“Mom.” I straighten up slowly, shaking out my aching hand. “Nice of you to join the party.”
She pinches the bridge of her nose, looking skyward as if praying for patience. “Amateurs, the both of you. No technique, no finesse.”
“Here we go.”
Instead of just letting me kill this fuckhead, she’s going to make it into a lesson. Because that’s what she does. Not the teaching, the killing. And she’s good at it. The best.
My cousin crosses his arms in front of his chest. “What is wrong with hitting this flea?”
She pokes Alexei in the chest. “You play for the NHL. My son will too. Why ruin your hands or your feet, risk breaking bones for no reason? It’s not smart. Will your team not ask questions?”
I huff because she just has to make a valid argument.
“How’d you know Alexei was kicking him? I didn’t see you when I pulled up?”
“Another reason you two need more training.” My mother points to the far end of the open room. Right next to a beam is a camera just out of view. “Do not think just because we own a building that you are safe. You must always be diligent.”
My cousin lets out a string of curses in Russian.
“Okay, okay, message received.” I'm getting twitchy, my knuckles are itching to get back to rearranging Noah’s face. “Can I get back to beating this motherfucker's ass now?”
She rolls her eyes and waves me on.
Crouching back down, I fish a pair of scissors from the pocket of my sweatshirt, then turn Noah’s head sideways. He fights me, but Alexei uses his foot to hold his head in place.
“No more,” he rasps, barely comprehensible. “Please, God. No more. I'm begging you—”
“You hurt my boyfriend. You hurt and disfigured my little princess. Think it’s time you learn what it feels like.”
Using the scissors, I cut off the top inch of his ear. It’s not easy and he screams and writhes, but this is what he did to Mouse. I hum as I sit back on my haunches, twirling the gory flesh between my fingers, admiring the way the blood gleams. It's almost pretty, in a visceral sort of way.
“You should’ve stayed away. Then again, I would’ve tracked you down. And cut your ear off. Maybe I would’ve let you live.” I look up at my cousin. “Open his mouth for me.”
Alexei bends, then grabs Noah’s jaw, wrenching it open. I drop the piece of his ear into it.
“Swallow.”
Noah shakes his head, but Alexei holds his mouth closed and pinches his nose, cutting off his air until his Adam’s apple bobs. Not wanting to breathe the same air as this fuck anothermoment, I drop the scissors and take out my knife from my back pocket.
Grabbing a handful of Noah’s hair, I yank his head up before I slam the knife into his neck. His eyes bulge as his mouth flops open and closed like a fish before I rip out the blade, then stab him through the eye, twisting the knife in the socket. When I release his hair, his head hits the ground with a resounding thunk.
“Not bad. Making him eat his own ear, definitely something your father would have done,” Mom says as Alexei helps me up.
My body vibrates, legs shaking a bit from the adrenaline coursing through my veins. Alexei walks with me to his bag in the corner of the room. We strip down and change our clothes, throwing the bloodied ones—including our shoes—into the bag.
Two guards come in and my cousin hands one of them the bag as we exit with my mother. The men will take care of Noah’s body.
“You two are going to Russia this summer. You need to work on some of your skills.”
We both nod. No point in arguing.
She heads off and Alexei and I walk to our cars. He pulls out his phone and taps on the screen, then looks up at me. “You coming to dinner or going to your boyfriend?”
“Honestly, I want to shower,” I say, opening the door to my car and tossing the mask inside. “But dinner sounds good. Need to calm down.”
Tomorrow is finally the start of our lives. Beckett is free. He no longer has anything to worry about.
Chapter 20
