Page 8 of Brutal Knight

But this is where taking a chance has landed me. I’m once again in the hands of some man, some mafia group. I’m being used again. There’s no other way around it.

As much as I want to close my eyes and drift through this experience, I know I can’t. I have to keep my eyes open, keep myself present. Because as much as I want to act like all hope is gone, I can’t help a sliver of desperation I feel. Like maybe there’s a chance to get out of this.

After all, Dmitri is dead. How much luckier could I get?

I blink and focus on wiggling my fingers, trying to ground myself in reality. It takes a while for my head to clear enough to realize where I am.

I’m tied to a bed.

There aren’t many explanations or options for that. None that are good. It sends me right back to when Dmitri was alive, when he’d chain me to his bed. He didn’t do it because I asked, because I liked it. He did it when he wanted to be so rough with me that he knew my instinct would be to struggle.

Because no matter how long I was with him, there were times when panic and self-preservation cut through the drugs and the conditioning. And the same thing is happening now.

Fear spikes through me. It’s funny how it works, the way it cuts through enough of the drugs to make you aware but not enough to magically sober you up. I’ve always wondered why it does that, why fear makes you close enough to taste freedom but not magically stronger. Not really strong enough to overpower someone.

I’m aware enough to be afraid for my life. I’m still not able to struggle enough for it to matter.

When I look up, I find Victor standing over me. The fear that was present before sharpens like a knife in my gut.

He’s glowering. He doesn’t look concerned, like he did in the alley. My heart sinks. I guessed he wasn’t really there to help me, but now I know. The façade is gone, and all that’s left is hate.

“You’re a fucking cunt,” he says, his lip curled.

I can feel bile rise in my throat. I tug at the binds on my arms and legs, even though I know I can’t fight this. I lost so much weight and strength when Dmitri had me. Victor could have tied me up with string and I wouldn’t know the difference.

Besides, I’m drugged. I don’t know if my legs would work if I tried to stand, much less run.

I can tell he hasn’t hurt me yet. I’m not in pain, aside from my head. But I know that probably won’t last long. The way he’s looking at me, I know he’s not afraid of hurting me. He’s not afraid of pushing me.

He’s just like Dmitri was, but he doesn’t even own me yet. And that’s terrifying.

Victor is still glaring. “You betrayed him. Betrayed him like the fucking cunt you are.”

“I don’t—”

“Shut up.” Victor’s hands flex. I can feel it coming. “You betrayed him. You betrayed the entire Raven Syndicate. You told them Dmitri was working against the Assembly.”

I bite my tongue. I don’t say that Dmitri had it coming. It wasn’t just spite or hate that made me tell the O’Reilly family about Dmitri’s plans. It wasn’t even just guilt for the way Rose’s father Antonio took the blame.

I didn’t talk without thinking. I didn’t rush into it. It took me weeks of knowing Rose, months to build the courage up to tell someone. I would have told almost anyone at the point that Rose and Aiden appeared in my life. I almost would have told a damn reporter.

It wasn’t about me. Not really. Of course I wanted to get away. But the truth was that I knew what would happen if Dmitri tried to carry out his plan. It wouldn’t just be him facing punishment. I was his wife. It would have been me too.

And the Assembly would have found out.

God, they were all so short-sighted. It was six families—the Raven Syndicate, the O’Reilly family, the Messina family, the Devil’s Disciples, the Kozlovs, and the Donovan family. They owned Boston. There were Assembly members everywhere.

But the Ravens didn’t see that. They didn’t see that they were surrounded, that Dmitri was an egomaniac. They couldn’t see two inches in front of their faces. They just kept going, as if they weren’t at risk. As if there was no way they could fail.

Dmitri wouldn’t have gotten away with it for long. He was cocky and spiteful. He would have done something stupid, just like when he took Rose.

He brought it on himself.

He brought on his own death. He earned it with every stupid mistake, with every move he made that overextended. He wasn’t smart enough to get away with discreetly taking over, and the next move he made, he would have been caught.

If it wasn’t me, it would have been him. It was just convenient for me to start to bring him down, even if it did burn me when I tried. The O’Reilly family would have been involved anyway. Especially when Rose was taken.

It wasn’t my fault. But it makes me smile when I think about the fact that Dmitri got what he deserved.

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