Page 102 of Black Ledger

“I… I…” He stumbled on his words.

“Oh, come on, Mirko, you weren’t this bashful with your dick.”

A guttural growl sounded from across the room.

“Go on, tell him.”

He gritted his teeth and forced it out. “I raped her.”

“Oh, don’t be shy, tell him the rest.” I glided the knife across Miroslav’s jaw, barely nicking the skin. “Tell him why I come at 11:11 pm.”

“Because that was the time I always fucked you.”

“That was a very interesting way of phrasing that.” I clicked my tongue and shook my head. “Because that’s not how I’d explain it. I’d say it more like this: On every third Thursday of the month, for six months straight, you’d tie me to my cot in a prison cell. You’d fill my room with cuckoo clocks—entire walls of them, every single surface—and then, at exactly 11:11 p.m., when you set the clocks to sing, you’d force your cock inside of me. Then, as you raped me, you’d choke me until I nearly died. Once you even had to have the on-call doctor resuscitate me because you took it too far.” I swallowed hard. “Did I forget anything?”

“No,” he grumbled, his gaze locked on a seething Severin.

“Now, I personally think my treatment of you has been reasonable.” I smiled from behind my veil and faced Severin fully. “What do you think?”

Severin was a wall of rigid muscles.

Silence danced between us. Tentative but razor-sharp. His gaze traced the outline of my body and then the knife that still pressed against his man’s throat. Rage dripped from him like spilled wet paint down a canvas.

I furrowed my brow. He seemed genuinely surprised.

Surprised.

It didn’t make sense. Severin sold me to be trafficked. He told his father to get rid of me, and two days later, I was kidnapped, imprisoned, and turned into the plaything of a sadistic cult.

I’d trusted him. He had pretended to be outraged by violence against women. He’d pretended to protect my honor and body. But it was all a lie. The Volkovs and the Brotherhood trafficked women. Sold them into torture, rape, and death.

Sold them to the Lethean Order.

Sold me.

I’d never known Severin at all.

He was a part of it all. I had the proof.

But this man standing before me was… shaken. Or he was an Academy Award-winning actor. The latter seemed far more likely, but…

My blood rushed to my head, and confusion spiked in my stomach.

But perhaps the pause was the truth settling deep inside him. Maybe he was just realizing that his family business was coming back to haunt him—realizing that he wasn’t invincible.

The words that eventually came out of his mouth struck me like a punch to the chest. “I don’t think you’ve done enough.”

“What?” Because how could that possibly be his answer?

Severin clenched his fist, took another step forward, and I suddenly wanted to retreat.

“I’d kill him… slowly.” Anger poured from his lips. “Cut him limb from limb and feed them to a snake in front of him.”

I let out a confused sound, my heart hammering at my temples. What the fuck was happening? It was an act, right?

Right?

I wanted to escape, to run away and process what was happening, but I couldn’t. I had Miroslav under my knife.