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I felt blood rushing through my ears like a tidal wave of horror. “Wh…what?”
He put his hand up to stop my panic. “No harm is coming to your sister,” he stated, making me let out a choked cry of relief. “However, it will be your responsibility to see to it that she never speaks of what happened the other night to anyone. Ever.”
“You swear?”
The look that he shot me would have leveled a lesser person. Still, he said, “On my word as Pakhan, no harm will come to your sister as long as she keeps her mouth shut.”
“What…what about…me?” I asked, still not sure why he was letting me go back home.
Though his shoulders sagged a bit, his chin went up with the arrogance of a man in his position. “We have enough whores, Samara,” he said brutally. “We do not need another one. Especially, one that does not know her place. While your pussy is the best that I’ve ever had, it’s still not worth the headache that comes with it.” I felt his words like a slap in the face, and tears sprang to my eyes with self-loathing. I mean, how many times was I going to allow this man to hurt me? “You are free to go, and you will be safe as long as you do not speak to anyone about these past couple of days.”
“So, I’m free to go?” I asked, needing more. “Just like that?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Keep your mouth shut and continue to honor our agreement from fifteen years ago, and you’ll be free to live your life however you choose.”
He never wanted to see me again.
That was the agreement that I had abided by fifteen years ago, and Avgust was making it clear that he still preferred things that way. His words hurt all over again, making me wonder what it was about this man that made me an absolute idiot.
However, before I could say anything to that, he said, “By the way, Razh…” A sinister twinkle appeared in his eyes, and I knew that this was going to be the nail in the coffin. “I am not married, nor do I have any children. What you overheard was Maksim just being Maksim.”
The tears finally started streaming down my face, but Avgust hadn’t bothered to wait around to witness them. As soon as he’d dropped that little bomb on me, he had turned his back, walking out of the room as if I were no longer worth his time.
I slid down the bars as the doors opening and closing echoed throughout the building, and when I wrapped my arms around my knees, I felt confused enough to feel like I was drowning with it. Like a tornado that had no respect for anything that it destroyed, Avgust had come back into my life, ruining everything good about it, then just walked out like his work here was done.
I was in love with a psychopath, and so what did that make me?
When I finally heard sounds of life again, I looked up to see Viktor standing just outside the cage, and all I could do was apologize for manipulating him. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he replied kindly. “I’ve seen what he does to his enemies. I would have done everything that I could to save myself also.”
If anything, his words just made me feel worse.
Chapter 25
Avgust~
While Erato’s had the best barmaids, cocktail waitresses, and whores around, I wasn’t interested in any of it. My meeting here tonight was to discuss the possibility that Louie Manziel might have actually been found this time, and Louie Manziel and Klive Simpson were the only two things on the planet that had the power to distract me from Samara and what had happened earlier.
Now, having always been honest with myself, I knew that Samara Andreev was a compulsion that I could no longer overcome. She was my drug addiction, my alcoholism, and my gambling problem. She was every vice that existed, and she lured you in with her stunning packaging. Samara was a siren’s call, and she was going to lead me to my doom, no matter how hard I worked to prevent that. She was my greatest weakness, and I’d made the mistake of allowing myself another hit, another taste, and another win.
“I don’t like being here all together like this.”
I looked over at Melor. “If we are all taken out, we still have Bogdan to become Pakhan and Akim will become Sovietnik, and then all will still be right with the world.”
Currently, Melor, Maksim, and I were convened in a safe room located in the back of Erato, a courtesy that the owner often provided for us. While we usually met in more secured locations, I knew that Maksim needed to let off some steam, so he’d have full reign of the place once our meeting was over. Again, Erato’s really did have prime pussy on its menu.
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you,” Melor chided.
“Well, you have officially hurt my feelings, and I will be looking to remedy that flaw as soon as possible,” I retorted, causing my brother to flip me off, something that he’d never do outside family.
“Can we get on with this?” Maksim asked. “It has been a long fucking week.”
Pulling my phone from my jacket, I dialed Nero Sartori’s number, placed the call on speaker, then set the phone down in the middle of the table. Though working with the Sartoris and O’Briens benefitted the bigger picture, asking them for anything still rubbed me wrong. In fact, I couldn’t wait for the day that we could go back to being sworn enemies.
“Who is with you?” Nero asked in lieu of a greeting.
“Melor and Maksim,” I answered truthfully. “We do not gather all the heads of the bratva in one place if we don’t have to.”
