Page 43 of Sweet Revenge

You couldn’t call yourself a friend to Daemon Petrov and then cross him. If you did so, you may as well take a shovel out back and start digging your own grave because you were already dead.

Only, it wasn’t going to be a nice quick death that ended it all for someone who turned their back on Daemon, though. No, they were going to suffer. They were going to sweat, cry, bleed, and wish to god that they had never been born.

Whoever was in that house right then, throwing furniture and knocking lamps and other shit on the floor knew it, too. He had lost his ever-loving mind like a wolf whose leg was caught in a trap. He’d rather gnaw through his own flesh and blood than wait for what was coming to him.

My eyes shifted from the lunatic on the screen to the man sitting next to me. He folded his hands and placed them under his chin as his dark eyes followed every move his brother, his friend, his betrayer made, and I knew he was waiting for the very last ounce of confirmation he needed in order to truly accept that he’d suffered at the hands of a turncoat he should’ve never had to question.

Out of energy, the frantic movements quieted, and the intruder sank down on his knees, his shoulders rising and falling with either exhaustion or sobs. He might’ve been out of breath from all that running around, but he was going to wish he was out of breath forever when Daemon got his hands on him.

Sitting on the floor in the living room, he seemed more like a child than a wicked man who’d broken the most intimate form of trust between two brothers. I leaned toward the screen, waiting. I still had no idea who it was.

When the man raised his hand to pull the black ski mask off his head, a gasp caught in my throat. The face looking back at me was the one I’d expected to see least of all.

Daemon croaked out, “What the fuck were you thinking, man?”

We didn’t have answers, but we would get them. We both stood, on our way to the safe house to make his betrayer face the music.

Good luck, Dezzy.

CHAPTER26

DAEMON

Keeping control of the rage that threatened to boil up inside of me as I drove the short distance to the safe house where Dezzy was trapped seemed nearly impossible. I took deep breaths and used all the other strategies one might tell a small child to do when they didn’t want the kid to throw a tantrum. I probably sounded like I’d just run a marathon, but Elisa didn’t seem to mind. She held my hand and said nothing, providing emotional support as we neared the house.

I spotted Dezzy’s vehicle parked down the road. My brother was smart, too smart to get himself caught up in this sort of a situation. But then, he was smart because I’d taught him everything of value that he knew about how to be a criminal. It would only stand to reason that I would hold a few tricks back for myself.

This time, I’d gotten him good. There was no way in the world he was going to get out of there. He would put up a fight and might even start to struggle to get out again, but I guaranteed he’d still be trapped like the rat that he was when I arrived.

I didn’t bother with parking in the garage this time. Instead, we parked in the driveway. I made sure Elisa hung back a bit because I’d seen Dezzy’s gun pulled when he’d first come into the house. He hadn’t gone in there to bring me fucking dinner. He’d come in armed and ready to do business. I needed to make sure she didn’t get hurt, but I also needed her with me. We were a team now, after all.

At the back door, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and handed it to her. “When I give you the word, press that red button. Stay out here for a minute, okay? Stay away from the door.”

She nodded and took my phone from me. I could hear her breathing heavily even though she’d stepped away from me. She was nervous that I’d get hurt, which I appreciated, but I was too fucking mad to let Dezzy do anything to me.

I muttered, “All right.”

She pressed the button, and the back door sprang free from the lockdown mode I’d put it in earlier. The rest of the exits were still sealed, so if Dezzy wanted out of there, he’d have to come through me.

I whipped through the door as fast as I could, closing it behind me just as he came sprinting out of the living room, gun drawn. I didn’t give him a chance to fire at me. Instead, I lowered my shoulder and rammed into him, knocking him backward into the kitchen wall next to the refrigerator. Grabbing his wrist, I slammed his hand into the door of the fridge until his gun went flying across the room.

Dezzy’s will to survive wouldn’t allow him to give up easily. He bit down on my shoulder and raised a knee, hitting me in the stomach. I recoiled slightly, putting some space between us. He lunged toward the kitchen table where his gun lay beneath one of the chairs.

He only managed to get a few feet from me before I grabbed him around the waist and slammed him into the floor. A cracking sound from the back of his head made it clear I had rung his bell. His eyes swam, but he kept fighting, trying to punch and hit me. I lifted him off the floor and dropped him again a few times until his movements slowed. I didn’t want to kill him—well, part of me didn’t want to kill him anyway—but I did want to make sure he couldn’t get out of my grasp.

I’d come prepared. Holding him down with my knees as he flopped helplessly on the floor, I reached into my pocket to grab some paracord. Even with him flailing about, it wasn’t hard for me to contain him enough to get his wrists bound. After that, I moved down to secure his legs before standing, towering over him while I fought to regain my breath.

“Daemon, Daemon,” he was mumbling. “Wh-what are you doing?” Saliva dripped from the side of his mouth, and his eyes were still wild, but it was clear he didn’t have any permanent damage. I hadn’t hit his head on the floor hard enough to do that, though I’d wanted to. I still needed answers, and I wouldn’t be able to get them if I cracked his skull open.

“Shut the fuck up, Desmond,” I told him. “God I fucking trusted you, you bastard.”

“What are you talking about?” His voice was barely a whisper. “I didn’t do anything.”

Needing a minute and knowing it was safe for my girl to come in now, I moved to the back door. Elisa was still standing where I’d left her, looking a bit shaken but otherwise fine. “Come on in, baby,” I told her. I took my phone from her and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around me, obviously glad to see I was fine.

Now wasn’t the time to talk about my feelings regarding my closest brother’s betrayal. I let her go and turned back to Dezzy.

“Daemon,” he said again, “why are you fighting me? Why did you tie me up?”