Chapter 25
GEORGIY
“Istill can’t believe you put two trackers in him. One is bad enough,” Jax murmurs as we park down the street, just yards away from the house Bane is in. It’s unassuming, just a wide ranch house on the outskirts of town. The nearest residence is half a mile away.
“Anyone else think it’s weird?” Jax asks no one in particular.
I don’t care that I put three trackers in him. I’d do it again.
I will do it again.
Sadly, I had to take a few minutes to activate the second one. Sven was the one who did it for me. And as soon as his new location pinged, we rushed out to find him.
So no, I won’t apologize. I’m going to find him because of it. Because I planned ahead. Because I knew he couldn’t stay out of trouble.
“I think it’s kinda romantic,” Kit says, and Jax eyes him.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I mean, the level of obsession is real with those two.”
They have no idea the lengths I’d go to find him, to bring him home to me. Maybe Casey does. He’s clutching the steering wheel tightly as he inhales through his nose. He’s worried about Bane now. He knows how bad this could get.
But there is no time for any of this.
“We should wait for backup,” Casey finally murmurs. “It would be the smart thing to do.”
“No,” I growl. “No waiting. No being smart.”
Just as I say that, a knock on the window causes us to look over. It’s Fallow. He followed us here and looks almost eager as he rocks back and forth on his feet.
Casey rolls his window down a fraction, and Fallow waggles his fingers at him.
“What are we waiting for? I thought this was urgent.”
It is. He’s right. Sitting here isn’t doing anything to help Bane.
I push the door open and step out, moving to the trunk to grab the knife I put in there.
The sharp one. The one that can cut through bones.
“Oh shit. There he goes. He’s fast, isn’t he?” I hear Fallow say excitedly as I make my way up to the front door of the house. I don’t wait for the others, just try the knob, only to find it’s locked.
So I ring the doorbell, and as I wait for an answer, I hear the men move up behind me. I can sense the anticipation, can smell the metal of the guns they’re carrying. But I don’t remove my gaze from the door in front of me.
I’m focused, like the surgeon I once was.
It’s time to pull this operation apart and find out what’s wrong. Only this time, I won’t fix anything.
No.
I’m going to make them suffer.
The man who answers the door doesn’t even have time to breathe. Nor do I give him the chance to open his mouth. I just stab the knife into the side of his neck, pulling it out with a wet schlick before slitting his throat. He slumps down, and I step over him.
“Jesus,” I hear Kit mutter, but I’m not distracted. Not waiting for anyone.
This house is large, and we need to find out where he is.
Where is my Bane?
Another guard rounds the corner, surprise on his face as his eyes land on the man slumped over at the front door. He hesitates just long enough for me to take him out with a jab directly to his heart.
He won’t last a minute.
“Damn, he’s good,” I hear Fallow say, just as I hear a gurgle emanate from behind me.
When I turn, I see Fallow pulling a knife from a man’s head. Casey, Jax, and Kit have spread out, sweeping through the house, knowing that Bane’s here somewhere.
I move into a small living room, floral pillows on the dark brown couch, and that’s when I see it: a door behind the desk. It’s locked, but I want in.
Your reaper is coming. Don’t try to run. Don’t hide.
I will find you.
My heart rate picks up, my eyesight narrowing as I stab the knife between the door frame and the door, prying it open. As it opens, an inch of light emanates from the other side, my hand flexes on the knife and I move forward.
I don’t have time to wait for the others to catch up.
The people on the other side of this door are going to die.
All of them.
My feet hit the stairs, but I don’t even know I’m moving.
I’m hyper-focused. All I can do is act.
I turn the corner, and my eyes land on him. He’s draped over a chair, blood pooled at his feet, his eyes blinking up at me.
He looks broken.
So unlike my Bane.
His lips part, trying to speak, but before he can, revenge blinds me.
They hurt him.
And they’ll reap what they sow.
I walk toward him, my eyes taking in Bane’s back, the way they peeled the skin from him. The pain he must feel.
I won’t let them go easily.
A man who I assume is Henry turns around, hazel eyes flashing up to me, a bloody knife in his hand. He’s surprised, taken aback by the fact that we found them. He underestimated my obsession.
I will always find him.
