Page 84 of Savage Little Lies

I finish getting ready in a hurry, my heart slamming against my ribs. Curious about this overnight attack, I step out of his bedroom and head down the hallway, stopping in the entranceway as a few of Dmitri’s men pour into his penthouse with alarmed looks on their faces. I swallow hard at the sight of blood streaking Isaak’s face from a cut above his eyebrow.

“Some of our guys were preparing a shipment at the westside warehouse,” Mark reports to him. “Isaak was with them.”

Isaak grimaces as he holds his left side. “Things were going fine. Gabe and I were watching the men load up the trucks to head out this morning for delivery. We were all outside when we heard the gunshots.”

My stomach twists as I glance at Dmitri, seeing the mixture of concern and anger on his face. This can’t be good, but who would attack like that?

The Suyunovs?

“Two armored vans pulled up on the road behind the warehouse. They shot out of them at us. At least six men,” Isaak explains. “We were so caught off guard that all we could do was run for cover. Before we could get our shit together, they took off.”

Dmitri shakes his head in disbelief. “How the hell did anyone know that shipment was going out this morning? We’ve had this planned and under wraps for weeks now!”

“There’s something else,” Emil speaks up with a frown on his face.

Dmitri glances between the three of them, his shoulders tensing. “What? What is it?”

“It’s Gabe,” Mark says in a quiet voice. “He was hit in the chest.”

My stomach drops, shock radiating through me. No way. There’s no possible way.

“I tried to help him,” Isaak says as he lowers his eyes. “But there was too much blood. I couldn’t stop it in time.”

“We lost Gabe?” Dmitri says, voice flat, disbelieving.

Isaak nods with a heavy exhale of defeat.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” His voice cracks on the last word. Turning around, he sends a nearby table lamp to the ground where it shatters into pieces.

I flinch at the sudden move, my fight-or-flight reflexes sharpening as I watch him closely.

“Who the fuck did this?” Dmitri snaps as he paces around his living room, looking like he’s ready to kill them with his bare hands. “The same people who fired on us at the gala?”

“I suspected the Suyunovs at first,” Mark admits. “But Isaak is certain that he knows who it was.”

Dmitri stops pacing and turns to face Isaak. “Who?”

Isaak raises his eyes and nods. “I heard the shooters shouting at us. Saying this is the beginning of the end for the Ivanovs. That we’ll all be dead by the time they’re done with us. I recognized their accents. It was the Irish.”

My blood runs ice cold. My father did this.

“Fucking Sean O’Malley and his crew of degenerates,” Dmitri says with a disgusted scowl as he steps over the ceramic shards on the floor. “That doesn’t surprise me. They’ve been suspiciously quiet lately.”

I stay as still as a statue as Dmitri rages on, my anxiety spiking whenever one of his men glances in my direction. If he ever manages to connect me with my father, I’m as good as dead. I can hear the hatred he has for him in his voice. And I can’t even blame him.

My father has done awful things, and it looks like killing one of Dmitri’s men, one who protected me, who I was fond of, is one of them.

This attack was so pointless! The alliance was over…

“Fuck!” Dmitri bites out as he rakes his fingers through his hair. “Gabe was a good man. For him to die like this…to the goddamn Irish of all people…it’s fucking bullshit!”

“What do you want us to do, sir?” Isaak asks him.

Dmitri shakes his head. “Call a meeting. I’ll need to talk to the rest of the family. We can’t let this go unpunished, but we’re already dealing with enough heat from the Suyunovs. We’ll need to be prepared for another attack.”

Nervousness churns in my stomach as I realize just how tense and dire things are right now for Dmitri. He’s surrounded by enemies on all sides.

I can only imagine what that’ll do to a person over time.