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Her eyes widened like she hadn’t expected to hear him say that.
Lilja didn’t hang around after Mikhail left.
“I need to find Yakim,” she hurriedly told me before locking me up in my glamorous prison.
I inhaled a deep breath and looked around the luxurious room.Just be patient, I told myself as hope flared inside me.Yakim, Leon, and Mikhail would trust you again.
29
Yakim
My eyes stayed glued onto the five men before me. Concealed behind the folds of the curtains in a secretive room of Morelli Villa, I watched my prey breathe their last breaths.
Gabriel Morelli, the seventy-year-old patriarch of the family, was seated at the head of the table with his four sons surrounding him. Their faces stayed grim as they discussed the consequences of their failed attempt to kill me and my family.
“They say the present leader of the Volkov clan is a beast,” one of his sons whispered in an anxious tone. He seemed to be the youngest among his brothers and looked barely twenty. “They say people die just by staring at him too long.”
“That’s nonsense,” Morelli Sr. spat.
“Did any of our men survive?” the son retorted. “There were over a hundred men sent to destroy them. Not a single one returned to tell us what happened. We just have to assume they’re all dead.”
You’re right about that, I thought with satisfaction.
“The Volkov clan is legendary,” said Gabriel. “Even my father and grandfather were wary of them and made sure not to entangle themselves in their business.” A heavy sigh left him. “I made the mistake of getting too greedy at the promises that Baldwin kid.” He hung his head and covered his face.
It’s too late for regrets, old man, I wanted to tell him. The leader of the Volkov clan was here to avenge the attack on his family.
“We haven’t heard from them,” said a second son. He seemed to be in his thirties. “No calls. No messages. Absolutely fucking nothing! I have never faced a situation like this.”
“That’s their way,” said the old man. “They’re known to cut your throats in your sleep.”
“Shit,” the youngest son cursed. “We’ve got to do something. We can’t wait around for them to come slit our fucking throats!”
“Do you want to be our messenger of peace?” said a third son who looked to be the oldest among them. His face was twisted in a sarcastic scowl.
“Are you crazy?” the youngest man blurted. “I’m not going near them.”
“Get the whiskey,” said Gabriel. “There’s no use in speculating. It’ll be either us or our wives or our children that die at their hand. We might even lose a good proportion of our men. We’ll never know how they’ll pay us back in the end.”
“So, that’s your solution, Pa?” the youngest son scoffed. “We just drink to forget our troubles?” He failed to suppress the fear in his voice despite being loud-mouthed.
“It’ll be easier when the big bad wolf comes to snap our necks,” said one of the sons grimly.
My gaze shifted to the small bar in the corner of the room. Every liquor in those crystal decanters was already laced with a special venom.
The eldest son went to fetch the liquor and went back to the table with a bottle of bourbon. I waited as they poured themselves generous amounts of the drink.
Leon probably wanted to be the one to punish the Morelli family but he needed a break. He was already spending too much time making our traitorous soldiers pay for their treachery.
I had another reason for coming out tonight. It’d become too suffocating to stay confined in the manor lately. Since this mission wouldn’t require me to show my face, I decided to do it my way. Among us brothers, Leon was the bestshadowbut I wasn’t too far off the mark.
I watched as Gabriel and his four sons selfishly toasted to their own health and prosperity. They sipped their drinks eagerly, not detecting a hint of the special poison I’d mixed into the liquor.
It took about five minutes for the poison’s effect to show on my prey.
Gabriel and his sons clutched their throats, coughing hard and rough, struggling to draw breath against their parched throats. It took them a minute to realize they were all wheezing and coughing the same way.
Their struggles increased. Their fingers clawed at their throats as they fought to breathe.
