Page 38 of Forsaking All Others

“You can be the one to kill her, Petyr,” Afansay said with a mean chuckle, pushing the kid so hard he sailed into the wall and broke through the crumbling plaster to reveal the lath beneath. “It will be good for you. The first kill is most special.”

The blood drained from Petyr’s already pallid complexion, but he righted himself from the wall without saying a word.

“He thinks she is too pretty to kill,” Daniil taunted.

Afansay snorted. “She is ugly like all Italian scum.”

“I may be ugly,” I said coolly. “But I’m not sure your boss, Pakhan Maksim Aslanov, would like the mess my death would leave on his doorstep.”

The men paused, turning their scowls to me.

I wondered if they were surprised I even had a voice.

“You know nothing of Pakhan,” Afansay declared, spitting at my feet. “He will be happy to take a shot at the Outfit. He has been waiting long time for this.”

“And you’re going to be the one to decide to finally go to war with the Italians? Not him?” I asked innocently, blinking wide eyes at his homely, priggish face.

God, I wished my hands were free. Even three against one, if I had not been bound around the wrists at the base of my back, I could have gotten some excellent licks in thanks to Akira and his training.

“She has point,” Petyr muttered, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I really did or if he was too enamored by me to let me be killed.

Either way, it didn’t matter.

“Women has no point but to suck our dicks,” Afansay retorted, and before I could blink, he was backhanding me.

The blow was so powerful it snapped my head around on my neck and tossed me into the wall, my head denting the mildew-softened plaster. Stars burst in my vision, and pain radiated down my skull into my jaw and spine.

I tasted blood, bright and metallic on my tongue.

Even through the haze of pain, I felt my determination to get out of this shit show alive harden into something diamanté.

I didn’t need Dario to survive.

Even though keeping me safe was the one promise he’d ever made to me, I shouldn’t have been surprised to find he reneged on it.

He didn’t want me, he certainly didn’t love me.

Once again, life was telling me that the only person I could rely upon was myself.

My eyes snapped open, and I leaned forward woozily to spit blood onto the floor instead of swallowing it.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Petyr was protesting, standing a bit closer to me as if he would protect me.

I fought a smile at seeing the way his loyalty was so easily swayed.

“Shut up, boy,” Afansay barked. “Suka deserved it.”

I knew enough from Katya to know I had just been called a bitch.

The men left after that, grumbling to each other in Russian.

But I didn’t care.

Because they had given me enough insight to find the fault lines in their foundation.

Petyr was a virgin boy with a crush on me that made him pliable.

Afansay was a brute with a temper who could be triggered into making an impulsive mistake.