Page 134 of Equilibrium
I couldn’t believe that once upon a time I wanted his approval. That I prayed for the day when he would look at me proudly. But that’s what you do when they tear everything else from you. You seek approval from those that wronged you, because in the sea of darkness, you can’t differentiate who is a friend and who is a true enemy.
And this man in front of me, he was the enemy all along.
“You deserve hell, old man.”
The grin he had on his face disappeared as he gripped my face, bringing me closer to him. This punishing grip was nothing compared to everything else he did to me, and I wanted to laugh, knowing that he didn’t have another heir to his shitty empire. I killed Theo, Maya wasn’t an option, and no matter what, he wasn’t here just to kill me.
He wanted me with him, because he knew that I was the only one who could get the job done.
Of course, I could, I just didn’t want to anymore. The time of pliant Ophelia was long gone, and if this piece of shit thought that he could manipulate me again to do his bidding, he had another think coming.
“I made you,dorogoy,” he spat the words out. “I can also unmake you. Don’t test my patience because you would end up worse than your friend there.”
He had. He made me, but I was the one controlling my destiny now. Not him, not the Syndicate, and not some stupid game of power he loved so much. I controlled what was going to happen.
“Then unmake me. Come on, old man. Kill me. Kill me and we’ll see who would reign in your place when your bones are too fragile to even move from the bed. I already killed your son, your other daughter is lost, so that only leaves me. You know that I am the only one with enough bloodlust to do everything you want me to do, but guess what?”
“What?” A vein popped in his forehead because he knew where I was going with this.
“You can burn in hell because I am not going back. So kill me, do it. I won’t do everything you want me to do. You can take your empire and shove it up your ass. I. Don’t. Want. It.”
“Is that so?” he asked, grinning. I didn’t like the sinister look on his face.
“That’s so.”
“Remember what I taught you, Ekaterina. Emotions are your biggest enemy, and you, my dear,” he leaned into my ear, “you reek of them. You don’t want to come willingly? Suit yourself, but I know what makes you tick now. Your biggest mistake was falling for somebody else, for allowing yourself to come here, to this club. They will burn along with your love for them and whether you want it or not, you’re coming back with me.”
“No.” I started shaking my head. He wouldn’t.
But that was just another lie I was trying to make myself believe in. I knew that this monster in front of me would do anything in his power just to get his way. He wouldn’t give a fuck how many lives he had to destroy just to get what he wanted.
“I think I will start with my first disappointment.” He turned to Storm. “The boy that could’ve been so much more, yet he decided to throw it all in the fire.”
“Fuck you, Nikolai,” Storm spewed.
“Now, now,mal’chik.” God, I hated him. “You almost did that. Did you tell my daughter what you used to do during the first half of your life?”
He placed a hand on Storm’s head, petting his hair. The visual almost made me sick, because I knew, I just fucking knew that he was one of Storm’s tormentors. I was trying to goad him earlier, using the information Kieran shared with me in the fit of rage, and I shouldn’t have. I was as sick as the bastard in front of me, and instead of trying more, I turned into a vicious person using his past against him.
“Did you tell her how you loved to jerk yourself off while I watched?”
Sick, he was completely sick. Where was the end to his depravity?
“Did you tell her how you used to beg to come? How you couldn’t come without the pain?”
Storm was shaking, but his eyes were cast downward, looking at the floor. He was ashamed of everything he had to do; I could see it in him. My sick father wanted to humiliate him in front of his people. He loved dominating people and I know that no matter how many years passed, your bully always stayed the person you feared. Storm was strong, but I couldn’t even imagine the terror he had to live through in that house.
They broke me when I was a teenager, but they broke him when he was just a mere child.
“Tell me,mal’chik.” My father placed a hand on his shoulder. “Did you miss me?”
As Storm winced at the pressure my father was applying, that little sparkle of joy shone in Nikolai’s eyes, and I had no doubt that he would do anything to hurt Storm and me.
Storm was my weak point and my father always excelled at reading people. My feelings for the man on his knees were written all over my face. I wasn’t hiding it anymore. I didn’t want to.
But maybe I should’ve.
Fuck. I couldn’t let him die. I didn’t want him to suffer.
