Page 94 of The Reaper's Vice

Ivan Igor… where the fuck are you hiding?

Seraphina’s shoulder brushes against mine, and I look down at her, taking in the concentrated pinch of her face. “You really, little dove?”

“As ready as I can be.” She takes her lip between her teeth, worrying it as she scans the crowd like I had. “I don’t see him anywhere…”

“It’s Friday night. He has to be here somewhere.” The crowd breaks for a split second, and my eyes go wide as I look at the back of the club, finding Ivan and four of his friends spread around a booth. “Got him.”

“Wher—?” Seraphina’s voice is cut off as she takes in Ivan’s face, a fearful shudder running the length of her body. “Fuck. Okay—let’s get this over with.”

She gives me a resolute nod, and we make our way through the crowd of sweaty bodies. The music thumps in time to my pace as I stalk toward Ivan, my hand clenching into a fist at my side as his disgusting face breaks into a laugh.

A man like him shouldn’t be capable of joy.

I stop a few feet from his booth, surveying the crowd of men around him before I make my presence known. Seraphina takes a deep breath from my side, reaches out, grabs my hand, and gives it a squeeze. I look down into her beautiful golden gaze, my chin dipping in a near imperceptible nod.

She steps forward. Ivan looks up, meeting her gaze, and his jaw falls open in shock.

“Seraphina!” Ivan shoots to a stand. “My beautiful little doll! I thought… I thought you were gone.”

Seraphina shakes her head, glancing at me in her periphery. “I had to go away… but I’m back now.”

“I see.” He steps around the table, stopping a foot in front of Seraphina and raising his hands to her face. Instead of touching her, his palms halo her cheeks, the expression on his face one of disbelief. “Seraphina… it’s really you.”

“It’s really me,” she says, her voice taut. “I almost didn’t come back. You betrayed me, Ivan. You told the Sanctum I was alive.”

He shakes his head, his eyes widening in alarm. “I did that because I had to! You were gone, and I…” He looks over her shoulder, meeting my gaze for the first time. “Who are you?”

“I don’t think you want to know.”

Ivan’s lip curls, and he gestures to the four beefy men behind him in the booth. “Is that supposed to scare me? I think you’ll findyou’rethe one who is really in trouble here.”

Seraphina takes an unwitting step backward in my direction. Ivan sees this, and a red flush creeps up his neck. “Seraphina… what are you doing?”

“I’m not going to be with you anymore, Ivan.” She reaches for my hand, gripping it like a vise. “I found someone else. Someone who canactuallytake care of me.”

Ivan’s lip curls, and he jerks his gaze back and forth between our faces. “Is that so?”

She nods. “It is.”

“Well then…” Ivan’s face turns eerily calm, and where there once was a snarl, a malicious grin takes its place. “In that case… I’ll have to take you back by force.”

He snaps his fingers, and the four men in the booth rise to a stand. They step toward Seraphina and I, nasty snarls on their faces as they reach into their pockets for their weapons.

My muscles tense, and it’s taking everything in me not to retaliate.But I must.Seraphina squeezes my hand, then forces her face into one of terror.

“Ivan, please… please don’t,” she whimpers, ever the perfect actress. “Please… you don’t have to do this.”

“Oh, but I do, my little doll.” He reaches into his pocket, drawing out a dagger that glints pink in the flashing club lights. “You see… I willneverlet you go. You belong tome!”

A furious growl exits my clenched teeth, but thankfully, I’m able to stay put.Just a little longer…

“I willneverbelong to you,” she snaps. “I belong to no one.”

Ivan tilts his head, his smile dropping. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

It all happens at once.

One minute, Ivan and his friends are standing several feet away from us—in the next, all four of his brutes descend on me, each man having to grab an extremity to hold me down. I kick, punch, and bellow, but with four men on top of me, I can’t get a single blow in.

---