33. Konstantin
KONSTANTIN
New York City burns.
I've spent all night tearing this fucking city apart searching for the Vasiliev brothers.
Out of everything Rose confessed to me, this is the only thing I can control.
Killing these bastards for even daring to fuck with my life and my business like this.
But it's not enough. As I sit in the car while Ethan races us toward the dry cleaners where Lev has supposedly barricaded himself in, I know it's not enough. For months, these bastards have been manipulating and toying with every aspect of my life, and I didn't see it.
How did I not see it?
Have I lost my edge?
Did coming to America soften me?
No, that's not it. When I arrived here, my reputation preceded me, and I made sure to write that shit into stone as soon as I could. Something else changed me.
Rose.
She softened my edges.
She brought light into my life.
She pried my obsessive nature away from work and attached it to herself and for the first time in as long as I can remember, I was enjoying myself. I was living.
But it wasn't real.
She was just another Vasiliev pawn.
"Boss?" Ethan glances at me as he turns onto the street with the dry cleaners. "You wanna run me through your plan?"
"My plan?" I pull my gun from my hip and flex my fingers around the grip, enjoying the weight against my palm. "My plan is to go in there and kill that son of a bitch while you stay here in the car and keep yourself safe."
"Boss, I'm not letting you go in there alone!"
"I will not be alone. My people are here."
"That's not the point!" Ethan purposely slows the car down.
"What if this is what they want? They've made it clear that they can't face you directly so they've been chipping away at you, using Rose and the Italians and fuck knows what else.
What if rushing in there without a plan or focus is exactly what they want from you? "
I grit my teeth and rock my jaw from side to side. "I understand your concern, Ethan. I do. But I need to kill him. I need to kill them both. I need to look in the eyes of the bastards who tortured my wife and watch the light leave as they realize that I have beaten them."
"Boss!"
He's barely pulled the car to a stop when I throw myself out the door and charge toward the group of guards carefully positioned around the front of the dry cleaners. "Where is he?!"
"Inside," one man calls. "We've got the place surrounded, but he killed two of ours so we were waiting for you."
I hesitate and glimpse the two bodies neatly lined up behind one of the cars. Two gone. Two families I have to contact and explain everything to, two families losing their loved one because of me and these fucking brothers.
"Lev!" I roar. I storm right up to the front door, then kick it open with as much strength as I can muster. Anger pulses through me like a fever, raising my temperature and tightening all of my clothes against my body.
Every graze of fabric against my skin amps up the fury inside me, as does the faint chemical stink in the air and the fact that Lev isn't in the very first room I check.
"Where the fuck are you?!" I roar again, my heart pounding in my ears. I'm going to find him and I'm going to break every fucking bone in his body. The next room is also empty, as is the room filled with old washing machines and fabric softener.
Then I find him.
He cowers in the back room amidst empty metal racks meant for hanging clothes.
As soon as I kick open the door, he shoves one toward me, but I catch it and toss it to the side with a snarl of rage.
My gun drops to the floor when I see both his hands empty and I lunge at him with both arms outstretched.
We collide like a crack of thunder and I crash him into the opposite wall. His head bounces with an audible crack and a snarl of pain escapes his clenched teeth.
Balling up my fist, I slam it hard into the side of his face again and again, pouring all my fury into each brutal blow.
He tries to fight back.
His knee collides with my crotch, then his elbow swings around and catches me on the edge of my jaw as I stumble back with a gasp of pain.
My white-hot rage numbs almost everything and I'm back on him like an animal.
Two more punches, and blood sprays across the stone floor with a smattering of broken teeth.
I grab Lev by the collar and haul him back up, then punch him again so hard that the blood pouring out of his mouth causes my fist to slip and his teeth cut my knuckle.
"You fucking motherfucker!" He falls and I haul him up, then drive my fist into his soft gut. "You twisted sick son of a bitch!"
Lev gurgles and grabs my arm near the elbow, twisting sharply as he turns his body around, but I grab the back of his head with my other hand and slam his face into the wall.
