by Tabatha Kiss
My voice echoes down the hall but no one answers me.
“Rosalie?” I call.
Still nothing.
I make my way towards Gio’s study, taking deep, slow breaths that don’t quite satisfy my lungs.
Gio’s face fills my vision and I gasp through my clenched throat.
“Oh, god… I’m sorry…” I say, forcing a laugh as my heart settles again in my chest.
“Did I scare you?” he asks, smiling softly. “My apologies.”
“It’s all right.”
“Is something wrong?”
“No, I…” I glance down the hall in both directions. “This house is awfully quiet...”
“I gave the staff the day off.”
I blink. “Oh. I suppose that would explain it, then…”
He stares at me without blinking, studying my face harder than he ever has before and that little smile of his never wavers.
I take a step back. “Is there a special occasion?”
“You could say that.”
I wait for him to explain more but he says nothing. The silence rings even louder in my ears; louder than the fiercest of alarms and I tremble inside. “Do you know where Lucian is?” I ask.
“He’s fine.”
Never in my life have I ever described Gio as taciturn. His vague, punchy answers do little to calm my nerves. Even his posture terrifies me; thick and erect like a damn wall but structurally unsound. I feel as if I could pull out just one brick and the entire thing would crumble to the floor.
“May I see him?”
“No.”
A surge of motherly instinct fills my gut. “Where is he?”
Gio takes a quick step backward into the study and I flinch. “Come in,” he says.
I don’t move. “Where is my son?”
“Sofia, come inside.”
A lump swells in my throat. “Where is my son?” I ask again.
His eyes twitch with impatience. “Do not make me tell you again.”
I shiver in my skin but I do as he says.
The lights are down low and the fireplace is lit as I step inside. For a moment, I think Gio has planned a bit of half-assed romanticism but then I spot my sister sitting on an armchair near his desk.
“Rosalie?”
Another flinch travels my spine as the door latches closed behind me. I stare at her tear-stained face and my entire body grows cold.
“I’m sorry, Sofia,” she whispers.
“Oh, I don’t want to hear another apology off your lips, Rosalie,” Gio says. He passes around me and lays a comforting hand on her trembling shoulder. “Not another word…”
I shake my head, refusing to let the worst case scenario take me over. There must be another reason for all of this, something other than the obvious alternative. Rosalie would never betray me. It’s not possible...
“What’s going on?” I ask, clearing the void from my throat.
Gio looks over at me, his lips once again curling as he slides his hand off of her shoulder and back into his pocket. “This morning, I noticed that Rosalie was acting… strange. Not her typical, jubilant self. I thought that maybe one of our guests did something to upset her. So, I waited until after they left before confronting her about it and when I did…” He pauses and tilts his head. “Her answer was quite unexpected.”
She looks up at me. Her bright eyes sit obscured behind long lashes but I still read them clearly.
Gio knows. He knows everything.
“Rosalie,” he says, staring at me, “would you like to tell Sofia what you told me?”
She stays silent, barely able to hold herself together let alone speak.
He turns and looks down at her. “Rosalie.”
“Leave her alone,” I say, the words spilling out before I can stop them.
“What did you just say?” His voice grates across his vocal cords, giving it a hard, impatient edge.
“I said, leave her alone.”
Gio smirks, genuinely surprised that I had the nerve to repeat it. “Okay, then,” he says. “I’ll tell you myself.” He steps closer, drifting towards me like a ghost. My instincts scream at me to bolt but my knees stay frozen. “She told me that she saw Luka Lutrova assaulting you in the laundry room. Is that true?”
I pause, blissfully feeling his Russian hands on me again but I force the sensation away. “He…”
“She thought to tell me immediately,” he continues, his face dropping, “but then… you told her not to. Now, why would you want to protect him like that?”
My voice falls, refusing to leave my throat, but I don’t know what I’d say even if I could. “It…”
“Say it. I want to hear it from you.”
I close my eyes as the darkness settles in.
“Sofia…” He leans in to whisper in my ear. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice that my son has his eyes?”
Chapter 14
Luka
Giovani Zappia ordered a hit on me.
I blink at Yuri, meeting his stunned face once more. “Are you sure?” I ask Fox.
He nods and flexes his bicep to coax a little more blood to fall to the warehouse floor. “Positive.”
I furrow my brow, feeling a cold headache forming deep within my brain. One minute Gio’s calling us family and passing booze around and the next he’s sending an assassin to kill me? It doesn’t make any fucking sense.
Unless…
“When were you sent here?” I ask.
“Giovani made contact yesterday afternoon,” Fox answers. “Shortly after, I was assigned to the job. I flew in this morning.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yeah.”
If Gio planned this in advance, he would have gotten in touch with Snake Eyes long before then. This was last minute; a sudden, gut reaction to something big.
“This job…” I choose my words carefully, “was it just me?”
Fox nods. “He wanted it to look like an outside job so no one would suspect the Zappias of being involved. They sent me with evidence that would lead to the Petrovin family; make it look like retaliation for you killing Hans.”
