Page 45 of The Chosen
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a faint movement as Mikhail stepped out of the shadows just enough for the light to catch his face.
“You expect me to believe that not only did my uncle kill his own brother,” he began, his voice surprisingly calm, “but that other men in my organization helped to cover it up?”
“You can believe whatever you’d like. But that security footage doesn’t lie.”
Mikhail moved fully into the light, his boots echoing in the room. From my chair, he looked even taller than he appeared in the cemetery. Broad. Controlled.
His dark eyes assessed me the way a man might assess a weapon. Not whether it was dangerous, but whether it was useful.
“You are bold,” he remarked, cutting through the silence. “To accuse my family while tied to a chair surrounded by trained killers.”
“I’m simply providing facts based on the evidence I uncovered. You can interpret it however you’d like, but it’s hard to dispute footage of your uncle pointing a gun at your father and firing.”
Tattoo reeled back and landed a harsh blow to my stomach at the same time as Scar’s fist met with my nose. My vision darkened again with flashes of white and red. I tasted copper and salt on my tongue as I felt the skin split above my eye. The scar Ariana had stitched up that hadn’t quite healed yet.
This time, they didn’t only hit me once. They kept at it. Jaw. Stomach. Cheek. Chest. Each blow deliberate.
A voice screamed at me to curl in, to protect what little air I had left.
I didn’t.
Instead, I took whatever beating they wanted to give me, keeping my gaze locked on Mikhail.
Finally, his voice cut through the room, loud and commanding.
“Enough.”
His men instantly followed his order, stepping away from me and flanking Mikhail as he moved closer.
Close enough that I could make out the faint flecks of gray in his dark eyes.
“At my father’s grave, you brought up Victor Kane. What does he have to do with this?”
“Like I mentioned, one of your soldiers attempted to abduct his wife from their home,” I panted, spitting more blood onto the floor. “It was the same man I noticed in the background of one of my daughter’s social media posts right before her supposed death.”
Scar bent down to retrieve one of the photos I’d printed out and handed it to him, my throat tightening as I caught a glimpse of Sarah’s smile in the image.
“This is your daughter?” Mikhail pressed.
I gave a small nod.
“She’s beautiful.”
I didn’t respond. Just waited for his next question.
“And you believe this man might have your daughter?”
“I know he doesn’t.”
“How?” His brow lifted slightly.
“Because I killed him.”
Mikhail glanced at Scar and Tattoo, all of them seemingly surprised by my response.
“You realize you just admitted to killing one of my soldiers, correct?”
“I observed him remove an unconscious, bound, and gagged Ariana Kane from her home on Star Island and put her in his boat. I followed them to a warehouse up the Intra-coastal. Killed him and took Ariana to safety. I doubt you’ll miss him since he was one of the men who held your father while your uncle shot him.”
