Page 20 of Beautiful Broken Vengeance

I grasp a handful of hair and yank him up, intent on him remembering the pain. He groans as he tries to stand, a fist clenches but he doesn’t try to hit me. Although I’m only an inch taller than him at six foot three, I take my strength training seriously and can bench seventy-five pounds more than him. I’ve also never gone easy on him when we fought out our arguments in the ring per our father’s instruction. “You’re not owed a fucking thing in this world, Nikita. Thinking like that will end you and us faster than anything Grigori has planned for us.” I give him a shake before letting go. “You might as well kill Milos right now.”

Rubbing his head, he mutters, “No way, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m joking. No one is dying, least of all Milos.”

“Are you not paying attention? Grigori is very fucking serious. It doesn’t matter we know his plan is ridiculous, he thinks it could work. That’s all it should take for us to not fuck around on this. Are you up for this or not?”

“Shit, okay. I’m up for this. I’ll deal with Grigori.”

I sigh. “It isn’t just Grigori you’ll need to deal with. The girl could be in on it. From what we’ve seen she appears to be nothing more than a pawn. At the same time you can’t live in a snake’s den without becoming cold-blooded like the rest of them.”

“Of course, she is a woman after all. You’re so lucky not to have to marry.”

“I’m going to marry,” I tell him. I don’t want him feeling left out of anything that is happening. “We all are. Milos wants us all engaged by the end of the month and married as soon after as possible. Vasily is telling Maxim and Damien as we speak. Vasily has a few women for them to pick from.”

“Milos is letting you pick your bride.” Nikita’s mouth is sour.

“Yes, he’s letting me pick my own bride. But if he wanted me to marry someone he chose, I would. This isn’t a democracy, little brother—this is and always has been a dictatorship.”

Shaking his head, he pushes himself up. “I’ll go see Mother before I leave.”

I sip on my vodka as I watch him go, wondering if he truly understood everything he needed to.

Checking to ensure Milos turned off his computer, as he rarely remembers to do, I find the file on his desk—her file. He’d told me to read it and I have a copy in my own desk at the club, I just hadn’t looked at it yet. Was he still worried about Phoenix? How had he been so sure I hadn’t read her file? What is in it? I decide it’s time I found out.

CHAPTER9

Phoenix

I’m an idiot. I can admit it as I go deeper into the alley. Three minutes ago when I arrived at the address where Ritchie told me to meet him, I didn’t think anything of it when the two men who were waiting told me I needed to follow them and they’d confirm I wasn’t wired, or it was a game of follow-the-leader for a group of feds. Stupidly, I rushed to assure them I was alone and no one knew I was coming.

I go still, wondering how I can back up the forty feet out of the alley. This was supposed to lead into another entrance. The short guy is walking fast ahead of me toward a car in the middle of the alley, not looking toward the building and a door we would go into. The taller guy is behind me—too close.

“What’s the matter, Agent Raymond?” the taller guy asks.

Short guy with a bad mustache turns to me. “Come on, Agent. We ain’t got all night. Ritchie don’t like to be kept waiting.”

“I think—” The words are barely out before the tall guy grabs me by my hair.

“No, that’s your problem, you didn’t think.” Tall guy yanks me up against him. “You didn’t think for shit. Ritchie ain’t gonna let you get away with trying to blackmail him.”

“He wouldn’t be dumb enough to kill a badge.” I hate the way it sounds like I’m pleading.

Short guy shakes his head. “Ritchie doesn’t know nothing about this. He’s at home with his daughter. Manuel Rodriguez,” he crosses himself, “Merda, he scares the fuck out of me. We take you to Manuel and he handles you. He gonna beat you to death then throw your ass in a car and explode it so no one knows you were dead already. Feds think you died cause you can’t drive, not on account of you’re stupid.”

Tall guy lets go of my hair and I fall in a heap—my legs unable to hold me up. “Manuel is a scary motherfucker. I don’t even like being in the same room with him. Ritchie gotta be careful getting involved with that guy.”

I don’t know who Manuel Rodriguez is but if these men are scared of him, it means I should be too.

Short guy says something in Italian then, “Careful. Manuel might want to use her before he kills her. I heard his wife was a fat chick, he likes ’em bigger.”

“No way, he’s staying in the brothel the Levins run. He’ll get what he wants from the women there. I heard he don’t fuck women who don’t want to fuck him. We’d be doing him a favor bringing her to him banged up. It’s gonna take him a minute to kill her. And where is he even going to kill her without getting caught? We’re good in this alley because we control the cameras.”

“I wondered the same thing. You think he’d hook us up with some coke if we delivered her dead already? I’m short this week—more than a grand short. Ritchie hates when I ask for more money to cover bills and shit.” The short guy kicks me in the stomach. “Fucking women, man. Withholding the pussy unless I buy her these damn purses, and pay to get her nails done, and those fucking ugly ass lashes.” He backhands me with a force that sends me onto my back and my head meets the concrete.

For a second light flashes so brilliant night becomes day. I blink and the dark is back and it’s brought with it pain unlike anything I’ve ever known my body could take.

The tall guy laughs. “If you needed to beat the shit out of something you shoulda said. Have at her.”

Terror sends me onto my hands and needs to escape anymore pain. I try to crawl away, it’s maybe fifty feet to the opening of the alley. The night is quiet, especially in an area where most of the businesses are already closed. Fuck, I don’t know where anything is in this area.

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