Raze (Scarred Souls 1)

I backed away into the shadows of the gym, once again one with the darkness.

With each step I took to my training room, I mentally chanted the words:

Durov.

New York.

Revenge.

Kill.

Tomorrow night, I would finally get my revenge.

Chapter Nineteen

Kisa

“Are you okay, miss?” Serge asked, looking back at my blank face through the rearview mirror.

I continued staring out the window, an array of emotions tearing through me like burning flames. Alik had killed my brother. Alik, the man that had controlled me and possessed me all these years, the man I’d devoted my life to serving. And he’d blamed Luka, my Luka, for Rodion’s death… God! Just so he could have me?

The thought made me feel sick. Feel racked with guilt. Despair and a million other emotions.

And tomorrow night, my two loves—one pure yet broken and one so dark that I now realized I didn’t know him at all—they would fight to the death.

Tomorrow night I would lose one.

I knew in my heart who I wanted—no, needed—to survive… Luka. It had always been Luka.

Alik deserved to die.

“Miss?” Serge pushed again, and I met his worried gaze. “What’s happened? I know that look on your face, devastation. I’ve only ever seen it one time before… and that was when we were told Mr. Tolstoi died in that crash.”

I felt the tears tracking down my face, and I sniffed and wiped at my cheeks. “Serge… I’ve just found out who killed Rodion. I… I…” I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence, the pain too much to bear.

I noticed we had pulled up to the side of my papa’s house, crawling to a stop in the shadows of the dark street, out of view.

As the car came to a stop, Serge turned in his seat. “Mr. Alik?”

My eyes widened and my pulse throbbed in my temples. “You… knew? All this time?”

Serge shook his head. “No, miss. I didn’t. But, well, I’ve watched him his whole life, watched him grow from a boy to a man and something was never right with him. Like he’s disturbed, deep in his soul.”

I swallowed hard, listening to everything coming out of Serge’s mouth. And he was right. Alik had always been different. Thriving off violence, off control, off his possession for me… off his kills. Kills he had to make or he would turn to the streets or the rival mobs to work off his rage. The Bratva decided five years ago that he should fight for The Dungeon during the Championship. My papa wanted him to have an outlet for his rage, one that wouldn’t cause trouble with rivals, and one that would also bring in a profit.

“When the news of Rodion’s death was delivered to the staff, I couldn’t believe Luka would do such a thing. He was a good boy, a good Bratva boy: stern and hard, but not overly cold. But mainly, he was loyal to his family. Loved his family. His papa had brought him up well, unlike Mr. Abram. He had raised that boy of his to be a killer. After his mama ran off when he was a baby, he brought that boy up without any affection.” Serge’s eyes seemed to lose focus and he shook his head. “There’s just something within his eyes… something that has never sat well with me.” Serge shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I remember finding him as a child, killing a cat—no, torturing it. He saw me watching him in horror and he smiled. He smiled at me, Kisa. I knew then that something sinister ran in that boy’s blood. He enjoyed killing that cat. He liked hearing it in pain.”

“Oh God, Alik!” I cried. “What’s wrong with him? What lives within him to make him like that?”

Serge ran his hand over his head in distress. “And the day we were told Luka had died, Miss Kisa… Everybody cried. Even though they believed he had killed your twin, they mourned for him. But Alik, he was cold, calculated, and dare I say, happy? Abram displayed no reaction either. Something about that whole day just never sat well with me.”

“Serge,” I cried, finally submitting to the sob choking my throat. “I don’t know what to do!”

Serge laid his hand on my knee. “Mr. Luka is back, Kisa. I don’t know where from, and I don’t need to know, that isn’t my business. But I can see he’s no longer the Luka that left. He’s darker now, tormented. His memory is in pieces. Lord, the confusion on his face tonight when he saw me, it was vast. But not a day went by from the time you were born that boy didn’t look after you, protect you. And even now, with his mind warped, with the hell I know he’s been put through, he won’t let Mr. Alik leave that cage tomorrow night alive. Of that I’m sure. He’ll kill Mr. Alik to protect you. He has earned the right to this revenge. He has earned the right to retake his place among the Bratva and know his family and where he’s from.”

“He doesn’t remember them, Serge. None of his family. Papa Ivan, Talia, his mama, none of them.”

“He will in time. But right now, he has one goal, only one thing occupying his mind… to right what Mr. Alik made wrong.”

“God! How the hell has it all come to this?” I said, wiping at my tears. “So much death, so much pain! All because of greed and jealousy.”

Serge smiled sadly. “This mafiya life is never an easy path. There has been much death, much pain. But the Lord has brought back your love, Kisa. Despite the pain, a miracle has occurred.”

My stomach swirled with dread. “But… what if Luka can’t get past all of what happened? What happens when he remembers everything? Will it be too much?”