“What else?”
Aldo barked out a laugh. “This is rich. You don’t know, do you? For being so powerful, you don’t know shit that went down in our family!”
“We’re about to.” I glared. “Ivan continue…”
“Mil knew it was dangerous, and she didn’t want anyone finding out. She just wanted the money to funnel back into the De Langes, but it was too much money all at once…” His face was ashen like he was afraid of what we would do if he said more. “…so she reinstated three of the prostitution rings that her father had connections with and laundered the money with drug trafficking.”
The room went silent.
And I could feel the hate for every single De Lange in the bloodline build into a boiling point that even I knew I couldn’t control.
I needed to get Chase out of there before he did something like start blindly shooting.
As it was, his chest rose and fell, his eyes crazed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Tex grab his gun. Nixon did the same and pointed it directly at the back of Chase’s head.
“Ivan,” My voice was hoarse. “One more question before I give you that bullet you’ve easily earned.”
“Yes.” He hung his head.
“This Viktor… who did he report to?”
Ivan’s lips trembled. “Mil De Lange.”
Phoenix swore under his breath. I knew this was hard for him; it was hard for every single one of the men who’d trusted her. Chase, her ex-husband and Phoenix, her half-brother, the one who had pulled the trigger.
Warfare and blood seemed to consume that room. Past regrets, things left unsaid, situations we should have all dealt with differently.
I hung my head for a second as a few beats went by.
As the rage and hurt from the Italians twisted and fused into a furious bomb ready to go off.
“I’ll need your cell phone.” I walked over to him and pulled a cell from his pocket then tossed it to Sergio. “Does Viktor have control of the rest of the rings along with distribution of the girls?”
“Yes.”
“Does Viktor have protection?”
Another gulp. “Yes.”
“The De Langes?”
He looked to Aldo. “Yes.”
“You understand this means you are hereby charged with turning against your own family, your own Russian blood?”
“Yes.”
“And with that understanding, do you ask for forgiveness?”
“Yes, boss. Please forgive me for turning my back on Russia, on you, for forging an alliance with the De Langes.”
“Got his number and address.” Sergio held up the phone. “Aw, how cute he had find a friend turned on…”
A few of them chuckled. I imagined Phoenix and Chase were both standing still, hatred dripping form their stares.
I pulled out my gun and pressed it against Ivan’s chest. I fired one shot. “You’re forgiven.” Two more shots rang out, and then I pointed the gun up and shot him beneath the chin as blood rained down over his body and mine. “May you rot in Hell.”
I turned to Aldo. “Anything you feel like adding?”
He grinned over at Chase. “Yeah, I do.”
Shit.
“Your wife spread her legs for the Russians, she spread her legs for me!”
Chase didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. His eyes blazed with un-checked fury.
Aldo burst out laughing. “You think you were so special? You think you gave her what she needed? What she needed was power!” He was hysterical. He was a dead man. “She needed her family! Not a rich Abandonato with everything handed to him! You think you’re so untouchable and you don’t even know what’s been planted in your own family!”
I froze and glared at Aldo willing him to stop talking.
“That’s right, kill me and you’ll never know.” He smiled. “You’ll never know a damn thing.”
“He’s lying.” I bit out. “Desperate.”
“Says the man who’s been—”
I pulled out my gun and shot him between the eyes before he could expose her, expose us. “Sorry he was pissing me off.”
Chase narrowed his eyes at me. “Was he? Because I would have liked to do the honors, no I would have liked to rip his tongue from his throat and watch his eyes bulge out of his head while I drove my knife directly into his heart, but instead, you fucking shoot him?!”
“I made a call. My club. My rules. We’re done here.” I shoved my gun back into my pants. “Let me know what results you get, Sergio.”
I bypassed Nixon and Tex both of them oddly silent as they stared me down.
Shit, shit, shit.
Chase seemed relatively calm despite what I’d said, what I’d done.
So why was I panicking?
Phoenix gave me a funny look when I walked by Frank, and then Dante was standing just outside the door. “A word.”
“Kinda busy running a club and playing both sides, brother.” I tried to move past him, but he shoved his hand against my chest and slammed me into the wall.
Phoenix appeared behind him.
“I know who she is,” Dante said in a lethal tone. “And I also know what just went down in there. You tell him, soon, otherwise none of us can protect you from his wrath.”
“And who would protect him from mine?” I sneered. “You?”
Dante glared and shoved me away from him. “I mean it, Andrei, don’t play this game. Just tell him so it’s not a surprise later on, all right?”
“I’m not ready.”
“I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway,” Phoenix sauntered forward. “It never has.”
“What?” I snapped. “What doesn’t matter?”
Phoenix crossed his arms. “I made a call you may not like.”
“Phoenix.” I gritted my teeth. “What the hell did you do?”
“You’re a Sinacore, though I think deep down you knew that and were trying to deflect. Maybe you didn’t know just how important your role was or you just didn’t want any of us to ask questions. You joke about being half Italian because it’s true.”
