15. Sofia
SOFIA
The walk with Titus was nice, even though we didn’t say a lot to one another. Or rather, I talked and he just listened. For an hour out of the day today, he felt less like a warden and more like…
Well, honestly, I don’t know. Not exactly a friend, certainly not a boyfriend. Somewhere in between, I guess. It was just nice. And that’s something that I haven’t had in a while. Nice.
I’m back in my room, lying on my bed and looking up at the ceiling. That talk over breakfast has me thinking about Adam and the last time he and I talked. I can’t believe he actually went to the Feds. The odd thing is that I understand it and yet I don’t.
We’ve both heard stories from members of our Bratva about snitches who thought they got away with it.
There’s one, in particular, that’s always scared me.
A brigadier who disappeared for a week and when he came back started acting strangely around us, asking us questions and talking about things that we all knew he knew.
At the time, Adam and I were batting around the idea that he’d turned into a pod person or something.
And then he was arrested. Adam and I heard that when he was in jail, they found out he was an informant for the Feds for about six months. A week after we heard that, there was a news report that he’d been found in pieces in his cell.
You don’t snitch. If you snitch, there’s no hope or escape for you. You’ll be a marked man for the rest of your considerably shortened life. That was the lesson we learned from that. It’s something we’ve both known better than anything else.
And with all that knowledge, he did it anyway. He thinks that the Feds will protect him, hide him or whatever. I guess if I were as scared as he seems to be, I might think the same. And that’s the one thing that I’m sure of. He’s terrified.
Adam never learned to survive the way I did.
He never took to our lessons, never sought out ways to defend himself.
He’s been sitting pretty in soft sheets of our version of royalty for his entire life.
The two of us being separated feels like I left a newborn on the side of the road.
Actually, I should have expected that he would decide to rat if left to his own devices.
I start chewing my bottom lip while I consider that… He’s still my kid brother. I was always there for him when the nightmares came. I should try and help him if I can.
If I can.
Titus has warmed up to me considerably. Our relationship is changing and… and maybe I can sway him to bring Adam in and protect him. Or at least call off his dogs.
He might if I ask. As long as he doesn’t know for sure that he’s a rat. I doubt he’ll do a thing if he finds out for sure. How would it look to his men if he protected a rat?
Maybe no one knows yet. If I pull Adam out early enough, no one would have to know. This could be easy… right?
I get up and start pacing the floor. My brother has always been impulsive, but he could be just as calculating as I am. If I could get to him and talk to him, then maybe…
I don’t know. Titus had a real hard-on for wiping out my family. Convincing him to back off isn’t going to be easy.
But I’ve got to try. I’ve at least got to try.
I walk over to my door and turn the knob. To my surprise, it’s open. An oversight by Titus. Lucky for me.
I walk down the hall and immediately smell the heavy scent of cologne. It’s not Titus’s. I slow down as I approach the landing to the stairs and very slowly, I can hear muffled talking around where his office is.
He’s taking a meeting. I should go back upstairs and wait for him to finish. He usually pays me a visit sometime after lunch. We can talk then.
Funny. My feet aren’t moving. I stand on the landing, listening to the muffled voices echoing down the hallway. One thought comes to mind.
What if I’m too late?
I will myself to move forward, following the sound down the stairs and down the adjacent hallway to his office. I’m barefoot, but I still do my best to step lightly on the cool marble floor. I don’t need him to find me outside my room at this particular moment.
I get to the door. It’s closed. I lean against it and listen.
“Sir?” The voice is vaguely familiar. One of his men that I’ve heard him talking to thought the vents and through closed doors… but not Ignat. Someone else.
There’s a pause, then Titus says, “You said he looks different. You’re certain it’s him?”
The man he’s speaking to scoffs. “Of course it is. It’s only his hair color that’s changed.”
Oh… oh, no.
“Tell me again how you found him?” Titus sounds like he doesn’t believe his man, or rather, he doesn’t exactly believe his story.
The other man sighs. “I was walking out of Bellanos when the black SUV pulled up next to an identical black SUV. Two Feds got out, pulled Aristov out of one car, and put him in another.”
My stomach tightens up into a ball. There goes any hope of them never finding out that my brother is a rat.
There’s another long pause and the other man says, “If I had let him go, then it would have made it substantially harder to find him.”
“Not impossible, though. Instead, you chased the SUV down and robbed them like you were in a Western. You know your little cowboy act could send them right to our door.”
“Maybe if I’d left any of them alive.”
The tight ball in my stomach drops into my shoes. Son of a bitch…
I stalk away from the office to the kitchen. I still have that knife I stole in my room, but at this moment, the kitchen is closer and I’m not about to let that piece of shit walk out of here.
