Maksimillian 'Max' Angeloff

A thick cloud of steam engulfs me as a fiery rain beats down on my back to bead over the hypertrophic scars that emblazon each of my shoulder blades.. The scalding needle-like jets of the shower soothe my aching muscles, but ignite a flood of discomfort as the water kisses those painful reminders of betrayal that marr my torn and weathered flesh..

Tipping my forehead against the cool marble tile and letting my eyes drift close, the reel of memories begin to spin before I am sucked into the reverie of a miserable regression.. Forcing myself to recall the genesis of my terminally idiotic vendetta and all it is I am still fighting for;

...eight years ago...

Turning up the collar of my thick leather jacket to stave off the brisk fall chill, I kill the purring engine of my sleek black Kawasaki Ninja, before I kick it into a stand.. As the headlights dim and darkness falls over the deserted street, something uneasy gnaws at my intestines.. I've walked through war zones with less eerie energy than this place, and the intuitive suspicion that oozes from the marrow of my bones tells me something about this isn't right..

Tugging off the suffocating carbon brain-bucket, I reach up to muss my ebony high and tight back into place.. Looking around the old apartment block of boarded up windows and graffitied brick walls, I see no signs of Sofiya anywhere, or anybody else for that matter.. The building has long stood abandoned judging by the overgrown weeds and unkempt exterior..

Why would Sofi come over to this side of town?

She knows how dangerous The Bratva are, and I can't for the life of me understand what would possess her to take the risks of venturing into the 818 district alone.. Not to mention the wrath she will most definitely earn from the MC, since everybody knows the Darkport Pakhan Nikolai Kalashnik and Outlaw President Sasha Angeloff have only the baddest of blood between them.. Their feud had only escalated when my brother Luka turned his back on the Outlaws and crossed the line to join the Russian Mafia, enlisted by a hellhound hitman known in sinister circles as The Red Reaper who had taken my brother beneath his wing.. Something that never would have happened if I hadn't abandoned my family to enlist in the corps..

Sure, I hate Konstantin Ivanov for inviting Luka into The Brotherhood.. But I hate myself more for leaving and allowing it to happen.. For making the selfish mistake of thinking I could escape first and come back for my siblings second, once I'd found my footing outside the criminal world..

The guilt of my choices eats at me each and every day.. Instead of making a better life for them, I had only driven them deeper into the seedy underbelly of Darkport's most notorious organised crime syndicates.

God, I was naive to think I would ever be free of Sasha's reach..

Something Sofiya had said to me, years ago, rings truer today than ever before;
The only way out, is down..

About six feet down to be exact..

On the phone my unfaithful ex-wife had sounded frightened, crying and apologising for her infidelity and calling her year long affair a mistake that she wished she could take back.. She swore she regretted it.. She told me that I had left her defenceless when I went away on that last tour of duty and that Ramsay had made a move on her.. She swore that she was afraid of what he would do to her if she said no or tried to end things with him..

Fuck, I wanted to believe her..

But deep down I know she'd have said anything to keep me on her hook.. Nothing that comes out of her mouth means anything to me anymore.. The trust I'd so stupidly held on to all those long months of deployment overseas had earned me the title of a cuck, and a fool..

When she called me earlier tonight, I considered not answering.. I wanted her to feel as abandoned and alone as she'd left me.. But for my wounded pride I picked up the receiver and allowed her to manipulate me one last time..

She had said if I ever truly loved her, I wouldn't leave her to die on some sorry downtown street.. She begged me to come pick her up, and said it was the last thing she'd ever ask of me..

And like the fucking idiot I am, I jumped on my bike..

"Sofiya?!" I shout her name into the vacant night.. "Zolotse! Gde Ty?!" (babe, where are you)
Greeted by a foreboding silence, my boots thud against the pavement as I push open the rusted old gate at the address she'd given me.. "Sofi?!"

Before I can set foot inside the boundary, the rumbling sound of engines revving vibrates down the street and I spin around just in time to see several suped-up bikes rolling towards me.. I recognise Sofi's neon-pink Honda and the pearlescent cherry-red shimmer of Ramsay's Ducati.. But the other bikes are modified beyond recognition, and without plates or patches..

These guys aren't Outlaws.. So who the hell are they?

"What the fuck.." I mutter to myself as the hoard hogs encircle my ride to make sure I don't make an escape, and it is then the sickening realisation dawns on me..

That bitch set me up..

Sofiya shakes out her silky blonde hair as she climbs from her bike to remove her visor.. Ignoring me as if I were an insignificant stranger, she struts around to join Ramsay at his left hand on the sidewalk.. He sneers at me through narrow black eyes, mocking and cold.. My friend is unrecognisable to me now, and no longer the scrawny kid I used to know.. Abusive steroid use has rotted his brain and swollen his muscles, along with his ego, leaving little more than the skeleton of the man I used to know.. "You never were that bright, were ya, Max?" Ramsay tuts at me, relishing in his hollow victory.. After all, getting rid of me won't make him any more of a somebody and nobody had given more of a shit about his survival than I had..

Neither of them know the floodgates I held back over the years and it is more than relieving to think I no longer have to make that sacrifice.. I don't have to take Sasha's shit to keep them safe too..

Finally, I can stop drinking the poison...

With Luka under the Red Reapers protection and my sister having skipped town to disappear into the urban wilds elsewhere.. There is finally nothing to keep me chained like a dog at my father's feet..

Well.. Almost nothing..

