Chapter 61
Chapter sixty-one
Dmitri
When Alisa whispered ‘yes’, I raised my foot and slammed it down on Roman’s kneecap.
This waste of flesh didn’t deserve to stand. Soon he’d be crawling, begging Alisa for forgiveness while I made him repent over and over.
And I’d enjoy every fucking second of it.
Roman’s high-pitched screeches of agony sent my bloodlust creeping higher and higher. But when Alisa’s expression grew slack-jawed, I somehow managed to pause my strikes.
Alisa’s eyes were unfocused, and there was a stiffness to her body that triggered alarm bells loud enough to drown out even my anger. Sure that Roman wouldn’t be able to flee anytime soon, I lifted my foot off him.
I stepped in front of Alisa, blocking Roman from her vision.
“It’s okay, kotenok,” I said, cupping her face in my hands.
No response. She was trapped in the nightmare of that night now. I ground my teeth. I refused to let this asshole hurt her ever again.
“Alisa,” I said, my voice growing rougher. “Come back to me.”
A shudder ripped through her body as she blinked her eyes.
The distant look faded, but I refused to let her slip back into it.
I towered over her, blocking everything but me from her vision.
Alisa’s eyes cleared as she stared straight into my face, my stature shielding her from the source of her nightmare.
A single tear trickled down her face, and something inside me crumbled.
The bloodlust screamed to snap another one of Roman’s bones in retribution for the pain he’d inflicted on her. Instead, I stroked the tear away, comforting her when all I wanted to do was quench this hatred burning within me.
“I’m here, Alisa,” I said, my voice rough despite the gentleness I wanted to exude.
Despite my efforts, I’d never be a gentle man. I softened my gestures for Alisa when she needed it, but deep down I was a raging animal whose first instinct was to destroy instead of comfort.
Still, if it prevented a single one of her tears, then I’d try to be the man she needed.
Alisa sagged into my arms, and I stroked my hand through her hair.
“He’s never going to hurt you again,” I whispered into her ear. “I promise.”
“Thank you.” There was so much emotion in the words that my teeth grit together.
A groan sounded from Roman that immediately killed any warmth I was feeling. A twin sharpness appeared in Alisa’s eyes when she focused in on Roman’s writhing form.
“Make him pay,” she said, her voice tight. “But don’t kill him.”
She kept saying that, but I still couldn’t find a good reason not to.
I slowly circled Roman, chuckling quietly to myself when he attempted to roll away from me.
I slammed my foot down on his ribs in the exact position that Alisa clutched her own. The snapping sound was pure music to my ears.
“Did Roman tell you what he planned to do to you if I hadn’t come in time?” I gritted out the last words.
“I wasn't going to kill her, Dmitri,” Roman said, his voice filled with agony.
He didn’t know the meaning of agony yet.
“It’s true,” Alisa said with a frown. “Roman planned to beat me until I ended up in a coma. Then he promised the doctors would make sure I never woke up to point the finger at him.”
“Did he now?”
Roman flinched at my tone, and I slammed my foot down on his hand. The very hand he dared to touch her with.
He screamed and tried to thrash away. With a smile, I brought my foot down twice as hard, enjoying the crunching noise.
When his screams were high pitched enough to rupture an eardrum, I kneeled down next to him and pulled out my knife.
Alisa’s eyes widened.
“Don’t worry kotenok, I’m not going to kill him,” I said. From the terror pulsing on Roman’s face, he knew that wasn’t a mercy. “I’m just going to do exactly what he promised you.”
And I’d make the process far more painful than Roman would’ve been capable of.
I stabbed into the sensitive flesh between his pointer finger and thumb, and imagined Alisa’s lifeless body hooked up to a machine. While the images flickered through my head, I impaled the tendon between his middle finger and second finger.
Blood oozed through the gaps while I visualized never hearing Alisa’s voice again. Never hearing her mewls of pleasure or sassy come backs. Hearing nothing from her lips again except machine-induced breaths.
The mercy of death was far too good for this man.
I slashed the exact same spots he’d bruised Alisa, not even pausing to wipe the blood splurting against my skin. With a smile that bordered on maniac, I meticulously repaid each of Alisa’s injuries with far more pain.
And each scream of his had me cutting deeper.
Eventually, I switched to my fists, not wanting the experience to end too soon. From Roman’s screeches, the feeling obviously wasn’t mutual.
After I’d swollen Roman’s eyelids shut with my fists, I stepped away from his bloody form.
“Your turn, kotenok.” I handed Alisa a long steel pipe lying nearby. “Make him feel the agony that he put you through.”
Something flickered across her face when she kneeled down next to his prone form.
She whispered something in his ear, and the agonized sound that left his lips was a sound that I’d cherish the rest of my life.
“This is for the time I begged, and you didn’t listen.” With pure fury on her face, Alisa swung the metal pipe against his ribs.
Roman curled up against the pain, but Alisa just kept swinging without a hint of mercy. The crunching of his bones echoed through the warehouse.
Her voice was a pure snarl as she shouted over his cries. “Not so disposable, am I?”