Page 131 of Beautiful Obsessions
One hand under my brother’s shoulder.The other gripping his arm like he didn’t trust himself not to drop him.
His face—God.He wouldn’t look at him.Wouldn’t look at what my own father had done.
They carried Rasputin out of the room quickly, like if they moved fast enough, the truth wouldn’t have time to settle.
The door shut behind them.
And Viktor—my father—didn’t follow.
He stood there, alone in the office, staring at the blood on the floor like it had nothing to do with him.
Like he hadn’t just put a bullet in his own son’s back.
My vision blurred.
My brother had not taken his own life.
My father had arranged his murder, put a bullet in his back, and ordered his body destroyed to perpetuate the lie.
For several seconds, the room was utterly soundless.
Then I threw the laptop.
It smashed against the far wall hard enough to fracture into pieces.
The guard flinched.I did not look at him.My vision tunneled.My blood became something molten and ungovernable.
My father.
I could see only him.
His throat.His mouth.The shape his body would make when it hit the floor under my hands.
I was out of the office before the thought fully formed.
The first man who tried to stop me got my elbow in his throat.The second went down under the butt of my gun.By the time I reached the main hall, shouting had broken loose behind me, boots hitting floors, voices colliding in alarm.
I fired once into the ceiling.
The whole house stilled.
“VIKTORRRRRRRR!”
My voice tore through the stairwell, a roar that ricocheted off the concrete walls, raw with panic and grief, until it came back to me warped and broken.
There was no answer.
I took the stairs two at a time and cut across the upper gallery toward his private wing.A guard moved to intercept me.I shot him in the leg and kept going, barely registering the way he screamed.
I was beyond caution.
Beyond anything except the need to put my father in the ground with my hands around his throat.
His suite was locked.
I kicked the door once.Twice.On the third strike, the frame gave enough for the latch to tear loose.
He was inside.Waiting.
