Page 52 of Cruel Bratva King

“Please. I’ll beg her until I get her forgiveness. Don’t hurt me, please.”

I sighed at how disgusting he looked, begging. At least my enemies always put up a brave front until death was staring them right in the eyes. This right here was boring and anticlimactic. I couldn’t waste a second more of my time on a dick like him.

“Too bad you won’t be able to beg for her forgiveness.” I nodded to Nikolai to bring the hot scissors. “I’ll tell her you apologized, though.” I grabbed his jaw and forced his mouth open despite his struggle.

Nikolai reached the scissors out to me, and I put them in Derrick’s mouth, slicing out half of his tongue. The disgusting organ fell to the ground, and the scissors were smeared with his blood. The smell of his flesh on the metal made me sick to my stomach, but it was satisfying hearing him scream from the pain.

Muffling his scream with my hand covering his mouth, I said, “Speak a word of what happened here to anyone, and you’re a dead man. Got it?”

He nodded.

The corner of my lips lifted. “I forgot, you can’t speak anymore.” Standing up to my feet, I added, “Be a good boy.” Then I looked at Nikolai. “Get the boys to take care of this mess.”

It took all of four hours for my anger to quench, and by the time it was dinner, I’d hoped to find a way around making her feel better. She didn’t show up, though, not even when I sent Marina all the way to her room to tell her it was time to eat.

I waited an hour more until I couldn’t take it any longer, then I went into her room myself. When I reached her door and opened it, I found her curled up on her bed, cuddling her pillow. “Go away.”

She was obviously still mad at me, but I ignored her command and went inside. Shutting the door behind me, I went to her bed and sat by the edge of it.

“Why weren’t you downstairs for dinner?”

“I’m not hungry, and I don’t want to see your face either.”

We both stayed quiet for a moment. I hated it when Lilianna was angry with me, and I dislike it even more now that it was because of a guy like her asshole ex. “I allowed him to go,” I said to appease her. “You have no reason to be so upset now.”

She scoffed and raised herself up from the bed to face me. Her eyes were swollen and moist as if she’d been crying; they were soiled with hate for me. It broke my heart to see her look at me with such disdain. “I don’t have to be upset? Sergey, you kidnapped someone and locked him in your basement.”

“He touched you.”

“So you’ll kill him because of that?” She was seething, and she didn’t care to hide it. “Do you plan to kill every man that touches me, talks to me, or even looks in my direction?”

I would if I could. I’d killed men for less. “I’m not certain you’ll like the answer to that question.”

She gaped at me in shock as if realizing the true extent of how cruel I could be. “Kill him if you want. I don’t care.” She lowered herself on the back and turned around, giving me her back.

“I let him go.” The words sounded like they’d been torn from my chest. No man who made it into that basement had ever made it out alive. Derrick was the first, and it was all thanks to Lilianna. He needed to make a portrait of her picture and hang it above his bed so he could worship it for the rest of his miserable life.

“I guess I should be elated.” She didn’t sound impressed. “Leave me alone.”

I found it hard to understand how her mind worked. It was almost like I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t.

Getting up from the bed, I ground my teeth, still enraged that I’d let that sucker go. It was strange. I was angry as fuck, yet, there was a feeling of guilt beneath my anger. Guilt for hurting Lilianna. I wasn’t sorry, though. She needed to learn and understand how things worked around here.

She belonged to me; a man could die for daring to look at her the wrong way. Derrick got away with it now, but he was the last guy who would. Sitting around the house wouldn’t do me any good when I was this frustrated and angry.

I needed to leave the mansion and cool off.

***

Exactly an hour later, I was in one of my clubs with Nikolai and my other two brothers. It was the same club where I met Lilianna for the first time, and every corner here reminded me of her.

I’d come to cool off, but I got angrier each minute with the music blasting in the background and the strippers trying to shove their asses in my face at intervals.

My brothers focused on catching up with each other. Vlad and Maxim handled business on the outskirts of the city. They weren’t around very often but didn’t hesitate to come over when I called.

Being head of the mafia had too many downsides, but none of them were worse than not having any actual friends. My brothers were the only people I could share a drink with and not worry that I could get poisoned or drugged. In a world like ours, being in charge meant being envied, and being envied meant there were traitors at every nook and cranny, ready to take you down.

“What’s wrong with you, bro?” Vlad asked, looking at me, his usually deadly blue eyes tainted with concern. Vlad was the grumpiest of my brothers and brutal to the core. He was as deadly as a viper and didn’t care to show it. “You’ve been scowling since you walked in.”