You’re insane! You’re fucking sick in the head!”

Durov smiled, as if not feeling the blow. “Maybe, but she’s going to be mine. I want her. I need her. She calms me, and I’ll do anything to own her and have her all to myself and fucking away from you…”

*****

The image flash caught me off guard. As I turned my head to look back at Durov through hooded lids, I saw that same cold expression on his face… same as the memory. I’d had a memory of a teenage Durov…

Durov smiled that same psychotic smile. “I own her, fucker. Always have. You go near her, or if I find you looking at her again, I’ll kill you.”

Shaking, on the threshold of losing control of my anger, I whispered to Viktor, “Get me to the gym. I need to train, work off this rage, or I’m going to kill him, here and now!”

Viktor didn’t question my demand. I followed him down the tunnel, away from that fucking dead man walking, Durov. I smirked knowing his days were numbered and I would soon be spitting on his cold corpse.

Then my mind drifted to Kisa and the look of relief on her face, palms pressed against the glass. That small warm smile pulling on her lips, those tears of relief in her eyes. And for the first time in… forever, something besides rage ached in my chest.

It was a foreign and strange feeling, but as I thought of Kisa’s face, it felt familiar.

It felt… right.

Chapter Thirteen

Kisa

“You should’ve seen him, Talia. He destroyed the Chechen in seconds. It was unbelievable. It was all anyone could talk about.”

“And Alik?” Talia asked, and I sighed. “He was as cruel and as dynamic as always. He fought the Turk. He toyed with him for what felt like an age, gutting him piece by piece with his dagger. The crowd loved it, Abram smiling at his son proudly at the side of the cage, but I couldn’t watch. It was too much. I hate it when he kills them so slowly, so violently.”

Talia was silent, then said, “But you could watch Raze kill someone?”

Staring at the photo of me and Luka as kids, clutched in my hands, I squinted my eyes, studying his face, his beautiful face.

“Kisa?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I could watch him. He didn’t toy with his opponent, even though I’d heard he was a sick murderer from the streets and probably deserved it. He didn’t drag out the kill. He didn’t hang around the cage, jogging laps for the glory of the crowd. He left the cage and then, when I went to the holding rooms to see if he was okay, he and Viktor had already left the building. I don’t even know where he stays. I suppose he’s staying with Viktor. He’s so reclusive, private.”

Seconds went by before Talia said, “You’ve completely fallen for him, haven’t you?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but I shut it again, declining to lie to my best friend. I wanted to tell Talia what I’d been thinking about Raze, that he had close similarities to Luka. That I had dreamed he was Luka, come back from wherever he’d disappeared to, from the dead. But I knew I couldn’t voice these words without proof. This was his sister. She’d already mourned for him, held her family together when he left… died.

“I’ve fallen for Raze,” I admitted and heard Talia sigh in trepidation.

“Be careful, Kisa. You’re skating on thin ice. You can’t fall for anyone outside of the Bratva, outside of this family,” Talia sternly warned.

Of course I knew she was really warning me about what Alik would do if he suspected anything was up.

“I will,” I replied, my cell beginning to beep as yet another call tried to come through.

“Tal, I’ve got to go. I’ve got another call… It’s Alik,” I said, suddenly feeling drained.

“Well, you’d better answer him. He already hates me. I don’t want to give him more ammunition. Speak soon,” Talia promised, and I pressed the button to hear music blaring through the speaker.

“Alik?” I shouted, holding the phone away from my ear.