PURPLE HEART - Soliders Of Fortune [BOOK TWO]

Chapter THIRTY TWO

Maksimillian 'Max' Angeloff

"After Ramsay dragged me- I lay there on the road, drowning in my own blood-looking up at the sky, this empty, black midnight just stretching on forever.. It made me realise how ff-fucking insignificant I am- just a tiny blip in an infinite ocean of nothing- and I remember thinking; finally. Finally I don't have to fight anymore.." Defenceless to her my long held secrets seem to spill out with ease.. Sunday captures me in an exchange of history that I'd rather not relive.. But for her to understand me, or have a hope of understanding any of the irrational and idiotic moves I'm about to make, she must first understand the trials that tested and shaped the hollow, shadow of a man I am today.. "I was ready to die.."

"I know that feeling-" Sunny whimpers as a silvery tear paints a shimmering trail down her flushed cheek and something angry, violent with passion thrashes in my chest..

I saw the way Navarro struck her with an unmetered backhand the night he brought her to me.. It was the kind of hit that would put the taste of blood in the hardest man's mouth, and he'd used that kind of force on a five'nothing porcelain doll.. A woman so meek and mild she'd never push back.. So downtrodden she'd never defend herself.. So defeated she'd given up trying to save herself..

If the guy beat her like that in public, without a care or thought, I loathe to imagine what he did to her behind closed doors.. My blood boils just thinking about it.. "Yeah, Little Bunny-" I sigh.. "I suspect you do.."

With a shy glance away, a swathe of bouncy brunette curls stream over her shoulder, partially obscuring her perfectly pink pout.. "So they just left you there?"

"Not exactly.." Contracting tight around my neck the memory of cruel wire and unforgiving gravel resurges with a vengeful warcry.. The smell of blood, metallic and briny swills in my subconscious, and the killshot crack of a grim gunshot resonates in the back of my mind.. The sensory nightmare battles me and I force it from my thoughts, as I lift a habitual hand to rub at the lacerated scars on my neck.. "Neeves thought he'd show off to the prospects, try and make himself look tough by letting me die slow- bleeding me out in the dirt- he wanted to make sure I really suffered.. But Sofiya- she couldn't watch.. I dunno why she did what she did.. Maybe it was hate? Maybe it was mercy? Maybe it was the guilt; But when she took that 22. to put me out of my misery-" I hold two fingers to my head in the gesture of a pistol.. "I was grateful.."

"Sofiya shot you- in the head?!" Sunday gasps, amber flames alight with shock and curiosity..

"Mm.." nod, reaching up to scratch at the side of my skull, the titanium plate that keeps my brain from oozing out harder than bone beneath my fingertips.. "Like an executioner.."

"Santa Maria!" Sunny wails softly, her plush peachy lips parting in horror and disbelief.. "How could you survive something like that?"

"Sofi always was a terrible mark-" I reason dryly with a vague shrug, because in truth I don't have an answer to her question at all.. I don't know why I didn't die that night, or how I came to wake up in a Southside hospital bed.. All I know is I'm going to use my second chance to fix my biggest mistake; Sasha Angeloff.. I should have choked the last breath out of him with my bare hands before he could do us any more harm.. But I didn't, and that eats at me every damn day.. "But, she didn't exactly miss.. The part of my brain that's supposed to make me, me- it's all fucked up now.. Sometimes I can't think straight; Luka and Vik make sure nobody at the casino sees it; but there have been days-"