Dante let out a string of curses.
“They’re coming,” Phoenix said slowly. “Here.”
“Why the hell would you invite that family here? They’re narcissistic Italian scum who think they’re fucking royalty!”
Phoenix stared me down. “Actually, they’ve been waiting for their prodigal son to return for close to twenty-two years now. Then again, they weren’t made aware that you had no clue until now. A man divided cannot know who he is, until he knows where he came from.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring with an Eagle holding a fish in its hands. “This ring belonged to your mother, for her to give to you on the day you took your place as boss for the Sinacore crime family, royalty as you put it.”
“I’m Russian. I’m a Petrov.”
“Your father was a Petrov. Your mother was the daughter of Heraldo Emmanuel, from the house of Savoy — the last living royal family of Italy.” He tossed the ring in the air.
I didn’t make any move to catch it.
It bounced on the ground, once, twice, and then Dante reached down and picked it up, resolutely placing it in the palm of my hand.
Phoenix’s next words were damning, as they drove a knife straight into my heart. “If you don’t love her, don’t put her through this war, Andrei. The Sinacore family does not mix bloodlines.”
“I’m mixed.” But even as I said it, I knew. I knew all about the Sinacore family, I’d saved Renee from a similar fate. I had killed in order to keep her hidden here.
I’d double crossed my own family.
I didn’t acknowledge it at the time. All I knew was that I didn’t care.
“Phoenix.” I leaned against the wall, clutching the ring in my palm. “How many are coming?”
“All of them.” The words were a blow to my soul. “And they will finish the job we started. The De Langes are exorcised — and the n
ew arm of the five families will rise up under their new leader. You.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Alice
I was starting to get nervous. Not that Ax wasn’t extremely distracting. He had two kids now, both of them under the age of four, one of them just started pre-school and managed to sneak out of the house in the morning and start his car.
Ax added more locks.
Same thing happened the next day.
Suffice it to say his family life sounded so normal it was almost strange. He held guns most of the day, helped torture people and then at night read Goodnight Moon to his two boys.
I stirred my straw around in my drink and yawned just as Andrei stomped toward me with so much aggression in his eyes I actually shrunk back a bit.
“Thanks, Ax.” His voice was off.
Something was wrong.
“Andrei?”
He pulled me against him, held me there so tight that it was hard to breathe, and then he leaned back just enough for his eyes to lock on mine. “I missed you.”
Why did it seem like he was saying goodbye?
Like he would miss me when I was standing right there?
“Ax.” Andrei’s piercing gaze didn’t leave mine. “No interruptions, especially the Italians, things can wait… just a while longer.”
I frowned. “What happened?”
“We got the information we needed, and I shot your brother between the eyes because he was about to attempt to say your name only after bringing Chase to the brink of mass homicide. So, I’d say it went well.” He pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Are you ready for our dinner date?”
I let the truth wash over me.
My brother was dead.
The monster had finally killed him.
And I was relieved. I was more than relived. I was grateful, thankful, and I refused to feel like a bad human being because my brother’s evil was no longer present on earth.
I sighed in relief and clung to Andrei.
He exhaled against my body and pulled away. “Dinner?” Again, he prompted, like he wanted to get out of there. He seemed fine on the outside, as normal as a man like Andrei could be, but his eyes were distant, his body language stiff, aggressive.
Afraid. He seemed afraid. Maybe that’s why I didn’t recognize it at first, because he’d never shown me that emotion before.
“Actually…” I held him close and kept him there. And in all the scenarios that had played on repeat in my head, I would have never guessed that this would be one of them I would take, the road I would take.
I was going to seduce Andrei Petrov.
I was going to take every last inch of him and breathe life into him.
I was going to give him the control he so desperately needed.
And I would give him everything.
Not because he asked me to.
But because I suddenly realized he needed me to, he needed it. His eyes were unfocused again as a few people walked by us, the Italians.
I nodded to them.
Phoenix gave Andrei a look that I couldn’t discern.
Dante stopped while the rest of them walked past and said their goodbyes, his eyes met mine and then Andrei’s.
Before I knew what was happening, Dante was leaning in and pressing a kiss to my cheek and whispering. “Make it count.”
I had no idea what it meant.
All I knew was that they knew something I didn’t.
And that Andrei’s death grip on me intensified to the point of pain.
“Let’s stay in.” I turned around abruptly. “Let’s order pizza or something?”
Andrei’s frozen face morphed into a frown. “I promised you a date.”
“A date just means we’re doing something together. Let’s do something together here… home.”
His blue eyes softened. “Home?”
“Our home.” I nodded, feeling the word in my soul as it continued to repeat in my head over and over again. Home. The monster had given me a home.
Tears filled my eyes.
He leaned over me and pressed a searing kiss against my mouth. “Even if I was killed tonight — I would never regret you, Alice.”
“See.” I leaned back. “Romantic.”
