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Those last three words feel like an ice bath. “Who did this?”
Gedeon’s jaw tightens. “The Italians made the call.”
“That can’t be right. Even Alessandro Calcagno isn’t that stupid. Enzo definitely isn’t.”
“Apparently, they are. I have damn good sources, and they’re all saying the same thing.”
Someone put a bounty on my wife’s head, and I had no idea. The same way I didn’t know I walked myself and Dom into a trap until Dom was bleeding on the floor.
My phone feels like a brick in my pocket. It was vibrating earlier—again and againand again—but it’s gone quiet now.
“Ten million fucking dollars,” I whisper in disbelief.
“The Skulldraggers were just trying to cash in, idiots that they are. And they were stupid enough or desperate enough— probably both—to think they could swap your head for Laila’s. The moment you told them who you were, they were ready to try it. Other people will be coming after her now.”
“No one is coming near my wife. Or my daughter.”
“No, we won’t let that happen,” Gedeon agrees. “We just have to be careful from now on.”
“Extra careful…” I murmur.
More careful than I was with Dom.
I should’ve been watching the door with him, one hand on my gun. We should’ve scouted the bar out and looked into the moronic motorcycle club. If I hadn’t been so eager to pay off Jasper’s debts, we might have found out about the bountybeforeI walked my best friend to his execution. If I’d ignored my phone the way I was trained to during a job, maybe Dom wouldn’t be in surgery right now.
I hear Alessandro’s voice in the back of my mind.That girl is going to get you killed.
Not me—not this time, at least—but the same can’t be said for Dom.
Alessandro thinks Laila is the problem, but I’m at the helm—of the Bratva, of my marriage, all of it. I can’t keep my men safe, and Laila’s connection to me alone is enough to have people on the hunt for her.
They all deserve better.
I shove to my feet, ignoring the pins and needles in my legs. “Call Valentin and Matvey. Have them bring Kira here. You’re right: she should be with Dominik.”
Gedeon scrambles up after me. “Okay, but?—”
“And make sure the two of them stay with Kira. I don’t want any more bloodshed on my watch. Protect her.”
“Of course,” he agrees. “But where are you going? You said you’d stay until?—”
“It’s out of our hands now.” I swallow as I make my way to the sink, finally rinsing the dark, dried blood from my skin. “Leaving now won’t change the outcome. But we can still make a difference elsewhere.”
“What’s the plan?”
Five minutes ago, I didn’t have one. But a plan is forming in my mind, solidifying as Dominik’s blood swirls down the drain.
“I have something important to do. And you’re coming with me.”
58
LAILA
I stop pacing when the door opens, ready to rant and yell and say everything I would’ve texted to Arsen if he’d bothered to answer his phone at any point in the last few hours.
But the second I see the blood congealed on his hands, all of my anger drains away. “Arsen!”
I rush over to him, but he holds himself back. His voice is low and cold. “I’m fine. It’s not my blood.”
