Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I feel like I’m going to puke, and my head is moving on autopilot. “No. You didn’t.”
“I did.” He grins. “She threatened to expose everything she knew about Vasily. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut, but she couldn’t. She’d been talking to that neighbor of yours, betraying her own family. Vasily couldn’t stand the sight of her anymore. Everyone is expendable, Lev, even you.”
Pasha is encroaching. I can feel his presence, but I can’t rip my gaze from Andrei’s. I don’t want to believe what he’s telling me. I don’t want to accept that my mother’s final hours were so horrific.
“He told me to take care of her, and he left,” Andrei goes on, lost in the memory of the moment. “It was supposed to be my first kill. I had something to prove. He said there is nothing that comes before our loyalty, even our own blood. I tortured her until she vomited all over me. That was the first time I realized what I was capable of. That I was superior to my father in every way. He didn’t have the stomach to do it, but I did.”
“You’re full of shit,” I bite out.
“You’re just like her,” Andrei spits. “Too weak to do what’s necessary. That’s why we’re here, Lev. That’s how it all comes full circle. And now, you understand that the only person leaving here alive today is me.”
My fists curl at my sides as I take another step toward him. But as I do, the floorboard behind him creaks, and his head snaps to the left, colliding with Pasha as he lunges for him. In the aftermath, everything happens in a blur.
I lunge for Kat at the same time Pasha tackles Andrei from behind. An ear-piercing scream reverberates off the walls, and it can only be Kat’s. I’m trying to get to her, trying to throw my body on top of hers, but I’m too late.
A gunshot echoes off the walls, followed by another. And another.
And then, there is only silence.
***