“But Luka didn’t kill Hans,” Yuri points out, still barely following what’s going on but I’m not too far behind him.
“No, one of our agents did,” Fox confirms. “A hit also ordered by Giovani Zappia.”
Yuri throws up his hands.
“So, Gio wants to start a war in Russia,” I say. “Why?”
“It’s not just Gio,” he says. “Snake Eyes and the Lutrova family have a long history of butting heads. It started with Viktor. He stood up to the organization and when he tried to push them out, they silenced him. That scared your father pretty good and there’s been peaceful co-existence ever since… until recently when you started digging a little too deep.”
Yuri fires an accusing look in my direction but I can’t tear my eyes away from Fox.
“You’re saying our father knows about all of this?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask him yourself,” he challenges.
I pause. I can try and deny it all day but the truth sinks in quickly. No wonder my father always ordered us to ignore them. Let the kobra do what it wants. He didn’t want answers because he already had them but he was too much of a coward to do anything about them.
“The conflict in Russia has been in motion for a while now,” Fox begins. “The truce was legitimate; Antony and your father really did bring peace between the families but Snake Eyes deals in war. Once Antony exported the family to America to run the Chicago branch and left Giovani in-charge of Italy, Snake Eyes approached him with a new status quo.”
“And he took it,” I seethe.
Fox nods. “Killing Hans Petrovin was just the beginning of a slow build. They knew you’d lean on the Zappias for help. Giovani would use his power to whittle your family’s influence down to nothing but he wanted to honor the truce. Worst case scenario — you�
��d all be working under him when the Italian mob took over Russia, but then… yesterday, he changed his mind and wanted you out of the picture entirely.”
Yuri shakes his head. “We grew up with Gio,” he argues. “He’s our friend. Why would he send an assassin to kill Luka?”
Fox glances at me, reading my expression before I can hide it. For a moment, I wonder just how powerful Snake Eyes really is. Mine and Sofia’s secret child might not be as secret as we thought.
I tilt my head. “I might have an idea…”
“Like what?” Yuri asks.
I bite my inner cheek, hesitating to say it but I don’t have much choice here. “I’m the father of his son.”
“What?”
Fox smirks. “That would do it.”
Yuri steps closer to me, growing a several centimeters taller in anger. “What did you say?”
I look up at him and nod. “Lucian.” I say my son’s name and my heart lurches. “He is mine.”
He blinks at me with great confusion. “How is that possible?”
“It’s a long story, brother.”
“Tell it quickly.”
“Yuri…” I sigh. “Sofia came to me and asked for my help.”
“Why?”
“She wanted to destroy the Zappia family from the inside,” I explain. “Humiliating Gio was the only way she knew how.”
“When?”
“The night before the wedding.”
He scoffs. “Why didn’t you say no?”
I cast a sideways glance. “You wouldn’t have said no either, Yuri.”
Fox shifts on his toes but I catch his amused eyes before he turns away to gather his gun case from behind a shelf.
Yuri shakes his head. “You’re a damned idiot, Luka,” he says. “Did you even think of the consequences?”
“Of course, I did.”
“Bullshit,” he sneers. “If you had, you never would have done it.”
“I couldn’t ignore her.”
“Why not?”
I pause, overwhelmed by how difficult that question is to answer. “What’s done is done, Yuri.”
Anger trembles his face as he backs away from me. I don’t blame him at all. I’d probably have the same reaction if I were in his shoes. He stomps towards his gun and Fox watches him closely as he picks it up off the concrete floor.
“It’s safe to assume that’s why Giovani wants you dead,” Fox says, relaxing his tension as Yuri hides his pistol away in his belt.
I nod as a sudden fear twists my gut.
If Gio knows, then that means—
Sofia.
He won’t let something like this slide. Sofia sought to destroy him — or tear him to shreds, as she so eloquently put it that night. He was willing to kill me over what we did. There’s no doubt in my mind that he won’t do the same to her. Or worse.
I reach into my pocket for my handkerchief and I toss it at Fox. “Come on,” I say, taking fast steps towards the car. “We have to go.”
Yuri stands still. “Where are we going?”
“Back to the Zappia estate.”
“Wait…” Fox says, shaking his head as he wraps the handkerchief around his bleeding bicep. “You can’t go back there. If he sees you, he’ll know I failed and that will get back to my squad. They’ll come looking before we even get out of Italy.”
“I’m not leaving them behind.”
“Luka…” Yuri says. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
Fox follows me towards the car. “You don’t understand. The faster we leave, the better off we’ll all be.”
“Except Sofia,” I point out.
“Even if you could get inside, you’ll never make it out again,” he says. “The Zappia estate is notoriously guarded and you can’t take out that many of them by yourself.”
I smirk. “Then, you’ll help me.”
He hesitates. “No.”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t part of the deal. I agreed to give you the list, not take part in murder and kidnapping.”
I spin around to stare him down. “I agreed to send you home. Until then, you will be useful.”
“By killing dozens of mafia guards?”
“That’s what you do, isn’t it?”
