His (Ties That Bind #2) - Natasha Knight Page 0,40

as I toss the grinder aside and reach for a hammer, starting in on the small bones first. Fingers, wrists, feet. I smash them all until they are so deformed, he’d never be able to use them again, if I was kind enough to let him live. But this fuse has been lit for a long time. I’ve wanted to put Andrei down for years, before I even knew the full extent of what he was capable of. It isn’t difficult to recall all the faces of the people he’s destroyed. The lives he’s fucked up. The pain he’s caused.

Somewhere along the line, those faces bleed into my mother, and his words come back to haunt me. How he touched her. How she vomited. I want Andrei to feel that pain. I want him to feel as sick as I do every time I think about it.

Gleb shoots me a curious look when I reach for the broom and pry Andrei’s legs apart. At some point, while I was torturing him, his screams turned to faint moans. But he manages to find the energy for another horrific yelp when I shove the broom handle up his ass.

“I bet that medicine is bitter.” I lean down into his face and impale him again. “I bet it fucking hurts, doesn’t it? Is that what my mother said to you? Did you even listen? Did you even care?”

His eyes roll back in his head, and I know he’s on the verge of passing out. Too much of a pussy to take what he’s given so freely in this world. I grab him by the face and slap him around a couple of times, forcing him to wake up.

“We aren’t done yet,” I roar into his face. “We aren’t even fucking close. You think you’re checking out? Think again, motherfucker.”

My fist slams into his throat, and he chokes on the air that gets trapped in his lungs, wheezing and coughing, and then eventually gurgling. I draw my hand back to do it again, and that’s when I feel a hand on my shoulder. It’s Gleb.

“Lev.” His voice carries an undercurrent of sympathy. “Finish him. You’ve proven your point.”

Andrei’s head falls back against the bed as his hair slips from my grasp. And I look down at him, stunned by the violence still churning inside me. Violence and rage I didn’t even know the depths of until this moment. But one glance at Gleb, and I can tell it’s too much even for him.

“Finish him.” He hands me his pistol. “And be done with it.”

“You never mentioned he killed your mother too,” Gleb says.

“I know.” I finish wiping my face with the towel he gave me and sit down at the bar beside him, where he already has a large glass of vodka waiting for me.

“I’ve been in this business for a long time.” Gleb spins the glass around in his hand. “Let me tell you something. Revenge is necessary, but it can also be a poison. You have to make your peace when it’s done. Let it go. Move on. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I understand.”

My gaze drifts to the wall, and I think about Kat back at the hotel, completely unaware of what I’m capable of. Or maybe she is aware, but she chooses to see past it anyway. It fucking hurts, loving someone so much. Wanting the best for them, but being torn between two worlds, and I think if anyone can understand that, it’s Gleb.

“You don’t have your stars,” he notes. “You were never inducted?”

“No.” I shake my head. “My father wasn’t a Vor. Vasily just wanted me to do his bidding. He never asked me to swear an oath, and I never offered. It was what it was.”

Gleb seems to consider this for a moment, and I worry that he’s going to suggest I swear that oath now. For better or worse, we’re linked for life by the woman I love. The woman I promised I would give a better life to.

“Truth be told, I don’t know if I’d do it again,” Gleb admits. “And I don’t want this life for my daughter. She deserves better than a man she can’t be sure will come home every night.”

“I don’t want that for her either.” I meet his gaze. “And I promised her it wouldn’t be that way.”

“That’s a lofty promise to make,” he says. “But I want you to fulfill it. When this shit with Vasily is done, that’s