As I tried pulling on his arm, the expression on his face made me shudder with fear.
“Don’t kill him. Please.”
His menacing gaze flicked from Silas over to me. “Please.”
With a grunt of frustration, he released Silas’s neck. As Silas dropped to the floor panting and wheezing, I exhaled my own relieved breath. After giving Silas time to recover, Maksim kneeled down beside him.
“The next t-time you raise a hand t-to her, I’ll cut it off. Do you hear me? I don’t care if you’re fucked in the head or not. You never,everhurt her.”
When Silas didn’t answer, Maksim grabbed his face in one of his hands. “Did you hear me?”
I should’ve been turned off by his brutality. But in that moment, my heart swelled at him standing up for me. No man had ever done that. Sometimes, not even my father when it meant keeping peace with Silas.
Silas grunted as he fought against Maksim. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never hurt the precious Golden Child. Let me guess. She has a perfect golden pussy for you to be here sticking your nose in our family business.”
Even though I wanted to hit him myself, I feared for Silas at that moment. The absolute venom emanating from Maksim made me shiver in fear.
“Y-You just don’t know when to shut your fucking mouth, do you?”
Silas’s lips curved in a maniacal smile. “From that pathetic stutter of yours, I’d say you’re one of her guinea pigs, but she only works with the kiddies. But maybe you’re a pet project. She scratches your back with the treatment, and then you scratch hers by fucking her?”
I braced myself when Maksim returned Silas’s smile. Only Maksim’s wasn’t just crazy–it was certifiably insane.
He slammed Silas’s head onto the floor before throwing two harsh punches at his face. Blood sprayed out of Silas’s mouth and nose and onto the floor. Just when I thought he might hit him again, he sucked in a harsh breath and backed away.
A psychotic laugh tumbled from Silas’s lips. “Is that all you’ve got?”
“Shut the fuck up, Silas!” I hissed.
Maksim reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe. From the clenching of his jaw, I knew he was centering himself for his speech. Squatting down beside Silas, he held up the syringe. “Since it would hurt Sarah too much to kill you and you won’t shut up, it’s time to knock you the fuck out.”
Silas’s eyes bulged as he tried to slide away, but Maksim was too quick. He plunged the needle into Silas’s thigh. “You fucking bastard!” Silas shouted.
“Night, night,” Maksim said.
Silas’s thrashing began to wane. Within a few seconds, he went limp. “What did you give him?” I demanded.
“Ketamine.”
“Is it safe?”
Maxim’s dark eyes narrowed. “After everything, do you think I’d give him something that wasn’t safe?”
“It’s not like that. With his history of substance abuse, God only knows what he’s taken today.”
“He’ll be fine.”
As I stared down at Silas’s sleeping form, tears pricked my eyes. “He wasn’t always like this.” With my emotions threatening to overflow, I wrapped my arms around myself in an attempt to dam them up.
Memories of the good times flickered like a movie reel through my mind. “Growing up, he always had some issues, but it was nothing like when he went through puberty. Not only did he get angrier, but he got stronger.”
“I’m so sorry, Sarah.”
His voice sucked me out of the past and into the present. Swallowing hard, I asked,
“What happens now?”
“I have two associates waiting out in the car to take Silas to my family’s home where there’s a medical bay and hospital rooms. After he arrives, he’ll be made comfortable. In the next twenty-four hours, he’ll be evaluated by the top three mental health practitioners on the East Coast–”