“Not anymore.”
“What do you want?” I ask. “You want money? I’ll pay you; ten thousand American for every kill. Easy money for a guy like you, yes?”
“I’m escaping Snake Eyes because I never wanted to be a killer,” he says, furrowing his brow. “This isn’t about money.”
“No, you’re right,” I say. “It’s about family and I’m not leaving mine behind to be slaughtered in their sleep by a fucking rat like Giovani Zappia. You want to go home? This is how you get there.”
He inhales a deep breath, letting go of all the tension in his face. “Fine,” he says.
I watch Yuri as he passes around us with his head down. “Yuri—”
“I won’t take part in this,” he bites, keeping his eyes low. “You do what you want. Leave me out of it.”
I follow him to the car. “Brother—”
“Don’t call me that,” he says. “No, you don’t get to be my brother right now, Luka.”
He yanks the car door open but I slam it closed. “You’d take Gio’s side over mine? After everything he was planning to do to us?”
“You got in bed with the Zappias first.”
“And I’d do it again,” I growl. “It might not look like it, Yuri… but I did the right thing.”
“For who?” he asks. “The way I see it, what you did helps nobody but yourself. You betrayed their trust, you betrayed our family, and, in the end, every drop of blood shed over this will be on your hands. Did you even consider that?”
“Yes.”
“Then, why do it?”
“You saw how he treated her — how they’ve always treated her.”
“So, what? That wasn’t your problem.”
“I made it my problem.”
“You certainly did.” He scoffs as he pulls the door open again. “And here I thought you were the smarter brother.”
I let him lower himself into the car and he jerks the door closed behind him.
There was only one way this could end. Gio may have been content with whittling the Lutrova influence down in the beginning, but now…
Sofia said she wanted to start a war and that’s exactly what this is.
Still, I meant what I said. I’d do it all over again if it meant looking into that boy’s silver eyes one last time.
I look over my shoulder at Fox. He stands there, calm and silent, with a blank expression on his face.
“You have something to say?” I ask.
He shakes his head once.
Fox Fitzpatrick. He’ll prove his usefulness but that’s as far as I’ll let this go. I don’t know what to think of Snake Eyes nor do I know where to even start with dealing with them. The only thing I know is that I have to keep this problem contained and he already knows more than anyone ever should.
Viktor Lutrova was right.
Never let a snake loose in Moscow.
I open the driver’s side door. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 15
Sofia
My heart stops as Gio’s red breath grazes my ear. “That’s not—”
He raises his palm and holds it near my face to frighten me. “I don’t want to hear another lie from you, Sofia. The next words out of your mouth will be the truth.”
My eyes fall to Rosalie once more. She sobs quietly in the chair across the study, pained and tortured into total silence.
Gio grabs my chin and forces me to look at him instead. “Say it,” he growls.
Tears fall down my cheeks, spilling onto his fingertips and he squeezes me tighter. “Yes,” I whimper.
“Yes, what?”
“Lucian…” I choke. “He is his...”
Gio releases me and wipes his tear-stained hand on my s
leeve before stepping back. “Luka and Lucian…” he slurs. “Did you think you were being clever?”
I shake my head.
“Why would you do this?” he asks, his voice cold as ice. “Did you want to hurt me? My family gave you everything. We brought you in, we gave you a home, we gave you—”
“I never asked for—”
He lashes out, slapping my bruised cheek to silence me and Rosalie cries out in horror as I fall down to my knees. As cruel as Gio can be, he’s never showed his worst side in front of her. I’d hoped she’d never have to see it.
Gio turns away from me and kneels down in front of her.
“Rosalie…” He reaches out and she flinches as he wipes the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. “I want to thank you once again for informing me of what you saw.”
She nods, gazing down at him with respect.
“You’ve been…” he offers a kind smile, “a worthy member of the Zappia family.”
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“But we have rules,” he says. “You know them well. Don’t you, Rosalie?”
She tilts her head and an even greater fear enters her eyes.
He stands and lingers over her shoulder as his hand enters his pocket.
“Gio…” I whisper.
His fist slides out and my blood runs cold. He palms a short, glistening blade and points it in my direction.
“We have rules,” he repeats. “This is what happens when you break the rules.”
He lowers the blade to Rosalie’s neck.
I jut forward, extending my arms to her but I’m not close enough to stop it. “No!”
The blade slides along her throat, opening a deep, crimson wound from ear-to-ear. She slumps forward and I catch her in my arms as she tumbles from the chair, wheezing and gasping for air.
“No! No!” I cry. “Rosalie…!”
I lay my fingers over her neck, pressing hard to stop the blood from pouring out but it pools through my fingers; an unstoppable deluge of red.
Rosalie claws at my sleeves, trying to hold on but more of her strength disappears with each passing second.
“Rosalie, I’m so sorry…”
She quakes in my arms, letting out one final cry before her eyes close.
I lay my head against hers as her hands fall, limp and lifeless, to her sides. My tears mix with the blood on my hands and I cradle her closer to me, refusing to let her go.