From the moment I saw Talon enter that basement, I knew what was going to happen, almost as if I had a crystal ball that could show me the future.
I knew he’d spend whatever he needed to buy me from my brother. I knew he’d stick me on a plane. Knew he’d fly me halfway around the fucking world to the private island he was always boasting about.
I knew exactly what he had planned for me.
The timeline matched. Every year, towards the end of April, the emails began for Talon’s Til Death Games. A gladiator-style tournament where people were pitted against each other and forced to fight to the death while an audience-filled arena watched on, taking bets on who would emerge victorious.
The invitation to such an event was extremely exclusive. What took place on that island wasn’t exactly legal, so not just anyone could attend. The list usually consisted of corrupt politicians, sometimes world leaders, other criminals like myself and the insanely rich because of course, there was a buy-in if you accepted the invitation.
Two and a half million. Chump change to a lot of the people who fell into those categories, myself included.
I remember the first year I’d gotten one. Mikhail, a close friend of mine, had received one, too, and my surprise had matched his. We’d both presumed the bastard was long dead. Then, one day, he just popped up out of the blue with more money to his name than anyone I’d ever met and a list of credentials a mile long.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that his father had died, and being his only child, Talon had inherited everything. He’d used that money to create his island. To hire all of those people to work for him. And now he was using the revenue he made from his games as a way to increase his net worth even more.
It would never be enough for a man like him. In his eyes, there would always be more money to earn.
There was only one reason Talon had sent Mikhail and I invitations to his games over the years. It wasn’t because he truly wanted to see me. It was because he wanted me to see him. See all that he’d accomplished.
One of the last things I’d said to him all those years ago was that he’d never amount to anything. That he’d always be a spoilt little rich kid who had to have his Daddy fix all of his problems.
Plus, I had a sneaking suspicion that if I ever stepped foot on that island, I wouldn’t be stepping off.
Maybe it wasn’t such a ridiculous notion to take Autumn up on her offer to work together. I knew there was no way I was going to make it off that island alive. I had to do something. But I wasn’t much of a team player, especially with people I didn’t know. Didn’t trust. Didn’t like.
I looked at her subtly from the corner of my eye. She was staring out the window, her long, red hair tumbling down her shoulders. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spent so long in the presence of another woman before, apart from my daughter. Of course, I interacted with women all the time. I had women who worked for me as guards, maids and cooks. But I’d never spent time with them. Never spoke more than a few words to them unless I was giving them orders.
I just had no desire to ever get to know another woman again. To ever get close to anyone else like that. I was perfectly content to continue living my life without someone by my side.
No one could replace my Yeketarina in my heart, so why bother?
Seeing, talking or spending time with other women held zero appeal to me after her death, so I never did it.
My current circumstances, however, were making it impossible for me to keep to that. Autumn was everywhere. I’d had no reprieve from her or the powerful presence she exuded since Dominik kidnapped me.
She was pretty fucking hard to ignore.
“I said stopping fucking looking at me,” Autumn snapped, her gaze still staring out the window.
How the fuck did she know I was even looking at her?
“I’m not, you insufferable woman. I’m looking out the window.” Good comeback, Dimitri. Don’t need her thinking you were looking at her. That shit would go to her head.
“There’s twelve other windows on here. Pick a different one. I don’t even want you looking in my general vicinity.”
“Anybody ever tell you that you’re the most infuriating person on the fucking planet?” I hissed.
“Yes, actually.” She turned, flashing her teeth in a proud smile. “I think it’s a wonderful compliment.
“Figures. Psychotic people always do have grand delusions.”
“Do not call me psychotic!”
“Or what? You going to slap me in the face with another piece of chicken?” I scoffed.
“I’ll break every goddamn bone in your body before I disembowl you and make you eat your own fucking intestines.”
I arched an eyebrow. Violent little thing.
A ding rang through the cabin, followed by a male voice. “We are beginning our descent. Please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts. We will be landing shortly.”
Talon’s security team was very cautious as we disembarked from the plane. They took zero risks, making sure to keep us cuffed as they led us from our seats to the exit at the front of the aircraft.