“Shhhh,” He winked. “Don’t ruin my sordid reputation, dorogaya.”
I reached up and patted his cheek. “Nothing but a teddy bear.”
He barked out a laugh. “Tell that to Ivan.”
“Ivan?” Did I even want to know?
Andrei wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we walked side by side out of the club and down the hall to the apartment. “Shot him twice in the chest, and under the chin just to make sure it was quick, lots of blood. Used to be a good man until he turned.”
“Why do men turn?” I asked, genuinely curious. “In this business I mean. Is it just for money? Power? I mean what’s the point when your life is on the line? Or when you suddenly gamble with your life and those you love just because you can’t help but want more?”
Andrei didn’t answer. He silently unlocked the door, his face a mask of indifference as he showed me in, closed and locked it behind me. “You really want to know?”
“Yeah.” I crossed my arms and shivered, despite the fur coat. “I do.”
“Contentment.”
It wasn’t the answer I was expecting.
“I surprised you.” He flashed me a half smile as he leaned back against the door. “You expected me to agree with you?”
“Maybe?”
His gorgeous smile grew. “You have a lot to learn Alice. A man with idle hands, a man without a purpose, is not a man at all. He is less than and he knows it, so he will do anything to fill that hole. The consequences no longer matter, because a man was built with purpose and when you lose your purpose, you lose everything.”
It was so deep, so wise that I didn’t have an intelligent response other than to lean toward him, wishing he’d say more.
Andrei held out his hands like he was getting ready to cup water. “In my world, a man was built to do two things.” He reached for my hand, and then he held his other hand out and turned it over. “To hold those he cares for closer than his own heart, and to work to the bone for their happiness, their contentment. A man who has lost this, has lost his purpose.” He dropped my hands and shrugged out of his leather jacket. “Elena belonged to Ivan first. They were married, in love, my father took one look at her and stole her, said it was just business. She became my stepmother, a young stepmother, and Ivan let him because he lacked the power to stop him. So, he did what any man would do when a wrong was done against him. He figured out a way to get back his contentment by taking what he could from my father and aligning himself with the De Langes.”
“And Elena?”
“She was never the same. Then again, neither was he.” Andrei hung his head and whispered something in Russian before turning to me. “Enough talk about death and purpose. I owe you a date. A nice date, without a blood-stained shirt,” He tugged at his tight black T-shirt.
I didn’t see the blood on his shirt, but I’d noticed it on his cheeks and on his neck. “It doesn’t bother you? Other people’s blood?”
He smirked like it was a cute question. “It means they’re no longer a threat.”
“Well I guess that’s one way to think about it.”
“I don’t waste energy thinking about the dead, they don’t matter. The living, however, do.” He took a step toward me. “Any more questions or can I shower?”
“I remember a time when you yelled at me for asking you questions,” I pointed out with an arched brow.
“I remember a time when I would have done anything for you to ask more. Wait, that was thirty seconds ago. I would talk to you until my voice was hoarse, but I can’t. Because as much as blood doesn’t bother me, I know it bothers you, it reminds you of things you shouldn’t have to see, so I’m going to shower and then we’re going to eat and then I’m going to kiss you and I’m not going to stop.”
He kissed the top of my head. “Good.”
And then he was sauntering away from me, his lean muscled body moving through the living room like a freaking panther.
I exhaled and shook my head. He was too much and not enough all at once, because when he was with me I wanted more, and when he left me, my heart threw itself into chaos, worry.
I looked down. If he was changing, should I too?
Frowning, I went to my room and flipped on the closet light. Everything was either too fancy or not nice enough. My hands grazed the pieces of clothes hanging, the tags that went along with them, and then I stopped when I got to the end of the room.
Hanging behind a few dresses were silk pieces of lingerie.
They were blood red.
One of them was a gorgeous red baby doll nightdress. It went to my mid-thigh and wasn’t see-through but definitely looked like it wasn’t for going out.
With a smile, I looked over my shoulder and then back at the silk. I touched it with my fingertips and imagined how it would feel against his skin, maybe instead of hurting he’d feel pleasure.
I was doing this.
I wasn’t the same woman who had walked in these doors.
He’d made me different.
And I wondered as I slowly stripped out of my dress, if I knew all along, if that’s why I smiled when I was held captive.
Because I knew I would fall in love with my jailor.
Madly.
Deeply.
Irrevocably.
In love.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Andrei
I pressed my forehead against the cool tile and squeezed my eyes closed as the searing water pelted my back.
I heard him then.
My father.
“You will never be pure enough. Good enough. Never.”
I didn’t listen to him then.
But it had affected me — so deeply, so traumatically that I figured that’s how others saw me, that I was less than. That I wasn’t deserving of human touch, and then it turned into this desire not to touch people, because when I touched someone they were warm.
It was a reminder they were real.
And it was a reminder that I was a monster. A killer.
Debase (Elite Bratva Brotherhood Book 1) Page 23