AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A.J. shakes her head. “Nope. I’m sure of it. Dmitri Ivashkov. Early twenties, super hot in a himbo kind of way. His mother was one Elena Ivashkov. The stronzo unfailingly sent them money every month for over eighteen years. I have tons of other stuff, too. Trust me, it’s him. I can back it up. Here, take a look.”
A.J. hands me her cell phone, and, to my horror, I verify she is right. She opens file after file, photo after photo, and the documentation is undeniable. Dmitri is the son of Giuseppe Salvatore, the Italian family’s hateful boss.
After handing the phone back to A.J., I stare blankly ahead, unseeing. I can’t believe this, and yet…
I pick up my phone and call Dmitri, the man I love like a brother. To my dismay, he doesn’t answer. I call Vladmir then. Maybe there’s an explanation for this whole madness…
Vladmir picks up at the first ring. “Nikolai,” he says.
Not wasting time with pleasantries, I ask, “Is Dmitri with you?”
After a brief pause, Vladmir says, “No. I’ve been wondering where he is. He was supposed to meet me an hour ago, but he hasn’t shown up and isn’t picking up his phone. No one’s seen or heard from him since early this morning.”
No, Dmitri. Not you. Anybody but you.
“Okay. If you see or hear from him, call me immediately. In the meantime, I need you to stop whatever you’re doing and find him for me. Text me his phone’s last known location as soon as possible.”
After Vladmir acknowledges my orders, I hang up.
I turn to A.J. “Is there somewhere safe you could go to?” I ask. “If not, I’ll drop you off at my home. You can wait there until I bring Kat back. You’ll be completely safe.”
She scowls. “What are you talking about? What’s going on here? If you know Kat’s whereabouts, you must tell me right now. And you’re not dropping me off anywhere. Not a chance. If you’re going to search for her, then I’m coming with you.”
The last thing I need right now is someone else to worry about, but I don’t have time to argue with her. So, with a sigh, I relent. I shut my eyes for a moment, steeling myself for what will follow next.
I finally understand it now. It all makes sense. At last.
Once again, Kat was right. As always.
McGuire never had anything to do with Maxim’s untimely demise. He didn’t kill my best friend.
Dmitri did.
20
KAT
I can’t deny it any longer. It’s obvious now—I must’ve been a naughty girl in one of my past lives. There’s just no other explanation.
People often say that when it rains, it pours. In my case, I think it’s more of a deluge situation.
At first, I had to deal with the stronzo, Giuseppe Salvatore, the head of the Italian mafia. That, of course, led to Nikolai Stefanovich, the pakhan of the bratva, deciding he had beef with me. Because of Nik, I found myself on Patrick McGuire’s bad side. Then Dmitri Ivashkov, Nik’s right-hand man and the stronzo’s secret love child, demanded that we go for a ride. And by ride, I mean suicide mission.
Dmitri sighs beside me. “I wish it hadn’t come to this, Kat,” he says under his breath. His hands clutch the steering wheel tightly. I don’t know whether it is to keep them from shaking or from doing something even worse. “I did my best to avoid it. For what it’s worth.”
“Nothing. It’s worth nothing, Dmitri,” I say.
Dmitri wipes the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. “I don’t blame you for feeling like that. I hope you can understand I don’t have any other choice.”
I sigh, staring out the car’s window. “Trust me, Dmitri, there’s always a choice.”
We are leaving the city. Dmitri hasn’t bothered blindfolding me, which tells me all I need to know about his intentions. He doesn’t need to hide where we are going because I’m never returning.
“I wish that were true, Kat,” he says, his voice breaking. “I’d think that you’d know better than most that sometimes we must do unspeakable things to protect those we love. Once you learned who I am, who my father is, I had no choice but to take you.”
“I cared about you and thought you cared about me. I thought we were friends.”
“We were, and I still care about you, Kat. There’s just someone I care about more, that’s all. You know as well as I do that now that my secret is out there, it’s only a matter of time before I’m put down either by Nik or my father. I’m too much of a liability to both of them. I don’t have much time left, and I’ll be damned if I go down before setting her free.”