I can't take my eyes off Sofi, hanging from his arm like some kind of shiny trinket.. My blood boils with an envious hatred..

How could she do this to me?

"You got me there, Neeves.." I hold up my hands , taking a challenging step forward, refusing to let even a hint of fear show.. "I guess I never learn.." He smirks, satisfied by my answer.. Until I open my mouth again.. "But if you think The Bratva isn't gonna come for you next, you're even dumber than me.. You're a dead man, and you don't even know it.."

Once again, I am looking out for the guy, even if all he hears are insults..

My gaze narrows on slender fingers as Sofiya's grip clenches tighter around Neeves' arm and she leans in with an urgent whisper in his ear.. "What if he's right, baby-?"

"Shut the fuck up!" He spits.. Waving around at the extensively armed Russian heavies who have all climbed off their steel to oversee my slaughter.."

Surely this can't be sanctioned?!

Pakhan Nika would have to be insane to greenlight a hit on the son of his most influential adversary.. It's the kind of move only a madman would make.. One that would start an all out war between rival gangs..

"Look around! Look at what I've done! Me! The OLMC needed firepower to take over Bermuda, and I fucking secured it! Sasha will finally have to see me as more than a prospect! He'll have to admit that I will make a better sergeant-in-arms than you ever could!" Pointing an accusatory finger at me, Ramsay shakes with jealous rage..

Even after taking over my life, infiltrating my family and stealing my wife, he still doesn't understand what he is asking for.. Trying to impress my father will only ever lead to one place.. A shallow grave..

"Killing me won't make Sasha respect you.. Especially if you're too much of a pussy to fight me like a man!" Squaring my shoulders I try to bait him into a fight I know I can win, but he sees through the ploy, all too aware of his weaknesses..

"I'm not falling for that shit!" Ramsay chokes out a rough laugh.. "You know, you might have called me brother, but you never treated me like one.. Always pushing me out, trying to keep me down, keep me from getting what I deserve!"

"I was doing you a favour.." I shake my head.. "You arrogant ingrate fuck.. You think Sasha is ever going to trust you? You're wrong.. He's using you, just like he used me.." I'd done everything to protect them both, to shelter them from the disposable nature of gang life.. But all they see is green.. Money and envy.. "You can't trust him, Neeves, you know I'm right.."

Ramsay shifts on his feet, trying to ignore the truth in my warning.. I can see the thoughts calculating in his head as he considers the ramifications if I were to be telling the truth..

"Baby, you promised you were going to do it quick.." Sofiya whines, drawing my attention back to her pretty hazel eyes.. Eyes that look everywhere but at me.. "Don't let him talk you out of it-"

"Sofi?" I call to her..

She ignores me completely, continuing to plead with Ramsay to quicken my end, wrapping it all up in a syrupy sweet pur that I recognise so well..

The knife in my chest twists sharply and the pain becomes tenfold..

Was it all a lie?

Did she ever really love me?

Watching her now play the same manoeuvres on my former friend, I realise that she never did.. I was a stepping stone.. A rung in the ladder.. A bridge to somewhere she needed to go..

"Sofiya-" I bark, furiously wounded by her cold shoulder.. She could at least have the decency to watch me die since she is so adamant that is what I deserve.. "Fucking look at me!"

"I'm sorry, Max.." Finally she forces her gaze to meet mine, devoid of any regret or remorse.. "But you really can't blame this on me.." She tries to reason with me as if I would hear another word of her bullshit.. As if somehow I had orchestrated my own murder instead of her.. "When I needed you, you weren't there.."

"I was always there.." I remind her..

"You checked out on me, Maxxy.. I have dreams- I wanna go places.. But you didn't want to go with me!" She steadys her quivering bottom lip.. "That doesn't mean what we had wasn't special, it just wasn't made to last.. I know you think you loved me, but-"

I cough up a roll of bitter laughter.. "Loved you? I would have died for you, Sofi.. " Keeping the fires of my temper in check, I watch the tears well in her eyes and feel nothing but cold contempt for the woman I'd once loved so fiercely.. The girl I'd fallen in love with as a teenager is gone, a vicious and venomous black widow now in her place.. "But now, you're just some slut I wish I'd never met." I take another menacing step forward, dangerously close to her now.. "And unless you put a bullet in my head, I'm going to fucking kill you.."

She stumbles back behind Ramsay who puffs his chest with possessive anger.. "A bullet would be too kind for you, old friend.. No, no.. I've got something special planned for you, Max.." Ramsay motions to his new cronies and they move on his command.. "Get the rope!'

Rushing forward to surround me, I take several swings and manage to take down a couple of them, but pretty soon I am on the ground while swinging boots lay violently into my ribcage..

A wire rope is quickly lashed several times around my neck and pulled so tight I am forced to fight for each breath.. Digging my fingers up beneath the metal is about all I can do to keep myself from being strangled as five burly bruisers drag my bloodied and beaten chassis across the pavement to the curb..

"Hitch him up, boys!" I can clearly hear Ramsay shouts over the fray, followed by a chaos of whooping and cheers. Then I hear the rev of his engine and I know I'm done for.. The one final thought that passes through my quietened mind before the bike takes off and an endless conveyor belt of gravel begins ripping ribbons of flesh from my back, is relief..

Finally, this lifetime of suffering is over

★★★

A note from the author

Some serious revelations have come to light with this update, so tell me besties, what did you think of this glimpse into Max's haunted past?

I look forward to hearing from you all!

Much Love
Leela ❤️ x