Page 59 of Arseni
“I dragged you into my world because I was selfish and alone.”He places his hands on my arms.“There are so many instances where I thought I was helping you, when really, all I wanted was to mold you to be like me.I made you a killer when you could’ve been anything.But you donothave to?—”
“That’s what you think you did to me?”I yank from his hands as I step back.“You think I’ve been angry about?—”
“I know exactly what you’re angry about… None of it happened the way you think it did, Arseni.I didn’t choose her over you.”
I rip my head away and scoff, but all my derision does is put a light Band-Aid over the wound from his betrayal.
Scars burn on my body, some permanent, some just a memory.Two weeks I spent in captivity while protecting Luka from the same fate.No matter how much our enemies tortured me, I could never have given him up.
Instead of coming for me, he ran off with his girlfriend.He chose to save her instead.
“I didn’tknow,” he goes on, his face twisting desperately.“I had no idea they’d taken you.If I had?—”
“Get out.”Not my voice.Nikita’s.
Luka and I turn to look toward the playroom entrance where he stands.“You’ve upset my partner.”He gestures to me.“And you’re tainting my guests’ fun.Get the fuck out of my house.Tell my nephew I said hi.”
Luka glares at Nikita but doesn’t respond.When he turns to me, he nods to the door.“Come with me.”
“No.”
“Arseni, the sick fuck doesn’t give a shit about you.Walk away with me, right now.Come on.”He tries to grab my arm, but I pull away.One glance at Nikita tells me it isn’t enough.
I wrap my fingers into a fist and slam it into Luka’s jaw, sending him stumbling backward before I shove him to the ground.
His lanky body hits with a grunt.
Towering over him for once, I ram my shoe into his ribs, once twice three times before moving my aim lower down his side.
“Fuck, Arseni, stop,” Luka growls, his body naturally curling against the blows.He could stop me easily if he wanted.Instead, he just fucking lies there like a helpless bitch.
Fight back,you pussy, I want to snarl but don’t with Nikita standing there.
He doesn’t.
He won’t.
And I truly wish I didn’t care.
When I’m done, I turn away from him like he means nothing to me and storm toward Nikita.My hands shake with rage, and I’m banking on him thinking it’s directed toward Luka.In truth, this is the first time I haven’t wanted to hurt Luka.It’s the first time he’s told me to walk away that I wish I could.If Margot didn’t need me, I might.
When I’m a foot from Nikita, I stop and stare, my face feeling hard as a rock.“Partners, right?”I ask, managing to hold most of my sarcasm back.
Nikita nods but doesn’t give me a patronizing smile like he normally might.
I reach into his suit jacket and pull his knife from its sheath.Holding it up for him to see, I flick open the blade.“No more tests.”
He doesn’t respond, but I don’t wait for him to.I stomp back into the playroom where Margot has gone silent.There’s a man between her legs who’s leaned over so he can lick her tits like a fucking pervert with a death wish.
I step behind him to grant it, jerking him up by his hair before plunging the knife into his back.He yells but is silenced with three stabs in a row, quick jerks of my arm allowing nothing but gurgled protests to come from him.
I could stop there, but I don’t.The knife enters his back at odd, frenzied angles like I’m carving a pumpkin on LSD.It isn’t until I get tired of holding his lifeless body up that I finally drop him, along with the knife.
The room has silenced.Even the music has been turned off.
Margot has her face turned away from me as I cut the cords suspending her, and she still doesn’t look at me when I cradle her in my arms and carry her from the room.Every other set of eyes follows me to the door.
I pass Nikita without a word and step over the blood Luka spilled on the floor.He’s nowhere in sight.Margot shakes in my arms as I carry her up the stairs to the room I’m occupying.She doesn’t say a word, and I start to wonder if she’ll ever speak to me again.
