When it hits, the force throws Dmitri’s shoulder back. It loosens his fingers enough for him to reflexively drop the gun, the clatter of it hitting the floor like thunder in my ears. Rose throws herself to the side and Dmitri is left wide open, a target ready and waiting.
I fire again, but this time, the bullet only grazes him as he turns and sprints away.
“Fuck!” I bellow.
I can’t let him escape.
As my brothers take out the remaining guards, I sprint forward, trusting them to take care of Rose. Dmitri can’t be allowed to get free. He’s slipped away from me too many fucking times, and I won’t let it happen again.
I run, my shoes squeaking on the bloodied floor as I race after Dmitri. He left out the back door, the opposite direction he was taking Rose.
The back of Dmitri’s house borders a forested area, an undeveloped plot crowded with foliage. I can’t immediately see him when I burst outside, so I run toward the trees and follow the trampled earth. He must’ve gone into the fucking woods. I can only hope he doesn’t have a helicopter or something else stashed in the trees. I can hear my own breathing in the silence as I weave between trees, the gun in my hand warm on my skin.
I slow as I go farther, glancing down at the ground. The earth here isn’t as disturbed. I don’t know if he’s hiding or if he went another way.
“Goddammit,” I curse, my head swiveling back and forth.
When Dmitri leaps out at me from behind a large tree, I’m just a fraction of a second too slow to stop him. He hits me hard, and we go down and roll a few feet, far enough to send me slamming into another tree.
Dmitri breathes heavily, his hair falling in his face as we grapple on the ground. He tries to wrest the gun from my grip, but I elbow him in the face, making blood pour from his nose. I squeeze the trigger, trying to shoot him, but he knocks my arm away, sending the bullet wide.
“I should have killed her just like I killed your bastard father,” Dmitri spits. His eyes are wild, his face red and sweaty.
“You can’t,” I snarl. “I’d never let you.”
“Really? Because you’re so fucking good at protecting people? You broke her goddamn heart in high school. You broke her better than I ever could have.”
“Fuck you.”
I roll us over and manage to get on top of him, but when I aim the gun at his head and pull the trigger, there’s nothing but a soft click.
Dmitri laughs, his teeth stained with blood. “All this for a woman? For a useless, pathetic woman? You can’t protect her. You couldn’t keep your father safe from me either. Callum was weak. Just like you. Just like your whore wife.”
A wave of rage hits me, and I drop the weapon as my fists rain down on his face over and over. The gun sits in the grass, abandoned and unneeded, as I allow the monster inside me to burst forth. My mouth drops open in an endless, feral roar as I let blow after blow fall.
He screams at first. Tries to fight me off.
And then he stops moving at all.
Finally, when my knuckles are bloodied, split open, and bruised, I push myself off the ground and stand over the body.
It’s not Dmitri anymore. Not really. I can’t find anything that resembles the living man in thethingon the ground. There’s no violence, no smug smirk, no dark eyes. No petty rage. Just an empty shell of a human, done forever.
I shake out my hand, breathing heavily. I can’t reconcile the body on the ground with the monster that destroyed half my family and nearly killed Rose.
Rose.
I turn toward the house and start to jog back. My entire body is burning with exertion, but I know she’s still there. I’m sure my brothers have kept her safe, but my heart still pounds dangerously. I have to see for myself that she’s okay.
When I enter, I can hear voices. My brothers and Jamie. I find the rest of Dmitri’s guards littered on the floor, most of them dead. There’s blood and broken furniture everywhere.
Jamie looks up when I enter. He nods once, serious, then glances down at his arm. Finn is pressing something to it, a rag covered in blood.
“How bad?” I ask. My voice is hoarse.
Jamie shrugs his other shoulder. “Just grazed. Nothing bad all around.”
“They’re all done,” Lachlan adds, waving around the room. “There weren’t many here. He wasn’t expecting this.”
