The room froze completely. All eyes were on Artem. Jaws dropped, steps were taken, murmurs racked the air.
"Your boyfriend took down the Department of Defense?"
"Why are we trusting him so much?"
"This is ridiculous!"
Artem did his best to block them out and focus on what the masked man was saying.
"This is the part where a normal criminal would be begging for something. Money, materials, some kind of vengeance...But not us. We are not the ones who fit your bill of normal."
"Then what are you?" Everett grumbled. "What the hell do you want?"
"We will not ask you for anything, as we are perfectly capable of taking it ourselves." The masked man explained. Artem felt a tumultuous anger rumbling to life in his chest, jumping and bubbling up to his brain. He clenched his fists.
"Just let me have my boyfriend back!" He yelled, not actually sure if the masked man could even hear him.
In the chair next to the masked man, Ravil woke up. "A-Artem?"
The masked man whispered something into Ravil's ear, and Ravil went stone-blank, almost.
Artem's cornflower blue eyes widened.
"Show them what you can do, Galkin." said the masked man, his voice tinged with an air of superiority.
The camera angle switched. There was another man, standing on the opposite end of the room.
Artem watched in nothing other than absolute horror as Ravil leapt up from the chair and went after the man, battering and bloodying him. Artem didn't know what disturbed him more- the fact that the man wasn't resisting at all, or the fact that Ravil seemed to be killing someone on live video.
Everett shook himself out of a stunned stupor and cursed. "Turn this crap off! His boyfriend is in here!"
By the time someone had managed to shut off the video feed, Artem was sobbing, teeth gritted in anger, tears streaming down his face in rivulets.
"Chert ikh!" He screamed in Russian. "Chert Rossiyu v ad!"
YOU ARE READING
Otkroveniye Complex // Book 1 of the Takaryev Series
Mystery / ThrillerRavil Galkin doesn't have much of a past, but as far as he's concerned, he's a completely normal person. Sure, he's a college drop out and basically a shut-in, but that's alright with him. But there's a whole different depth to the situation. An oc...
