Page 100 of Full Throttle

My head snapped to the Oasis leader at the same time Dontell and Leon’s did. “You did that?”

Collin chuckled darkly. “Jeremy is…creative.”

“I’ll fucking say,” Dontell muttered.

Jer ignored us all. “You still fucking hungry, Ivan?”

Ivan shook his head, fear in his eyes as the mess dripped off his chin. My upper lip curled at the sight. What a piece of shit.

“I don’t know where he is,” the man breathed out through a series of coughs.

I stepped up then. “Oh, but you do. Don’t you, old friend?” I bit off, growling at the end.

Ivan lifted his head as best he could, his eyes flashing when he registered it was me. A sinister smirk formed on my face, knowing he hated that I’d escaped the Bratva.

“Traitor.”

“Prisoner,” I corrected as I stepped closer.

The man smiled, revealing his crooked teeth. “No, my boy, you weren’t a prisoner. You were payment.”

A cold, dark anger slide down my back, coming around my front and swirling in my gut before surrounding my heart. My arms slowly fell from me as the rest of the room faded away.

Years.

I’d lost years to the Bratva. Precious fucking time. Time I could’ve spent with Nik—I could’ve been happy. Whole.

One second, I was standing in front of Ivan, and then next, I was on top of him, grabbing the loose chain and wrapping it around his neck. I held it tight with one as the other punched him over and over. I heard the men call out for me, but I didn’t care.

All I could see was Dominique’s face that night at The Pit and her face last night when I told her I loved her.

I’d always fucking loved her.

I was just too stupid to admit it to myself.

I was loyal to the wrong person, and it landed me in different forms of prison—away from her.

Eventually, I decided Ivan wasn’t bleeding enough. I wrapped the excess chain around my fist. He was staring up at me, fear consuming his eyes as I raised my fist. “I was never loyal to Bratva,” I seethed, leaning down over him. “Vie kontse kontsov rosa zagoritsya, yi ya boudou tem, kto zazzet etu chertovu spichku.”

The rose will burn in the end, and I'll be the one lighting the fucking match.

“Cain!”

Before I could bring down my fist, I was pulled from him, but I fought. My blood lust had taken over, and I wanted nothing more than to see Ivan die. I wanted all of them to die. I was seeing red, fighting the men holding me back as I cursed the man on the ground in Russian, threating his family.

“That’s enough, Cain,” Lee barked in my ear.

“Calm down,” Dontell from the other side of me.

“Never,” I promised, straining against their holds.

Ivan was looking at me with wide eyes as Collin and Jer stood above him. More words came from me then, a dark vow. “When I find him, I’ll make sure he knows that you failed him. That you couldn’t even defend his precious, pathetic empire in Russia. That you fucked his wife and got her pregnant while he was in Europe with me, hunting down men you wanted dead.”

Ivan sat up suddenly. “You know—”

“And when he meets you in hell, you can deal with his wrath,” I spat.

Ivan’s mouth closed as Jer walked over to the wall. A few seconds later, Ivan was hoisted up again and, slowly, the boys let go of me. Chest heaving, I remained where I was as they walked around me. Collin watched me with curiosity, his head tilted slightly.

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