Bone crunches and Lev stumbles, then he collapses down onto the ground.
I don't let up. Three powerful, swift kicks to his chest break ribs and then I grab him by the collar once more and haul him up.
"You manipulated me," I snarl through rage and blood from a cut on my lip. "You tortured my wife, killed my men. There is no ending where you walk away from this."
"You're so fucking…pathetic," Lev gurgles. His face is a patchwork of swollen flesh, split skin, and bruising but hatred still burns in his eyes. "Should've fucking stayed in Russia, c-cunt."
"Why?" I snarl, shoving him into the wall as footsteps gather behind me.
"It wouldn't have made a difference to a cockroach like you.
You lost so much to me in such little time, so that tells me all I need to know about how fucking weak you and your family are.
Your brother is dead. I will kill you and then I will hunt down your other brother and I will flay the flesh from his bones for what he did. "
Lev tries to push me away but he's weak and dazed. It doesn't stop him from laughing though as blood drools out of his mouth. "S-Sure."
"Tell me." I bring my face close to his. "Did you rape Rose?" Those four words pierce out of me and I know no matter what the answer is, it won't change what Rose suffered. It won't soothe what she went through but it will make me feel better.
"Nah," Lev gasps out. "My brothers, sure. I wasn't into that." His eyes widen despite the cut above his brow. "I-I was the one who made her afraid of the dark." His lips pull into a wide, bloody smile, and it's the last straw.
I throw him to the ground and kick the shit out of him with all my strength. His gut, his chest, his crotch, and his head all get blow after blow as my fury rains down on him.
Halfway through beating him to death, I realize it won't be enough. He won't ever suffer enough for what he put her through.
Eventually, Lev is delirious enough that demanding Mathew's location from him finally lands me an address dribbling from his broken jaw.
His weakness takes him and he fully collapses at my feet, dying from three bullets to the skull.
Silence falls.
My fists ache, my clothes are soaked in his blood, and the restriction of my shirt only irritates me further, so I quickly rip it from my body with a gasp.
I don't feel any better.
Everything is too hot and my chest remains so fucking tight that all I can do is pant while glaring down at the mess before me.
"Boss?" Ethan's gentle voice cuts through the smog and I jerk my head up.
"I did not know," I say and my voice remains strained. "Rose. I did not know she was scared of the dark."
Ethan's brows dip. "Neither did I."
"It is not enough." I gaze down at Lev's corpse. "Killing them will not be enough."
"I know," Ethan replies. "But it might be enough for her."
Her.
Rose.
Killing her tormentors might, to some degree, help her.
Even if her love for me is a lie, even if her affection is rehearsed… my love is real.
I'm not so blind that I can't see the twisted, terrible situation she found herself in but I loathe how it makes me doubt every touch.
Every kiss.
With Mathew's address in my mind, I turn away from Lev's body and accept a clean shirt from one of my men. "Let us go and bring an end to this."
The address Lev gurgled out in his last breath is an abandoned apartment block condemned for demolition.
There are no signs of life when we arrive, and as my men pour into the parking lot and surround the building, the quiet chill in the air sends shivers down my spine.
Luckily, anger keeps my pain at bay and I barely feel the throb of my knuckles or the stiffness in my gut from Lev's blows.
"Do you think he's really in there?" Ethan asks as he climbs from the car.
I glance at him and then point at the vehicle. "Stay."
"Boss—"
"Stay!"
With that, I stride toward the building and hurry up the steps with my gun in hand.
I walk straight through the open doorway and into the dingy hallway.
It's utterly silent.
Scraps of paper dot the floor and several old yellow demolition warnings cling to the walls as I walk through each and every empty room.
There's no sign of life here at all. Did Lev lie?
Upstairs, I find my answer.
Inside the only room with a door, I open it slowly and find out why Lev sent me here.
Spread out in the middle of the floor, amidst a stomach-curling stench with his arms spread wide and his skin mottled with the early signs of decomposition, is Maxim.
Rose's father.