Page 218 of Dance of Defiance
“Pavel,please,” Stepan hisses. “What the fuck is this!?”
“A course correction,” Papa growls. “Before he and hisperversionsdestroy an empire. Now…”
The gun presses tight against my skull.
“Hit. Him.”
My eyes lock with Val’s. He smiles wryly, arching a bloodied brow.
“I mean, you can’t say you’ve never wanted to, right?”
I slowly shake my head. “I?—”
“Hit me,” Val hisses, his good eye holding mine. “Just shut up andhit me.”
My head shakes again, my jaw tensing. “No?—”
“Hit me, you little bitch!!” Val roars.
“Stop it,” I hiss.
“HIT ME, PUSSY!” he roars again before he spits a wad of blood at my feet. “Such a whiny, patheticpussy!” he snarls. “So fuckingweak!”
I’m shaking as my eyes blaze into his.
“Goddammit,” I choke. “Shut the fuck?—”
“You never meantshitto me,” Val spits, laughing coldly. “Just another straight boy to fuck with. That’s my thing: finding confused, needy fuckers like you and turning them out.” He sneers at me as my eyes widen. “I don’t love you. I couldneverlove such a fucking pathetic little bitch.”
I snap, my heart wrenching as I wind up and slam my fist into his jaw. My father and some of the others roar with laughter as Igrab the back of Val’s head. I lean in, my vision blurring and my teeth bared as I press my forehead to his.
“I fucking love you,” I choke, shaking.
“I know, baby,” Val croaks, blood dripping from his mouth as his gaze holds mine. “Which is why I need you to fucking hit me. I can’t watch them kill you.”
“I fucking can’t?—”
“Just do it!” he screams, his face contorting as his one good eye blazes icy blue into me. “Please don’t make me watch you die, wreckage.”
There are tears in my eyes as I stand, wind back, and punch him again.
Then again.
I manage a third blow before I realize there’s no fucking way I’ll ever hit this man again, and Iwilldie before that changes.
“There'smy boy!” Papa bellows, clapping me hard on the chest. “Myblood!!” There’s a manic light in his eyes as he grabs my hand, shoves his gun into it and then jerks my arm out, so that the barrel is pointing at Val’s face.
“For the sake of your family,” he snarls. “For the sake of your fucking bloodline, and this empire.” He slaps my face and then gets right in it, his eyes blazing. “Shoot him, Roman.Cutthis fucking cancer from your body. Show me that you are still a fucking man, and shoot?—”
“No.”
Despite all the chaos, adrenaline and pain searing through my veins, I know with every fiber of my being that this will not happen.
I turn to my father.
“I’m not going to shoot him.”
“Roman,” he snarls. “So help me fucking God, I will?—”
