Chapter 185 186

Chapter 185 186
“You’re the one preoccupied with who I’m sleeping with.”

“Only because you’re paying for loyalty with your pussy. I’m trying to gauge how dedicated the man next to you is. Thus far, my read is ‘not very.’”

“Come and find out, Nikky.”

I roll my eyes. “None of this matters. I’m not touching you. Why would I put myself through that kind of hell when I could just kill you and leave with Belle instead?"

"Because you'll have to go through Makar," Xena says, pushing the man towards the middle of the floor.

Makar stumbles forward, taking Belle with him for a second before he lets her go and turns around to face Xena. “What is—I was here to deliver the girl. I thought—”

“I thought you were loyal to me,” Xena interrupts flatly. Whatever kindness she’s usually able to piece together is gone from her expression. She’s cold as ice. “You came to me after you left the Zhukova Bratva. You told me you admired my ferocity.”

“I did,” Makar says quickly. “I do. But I didn’t think I was coming here to fight.”

He didn’t think he was coming here to fight me, more precisely. And he’s right to be hesitant. I’ll fucking kill him.

“Life is war, baby. You have to be ready all the time. If you want to work for me, you have to fight for me.” Xena steps forward and drags a seductive finger down Makar’s chest. “Can you do that?”

The man practically moans at the slightest bit of contact. It’s pathetic. In one touch, his uncertainty falls away.

He turns to me, shoulders back, chin high. “I can do it.”

“By ‘it,’ do you mean ‘die’?” I ask. “Because if so, I agree. You can do it right up there with the best of them.”

Xena lays her hand on his shoulder, drumming her long fingernails across his shirt. “Take him down, Makar. And make sure he lives up to his promise.”

Makar looks back at her. “What promise?”

Xena looks past him to me, her mouth turned up in a smile. “Cut off his cock. I want it.”

“Maybe the two of you aren’t fucking after all,” I muse thoughtfully. “I mean, if you’re that desperate for my dick, Makar is either severely lacking in that department or—”

In the end, it’s the small penis joke that pushes the last of Makar’s hesitations to the side. He charges at me with a battle roar, spit flying. I jump out of the way just as Belle screams my name.

“Who said you could take off your gag, bitch?” Xena shoves Belle back. If I wasn’t busy with Makar, I’d kill her for that alone.

“Don’t worry, Belle,” I tell her, squaring off with an already-sweating Makar. “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“Say your goodbyes. You’ll never see each other again,” Makar growls as he charges again.

I dodge him, letting him tire himself out a bit before we get into this. “I’m almost embarrassed to admit you ever worked for me,” I say as I watch him pant and heave.

“Because I’m not a brainless sheep, following you into ruin?”

“No. Because you’re a shitty fighter. Either Xena has never seen you fight or she is knowingly sending you to your death. You don’t stand a fucking chance.”

Makar’s face turns red, anger coloring his neck and chest. “I’ve trained enough.”

“There is a big difference between punching a defenseless bag in the gym and the task in front of you here, brother. This target hits back.”

To prove my point, I fake to the right, sending Makar leaning wonkily in the other direction. I meet him there with a hard left hook. His rib crunches under my knuckles.

He groans and tries to fade back out of reach, but he stumbles.

“It’s almost too easy,” I sigh over his shoulder to Xena. I’m guessing this is her first time seeing him at work, too, because she looks pissed.

Makar doubles down, growling as he lunges. This time, he manages to get his arms around my midsection. My gun slips out of my pants and clatters across the cement. Makar actually forces me back a couple steps, but as soon as I plant my feet, I drive my knee straight up into his chest.

He wheezes, gasping for the breath I’ve just knocked out of him.

Panicking now, he tries to move towards my gun, no doubt hoping to grab it and end this before I kill him.

But no such luck. I spin around behind him and hook one arm around his neck, the other around his rib cage. I squeeze tightly, pinning one of his arms against his already-broken ribs. He cries out and tries to pry my arm away from his neck, but I squeeze tighter. More things break.

“You should have shut your mouth and fallen into line,” I growl in his ear. “And you definitely shouldn’t have put your hands on my wife. Because now, I have no choice. You made the choice for me.”

He tries to say something, but he doesn’t have the air. It comes out like a death rattle, rasping through his blue lips.

Meanwhile, Xena doesn’t do a damn thing. I choke the life out of Makar’s body, constricting around him like an anaconda while he spasms and dies, and Xena just watches with pure disgust on her face.

After a couple minutes, I lower Makar’s lifeless body to the floor and then stand up and face Xena.

“I went through Makar,” I sigh, brushing off my hands on my pants. “Now, give me my wife.”

Her eyes narrow to slits. “Do you really think I’m done?”

I sigh. “No, I suppose not. Nothing with you could ever be that easy.”

“You know me so well.” She throws a sharp-edged smirk at me and then grabs Belle by the roots of her hair. “Come on. Help me reveal my secret guests.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Belle snaps. She tries to pull away, but Xena pulls out a gun, and Belle goes perfectly still.

“I’ll kill you in front of him,” Xena says. “I’d enjoy that, actually. So give me a reason.”

“This wasn’t part of your deal,” I growl.

Xena presses the muzzle under Belle’s chin and smiles back at me. “I wanted to keep things interesting for you.”

Belle walks stiffly with Xena to a wooden door on the opposite wall. Without taking her eyes or the gun off of Belle, Xena reaches over and opens the door. Then she backs away, keeping Belle at bay with the pistol.

I want to charge her, but she’s too far away. She’d sense me coming, and I don’t doubt for a second that she’ll actually kill Belle. So for the moment, I’m stuck watching from the sidelines as her little plan plays out. Just like she wanted.

“Come out,” Xena barks to whatever is waiting. “And don’t forget that I’ll kill you all without blinking.”

I have no clue who she is talking to…

Until a familiar strawberry blonde head comes shuffling out of the closet.

“Elise,” whimpers Belle, nearly folding in half at the sight of her sister. “No. No.”

“I’m okay, B,” Elise says quietly.