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Rolan whips around, turning the gun on his own son. “Your sister lies dead before you and you just stand there. What kind of man are you? Fucking useless!”
“Rolan.” I barely raise my voice and yet it carries in a way that Rolan’s didn’t even when he was screaming. “Put the gun away before you hurt yourself.”
“I want answers!” he protests.
“My men spent hours questioning him. He won’t break.”
“Then why is he still alive?”
“I thought you should have the honor of killing him.”
Rolan doesn’t hesitate. He spins around and pulls the trigger before the Italian can even flinch.
The man’s body has barely hit the floor before Rolan has rounded on me again. “It will take more than the killing of some low-level grunt to appease me.”
“This is just the beginning,” I promise him. “The Italians will pay for this attack.”
Rolan glares at me. There are two choices in front of him. I watch as rage twists his face… and he makes the wrong one.
“Why should I trust you? You never wanted to marry Natascha,” he snarls. “Why would you care about avenging a woman you hated?”
Behind him, Feliks closes his eyes. He knows what’s coming, even if his father is too revenge-drunk to realize it.
“Your daughter was a nightmare that I didn’t wish to subject myself to. But I agreed because the benefits of an alliance with you outweighed the drawbacks of a marriage to her,” I explain icily. “But despite that, Natascha was my wife, and she was targeted for that reason alone. An attack on her is an attack on me, and I won’t stand for it. I will always protect the people who are loyal to me.”
It’s a code I chose to live and die by during my five years in prison. From the moment I set foot in there, I was a target. Men thought they’d make a name for themselves by cutting me down.
Few got far.
But no matter how tight the walls I built around myself were, a storm that batters long enough will find a way through.
I was showering when they came for me. Naked, alone, defenseless. The noose was around my neck and the shiv pressed to my jugular before I could even turn to see who was wielding it. I would’ve died on that filthy linoleum had it not been for a stranger who decided to help.
Had it not be for Jasper intervening.
“Why did you do it?” I coughed to him afterwards, their bodies littering the floor around us, blood sluicing away down the drains, foamy with soap.
Jasper spat at them. “Four against one ain’t right. The only thing they proved is that they’re too weak to fight you like men. They came at you like dogs. So we slaughtered them like dogs.”
I expected him to make his own play at me now that we were alone, now that I was weak and in his debt. The shiv he took from my would-be murderers was still in his grasp. It would’ve been easy.
Instead, Jasper extended a hand. “Relax. I’d rather have you as an ally, brother.”
In the present, Rolan swallows. I blink away the prison memories and focus on him. “I’m a man of my word, Rolan Kiselev. If you remain loyal to me, I’ll remain loyal to you. On my honor.”
His chest heaves, but he takes a wary step back. “Then I’ll go.”
“I’ll have Natascha’s body moved to your home. I don’t intend to deny a grieving mother’s request to have her daughter’s body back.”
Rolan scowls, but Feliks speaks before his father can. “We appreciate that, Arsen.My mother will be grateful.”
The moment the door closes behind the two of them, Dominik turns to me. “We need to watch him now.”
“We always needed to watch him.”
“Yeah, and that was when he had skin in the game. The alliance stands, but he’s lost his bartering chip now that Natascha is dead. You know as well as Rolan does that if he becomes more trouble than he’s worth—which the old bastard definitely will—you’ll find a new partner in an instant.”
“Or a new wife.” Gedeon enters the room, leaning against the doorway. He sighs down at the dead Italian currently cooling in the center of the room. “There’s always another mess to clean up.”
