Page 139 of Bratva Menace

Lev choked, coughing out blood. He looked at me, not only in shock but betrayal.

The betrayal. Oh, god, the betrayal in his eyes fucking killed me.

Lev began to fall. I darted forward and caught him before he could hit the ground.

“Hold your fire!” Lukyan roared.

I didn’t even bother looking to see what he was talking about. At that moment, I didn’t care.

I looked down at my brother, struggling to breathe, blood pouring out of the side of his neck, and I broke. “I’m s-so sorry, Lev,” I sobbed, holding him tenderly. “I didn’t want to do this. I-I—” The words got stuck in my throat, and I cried harder. Memories flashed through my head like a scene from a movie. Memories of him and me, laughing. Eating ice cream. Staying up late at the orphanage, hiding under the blanket and playing shadow puppets with a torch. Him, bumping his shoulder against mine and smiling. Us running down the street to get away after we’d just stolen candy bars from a convenience store. Him holding and comforting me after I’d woken up, screaming from a nightmare.

They all played, one after the other after the other, making the guilt over what I’d just done swallow me whole.

I sniffed, wiping the tears falling down my face with the back of my hand. “Please”—hiccup—“forgive me,” I begged. “I’m so sorry. I love you. I’m so, so sorry.” I tried to wrap my hands around the knife to apply pressure to the wound, but it was useless. There was too much blood.

Lev looked up at me, sucking in a harsh breath, only to cough up more blood. “I…” He swallowed thickly and reached for me. I moved my head closer until his hand touched my cheek and closed my eyes, sinking into his touch. “Will…never forgive you,” he growled out.

My eyes snapped open.

The hatred, the rage staring back at me was crippling.

“I…wish…Father had killed you.” His hand moved fast to my throat, and he started strangling me.

I whimpered. What was left of my heart shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. Impossible to ever mend.

Lukyan was there in an instant. He grabbed Lev’s hand and yanked it away from me, but in the end, it didn’t matter. The strength vanished from Lev almost immediately, and his whole body slumped.

He was dead.

Lev died, and he used what last strength he had left to try and kill me too.

Darkness crept into my mind. Into my soul. Into my heart. A paralyzing kind of darkness that, once it had me in its clutches, I knew would never let me go.

I had just killed the only person who had always been there for me. The only person who loved me. Protected me. Cared for me.

How could I do that? How could I betray him like that? He was right. I don’t deserve his forgiveness.

I sank deeper into the darkness. It surrounded me, suffocating me, and I let it. My mind, my body…I felt like I was drifting. Drowning.

“Lyla?” a voice so soft and nurturing called out to me.

I looked up from the dead body of my brother and locked eyes with Lukyan. He was watching me with apprehension. Fear. Worry.

Sadness.

There was sadness in his eyes.

The realization of what I had just done hit me like a ton of bricks.

I couldn’t take it.

I got up and ran.

“Lyla! Wait!”

I didn’t. I kept running.

Dozens of guns aimed my way. It didn’t slow me down. I had to get away. Escape what I’d done. I needed to run and never look back. Never let my sins catch up with me.