Twilight Sins (Kulikov Bratva Book 1)

The bar is a grimy heap of wood huddled in the shadow of a new construction apartment building. It looks like a trash pile the crew forgot to toss out, which makes sense. This is exactly the kind of place I’d expect someone like Benjamin “Benjy” Bauer to waste his time.

It wasn’t hard to find Luna’s ex-boyfriend. The morning after our date, I had my personal private investigator look him up. I could have asked Nikandr, but this isn’t exactly Bratva business. Besides, the last thing I need is Nik thinking there’s more to this thing between me and Luna than there is.

I don’t like worthless men who abuse women they shouldn’t have even been breathing the same air as. It’s as simple as that.

Music thumps out of the rattling windows, but the door hasn’t swung in or out in thirty minutes. I’m tempted to go inside and find Benjy myself, but I’d rather handle him in the parking lot. If by some miracle this bar has a security system, it won’t see shit in the gloom.

So I drum my fingers on my steering wheel and wait.

When I left Luna in the dining room and hopped in my car, I expected the energy simmering under my skin to fade. It was just a chemical reaction, anyway. A knee-jerk response to the way she held my hand and tried to comfort me.

I don’t think you’d ever hurt me. Would you?

She shouldn’t have to ask a question like that. I wanted to kill any and every man who even put that thought in her head.

Worse—for a second, I thought maybe I could be the kind of man who wouldn’t hurt her. When she slid close to me, her blue eyes searing and hopeful, I wondered what it would be like to be the kind of man Luna needs.

There’s no chance of that, though. The more I let Luna in, the more likely it is that she gets hurt.

I’ll never be that man for her. But I can be the one who makes sure the ghosts from her past never come back to haunt her.

The bar’s front door opens. Pale orange light slices across the gravel parking lot. Two people step out, swaying slightly. The couple kisses in the doorway, silhouetted against the bright interior.

When they pull apart, the woman cuts to the right, but not before the guy slaps her ass. Hard.

“Knock it off, Benjy.” She giggles and sashays away while he stares after her.

Benjy leans against the building and watches her rusted-out sedan pull out of the lot. A second later, I see the glowing tip of his cigarette.

I barely feel my feet on the ground as I climb out of my car and walk towards him.

“That your girlfriend?” I ask casually.

“Huh?” He flicks ashes on the ground and looks up at me. “Oh. Her? No. No, just some bitch I fuck around with.”

My molars grind together. “That’s right. Your girlfriend’s at home, isn’t she?”

I can only see one side of his face in the ambient light coming from the single blacked-out window into the bar. But it’s enough. He squints at me, his face creased in confusion.

He has no clue a P.I. was tailing him. Idiot. He deserves everything that’s coming toward him.

“Who the fuck are you?” Benjy asks.

“What’s important here is who you are,” I tell him. “Luckily, I have some answers to that question. I know that you’re the kind of man who has the entire goddamn world in his hand—everything a person could want—but you throw her away for some disease-riddled slut at a bar.”

“The fuck? Are you—Do you know Tiffany? Are you her brother or something? She told me her family lived out of state.” He drops his cigarette to his side and looks up and down the sidewalk like he expects there to be more people. As if I’d need help kicking his ass. “I’m not cheating on nobody. I don’t even know that bitch who just left. We were just talking.”

“I’m not talking about Tiffany,” I snarl.

“Then who?”

I don’t say her name. If I do—if I have to tell him who I’m talking about because he’s too fucking stupid to put two and two together—I’ll kill him. I won’t be able to stop myself.

So I wait, staring him down until he finally shrugs. “Is this about… Luna?”

The moment her name crosses his lips, I snap.

I step onto the sidewalk and crack my fist across his greasy face before he can even get his hands up. His head bounces off the wood siding with a satisfying thunk.

“What the fuck?” he screams. He ducks as I swing at him again. My knuckles graze the side of his face and snag on his ear.

There’s a ripping sound as what has to be a fake diamond pulls out of his ear. It clatters to the ground and blood pours down his neck from the ruined flesh.

I’m only distracted for a second, but it’s long enough for him to jam his cigarette against my bicep. It burns and I elbow his arm out of the way just as he lands the one and only punch I’m going to allow.

It’s a sloppy punch—off-balance and more of a glancing blow than a solid hit. But pain still radiates around my eye socket and my ear pops.

He laughs, proud of himself. Then I stand tall and his eyes go wide.

“Come on, man,” he pleads. “What is this about? We don’t have to⁠—”

“Yes, we fucking do.”

Luna said Benjy never hit her, but I don’t care even if that is true. I pummel him for every nasty word he may have ever said to her. I beat him into a pulp for making her doubt herself. I drive him into the cement for thinking, for even a second, that he was worthy of her.

When he coughs up blood, I pull back. I stand up and wide my bloody knuckles on my jeans.

Benjy just lies there, coughing and sputtering. His eyes are already swollen and his lip is split.

“You deserve worse for what you did to her,” I growl. “And if you ever go near Luna again, I’ll kill you.”

He whimpers, more blood dripping down his chin. “You’re fuckin’ crazy. I’ll call the police, man.”

“Good. Tell them it was Yakov Kulikov.”

Benjy’s eyes go wide. There goes any chance he’s going to call the police. The man is stupid, but he’s apparently not that stupid. Not dumb enough to start a war with the Kulikov Bratva. Let alone its leader.

“Are you with her or something?” Benjy asks in disbelief. “Luna? Is that why you did this? Did she ask you to?”

Luna would never ask for this. The thought wouldn’t even cross her mind. She’s a good person. Better than both of us.

I snatch him up by the front of his shirt, hauling his broken body off the ground. “Don’t even say her name again. I’ll kill you so fucking fast you won’t even see it coming.”

He closes his eyes and nods frantically. “Okay! Okay, I won’t. Please.”

I drop him to the ground like the trash he is and leave.

When I get back in the car, the rage is gone. But the way Luna looked leaning closer to me, her full lips parted, plays like a movie in my mind.

I was right to leave. I can’t afford to get attached. To her or anyone else.