Page 44 of Ghost Ribbon

Dimitri didn’t even try to deny it. A feral smile spread across his face. “Of course I did. If I hadn’t gotten there in time, my fairy would have gotten touched by those dead cunts.” He was talking about Rei, who was at the same party as Marco. He also got into a little trouble, to say the least. That trouble was also why Dimitri had been keeping him in his mansion like Rapunzel in a tower.

Ilya snorted loudly from where he was already dragging a bound and gagged man out from the shadows of the building. “You both ditched me! I was stuck handling the initial cleanup alone while you two were off playing! It isn’t fair. I want emotional compensation.”

Dimitri didn’t look remotely apologetic. He actually looked pleased with himself. “Worth it.”

Ilya rolled his eyes dramatically as he shoved the struggling man into a rusted metal chair in the center of the open floor space. He grinned wickedly while pulling out his favorite set of tools - pliers, scalpels, a small blowtorch, and several lengths of wire. He poked the prisoner’s broken nose with one finger, earning a muffled scream through the gag. “But seriously, Dima. You used to be fun before he showed up. Aren’t you bored of him?”

Dimitri flipped him off. “Say that again and I’ll let you be the next one in that chair, Ilya.”

Ilya just cackled and began unrolling his tools. “However,” Dimitri continued, turning his gaze on me, “I did happen to stumble onto something interesting recently. You and a little guy with ribbons in his hair. Mind explaining?”

I deadpanned, leaning against a nearby pillar as Ilya started his work. The first real scream tore through the air as Ilya pressed the heated tip of the blowtorch against the man’s forearm. “None of your business.”

Dimitri’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t look away from me. “It’s my business if you try to hurt him.”

I tilted my head slightly, my face completely blank, showing no emotion whatsoever. “What is it to you if I hurt him?”

“Marco is important to Rei,” Dimitri said flatly, arms still crossed over his chest. “If he gets hurt, Rei will suffer. And if Rei suffers… I’ll cut you into pieces.”

I studied him for a long moment, then tilted my head the other way, keeping my expression perfectly neutral. “How romantic.”

Ilya let out a high-pitched, dramatic whine from his spot beside the prisoner, pausing mid-cut as blood dripped from the knife in his hand. The man in the chair was already sobbing through the gag. “Wait a minute!!! Does this mean we can’t hurt people close to Rai?? CAN I NOT KILL KENTO?”

Kento, Rei’s older brother and Ilya’s self-declared enemy number one. The two had been locked in a stupid, petty feud ever since Kento had publicly called Ilya a deranged gremlin in front of half the academy and apparently had fucked his sister too. Ilya had been fantasizing about carving him up ever since, and the mention of the name made him light up with vicious excitement.

“It’s Rei, not Rai! And no. You can’t.”

Ilya’s mouth fell open in exaggerated horror. He gestured wildly with the bloody knife, nearly nicking the prisoner again and making the man flinch hard enough that the chair scraped against the concrete. “What?! But I’ve been dreaming about peeling his skin off like an orange for weeks. This is abuse of the highest order!”

Dimitri sighed, rubbing his temples. “You’ll survive, Ilya.”

“Survive?” Ilya wailed, stomping his foot dramatically. The prisoner flinched again at the sound. “First you two abandon me for your new fuckholes and now I can’t even have my arch-nemesis? What kind of friendship is this? I demand reparations. At least let me break his legs. Or one leg. Half a leg? A pinky toe? I’ll take a pinky toe!”

“No,” Dimitri repeated firmly.

Ilya turned back to the prisoner with renewed frustration, stabbing him viciously in the thigh. “Can I at least dismember him? Come on, Dima, I’m begging here. I’ll be good for a whole month.”

Dimitri shook his head again, though there was clear amusement in his eyes now. “Still no. Leave Kento alone. That’s final.”

Ilya let out another theatrical wail, dramatically draping himself over the back of the prisoner’s chair while the man whimpered beneath him. “This is the worst day of my life. You’re both boring now. Romance has ruined you. Next thing you know you’ll be holding hands and writing poetry about your pretty little boys while I’m left behind!!!”

Dimitri chuckled despite himself. “Focus on the guy in the chair, Ilya. He’s still breathing.”

I remained leaning against the pillar, watching everything with mild interest while my mind stayed fixed on Marco, who was quickly becoming far more entertaining than anything happening here. The prisoner’s screams blended into the background like white noise as Ilya continued his enthusiastic work. Blood splattered across the floor, but none of it touched me.

This was going to be a very long, very interesting week. And if Dimitri thought he could keep me away from my little star just because of Rei, he was going to be very disappointed.

***

One moment later, something loud reached my ears.

It came from the broken windows on the upper level, a bang that made all three of us move at once. “Ambush!”

More gunfire erupted. Bullets tore through the air, sparking off metal beams and punching into concrete. Shouts echoed from outside - at least six, maybe eight men, voices rough and foreign. Rivals. The same ones who had tried to move on the warehouse last night, apparently deciding to finish the job here.

Dimitri was grabbing Ilya by the back of his jacket and yanking him down hard behind the rusted metal chair. “Get down!”

“I can fight!” Ilya snapped, but Dimitri shoved him lower anyway, using his own body as a shield while bullets whizzed overhead.