Chapter 9 #3
Beside me, Egor stiffened.
Panic flashed across his face.
He tightened his bruising grip around my arm.
“Move.”
He shoved me again, this time with enough force to make me stagger toward the exit.
I dug my heels into the floor.
“No...”
The protest came out weak.
I tried pulling free, but my body refused to obey.
The alcohol had stolen too much of my strength.
No one came to help.
The people around us deliberately looked away.
Some quietly left.
Others pretended not to notice.
No one wanted to interfere with whoever had just entered.
The suited man continued walking.
Straight toward us.
Then—
He moved.
So fast I barely saw it happen.
One moment he was several feet away.
The next, his hand had clamped around Egor’s throat.
My breath caught.
Romeo.
It was Romeo.
Behind him stood Keegan and nearly fifteen broad-shouldered men, all dressed in dark suits, each radiating the same lethal calm that surrounded their boss.
Egor clawed frantically at Romeo’s hand, his feet lifting slightly off the floor as he struggled to breathe.
Romeo’s face was carved from stone.
His eyes settled on me, darkening as they took in my dress.
“You came here dressed like this to meet your ex?”
His voice was terrifyingly quiet.
“You drank with him until you were too drunk to stand.”
His grip tightened.
“And now...”
Egor made a choking sound.
“...you were leaving with him so he could fuck you.”
The words sliced through the remaining fog clouding my mind.
“What?” I stared at him in horror. “No!”
“No?” Romeo’s fingers tightened around Egor’s throat.
A sickening sound escaped him.
His face darkened from red to an alarming shade of purple.
His struggling weakened.
His body began to hang limply from Romeo’s grasp.
My heart lurched.
I looked desperately around the club.
Someone...
Anyone...
Please do something.
No one moved. No one dared.
It was as though violence of this magnitude had become just another spectacle to witness from a safe distance.
“Please,” I begged, my voice breaking. “Don’t kill him.”
Romeo’s grip around Egor’s throat didn’t ease even slightly.
“Please...”
Tears blurred my vision. “Just let me explain.”
Slowly...
The corner of his mouth lifted.
It wasn’t a smile.
It was something far more frightening.
“I’ll do far worse than kill him.”
Without taking his eyes off Egor, Romeo held out his free hand.
Keegan immediately placed a dagger into it.
The blade flashed beneath the club lights.
Before I could even scream—
Romeo drove it straight into Egor’s chest.
The sound was sickening.
A wet crunch echoed through the silence.
Egor’s eyes flew open.
Blood burst from the wound.
I screamed.
Romeo twisted the blade with practiced precision.
Another horrific crack split the air.
Egor’s body convulsed violently before going completely limp.
Blood poured onto the polished floor, pooling around Romeo’s expensive shoes.
The entire club remained silent.
No one dared breathe.
Then...
Romeo plunged his bare hand into the gaping wound.
My stomach lurched.
When he pulled his hand back, something glistened crimson in his palm.
A heart.
Egor’s heart.
Still twitching. Still beating.
A strangled scream tore from my throat.
My entire body recoiled in horror.
I had heard stories about monsters who ruled the underworld.
Legends whispered behind closed doors.
But those stories had never prepared me for this.
I wasn’t looking at a man.
I was looking at a monster wearing a human face.
Romeo slowly turned toward me.
Blood dripped steadily from the heart onto the marble floor.
“This...”
His voice remained frighteningly calm.
“...is what happens to any man who thinks he can touch what’s mine.”
His gaze locked onto mine. “Every single one of them will die by my hands.”
My body shook uncontrollably.
“You cannot bear my name...” He took one slow step toward me. “...and then run around with another man.”
Another step.
“No.”
He extended the bloody heart toward me. “Take it.”
I stared at it in frozen disbelief.
“Eat it.”
My stomach twisted violently.
“So you’ll remember. So you’ll finally understand the kind of world you married into.”
He looked down briefly at the blood coating his hand.
“You married a devil, Juliet.” His voice was low, lethal. “I slaughtered an entire generation of my family. And you think you can behave like this because you carry my name?”
He shoved the heart closer to my face.
“Take the fucking heart. Eat it.”
A horrified sob escaped me.
I staggered backward, nearly losing my footing.
No.
No.
This wasn’t anger. This wasn’t punishment.
This was absolute madness.
He was asking me to eat a raw, blood-soaked human heart.
The man standing before me had become something far more terrifying than any monster I had ever imagined.
I spun around, desperate to run.
A solid wall of suited men blocked every possible exit.
They didn’t even have to touch me.
Their cold, unyielding stares made it clear there would be no escape.
Panic clawed its way up my throat.
