Heart of My Monster (Monster Trilogy, #3)(21)

Voices reach me from below, and I pause at the bottom of the stairs before I peek from behind the wall. The basement is more secured than the room upstairs, but it’s still shabby. The walls are made of concrete, but it has the same eyesore orange lighting as the stairway.

However, the basement isn’t what makes me gulp.

It’s my brother standing in front of a man hanging from the ceiling by his cuffed arms. I can only see Anton’s tense back through the shirt he was wearing this morning as he shoves a container of food in his prisoner’s face. “If you want to starve again, I can make that happen.”

My spine jerks at his dark tone. This is a part of Anton that I never wished to see. In a way, it’s similar to the version of Papa I was shielded from.

“Fuck you,” the man whispers in barely audible Russian.

My heart lurches in my chest as Anton drives his fist into the man’s face. “Try again and stop pissing me off.”

I lean my head sideways and see that, sure enough, it’s Maksim.

He’s hanging half naked, his chest full of lacerations and dry blood, his face bruised, and his lips bleeding from Anton’s punch.

“What did Kirill send you to do here?”

“Maybe it’s to see your true fucking face, asshole,” Maksim mocks and then coughs, choking on his own blood.

Anton punches him again, causing the chains to rattle. “I told you not to piss me off.”

My brother lifts his fist again, but I jump out of my hiding place. “Stop!”





6





SASHA





My legs shake as I stare at the gruesome scene in front of me.

I never expected there would be a day when Yuri—no, Anton—would be torturing Maksim.

He’s his best friend.

Or, more accurately, was his best friend.

If I’m piecing things together correctly, then maybe everything with his friendship with Maksim was also a fa?ade.

Like the whole Yuri persona Anton was immersed in for years.

My brother spins around, his muscles tensing beneath his shirt. A harsh look turns his eyes to a green that resembles a haunted mountain. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I should be the one to ask you that.” I storm toward them, hiding my gun in the process.

Maksim’s good eye widens as I approach them, even as he struggles to hold his body up by grabbing the chains. “Sasha…?”

His murmured question stabs me in the chest. I expected him to be shocked at my gender switch, especially since he was against my leaving the Morozov family. However, I didn’t think it’d hit him to this extent.

He looks so betrayed, so…distraught.

Anton slides his attention between him and me before he zeroes in on who could safely be considered his ex-friend. His jaw clenches, and his eyes blaze in a way I haven’t witnessed before.

No.

I actually have, when he inexplicably got angry whenever Maksim was acting familiar with me or others. But those were mere hints of his bottled feelings—this, however, is pure rage.

“You’re a girl?” Maksim asks in a faint, uncharacteristic tone.

He was always the loud, untamed one, but now, he looks like a kicked puppy with wounds all over his body. Literally and figuratively.

“She is.” My brother gets in his face. “She was a woman all along, but you believed she was a man like a fucking fool. Intelligence was never your strongest skill.”

“You shut the fuck up!” Maksim lunges against his bindings. “This is none of your business—”

His words are cut off when Anton backhands him hard and fast. The slap of flesh against flesh echoes in the silent air worse than a whip. It’s not a punch, but it feels so much worse, judging from the way Maksim freezes up.

“Anton!” I grab onto his arm. “What’s wrong with you? Let him go!”

“Let him go?” he repeats slowly, menacingly even. “He led the men who attacked our family not too long ago.”

“I’m sure there’s more to it. Besides, he didn’t know they were our family.”

“This is why you never could’ve won against Kirill.” He gets in my face. “You’re na?ve and always try to see the situation from an angle that doesn’t exist.”

My throat fills with nausea, and my limbs tremble, but I still stare at my brother in his damn unfeeling eyes. “The man you’re torturing to within an inch of his life is my friend. He was also your best friend for years unless you have a split personality that made you forget everything that happened when you were Yuri.”

“He’s Kirill’s guard.”

“He’s Maks.” I extend my palm. “Give me the keys.”

“You know, this is exactly why Papa sheltered you. He knew that you would let your emotions lead you in everything.”

“I’d rather have those emotions than live like an empty shell. So unless you’re going to chain me up to the ceiling, too, give me the damn keys.”

We glare at each other for what seems like ages, neither of us willing to back down. Finally, Anton reaches into his pocket and produces the keys, but he doesn’t hand them over. Instead, he jerkily undoes Maksim’s bindings himself.

The moment my friend’s feet touch the ground, he loses balance. My brother could catch him, but he moves out of the way, letting him fall.