Page 26 of Savage Truce

Anastasia

Yesterday Ms. Fedorova was kicked to death, and I watched as they threw her onto the growing pile of bodies.

Afterward, they drank while it took the last of my strength to prepare dinner for them. I was so weak I had to crawl from the kitchen to the pen, which made them all laugh.

Even though there was no love lost between my family and me, witnessing human beings, even cruel ones, being butchered right in front of me destroyed something inside me I thought was unbreakable.

I’ve lost the determination to survive whatever life throws at me.

The sickening stench of death drifts from the decomposing bodies, making my shriveled stomach roll and bile burn the back of my throat, but there’s nothing in me to throw up.

How much will it hurt when they kill me?

My brain shuns the thought and goes to the only safe place there is. As I slip into my memories of the theater and Rodian, I can feel the life draining from my emaciated body with every passing second.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The gate clanks as it’s unlocked, chilling the blood in my veins, then Bogdan barks, “Come!”

Is it already time to make food?

I learned his name a few days ago but still don’t know what any of the other soldiers are called.

My breathing speeds up as I try to get my body to move, but I’m only able to lift my head.

If I can’t get up, they’ll kill me now.

My sight takes a moment to focus, and as I look past Bogdan, I see a vision in black combat clothes.

I always fantasized that Rodian would wear a suit and his hair would be short like the night we met, not tied up in a manbun with strands hanging loose.

He looks wild and dangerous, but happy that I’ll see him in my final seconds, I whimper, “You… finally… found me.”

“Crazy, Svinya! Show respect to the new pakhan,” Bogdan snaps angrily as he comes at me.

New pakhan?

My gaze shifts from Rodian to the other four men, wondering which of them overthrew my grandfather.

Before Bogdan can grab hold of me, Rodian storms forward and wraps his arm around the soldier’s neck, hauling him out of the pen.

Unable to keep my head up, I slump against the rusted rails.

“Boss!” Bogdan shouts as Rodian throws him to the side, and when he climbs to his feet, he seems confused as he asks, “What are you doing?”

Rodian walks right up to Bogdan and looks him dead in the eye, the expression on his face downright murderous. “You acted without my authority.”

The power in his deep voice makes a shiver race over my body, and only then does it click that Rodian is the new pakhan.

NoNoNoNoNo! It can’t be true.

The words echo through my head, refusing to make sense. Pakhan. Rodian. They don’t belong together. One is the title of the most feared man in the Bratva. The other is the man who became my reason to keep breathing for the past five years.

As he punches a shocked Bogdan, the realization shatters every dream I’ve spun around him.

My white knight didn’t come to save me. I stupidly built fantasies around the man who defeated my grandfather and took over the Bratva.

Gunfire erupts, but I don’t even have the strength to flinch, and my eyes never leave Rodian as I watch him beat Bogdan to death on the blood-stained spot where my uncles were massacred.