Page 71 of Paved in Hate

“It wasn’t smart to come here,” Danil says, looking around the room for any obvious cameras.

Matvey points a bloody knife at the man who’s still bleeding out at his feet. “Karel was kind enough to shut them off for me in exchange for an easy death.”

I nudge him with my foot, watching the large, gaping wound in his throat part even more with the movement as fresh blood spills out. “That was easy?”

“Fuck yeah it was,” Matvey says, stepping towards the next man who’s trying desperately to yell something past the gag in his mouth. “Wait till you see what I do to the rest of them.”

I look over at Lev, Danil, and Roman. “I mean, we’re already here. We might as well let him finish.”

Danil sighs and looks around at the mess. “What’s a few more bodies to explain? We’re already in a fucking mess.”

“That’s the spirit,” I tell him.

Lev walks over and takes a seat, kicking another out for me. I smile and sit down.

“Well fuck,” Roman mutters. “Save one for me, Matvey.”

“Will do, brother,” he says, already getting to work on the next guy.

“I wish I’d brought popcorn,” I whisper to Lev. “That’s just not something you can carry around easily, though, you know?”

“It’s not,” Lev agrees, watching Matvey start to carve open the man’s chest. “It’s too big to fit in your pockets.”

“So true.” I stretch my legs out and cross my ankles. “And it’d look stupid as hell carting around a bag of popcorn everywhere you go.”

“It would.” Lev gives a soft laugh. “But since when have you given a fuck about how stupid you look?”

I turn to look at him. “I never look stupid.”

“Okay.” He laughs even harder. “You keep telling yourself that. Remember the time you dressed up like a scarecrow for Halloween and you put hay in your pants?” It takes him a second to finish because he’s laughing too hard to speak. “Yeah, you didn’t look stupid at all with straw sticking out of your ass.”

“It was my first American Halloween,” I say in my own defense, “and I did not have strawinmy fucking ass. I stuffed it down my pants, and I do not recommend it. It scratched the fuck out of my dick.”

Lev laughs at the memory while the man in front of us screams around his gag. The sound of his ribs cracking fills the room, and if I didn’t know what a sex-trafficking asshole he is, I’d feel sorry for the guy because Matvey is beyond pissed. He’s full-on enraged, and these men are feeling the brunt of it. It’s going to take a lot of killing to make my brother feel better, but these five are a good start.

“We can’t stay here all night,” Danil reminds us. “Konstantin is going to notice the cameras are down and send someone to check this place out.”

“Nope,” Matvey says, brow furrowed in concentration as he works on cutting the man’s heart out. “He sent a message to one of Konstantin’s men, letting them know that there were some issues with the cameras but that it was nothing to worry about. We should be good for a few hours at least.”

“I definitely should’ve brought snacks,” I whisper to Lev.

“Oh my god,” he mutters, digging in his pocket. He pulls out a package of fruit snacks and tosses them at me.

I catch them with a big smile on my face. “Do you carry these around just in case I get hungry? That is so fucking sweet.”

Lev laughs and shakes his head. “Jolene sometimes gets hungry when we’re out, so I’ve started carrying them. They’re organic and a good source of vitamin C.”

“Fucking awesome,” I mumble around the ones I’ve already stuffed in my mouth. “You take such good care of me.”

“They’re for my wife.”

I nod and shovel a few more in. “Uh-huh.”

He can hear my sarcasm and gives a soft laugh. “Don’t be an ass or I won’t give you any more.”

“You have more?”

“Maybe if you behave yourself.”

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