Again, I ignored the voice and continued my journey. The closer I drew to the door in front of me, the clearer I heard it. Someone was sobbing and straining to breathe.
I think we should turn back now.
Despite my fear and quaking knees, I didn’t stop moving forward.
“Please, show mercy,” a weak voice whispered from behind the door.
“Shut your bloody mouth!” another thundered, accompanied by the thud of a heavy punch.
I’m serious, we need to turn back now.
I refused to listen, not when I was so close to finally knowing what was happening. The door was slightly ajar, and through the gap, I could see the horror going on inside.
A naked man was dangling in the middle of the room with his hands chained above his head. His toes were barely grazing the floor, his skin marred with fresh wounds—strips and deep cuts. His face was battered beyond recognition, and a thick thread of drool mixed with blood lingered on his lower lip.
From where I was standing, the man had been beaten half to death and was only holding on to life by a thread.
I couldn’t comprehend what I was witnessing: human torture in real time.
Fuck.
Adrik’s men, about four of them, were also present in the room, all armed and way too serious. Out of the shadows, he emerged, Adrik Tarasov himself.
The fear in the hanging man’s eyes was clear as crystal. His legs were shaking, and his chest wouldn’t stop heaving with rapid breaths.
“Who sent you?” Adrik asked, his voice cold and menacing.
The man gave a reply, but his voice was too weak, and so I couldn’t quite catch his words.
Adrik muttered something in the man’s face, and before I could even blink, he pulled out a firearm. The next thing I heard was a gunshot.
My heart stopped.
There was a silencer attached to the muzzle of his pistol. But even with that, the muffled sound scared the shit out of me. I stumbled backward, tripped on a stone, and fell to the ground. The noise alerted the others, prompting two of them to come check it out.
They slammed the door wide open only to find me on my ass, eyes wide with terror. The men exchanged glances before stepping out of the way so Adrik could see for himself who the nosy neighbor was.
Shit.
Yeah, we’re fucked.
I wasn’t sure which one of the voices had said that, and I honestly didn’t care. All I could think was,What in heaven’s name is going to be my fate now?
I’d just witnessed my husband murder a man in cold blood. And that changed everything. I was married to a killer, one who had probably taken more lives than I could ever imagine.
The silence that followed crackled with something sharp, electric, and dangerous. He locked eyes with me, mine filled with horror, his with the stillness of a predator who’d been discovered.
Fuck.
Chapter 8 – Adrik
Fear. That was all I saw in her eyes that night. Absolute fear. She was terrified, as though she’d just witnessed the devil take a life. I was already used to people seeing me as a monster, a demon from the pit of hell.
That identity was one of my biggest achievements, the fact that my enemies trembled at the mention of my name and cowered in my presence. However, it was different this time.
With her, something didn’t seem right, and that look on her face did something to me that I wasn’t ready to admit yet. She’d witnessed a felony, a crime that could land me in jail if she went to the cops. By the rules of the game, she was supposed to be dead by now.
However, the Tarasov last name was her saving grace.
