Page 215 of Dance of Defiance
When my eyes drop to the rusty stain on the cement floor, my blood goes cold. That’s where Gunner and his men…
I swallow as I try to suppress the flashbacks of Papa forcing me to watch after they caught his girlfriend who ran off with that jewelry.
Papa chuckles quietly. “Da, you do remember this place.” He turns to point his knife at the rusty stain. “She was very pretty, eh?” He turns to chuckle—chuckle—at Gunner. “Well, before this one here skinned off her face, eh?” He and the South African both laugh in a way that makes me sick.
I turn to Val, looking my way. His lips part, and he winks with his good eye as he gives me a bloodied smirk.
“Notexactlyhow I saw our date going, wreckage,” he groans. “But you, all tied up?—”
One of Gunner’s men walks over and punches Val in the face.
“NO!!” I roar, lurching from my chair. My father slams me back down and puts the tip of his blade to my chin.
“Pakhan!”
Stepan wrestles in the grip of the two men holding him, his eyes blazing.
“Pavel,” he hisses. His eyes dart to me, his face hollow and gaunt. “Enough!” He gestures in my direction. “This is yourson!”
“Da, myson.” Papa spits venomously, turning to sneer at me in disgust. “My son, thepidoraz.”
Icy coldness slices into me to have my own father look at me with such hatred. He turns and spits on the ground, his face souring.
“I thought Gunner had lost his touch,” he growls. “When he came to me and told me he hadn’t found the girl. But then hesaid that hehadfound my son spending all his time with this fucking sissy!”
He turns and jabs the knife at Val, then drags his cold gaze back to me.
“I told Gunner it was impossible,” he snarls. “I told him my son was no queer. My son is a man! My heir! My blood!”
“Papa—!”
I grunt, my head smacking sideways as my father’s hand crashes across my mouth.
“FUCK YOU!!” Val roars, struggling in his binds and causing the chair legs to rattle on the floor. “Fuck you, you fucking?—!!”
Gunner walks over and slams a fist into Val’s stomach, doubling him over.
“Someone needs to change this one’s tampon, I think,” he chuckles, kicking Val hard in the shin.
My father turns back to me, lifting my chin with his knife. He looks down his nose at me coldly, slowly shaking his head side to side.
“Generations of real men built the empire you were born to lead,” he snarls in disgust. “And you throw it all away to bend some little fairy over and fuck him up the ass…”
I grunt when he backhands me again. But then I smirk.
“Actually, Papa…” I spit blood on the floor, splattering his shoes. “He’sthe one who bendsmeover?—”
My father punches me so hard that I go toppling backward with the chair. Stepan scrambles towards me, but Papa is already kneeling astride my chest, raining punches down.
“I didnot?—!”
He splits my lip open.
“Raise you?—!”
Blood explodes from my nose.
“To be a fuckingsissy queer!” he roars, crashing his fist into my mouth once more. Stepan shoves away the men holding him back and rushes over. He yanks my father off me and shoulders between us.
