Chapter Twelve
“Death has a way of numbing us all, but in death there is always resurrection, and sometimes that resurrection is the last thing you need.” —King Campisi
Bella
I was grumpy when I got up. The house was quiet, too quiet, and Ivan was on the ground staring at his hands like he was high or something. Did he really go find some weed?
“Yo!” I threw a pillow at him. “What’s wrong? You look like someone died.”
I laughed.
He didn’t.
His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was a wreck, small specks of blood littered down his chin. “Do you trust me?”
“Not when it comes to your behavior, no, but if a gun was pointed at our heads, do I think you’d take the bullet for me? When it really came down to it? Yes, I think you would, because you aren’t that horrible of a person.”
He choked on what sounded like a sob, then turned toward me, his eyes were steely, resolute. He changed in one second, became a completely different person, and stalked over to me. “Do you trust me?”
“You’re officially scaring me.” I backed up. “Why are you covered in blood?”
“Answer the question.”
“Give me a reason why!”
“What if I said your life depended on it? What if I said my life did too? What if everyone’s lives depended on this one answer?”
My breaths were too short, I was losing focus, this wasn’t the Ivan I knew, the Ivan I knew was a jackass but always joking around in his jackassedness.This Ivan was…
Damaged.
“What did you do?” I asked.
He shook his head. “What was asked of me.”
“Was the price high?” Tears burned the back of my eyes.
He let out a shaky exhale. “More than I know how to pay.”
“So, you’re in debt.”
“My life is my debt.” He snapped. “Now, do you trust me?”
I don’t know why I said it, I don’t know why I told him the truth when I knew anytime I ever did he cut me to ribbons, making me bleed emotionally all over the place only to pretend to hold me close just long enough to get what he wanted before tossing me aside, but I ended up saying, “Yes.”
“Swear it.” Eyes wild, he held out his hand. “Swear it.”
I gripped his hand, then wrapped my left hand around the back of his head and pulled his forehead against mine. “I swear it.”
I’d lost my mind.
“History…” He gulped. “Always repeats, and sometimes, it’s absolutely necessary in order to fix it.”
Cryptic.
“I’m sorry.” His nostrils flared. “I’m really, really sorry.”
“For what?”
He pulled a knife from behind his back and held it to my neck, shoving me ahead of him. “Walk.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Walk.” He kicked me in the back of the legs. I stumbled forward, nearly getting my neck cut. “Walk through the kitchen, say nothing, I’ll do the talking, go outside, get into the car, and don’t speak.”
Mouth dry. I walked, looking from left to right for any sort of weapon I could grab, was he kidnapping me? I mean, we shared the same dorm and holy hell would rain down on him if he as much as touched me.
Did he forget who I was for a second? Did he have an aneurysm?
There was no way he was this stupid.
My dad would literally put a bullet between his eyes and dance on his dead body before lighting it on fire.
I stumbled forward into the busy kitchen.
Bam-Bam was sitting in his highchair with syrup all over his face and Walt had already left for the day.
“Hey.” Serena waved at me, her long blonde hair was in a high ponytail swaying back and forth with her quick movements. “Have you seen Junior? He didn’t come to bed last night, said he had business and this morning his favorite car’s still here, and what the hell, Ivan? Stop messing around. Yes, we get it, you hate her. Put the knife down and eat, you guys have class.”
“In three,” Ivan whispered in my ear. “Two…” He sighed. “One.”
The front door nearly came off its hinges as Ash, King, Maksim, and Valerian walked in.
Wow, even the Russian boss decided to fly in from Seattle, must have been a red-eye.
Ivan saluted them with the knife before putting it back across my throat. “You were almost late.”
“What.” Ash’s voice cracks. “The hell did you do!”
Ivan’s laugh was bitter. “What I was told… isn’t that how the rules work? A boss tells you to do something and you do it, are you angry that I did it well or that I did it under this roof? Either way, what’s done is done, now if you don’t mind, I’m going to take Bella back to campus.”
“Like hell you are!” Ash roared, his eyes were crazed, they were red like he’d been up all night.
All of the guys looked angry enough to set the house on fire, but beneath that anger was such deep grief that the air felt thick with it.
I thought about the blood on Ivan.
About the questions. And then I very slowly turned my head toward Serena, who was still rolling her eyes like the guys were messing around. My gaze fell to Bam-Bam. Sickness took over; it wrapped itself around my throat so tight that all I could do was whimper.
Maksim took a step toward me.
I shook my head.
His sharp blue eyes darted to Bam-Bam, then back to me, then to Serena. He was doing what he always did when he was in a serious situation. He defaulted to his other personality; he basically didn’t feel. Right now he was doing the math, but he would come up with zero every time.
I shook my head again.
He clenched his teeth, eyes cold.
King very slowly walked over to Serena and pulled her against him. “I’m going to need you to be very calm right now. Do you understand?”
It’s like she knew the minute he said that, that something was very wrong.
“Bam-Bam is watching your every move,” King said tightly. “I need you to take him from the room while we deal with Ivan and your sister and then”—his voice cracked—“I need you to be very strong for me, can you do that, Serena? Can you be the strongest you’ve ever been in this moment?”
Tears pooled in my sister’s blue eyes as he lifted her chin. “Yes.”
King pulled her in for a tight hug. “I need you to prepare for the funeral and then I need you to call all of our parents and tell them word for word what I’m about to say.”
My knees buckled. Ivan held me back against him.
I hated him so much.
I hated him more than I’ve ever hated.
Something was very wrong.
Something that would affect me for my entire life.
Something I would never come back from.
My breaths came in short gasps, too short. Ivan moved his hand from my neck down to my chest and pressed down like he was trying to help me breathe.
I wanted to bat him away, but I had no strength, because I knew that look in King’s eyes, I’d seen it before. I knew him; he was my cousin, he was the Capo.
And he had just been dealt a blow that would affect this Family forever.
Sometimes you just know.
I braced myself.
“Serena, please tell your father to come here immediately to make preparations, invite Phoenix, Sergio, Chase, Dante, Tank, Andrei, and my father, then let them know that they will need to bring the med kits. Sergio will need to bring heavy sedation, can you do that?”
“W-why are we needing heavy sedation?”
“Because…” King locked eyes with Ivan over my sister’s head… “we’re preparing first for a funeral, second—for a war.”
“Funeral.” She looked around the room.
She did the math I’d already rejected.
The only new boss that wasn’t in that room.
Was her husband.
My brother-in-law.
Former boss of the De Lange Family.
“I’m sorry to tell you this way, but Junior is dead.” King could barely say the word dead.
I would never forget her scream.
I would never forget the way she covered her own mouth, biting at her fingers to keep the sound in, in front of my nephew, or the murder in her eyes as she looked over at Ivan and said. “You?”
“It is my birthright, after all,” Ivan said hoarsely. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to take your sister back to campus, please let Nixon know that I’ll be stealing one more thing from the Abandonato dynasty. Their youngest daughter. I do hope you’re willing to cooperate.”
At that moment, when I didn’t think it could get worse, honking sounded from outside of the house.
At least twenty black sedans pulled up and at least seventy armed men stepped out and stood at attention.
For their new boss.
My brother-in-law’s killer.