Levin pauses, glancing from me to Sasha, hesitating.
“This is what he did to me,” Sasha says, her chin trembling, but her eyes flashing with barely contained vehemence. “He cut my clothes off with a knife while I hung from the ceiling, and then he beat me. Let me do it.”
Levin looks at me, waiting for my approval, and I nod. “Give the knife to her.”
He holds it out and she takes it without hesitation, stepping up onto the stage. Alexei rears back, spitting at her, but Sasha only smiles at him.
“You thought you could get away with it,” she hisses. “Viktor will do the worst to you, but this is mine.” Sasha raises the knife, pressing it into his chest as she starts to slice at his clothing. “Are you afraid? You must know what’s coming. You tortured men for Viktor, after all. You know what he’s going to do. I hope you’re afraid.” She drags the knife downwards, between his legs, and Alexei flinches as Sasha cuts down the sides of the suit trousers he’s wearing, tearing the cloth away as it gives and tossing it to the floor.
When he’s stark naked, she hands the knife back to Levin, but she doesn’t get off the stage immediately. She reaches between his legs in a flash, her hand gripping his balls tightly and her nails digging in.
“This is what you did to me on that stage,” Sasha hisses. “I hope you die slow.”
And then she twists.
She barely manages to let go and get out of the way before Alexei pitches forward, vomiting from the pain. I give him a cold smile as I open the black bag, watching as his head sags, bile and spit dripping from his mouth.
“Just think,” I tell him, reaching for a pair of pliers. “This is only the beginning.”
“You have no right! ” Alexei heaves again, sucking in a breath as he turns to look at me, his eyes flashing with anger and defiance. “No right to treat me this way—”
“No right?” I approach the stage, clicking the pliers in my hand. “You killed my men. You poached my clients, stole my merchandise for your own profits, killed my housekeeper and some of my staff and sold the rest. For that alone, I ought to shoot you where you stand. But you didn’t stop there.”
I step up onto the stage, grabbing a handful of his hair and yanking his head back. He gasps, and I use that moment to force the pliers into his mouth, grasping one of his molars.
“You killed my people,” I growl, and I yank hard, ripping the first tooth out of his mouth.
Alexei’s scream echoes around the room, his body jerking as blood starts to flow. But I don’t stop there.
“You sold a woman under my protection.” I fasten the pliers around another tooth, and yank.
“You kidnapped and tried to sell the wife and unborn child of my closest ally.” Another tooth, this time one in the front.
Alexei heaves again, more bile and blood spewing as I step aside. I wait for him to finish, and when he’s gasping for breath, I grab his jaw, forcing the pliers into his mouth again.
“You stole my children.” Another tooth, and then another. “One for Anika, and one for Yelena,” I tell him coolly, as the blood drips onto the stage. “But you couldn’t stop there, could you?”
“Ussuri—” The word comes out thickly, through missing teeth and swelling lips. I smirk at him, clicking the pliers and enjoying his sudden flinch.
“Ah, you begin to remember how to speak to me with respect. But you didn’t stop there, did you? Abducting my children, my wife, and those under my care, abusing them and terrorizing them, that wasn’t enough for you. Stealing what’s mine, that wasn’t enough, either.” I drop the pliers and hold out my hand, and Levin passes me the hunting knife, sharp with a serrated point. As he stands there observing, he takes another knife, flicking a lighter on and passing it over the blade, heating it.
“Ussuri.”Alexei gasps, shaking his head, his eyes widening. “Ussuri,I didn’t kill you—”
“You’re right. Your mistake,” I chuckle. “A long list you made. Particularly when you decided that you needed to possesseverythingthat belongs to me.”
I lean towards him, reaching between his legs to grab his balls, dragging the blade of the knife up his inner thigh with my other hand. “No, you must have been out of your fucking mind to think that you could rape my wife, and have even the mercy of a quick death.”
“Ussuri!”
Alexei’s scream turns into an animal sound, guttural and desperate, as I drag the knife across his scrotum, yanking down on his balls as I slice them away from his body. Before he can even start to bleed out, Levin is there in an instant, the heated knife pressed against the wound so that it’s cauterized instantly.
The smell of searing flesh fills the room, and I hear Caterina and Sasha both gasp from behind me. But neither one of them makes any other sound, or goes to leave the room. They watch, and satisfaction floods me at the knowledge that they both are seeing what happens to anyone who dares to lay a finger on that which is mine to protect.
Particularly what belongs to me.
Alexei slumps forward, his eyes glazing over, and I grab his hair again, yanking his head back so that he’s forced to look into my eyes.
“You said when you broke into my house that you took bets on how many pieces you could cut off of the men who refused to betray me, before they passed out or died.” I smile coldly at him. “I think we’ll take this opportunity to see how many that is for you.”