Page 83 of The Bratva’s Monster

“Come on,” I tell him. “What are you waiting for?”

He takes a swing and I block the bat with my arm. The metal sends a brief vibration through me that I feel in my teeth, but it stops it cold. I grab him by the throat, lift him off his feet, and slam him into a wall while I squeeze the life out of him.

“Where. Is. Josef?” I growl at him.

He flails for a moment, then points upwards and croaks, “Roof…”

I squeeze until I feel the bones twist and crush under my hand. His eyes bulge and his lips turn blue as his mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water.

I let him drop to the floor and he flops around, grabbing at his throat, desperately trying to get air that will never come.

In the back of the bar, there are stairs leading up, so I take them. All the noise has probably alerted them. That’s fine. I’ll kill them all to get to Liz.

I get to the second floor, which is just a hall of doors. Some are open with people looking out at me. Others are closed. I start with the one on the left. The man sees me and backs away, his hands up.

“Please,” he says. “Don’t hurt me⁠—”

As I’m standing here, I realize I’m standing in red light. There’s a bed in the room with a naked woman under the covers and he’s standing in front of me in just his boxer shorts.

A whorehouse. Interesting.

That means this guy in front of me is an innocent. I take a breath and say, “Have you seen a man with black hair dragging a blonde through here?”

He shakes his head ferociously. I narrow my eyes at him.

“You sure about that? You’re not fucking lying to me, are you?”

“N-No, sir.” His eyes are starting to water like he’s going to cry… and suddenly, the unmistakable smell of piss rises between us.

He’s telling the truth. Damn.

I back away and start kicking in doors, randomly asking the same question to the terrified faces I come across. I round the corner and a gunshot blast takes out the wall next to me. I duck and retreat, pressing my back against the wall. I pull my gun out, waiting for another attack.

“Are you the one they call ‘the monster’?” a voice says from around the corner. It’s a woman. An older woman, from the sounds of it. “I always wondered what it might be like to fuck somebody as big as you are.”

“I’m not interested in hurting you,” I say. “I just want Josef Kiselev.”

A pause, then in Russian, “Are you here for the blonde woman?”

“Yes,” I reply in turn.

“Lucky girl. In more ways than one if you made it up here in one piece.” I hear the gun click and the footsteps stop. “Josef’s valuable currency. If I let you kill him, I could get shut down. My girls need to eat.”

“Josef and I are worth the same to our Pakhans,” I say. “If you get shut down, I can see you set up in a much safer location.”

“Hmm.” Silence, then, “The stairs are down the hallway closest to where you came in.”

“Thank you,” I say and turn around. At the end of the hallway is a door with a sign on it that says “Roof” in plain letters. I burst through the doors and make my way up the hard metal stairs until I get to another metal door.

I push it open and suddenly, I’m outside in the cool air and New York city noise going on somewhere below. I’m standing looking around on the flat roof with nothing separating me from the street below except a bit of space and a ledge. Buildings around me tower above, blocking out much of the sky and shining sunlight down on me from the glass windows.

I step out and the wind grabs my hair, carrying with it the sound of talking from the other side. Liz’s voice, crying, begging for mercy.

“Shut up,” I hear Josef say. “You’re just another loose end that needs tying up.”

That’s more than I need to hear. I walk toward the sound, around the air conditioning units toward the back of the roof.

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