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“The fuck cares about you Ivanovs?” He flicks a hand. “I’d have left you if you hadn’t signed your own death sentence. You took my rightful place at the top. My cartel was the most powerful before you took over. You and your fucking rampage. I ruled everything before you came along. It took me years to build a solid foundation, and you stole it.” His eyes glitter, dark and mad. I don’t bother responding to what he’s saying. He’s not expecting me to. “I knew the only way was to find your weak spot. And I’d seen you had plenty of those – you think with your heart, Russian. And that thing you keep in your pants,” he sneers.
I know where he’s going with this, and the words bubble out before I can stop them.
“Aurora. You sold out your own child you fucking piece of shit.” I shouldn’t let him get to me, but somehow, his sheer lack of respect for her leaves a vile taste in my mouth.
“Who else?” His smile is pure evil. “Honestly, I didn’t think my daughter would do it, but here we are.” De Luca splays his hands. “I’d always known that girl would come in handy someday. Useless cunt. Not good for anything else. But when I saw you light up when I showed you that photo. Barely a woman yet and you were drooling. What should I expect from one of your kind? Fucking unworthy. Your organization needs a new leader, Ivanov.”
“Damn right, the Bratva belongs to me,” Ludis fires from behind me. I half turn to face him, the sense of betrayal overshadowing the hate I should feel.
“Ludis…” My voice is hoarse as I try to find words. I don’t need them. An explosion near me leaves my ears ringing as a neat hole appears in Ludis’s forehead and the back of his head bursts out in a shower of gore. The men behind him leap away, sprayed pink with the fine mist of his blood.
My cousin’s knees fold and then collapse as he drops to the floor and topples onto his side. Whatever he’d been about to say seems to be lost in a mouth that’s hanging open slackly. It all happens so fast, I doubt Ludis even knew what hit him.
“Well, that settles that,” De Luca sneers. “Fucking nuisance. His usefulness is over.” If I expected Ludis’s men to fight back, I was wrong. They don’t. The motherfuckers sold out to De Luca, too. Double-crossing the double-crosser. Well planned.
There’s a brutal justice to it that seems oddly elegant, somehow. I shouldn't admire De Luca’s handiwork, but in a way, it redeems me. The intricacy of this betrayal would have been almost impossible to pinpoint.
“So you and Aurora planned this together?” I continue to act like a fool and De Luca savors it. At least it will buy me some more time. But even as I speak, the pieces are fitting together. And part of me must have sensed it – probably half the reason I could never truly hurt her.
“Aurora? What part of ‘pawn’ don’t you understand, Ivanov?”
“So she’s innocent.” I say the words almost to myself. De Luca is laughing.
“Innocent? I wouldn’t say that. But she would have ruined everything if she’d known what we were doing. I had to find a way to manipulate her into getting involved. But that was easy. I knew how badly she wanted her mother, so I got her one.” De Luca grins.
Her mother?
Fuck!
Now that’s a surprise. I feel my heart break a little as I remember her expression. She’d believed it. Or maybe she simply wanted to. Either way, De Luca took her pain and twisted it…
Sick motherfucker.
He’s going to die for this.
“Camila, or should I say ‘Leila’ did a good job,” He continues. “Of course, it helped that she’s Mexican, because when that little nugget emerged, you latched onto it and immediately assumed your old enemy was back. I had you running in so many circles you didn’t know who to attack first.”
I rub a shaky hand over my eyes, using the gesture to mask the fact that I’ve got an eye on the door. It’s the most likely point of attack. I turn back to De Luca’s smirking face, resuming the conversation to buy more time.
Petrov, where the fuck are you?
“I didn’t suspect you because I knew how much she hated you,” I say, wondering if this would even bother him. It doesn’t.
“That’s why I needed the ‘mother.’ She gained Aurora’s trust, and it helped us get a recording app on her phone. We’ve heard every filthy detail of every conversation you sick fucks have had for the past few weeks.” His lip curls. “Frankly, there are some things a father would rather not know about his daughter.”
As if he ever thought of her as his daughter.
His contempt for Aurora makes me want to kill him. I’d happily rip out his throat with my bare hands if I could get to him. For a moment, I contemplate flinging myself at him. I know there is no way out, but I’ll be damned if I go down without a fight.
“You’re a coward, De Luca. You used an innocent woman to do your dirty work.” I keep my voice level. “What if I’d killed her?” It wouldn’t have been out of character, yet it never stopped him from throwing her to the wolves.
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” he says with a dismissive wave. “I never wanted a girl anyhow. My line was complete when her mother gave me a son. Then neither of those stupid women had any purpose anymore. Until I saw how you looked at her.” He shifts his feet, then jerks the muzzle of his weapon at me. “I’m tired of this chit-chat. Tell me where the MeshMare is.”
“Fuck you,” I respond coolly. De Luca laughs.
“I knew you’d say that. Pigheaded like all the rest of you. It doesn’t matter to me. One way or another, I’ll get my hands on it. Then I’ll have the drug distribution, my cartel will be back where it belongs, plus, as soon as I put a bullet in your brain, I’ll take over your Bratva bastards, too.”
The gun is aiming at my face as he starts advancing. I sense what he’s planning. He’ll get close enough to ensure he can’t miss, but not so close that I can disarm him.
