The rough concrete under my knees bit into my skin, and the pungent, metallic smell of gasoline and something strange hung in the stale warehouse air. My pulse hammered as Lucius's hand closed around my arm and his grip was tight as he pulled me down the hallway.
My body shook with the cold, and my cardigan hung open revealing my bare chest with only bra. The thought of Judas seeing me like this-the dread clawed through me, slicing through every last inch of courage I had.
Anya's voice was fierce and biting as she cursed more viciously than the last as the guards dragged her along. My fight was swept with thin air. Lucius didn't bother to look back and I didn't what scared me the most, his smile or my own vulnerability. He was relishing this, dragging me toward whatever twisted display he had planned.
He was so wrong if he thought Judas cared about me. He was here for his sister, and definitely not me.
I was just his whore… slut as he called me several times.
No more than a body to warm his bed.
A part of me that felt smallest spark of relief was gone-Judas was here. But relief was tangled with terror, tainted by the reality of where we were and what this could mean. This wasn't a rescue; it was a reckoning, and Judas was the storm that would fall upon us all.
Me included.
As we neared the large, open space of the warehouse, my eyes instanlyfell upon him.
Pale blue eyes were sharper than the edge of any blade, burned from the depths of his face, taking in the surroundings. He was still in the same clothes in he left in. Dark suit, light grey collared shirt and that gold watch.
Kyle stood just behind him and no one.
Judas looked like a devil reincarnated. A god of wrath and ruin, and the closer we got, the scarier he became.
I could feel the guards closing in behind me, but they were nothing compared to the dread building inside me as I was shoved onto my knees. A rough hand dug into my hair, yanking my head back, and pain flared through my scalp as I met his gaze.
My doom.
My ruin.
My destruction.
My nightmare.
His pale blue eyes instantly found me freezing me to the spot. My breath caught, and the world stopped as his stare moved over my face, falling to my exposed chest and then back up again. Shock flickered in his gaze, something he never showed, something I'd never seen before. I knew he wasn't expecting to see me here.
'Be a good girl for me.'
I bit back a sob.
His eyes widened for a fraction of second and the faintest glint of horror rippled beneath the surface, before they darkened, turning glacial and deadly in an instant.
Everything around us fell silent.
And then a collective unloading of guns as they all were pointed towards him. My eyes widened and my body immediately tried to struggle. Thirty men. There were thirty me against him and Kyle.
But he barely flinched. Instead, cold pair of eyes moved from me to the man holding my hair.
All eyes were on Judas and I could feel the weight of his fury crashed over us. I had no words to describe how thick and suffocating it was. His gaze was a silent promise of destruction. I had never seen him this calm and this mad at the same time. I couldn't look away. His stare held me captive, and in it, I saw the storm raging within him, tempest ready to be unleashed.
"Morozov," Coldness of his voice wrapped around us. And I held my breath.
Lucius's hand dropped from my hair and I lowered my head more tears flowing down. What had I done? If not Lucius, Judas would kill me today. I had nowhere to go. I was trapped. He knew I betrayed him and now he'd burn me alive.
Lucius took a step forward, positioning himself between me and Judas, as if taunting him. "A little entertainment, nothing more. I thought you might enjoy a… familiar face. I knew you had a things for brunettes."
Judas's eyes narrowed and the flicker of amusement in his gaze quickly replaced by something dark, something lethal. His jaw tightened and the calm demeanor cracked just enough to reveal the fury lying in wait. The air shifted, as if the darkness itself had thickened, drawn to the violence emanating from him.
I casually shrugged putting his hand in his pocket and every guard around stiffened before adjusting their guns.
Judas smirked pulling out a cigar instead of gun and lighted it up. "They are quite the screamers," He dragged in a puff before blowing it out and pointing the burning cigar at me. "And you know how much I love to hear screams," His smirk widened. "But if you want to entertain me, keep talking. Might be fun to rip that fucking smug grin off your face before I'm done."
Lucius chuckled clearly unfazed. "You're forgetting where you are, Romanovski. This is my ground."
Judas rolled his eyes. "Fucking spare me the dialogues, I don't have time for your chit-chat. You know why I'm here, so why don't you use that rotten brain of yours and make a wise decision if you don't want me to burn this down to ashes."
"You're the one who's outnumbered here, not me-"
"Funny, you said same shit two years ago. Fifty seven men, and all you could do was make me partially blind. Do I scare you that much, Morozov?"
Lucius scoffed. "I wanted to give you a nice death for old times' sake, but you're begging to die here."
