VLAD (The V Games #1)(53)

Opening a cabinet in the back of the room, I grab my fish hook knife and a bundle of rope.

Someone is going to die.

“Vlad,” Irina calls after me. “Vlad!”

I can’t listen. I can’t stop. I’m going insane. My head is swirling with that motherfucker touching my woman, my Irina.

Dirty old man.

My face will be the last thing he sees as I cut him into fucking pieces.

I collide with Diana and Ven as I come out of my office like a tornado. Diana crashes against Ven, and he has to grip onto her to keep her from falling to the floor.

“Vlad?” Diana asks, fear written on her features.

Good, cunt. Be scared. Be so goddamned afraid. This shit ends tonight.

“Where’s Anton?” I growl so deadly, she pales and begins to cry.

“Vlad,” she pleads, her eyes spilling with tears of betrayal. She knows. She fucking knows what she did, and that I know too.

“Diana,” I snap.

She jumps at my tone. “I-I asked him t-to stay in his room t-tonight,” she stutters, sobs causing her body to tremble.

I take the stairs three at a time. Irina and Diana give chase, my name on both their lips as they call for me, but I’m faster than them both.

I kick open Anton’s door, and he jumps up from the chair he’s sitting in.

“What’s going on?” he asks, fear flashing in his eyes. He knows. He knows his life ends tonight.

I hit him hard with a closed fist, relishing the crunch of his jaw. His head snaps to the side, and then he’s attacking. But I’ve trained my entire life and easily dodge his punches. With quick moves he can’t keep up with, I wrap the rope around his neck, force him into the corridor, and tie the other end of the rope to the railing.

“Vlad!” Diana and Irina cry out in unison.

But it’s too late. I’m in a haze of rage, and nothing is dragging me back from it. I flick my knife out, and with enough momentum, I stick it into his groin, digging the blade all the way to the hilt.

“No!” Diana screams as I drag the knife up his stomach, tearing the flesh, cutting an opening right up to his chest. I stand back, then kick him over the railing.

Cries echo around me, and screams resound from below. A loud snap of his neck as it breaks and the splat of his intestines hitting the stone floor cause another ripple of screams.

Diana’s fists hit me with surprising force. “No! You monster! Oh God, what have you done?” She sobs hysterically as she beats and claws at me.

“He was an animal,” I growl, knocking her hands away from me.

“I love him!” she screams, her sobs broken.

I grab her wrists and drag her to her room. “Loved him. You loved him, Diana. But you can’t love him now because he’s dead. Now, collect your shit and get the fuck out of my house,” I roar. I slam the door, leaving her to pack her things.

Her sobs ricochet off the walls on the other side of the door.

Veniamin has joined Irina, and both are looking down at Anton swinging. I should have savored that kill, kept him breathing for a few days, relieved him of his putrid cock, then his fingers, hands, tongue.

“Did you hurt her?” Veniamin asks, glancing toward Diana’s door.

I can’t deal with this bullshit from him too.

“Are you also fucking her?” I bark, shoving him away from me.

He swings a punch, and it hits me in the jaw. My head snaps to the side, and I laugh. It’s real and from the gut. I spit out blood and hiss at him. “What a mistake that was, drug.” Friend.

I ram into him with a shoulder to his chest. We scuffle, slamming into walls and knocking pictures to the floor. A punch to his face, a punch to mine.

“Stop it! Stop it, Vlad, goddamn you!” Irina screams, trying to pry us apart.

Ven manages to force me from him, and I fall straight into Irina. I feel it, the weight of me colliding with her, and her legs giving out. She tumbles back away from me. I reach around to grab her, but hit nothing but air.

The soft thuds as she topples down the stairs stop my heart.

Both Ven and I rush to her aid, but she’s at the bottom before we can get to her, landing in the puddle of Anton’s blood and guts.

My father and Vas are standing at the bottom of the stairs glaring up at me.

Before I can reach her, Vas scoops Irina up into his arms. She stirs and flutters her eyes at me. Blood coats her skin and soaks her dress. Her eyes are pained.

I can’t breathe.

“I’m okay,” she mutters, attempting to push from his hold, but she’s too weak. “I’m okay.” His grip tightens, and he steps away from the bloody mess with my woman in his arms.

I sag, relieved she’s not seriously hurt. I start toward her, but Veniamin races down the stairs, knocking past me and out the front door.

Bastard.

My father glowers at me, rage in his eyes. I want to snatch Irina from Vas and run a million miles away from here. I’m about to do just that when a door slams shut and I see Diana with a bag in her arms tearfully eyeing the rope attached to the banister where her dead sicko lover hangs.

I drag my gaze back to Irina, but she’s gone.

This isn’t over.

This will never be over.




My entire body ripples with fury as I clench the steering wheel. Diana cries silently by my side. I can’t even feel sorry for her. My longtime friend royally fucked up. Sure, I was sleeping with her sister, but fucking her bodyguard under my goddamn roof? A man who preyed on her kid sister. Diana was disrespecting me in my own home. Lying to me. But worse, she was letting that bastard stick his cock in her—a cock he seemed much more keen on sticking into her little sister.