There’s no one in the kitchen at the moment.
No one to stop me from grabbing a butcher knife from the block on the counter by the sink.
All I can think about, all I can see in my mind is one of Titus’s men following the SUV, speeding up and blocking them in, getting out, shooting the drivers, pulling my brother out and…
Adam, how could you do something so fucking stupid? My eyes start to sting with tears as I turn and stalk back to the office.
I’m halfway down the hall when the door opens and Titus’s man walks out. Bald head, bruised face… Same bastard who dragged me into this fucking mess in the first place. I’m going to take great pleasure in beating the shit out of him again.
“I’ll call you once I’m there—” is all he gets out when I lunge at him, the knife in my hand already on its arc to slice his throat. He turns his head a split second before I reach him and in one unconscious movement steps backward. The edge of the blade misses its mark, slicing his cheek instead.
He stumbles back, hand on his face. “Fuck!” he says the moment he sees the blood on his fingers. He looks up at me and his eyes widen.
I don’t give him time to react. I come at him again, jabbing the knife for his chest. He dodges me with a sidestep, grabbing my arm. He pulls me in and twists it around my back and I lose my grip on the knife. It clangs against the marble floor loudly.
Titus suddenly appears from his office. His face is a mix of surprise and rage. “Sofia—”
“Fucking bitch—” he growls. I lean back and bring my leg up in a high kick. The ball of my foot catches him in the nose and he releases me. I whirl around and hit him across the jaw with the back of my fist. He yelps as it connects and sends him stumbling sideways.
I don’t stop coming for him. I front kick him. He catches my foot and holds me for a second. I leap up and bring my other foot around, hitting him again in the jaw.
This time, he stumbles sideways into the wall and his eyes glass over. I use the seconds that he’s dazed to grab the knife from the floor and stand up. I take a single step and Titus grabs my wrist.
“Sofia, stop—”
I whirl around with my elbow, hitting him in the chest. He releases me and I go for this bald bastard again.
He’s had a second to get his bearings, so when I swipe the knife for his face, he puts up his arm to block it. The knife slices his arm, but he doesn’t flinch. He pushes his arm against my wrist, then grabs me around the throat with his other hand and forces me back until my head hits the wall.
I’m slightly dazed and his hand is squeezing my neck. I grab his wrist and lean my back into the wall, bringing my leg up and kicking him in the balls. His grip loosens as he curses. I heel punch him in the nose.
“Motherfucker!” he shouts as he lets me go. He grabs his nose as blood spurts from it. “Broke my fucking nose! Again!”
I go for him once more, but this time, I’m grabbed around the waist and lifted off my feet.
The next thing I know, I’m in the air and tumbling to the floor.
My elbows hit the hard marble, keeping my head from banging against it.
I turn over onto my back to see Titus standing over me.
Through clenched teeth, he growls, “Stay down.”
I go to move, and he pulls his gun on me. Shit…
Behind him, his man is cursing up a blue streak. “I’m gonna kill that bitch!” he shouts.
“No, you’re not,” Titus says without looking at him. “You’re going to leave. Get that nose checked out and go about doing the shit I told you to do.”
“But Titus—”
“Leave out the back way. Now.”
I’m shaking all over. Adrenaline and anger course through my body as I look up at the barrel of Titus’s gun… then at his face. I’ve never seen this look before. His jaw’s clenched and his eyes are almost the color of fire with rage.
If I didn’t understand the line I just crossed before, I get it now. The punishment for this is going to be severe… if he lets me live.
His man doesn’t argue. He just gives me a pissy look from behind Titus, then takes a swipe at his bloody nose, turns, and walks way. The hall fills with the sound of his footfalls receding as Titus glares at me. He doesn’t say a word until he hears the back door open and close.
“He killed my brother,” I say to him in as measured a tone as I can muster. “You can’t expect—”
“Shut your fucking mouth.” He lunges at me and grabs me by the hair, pulling me to my feet. He turns me around and shoves the gun under my chin. “If you were anyone else…”
His face is so close to mine that if feels like we’re sharing a breath. My hand is pressed against his chest and his heart pounds hard against it. The cold steel against my chin sends a cold chill through me… but also…
I am so fucking hot for him right now. The pain of his fist in my hair runs down my spine and around to my pussy, bringing about a hot dampness in my panties.
Is this how I die? Fearing for my life and desperately wanting him at the same time?
“Whatever are you going to do with me?” I say to him in a hoarse whisper. The rage in his eyes intensifies. This is the line. The moment in which he’s either going to decide to just kill me… or…
“This is the point,” he growls as he puts the gun back in his belt, “where I break you, Sofia.”
With that, he releases my hair, then leans down and lifts me up in a fireman’s carry and takes me up the stairs.