“What the fuck…” he begins, but my knife flicks out and plunges into his rib cage, making him gasp in disbelief.
“You’ve taken what’s mine,” I hiss, dragging the knife up, slicing through muscle and bone.
He falls to his knees as I tug the knife free and move to the next person.
A woman.
Virgin. Emma. Just as complicit. She screams when she sees Henry, but her emotions don’t faze me.
They took the skin off him. They took a piece of him.
I don’t even let her breathe another breath, just plunge the knife into one lung, then the other. I can almost hear them deflate. Her chest contracts, and I know she doesn’t have long.
Good. Bitch doesn’t deserve to live. If she’s still around when I circle back to her, I’ll make sure I pull each one out. Make her watch herself take her last breath.
“Georgiy,” I hear Bane moan, and I feel rage pulse through me again. It’s heavy, a sweeping tide, coming to collect.
I see him struggling to sit up, trying to come to my aid, but I need him to stop moving. I need him to stay still. There’s so much blood. So much.
More than when I was torn apart.
A wretched sound leaves my throat as a man I recognize moves into the light.
A shadow forming a figure. I remember him.
Emin.
He was supposed to be dead. I thought Mikhail had taken care of this.
“Hello, Georgiy. Long time no see,” he says, aiming a gun at me.
“You,” I growl.
“Yes, me,” he says with a grin. I remember that smile. The one he had the entire time as he watched me be pulled apart. As he slowly destroyed me.
Just like he’s done to Bane.
My fingers flex on the knife in my hand and the other on the vial of poison.
We’ll see which one I end up using.
“Don’t come any closer,” Emin says, pointing the gun at Bane. “Or I’ll make sure you never see him again.”
Bane lets out a whimper, and I see that Henry has pulled himself up, blood seeping from his wound, a knife held up to Bane’s neck. Henry is pale, his breathing erratic, so close to the end.
And even so, they’re trying to take him from me.
They’ll regret that.
My eyes move back to Emin, who looks as if he has nothing to lose.
Well, I don’t either.
He has no idea what I’m willing to do, how my patience has snapped.
“Tell me, Emin,” I say, my voice low and dark. “How would you like to die?”
He lets out a laugh. “I don’t think you’ll get close enough to harm me.”
“I think I will.”
I hear Bane cry out behind me, and I turn toward him to see Henry dragging the knife across his shoulders, blood shooting out as veins are exposed.
His eyes are on me, tears streaming down his cheeks. Something indefinable blooms inside me, and I know I have to tell him.
I have to.
“I love you, Bane,” I say, and those tears turn to sobs. “I will always love you.”
And then I move.
With a roar, I rush forward, the force of a bullet ripping through my shoulder, but I don’t stop. I refuse to stop.
I won’t until he’s safe. Until I can put him back together again.
The knife I’m carrying slices into Emin’s arm, deep into the muscle, tearing at the flesh and forcing him to drop the gun to the ground with a clatter.
Behind me, I hear Henry’s cursing, the crash of a chair, but still, I don’t hesitate. I just twist the knife and drag it up to Emin’s shoulder, effectively severing the joints.
Emin screams, trying to fight me off, but I’m stronger and fueled by more than anger and revenge.
I’m fueled by love.
I pull the knife from his shoulder and stab it into his chest, falling with him as he sinks to his knees, trying to push me away, but I just grab the back of his neck and twist the blade deeper. So deep that the hilt plunges into his chest, enveloping it.
Dragging it down his sternum, I feel each rib slowly fracture until Emin is on the floor, blood gushing from him onto me.
I’m covered in it.
And still, I don’t stop.
I promised I’d tear him apart, and I always keep my promises.
My hands sink into his chest, and with a roar, I rip his ribcage open. Bones crack, blood gushes, his heart and lungs completely exposed. I know I said I’d make him suffer, but I can’t wait for retribution.
And he doesn’t have long.
So I make sure I’m the last person he sees.
That my words are the last in his mind.
“Look at me,” I hiss. “Look at me.”
His eyes flick to mine, and I reach up and hold onto his bloody chin.
“His reaper has come to collect, and you will pay for your sins.”
With that, I reach inside his chest and rip his heart from his body, watching as the life fades from his eyes. It’s slow, he fights it, but he doesn’t win. In the end, I conquered Death.
