<b>Chapter </b><b>178 </b>


    Elena’s POV:


    I hadn’t expected anything gooding here, up the steps to this construction site, but now seeing him, seeing Niki, my heart ached with a raw, furious pain.


    He was shirtless in this freezing cold, tied to a chair with monstrously huge chains, heavy links that looked painful and like they were meant for an animal, not a man. The anger rose within me, a hot, all–consuming fire. “Let him go. You have me now.” I told Lazar, my <i>voice </i>sharp.


    A moment passed, a tense, agonizing beat of silence after which heughed. “Hmm… should I?” he questioned, his voiceced with a yful, mocking tone that made my skin crawl.


    I narrowed my eyes. It’s not as though I had expected him to listen to me or keep his word. A man like him? I would be stupid to trust him, to believe in his false promises. My mind went back <i>to </i>his words in the car. This man has a serious inferiorityplex towards me. A deep, psychological wound that had festered over the years, turning him into this.


    “You’ve always been served everything on a silver tter, haven’t you?” he’d said, his voice dripping with a bitter, venomous envy. “Loving parents, a rich and obsessed husband, a father who rules a mafia empire and now even a son. How wonderful.” He finished.


    And yeah. To him, it would seem that way. Even if I was disgusted by him and hated him with every fiber of my being, it didn’t mean I didn’t understand. He’d been born to the wrong mother and a father who didn’t want him, a man who saw him as an inconvenience, a dirty little secret. His upbringing was obviously influenced by Svena, a woman who only knew how to love through cruelty, making him like this. A bitter, twisted reflection of her own brokenness.


    However, as far as money went, Sergei had said that he’d provided him with everything, and even l could see that. Even just his normal everyday loungewear used to be luxury brands. So what exactly was heining about? A childhood without a loving family? An upbringing that was cold and lonely? Wasn’t that exactly like Niki’s? He hadn’t turned out like Lazar. What he went through in his childhood didn’t excuse his actions. It didn’t excuse the pain he had inflicted.


    But this line of his had also reminded me of the note left in Haider’s crib. Him. It had been him, not Andrey, who’d done it. The realization was a cold, chilling thing, a single, terrifying fact that made a thousand different pieces of the/puzzle click into ce.


    Why was I even surprised, though? Him and Dmitri were like two peas in a pod, two bitter, broken


    men who only knew how to hurt others. The only difference was that Dmitri had been a product of a twisted, obsessive love. Lazar was a product of a twisted, obsessive hate.


    “Why did you do it?” I finally asked the question, the words a quiet, steady hum in the silence of the room. “Why did you kill them? It was you, wasn’t it?”


    The fact that I was asking a serial killer this question so calmly while sitting next to him in the car was the most ridiculous thing. How was I so calm all of a sudden? My hands weren’t trembling, my voice was steady, my eyes were clear. It was a strange, terrifying calm that had taken over my entire being. I


    had to know. I had to know the truth.


    He sighed, a long, weary sound, as though he was bored by my questioning. “Hmm, isn’t it obvious?” he questioned, and I frowned, but then I felt my heart drop at his <i>next </i>words, “Because they reminded


    me of you.”


    Me? The word was a silent, whispered thing. My breath caught in my throat. The audacity, the pure,


    unadulterated madness of it. He had killed all those innocent people… because of me?


    “Are you… insane? You killed all those innocent people… because of me?” I said, the words a stunned, disbelieving whisper.


    His eyes narrowed as they turned to me, and a chill ran down my back, a cold, icy feeling that made


    my skin crawl. “Don’t be so full of yourself. I did it because I wanted to.” he’d said.


    I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms, and I looked at Niki, my heart starting to pound… what… was I going to do? My only goaling here was to save Niki. Find a way to somehow get him out. I moved toward him as fast as I could, but just before I could reach him, someone grabbed my hair, a rough, brutal yank that made me wince as I was pulled back roughly.


    “Niki!”


    Niki jolted, his blindfolded head turning to me, a silent, desperate question in his face. Like a doll brought back to life, he started struggling, the chains rattling. “What the fuck are you doing?! Why did you bring her here?” His voice was a raw, furious roar, a sound that was full of a protective rage that made my heart ache.


    But the only answer he got was a scoff from Lazar, It was a silent message that even answering him was beneath him. “You’ll find out soon enough. As for you…” He said, his voice dropping to a low, menacing whisper as he pulled my head up, his grip on my hair painful. My eyes met his in a re.


    “Be obedient. I said I’d let him go, didn’t I? But for that, I need you to listen. Otherwise… you see that guy there?” He gestured with his chin towards a figure standing in the corner of the room, a man with a nk face and a gun in his hand. “All it would take is one bullet, and he’d be dead in seconds.” Lazar sneered, the threat a cold, brutal promise.


    I red at him. “You said you’d let him go once you had me here. Why the fuck are you doing this then?”


    10:49 Wed, 3 Sept A


    <b>6 </b>、 3, 46% $


    “You knew this would happen though, walking into this, didn’t you? Isn’t that why <i>you </i>told that guard of yours to call Sergei?” he sneered, and my eyes widened. The realization was a cold, chilling shock.


    How did he know?


    “How did you-” I was cut off by him then, his hand tightening in my hair, his voice a low, furious hiss. “If you knewing here that you would be a bargaining chip, then act like one. After all, Sergei can’t find you as quick anymore. Not without your phone.” He sneered, shoving me hard. I gasped as my head hit the floor, a sharp.“Tie her up.” He said finalmand, getting up and walking away.


    I scrambled back, trying to get to Niki, who was still struggling and yelling at Lazar, his voice raw. The man who had grabbed me now had his hands on me, pulling me away from reaching Niki. His hands were brutish and painful enough to bruise.


    But then, the next second, there was a loud bang. A gunshot in the silence of the construction site where we’d been brought, a sound that broke the tense quiet.


    My head snapped to the side, my eyes wide with shock when they met Sergei. He was standing there, his gun aimed at Lazar, a cold sneer on his lips. “I should have killed you the moment you were brought into my house.”