With a heave of exertion, the blonde flight attendant opened the door and rolled out the staircase so we could step down from the plane. The first thing that hit me was the scent of the sea, salty and fresh. It was a distinct aroma that told my brain I was somewhere tropical, open and free.
From my position at the top of the stairs, I had a wide view of the tarmac. Beyond it lay a field of big, beautiful trees, and then nothing but wide, open ocean as far as the eye could see.
It was…breathtaking, I have to admit. From a purely non-bias point of view, it seemed like literal paradise. The sight. The smells. Even the sounds of birds tweeting and the wind ruffling through the trees. It all gave off the illusion that it was a place of calm and serenity. Of peace and tranquility. Of—
And I was falling.
I didn’t know what the fuck happened, except I felt hands shove at my back moments before I started to tumble. Pain burst throughout different parts of my body as I literally rolled down the hard, unforgiving stairs.
Son of a—fuck-shit-ow.
I landed in a heap on the rough asphalt, my skin scraping across the ground. My head snapped up, catching sight of Autumn leaping over the railing and landing on one knee, grimacing slightly before she took off, making a run for it across the tarmac.
She literally pushed me out of the way to make her escape.
That fucking bitch.
Okay, I was mildly impressed. It was a savage fucking move.
A gunshot rang out into the air. Autumn jumped back with a fright when the ground in front of her, where she was just about to take her next step, exploded into a cloud of rock. She lost her footing and landed flat on her ass. Men swarmed her not even a second later, pinning her down with harsh, violent hands.
The glint shining off in the distance from one of the buildings told me what I already suspected: Talon had sharp shooters placed all around the makeshift airport to stop anyone from escaping.
Not that they’d get very far anyway. We were surrounded on all sides by a vast, unforgiving ocean.
But Talon always had been a paranoid bastard.
After I was lifted onto my feet by the guards from the plane—none too carefully, I might add—they ushered me towards the big glass building next to the airstrip. As we neared Autumn, I finally put up some resistance. My guards tried to get me moving, but I refused to budge, glaring down at the red-haired woman who was very quickly becoming the bane of my existence.
“I’m glad I didn’t tell you Talon would most likely keep snipers upon entry. I just wish their aim was better,” I hissed before marching away, not looking back.
After being ushered from the airstrip with an unfortunately very alive Autumn (I’d hoped that, after her failed escape attempt, they would kill her right there and then, but nothing ever worked out my way), we were led through a town on the island.
The more we walked, the more evident it became that the place was so much more than it appeared to be. So much more grand in its design.
It appeared to be entirely self-sufficient. Of course, the extremely limited information I’d managed to dig up since finding out about its existence had suggested as such.
Even so, it was one thing to hypothesize and a whole other thing to actually see it with your own eyes.
With everything you need within walking distance, there’d never be any reason to leave.
It certainly explained how Talon had managed to completely disappear for all of those years. The egotistical bastard had even gone the extra mile and named all the businesses after himself.
Scardo Grocery. Scardo Auto Repair. Scardo Mall. Scardo twenty-four-hour Diner. Scardo, Scardo, fucking Scardo.
It honestly wouldn’t have surprised me if he had a twenty-foot bronze statue of himself right in the middle of town.
What did surprise me was the colosseum. It looked like it had been ripped right out of the page of a history textbook.
It was…magnificent. Truly magnificent. I had no problem admitting that…to myself. Outwardly, though? I didn’t even spare it a second fucking glance.
I knew somewhere, somehow, Talon was watching. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.
So, despite how impressive everything I’d seen from the moment I stepped foot on the island was, I refused to show it, keeping a bored expression plastered on my face.
Autumn, who had walked silently beside me the whole time, did the same. She looked uninterested in what was going on, but the eyes gave her away.
She had that penetrating gaze of a huntress: calculated, assessing, dark. Knowing what I did about this place, about what was going to happen, curiosity peaked.
How long would she last? Not to the end, that I was sure of.
There could only be one winner, and I had every intention of making it me.
If I got to be the one to kill her myself, though, well… That might make the whole ordeal completely and utterly worth it.