When his head lolls to the side, I finally let myself look.
To see what’s become of the man I love.
My head turns, hair in my eyes, spittle on my chin.
Bane is blinking up at me, lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, Henry dead beside him, his eyes sunken into his head.
“Georgiy,” Bane whispers, and I crawl toward him, grasping and holding his body as he sinks into unconsciousness.
And the cry that leaves my mouth rips at my vocal cords.
And when they find me, I’m lost to it all.
I’m utterly and completely lost.
“Georgiy, come. You need to eat.” Anthony is staring down at me as I sit near Bane’s bed and watch him. I’ve not moved for days, hoping he wakes up.
He hasn’t. It’s been a week and still nothing. The trauma to his body was almost too much. It makes the gunshot wound on my shoulder look like nothing.
“I won’t leave him.”
“You’re no good to him dead.”
I scrub at my face, the beard growing on my face abrading my palm.
“Fine, I’ll have Agatha bring us something to eat then.”
He sinks into a chair next to mine, dark circles under his eyes. When he showed up and saw the state of Bane, I saw the fury on his face. Saw the complete devastation lurking there.
“Burn it all down,” he said, “but bring Emin’s body. Bane will want it when he wakes up.”
“Are we sure he’s dead?” I ask.
Anthony lets out a huff. “He is.”
“Mikhail thought so too, but he wasn’t. He never was.”
“A mistake. We spoke and I’m sure he will tell you this as well, but he had confirmation that he was gone from an autopsy, but it appears the coroner was paid off. It was never him. The man we have is. I guarantee it.”
“Thank you.”
Anthony nods. “Anything for Bane. He’s like a son to me.”
That right there shows me he loves him just as much as I do. It’s nice to know there are people in his corner. That his affections aren’t misplaced. That when he wakes, people will be overjoyed.
“Do you know how Bane came to work for me?” Anthony asks after a moment of silence. “He just appeared one day. Thin and dirty. Agatha took one look at him and declared we were keeping him. And he’s been with us ever since.”
I eye Anthony, and he rubs at his chin, taking a sip of his drink that he carried in here with him.
A whiskey, I believe. I need one as well, but I can’t be bothered to go find one.
Why he’s telling me this now, I don’t know.
Perhaps he’s reflecting, like I am, on the chaotic way Bane came into our lives.
“I know he’s blocked a lot of it out, but he did tell me a few things back then. Back when he remembered. These are things I haven’t repeated to anyone. Only Agatha knows.”
I hold my breath.
“I knew when he arrived that he was being held captive, that he escaped when he grew the courage. After that, he lived on the streets, being used and manipulated until he finally found his way here. Back then, he wasn’t the Bane you know today. He was scared and shy and afraid.”
“You made him alive again,” I say, and he nods.
“And you will too when he wakes up. That’s your job now. To put him back together. It won’t be easy. It took years for him to come out of his shell, but once he did…it was a sight to behold.”
He sighs and leans back, staring off into the distance. “Just so you know, he insisted on living down below. That wasn’t my choice. He said it made him more comfortable. The outside world was too much for him. Too big, too loud, too bright. So that’s why he’s down there. I don’t force him.”
“I know.”
“I’d like to think his time here has been happy.” I eye him and he takes a long sip of his drink. “I’d like to think that he knows he’s loved.”
“He does. This is his family.”
Anthony clears his throat as Agatha bustles in. She sets a tray down next to me and then moves over to Bane, cooing over him and whispering things only a mother would say to a child. I hope he can hear it. Hope he comes back soon. Everyone misses him.
I miss him.
“We can discuss living arrangements when he wakes up, but I’d like you to know that we would like him close by.”
“I wouldn’t take him from here.”
Anthony nods and then finishes his drink.
“Good. When he wakes, inform us all. I know everyone is eager to see him.”
After Anthony leaves, Agatha lingers for a while, keeping me company and making sure I eat the food she’s made for me.
I do it reluctantly, each swallow a lump in my stomach, but I manage to finish it.
It’s only when I’ve set the fork down that she nods approvingly and takes the tray away, leaving me alone with Bane.
And once more, I watch him, pleading with him to wake up.
But he doesn’t.