Page 31
“What’s in the box, cousin?” Kieran asks, his accent thicker than I remember. It suggests more time spent in Ireland. Much more than I’ve probably spent in Russia.
“Present for you, cousin.” I borrow his tone.
I signal for the others to stop and I walk the rest of the way to Kieran. I place the box on the table, in the space directly in front of him. Better if it’s close, so that he sees what’s inside first.
Kieran glances at Lachlan, who nods, then Kieran opens the box.
His expression when his gaze falls on my present is as I expected. Cold and unreadable.
Like me, he’s not the kind of guy you can read easily, or he wouldn’t be the leader of one of the most notorious Irish mafia families on this side of the world.
His jaw clenches and he reaches into the box, lifting the head of his former lieutenant out of it by the hair.
We’re met with the grotesque dead face of Cillian Macallan, stuck in a scream no one will ever hear.
Kieran looks from the head in his hand to me and narrows his eyes. “Lev Karsavin, what the fuck is this?”
“An offering. Done by yours truly.” I flash him a proud smile. Severed heads are one of my specialties. He shouldn’t have asked. “Told you I’d show you the evidence and point out your traitors one by one.”
His eyes widen slightly and he breathes out slowly. “I’ve known Cillian since I was a boy.”
“You and I both know everyone has a price.”
“Cough up the evidence.” He drops the head back in the box and crooks a finger at me.
I nod at Cassian. He steps forward and hands Kieran a file.
Kieran opens it, and his skin pales at the first page, then an angry red fills his face. That would be from the email correspondence he’s reading.
He continues looking through the file, the rage on his face growing with every page he turns.
The file contains a fuck of a lot, but it’s not everything. That’s just the beginning of what we know.
Kieran pushes aside the box when he reaches the last page, then his eyes meet mine and I see the beast within waiting to be unleashed. “This is some serious shit on Cillian. Who else needs to die?”
“A few more.”
His gaze hardens. He knows I’m playing games with him, still spoon-feeding. “Are they in this room with us?”
I chuckle. “One of them is.”
“Who?”
I lift my gaze to Davide, his second-in-command. The very man he tasked with investigating the recent theft of his concessions. Millions of dollars and opportunity were lost because of him.
This whole time, I’ve noticed Davide looking blatantly nervous. He tried to hide it but lost his cool the moment he realized the head in the box belonged to his former accomplice.
Kieran follows my gaze, casting Davide a scathing stare. “You?”
“I... I can explain.”
What a fool. He would have been better off trying to deny it.
Before Davide can get his next words out, Kieran pulls his gun and shoots him in the head. Davide flops to the ground, blood spraying from the wound. He didn’t even scream. Probably didn’t even know he was dead until it was over. What a thing to miss.
“Clean that up before he messes up the carpet,” Kieran orders his remaining guards.
They jump into action, scooping up Davide’s body. They carry him away, hurrying through the door.
