Page 74 of Edge of Desperation

“I’m dead anyway,” he sneers. “I’m not telling you shit,pet.”

“We’ll see about that.” Aurora whistles. “Zwickel!”

A flash of fur bursts past me and lunges for Dmitri’s dick. The sound of flesh tearing has me gagging. Seeing the aftermath of Lykos’ destruction is totally different than witnessing it firsthand. Blood splatters across the floor, hitting Oleg.

“S-S-Stop, please stop!” Dmitri begs before passing out.

“Lykos, heel,” Aurora commands. Lykos unwillingly drops his favorite chew toy and bounds back to her, licking his lips. “I told you, you’d get your pickle. Mommy’s sorry it was so small. Maybe we’ll get you another one.” Her eyes flicker to Oleg, who came to at the sound of chaos, and he violently shakes his head.

Both of his eyes are almost swollen shut, and his nose is definitely broken. I march over to him and twist his nose, relishing his screams behind the tape. I rip the tape off and point my gun at his forehead. “You’re gonna die tonight,” I warn.“How you go is up to you. Personally, I’d love to draw this out and get a little more payback for my woman over there, but as you can see, she’s more than capable of doling out her own brand of justice. You can either tell me what your boss meant or I’ll let Aurora and Lykos have their fun with you too.”

Aurora sidles up beside me, and I wrap my arm around her waist.

Oleg gulps. “Dmitri isn’t the boss.”

Aurora’s spine goes rigid. “What do you mean? All my intel pointed to the Krukov family and Dmitri Krukov specifically.”

“F-F-False trail,” he sputters.

I go to choke him again, but Aurora stops me. “Who’s the fucking leader then?” I yell.

“I don’t know,” he cries. Aurora snaps her fingers, and Lykos trots over. “No… no… wait. I don’t know because I wasn’t told. Dmitri was worried I would try to overthrow him. There’s someone else at the head of the family, pulling the strings. I swear I don’t know!” he screams.

Not needing to hear any more, I pull the trigger, putting a bullet in his head.

Aurora looks up at me. “Do you think it’s true?”

“Only one person here who knows, and he’s unconscious and bleeding out.” I tug my hair.

“Hudson,” Aurora hollers. “Do you have any adrenaline on you?”

Hudson rushes over, vile in his hand. “You know what to do.”

Aurora winks, uncaps the syringe, and plunges it into the wound on Dmitri’s thigh. A few moments later, he jolts awake. His head jerks around, and his eyes widen when he sees Oleg with a bullet in his forehead.

“What don’t we know, asshole?” I demand.

“The Bratva is c-c-changing,” he gurgles. “Men aren’t the only ones in charge anymore.”

“Uh… Jaxson,” Hudson interrupts. “Remember when you asked me if someone could bleed out from having their dick cut off?”

“Yeah,” I respond.

“This is one of those times,” Hudson points out.

“Fuck,” Aurora mumbles. “I wanted more time with this son of a bitch. I need everyone to get behind me, now. Jaxson, grab Lykos.”

She lifts the gun from my waistband and moves quickly behind Dmitri, and we scramble to follow like good soldiers. “Fire in the hole!” she shouts.

Carver snickers. “I taught her that.”

Aurora shoves the barrel of the gun up his ass and pulls the trigger.

The bullet hits the wall at the same time Dmitri slumps forward. Our mouths hang open in shock, and I turn my icy glare on Carver before stalking toward him.

“Whoa,” he says, holding up his hands. “I didn’t teach herthat.”

Aurora inserts herself between us and tries to hand back my shit-stained gun.

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