Frantically, I looked around the club.
People were leaving in waves.
Conversations had vanished. Chairs scraped against the floor as guests hurried toward the exits without so much as a backward glance.
Within moments, the once-lively club was nearly empty.
My heart sank.
There would be no help.
No witnesses willing to intervene.
Romeo’s lips curved into a slow, merciless smile.
“It’s my club.”
The words hit me almost as hard as everything else.
His club?
My mind reeled.
He had only recently been released from prison.
How had he already acquired something this extravagant?
How much power did this man actually possess?
The disbelief quickly gave way to anger.
“You were at the hospital with Yarina all day,” I shouted, every ounce of hurt spilling out of me. “Cuddling her while I was left wondering where I stood!”
My voice cracked.
“We had sex this morning—for the first time—and you made it feel like it meant nothing before running straight to her.”
I pointed toward Egor’s lifeless body lying in a widening pool of blood.
“And now you’ve murdered my best friend because he tried to help me!”
Romeo’s gaze traveled slowly over me from head to toe.
Not with desire.
With contempt.
He gave a faint shake of his head.
“He put his hands on parts of your body he had no right to touch.”
His eyes locked onto mine, unblinking. “And still you call him innocent.”
Disgust hardened his features. “Which means you welcomed every second of it.”
His jaw flexed. “What a pathetic, shameful woman you are.”
The words landed like a slap.
“Put her on her knees.”
Two men immediately seized my arms from behind.
“No!”
I struggled, but it was useless.
They forced me down so hard my knees slammed painfully against the polished marble floor.
Pain shot through my legs.
Romeo crouched until we were eye level.
His expression remained frighteningly calm.
“Do you know why I fucked you...” His eyes held mine without mercy. “...but never kissed you?”
My heartbeat stumbled.
“Because being my wife doesn’t make me feel anything for you.”
His jaw tightened.
“I fucked you without affection, without tenderness, without even the slightest regard for who you were.”
His voice was cold.
“Exactly the same way I’d fuck any nameless bitch who meant nothing to me.”
Something inside me went painfully still.
The memory of that morning crashed into me.
The hunger in his touch.
The unexpected tenderness.
The way he’d stopped to seek for my consent.
The way he’d held me afterward.
Had I imagined every bit of it?
Had I been foolish enough to mistake lust for something more?
Romeo looked down at the blood-soaked heart still resting in his hand.
He extended it toward me again.
“Eat it.”
I recoiled, my stomach churning as the thick metallic scent of blood invaded my senses. I gagged, bile burning the back of my throat.
“Please...”
“You have three seconds.” His voice remained terrifyingly calm.
Blood slid from the mangled organ and fell onto the marble floor, one drop at a time.
My voice broke into a sob.
“This is barbaric.” Fresh tears blurred my vision. “Please...”
I shook uncontrollably. “Don’t make me do this.”
For a long moment, Romeo simply watched me.
Then, without another word, he let the heart fall.
It landed beside my knees with a sickening wet thud.
Blood splattered across the marble.
Romeo leaned toward Keegan and murmured something too quietly for me to hear.
Keegan gave a single nod.
Without sparing me another glance, Romeo turned and walked away.
His men immediately followed him, their polished shoes echoing across the silent club.
I remained frozen on my knees.
The bloody heart lay inches away.
I slowly lifted my head.
“Get up.”
Keegan’s voice cut through the suffocating silence.
I looked at him for a moment before forcing myself onto trembling legs.
Pain shot through my knees where they had struck the unforgiving marble floor.
Every muscle in my body ached.
Whether from fear, alcohol, or shock, I no longer knew.
“We’re going home.” His tone left no room for argument.
He gestured toward the exit with a sharp tilt of his head.
I obeyed.
Not because I wanted to...
Because I couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Each step felt uncertain.
The club that had been alive with music less than an hour ago now resembled a crime scene.
The polished floor still glistened with Egor’s blood.
I forced myself not to look.
Outside, the cool night air struck my face.
I instinctively searched for Romeo.
He was gone.
His car. His men.
Everything.
It was as though he had vanished into the darkness.
Only Keegan remained.
Without a word, he led me to the car.
A few moments later, we were driving back to the bungalow.
Silence settled between us.
Heavy and oppressive.
The only sounds were the steady hum of the engine and the faint rush of wind outside.
I stared out the window, watching blurred city lights streak past, trying to stop my hands from shaking.
They wouldn’t.
Finally, I broke the silence. “What is he going to do to me?”
My voice came out barely above a whisper.
Keegan kept his eyes on the road.
“I don’t know.”
I swallowed. “You were standing beside him.”