"And here, I thought you would've gone for my throat, yet here you are, still barking."
"Shut up, you fucking son of a bitch!" Lucius stormed towards me and before I know his hand was wrapped around my hair as he tugged. A wince ripped through my throat as I tried to struggle. "Let's see if you still can talk." He yanked harder on my cardigan leaving me bare and vulnerable. A glint of satisfaction crossed his face as I flinched, turning his head slightly to Judas. "You seem to forget who's in control here. Maybe you'd like a demonstration?" He tossed a gun at Judas, and it landed near Judas's feet.
Lucius's lips curled into a sneer. "If you don't want my men tearing into your little slave right here, do us all a favor-shoot yourself." His grip shifted to my waistband and his fingers started fumbling at my jeans, and I thrashed, desperately trying to push him away, but he held firm, his fingers digging into my skin as he laughed again, taking pleasure in every whimper that escaped my lips.
"Stop! Please! No! Not this!"
My gaze shot to Judas. His face was a storm-tense, unreadable, like he was staring straight through me and wanted to strangle me altogether. He held the gun with a grip and his knuckles turned so pale they seemed carved from bone. There was something terrifying in his eyes, a darkness I couldn't grasp, something primal and lethal. His jaw clenched, muscles taut, and for a heartbeat, I thought he'd pull the trigger on Lucius.
But he didn't.
And my eyes widened as he raised it to his own forehead.
He couldn't be thinking of… No… why would he?
"Don't… please… don't…"
Judas didn't flinch. He watched me with his gaze steely, like he was peeling away every layer until all that remained was my fear, my desperation. And all of me.
Lucius pressed another gun against my back, but I hardly cared. Judas Romanovski. The man who ruined me was going to die for me.
It didn't sit well with me. I hated me, or so I thought, but I didn't want to get blood on my hands. If he'd die today, I'd never forgive myself. I wouldn't be able to.
I was not a murderer. I didn't kill my father. I didn't want to Judas.
"Isn't this what you wanted, you slut? To watch me fall? To let him tear you apart?" Tears rolled down my cheeks furiously.
Did I? Did I want that? To see him die? With bullet in his head? His dead eyes looking at me?
My chest tightened. I could barely breathe.
Dead eyes. Staring at me. Like my father's. Like when he died and I couldn't save him.
He tore me down to ash and bone, yet it was in his flames I found warmth.
I knew how diabolical it was. But somehoe I knew, he'd never let anyone hurt me. He killed five men for me. But what did I do? Dragged his sister into this. Dragged him into this. Betrayed him.
He pressed the gun to his temple.
No. He couldn't mean it. Not for me.
"No, please, don't." I shook and I couldn't hear my own voice. But Judas Romanovski stood there.
If he wanted to ruin me, he wouldn't choose this path. He wouldn't leave me standing here in ruins, haunted by what I couldn't prevent.
Lucius's gun pressed mercilessly, but I was numb. Judas had destroyed so much in me, crushed my hope like it was nothing. Yet here he was, ready to die for me. Why? I'd wanted to see him broken, not... gone. I wanetd him to suffer… but not gone.
The world felt like it was collapsing, but my mind spiraled with thoughts, with truths I'd tried to bury. And I didn't want Judas's death on my conscience.
In that moment, the lines blurred between us, the hatred, and something else I was terrified to acknowledge. I felt the weight of a truth heavier than betrayal. What do we lived for, if not to taste every bitter sip of fate?
With tears staining my sight, I looked at him, at the man who had ruined me and who, somehow, had forced me to see the deepest corners of my own soul.
Even if hate was a fire, we were both its ashes.
Kyle's eyes widened in shock and he moved towards Judas. "Judas-"
"This fucker is crazy!" Anya's voice followed. But I couldn't hear them.
He existed only. Not even me.
'I don't want to hurt you anymore, ptichka.'
And my heart shattered, breathing accelerated, wind blow coldly and everything in me broke as the still burning cigar slipped through his fingers and hit the floor with a sickening flicker. My eyes widened and I didn't know what came over me, but I tried to reach him, to tell him I hated him, that I loathed him, that I never wanted to see him again… but not at cost of his life. Not at cost of anyone's life.
His finger curled around the trigger.
My heart beat pounded.
A scream echoed and it was too late to realise it was mine before I struggled in Lucius's grip.
Late. It was too late.
His eyes met mine for the last time, and they were as cold as the snow outside, clouds rumbled outside. And he pressed the trigger.