Chapter 24 Slava
SLAVA
Bella’s fingers lace through mine beneath the water, and they’re so cold it’s like holding ice.
She’s terrified and trying not to show it, because she’s stronger than anyone gives her credit for. But I can feel the tremors running through her hand, and her grip tightens every time Don Leo’s gaze drifts her direction.
I want to pull her behind me, shield her body from those hungry pervert eyes, and wrap myself around her until she’s invisible.
But I can’t. There are four guns behind Don Leo, and they’re all poised to be trained on us in a split second.
“So.” Don Leo takes a long drag of his cigar, blowing smoke as he speaks. “We’re all friends here, yes?”
His men chorus their agreement. “Yes, Don Leo.”
I say nothing.
Don Leo’s eyes narrow, just slightly. “Romanov. I asked you a question.”
Bella’s hand squeezes mine, and I nod.
“Good, good.” Don Leo beams like a benevolent grandfather. “And you, ragazza?” He points his cigar at Bella. “Friends?”
“Yes.” Her voice is steady, remarkably so. “Friends.”
“Excellent!” He claps his hands together, dropping a dollop of ash into the churning water. “I’m so glad we can all agree. Because as friends, we can discuss things calmly. Rationally. Without any unpleasantness.”
I fucking hate the way he says unpleasantness, like he doesn’t fucking know what he did.
“Now.” Don Leo leans forward, water sloshing over the tub’s edge. “Tell me, ragazza, have we met before? There’s something familiar about your face.”
Bella’s hand goes rigid in mine.
“I don’t think so,” she says carefully. “I would remember if we did, Don Leo.”
“You’re sure?” Don Leo strokes his chin, pretending to think. “I could swear I’ve seen you somewhere before, and I never forget a face. Doesn’t she look familiar, boys?”
“Now that you mention it, Don Leo,” one of the guards says. “She kind of looks like your daughter’s driver.”
My jaw clenches and the hand not holding Bella’s clenches into a fist.
“Ah! Yes. What was his name again?” Don Leo’s gaze slides to Nico.
“Luca Farnassi,” Nico replies.
“That’s the one. Luca Farnassi.” Don Leo’s smile stretches wider. “He did a great service to me before his unfortunate death five years ago.”
I feel Bella flinch beside me—a full-body jerk that travels through our joined hands like an electric shock. Her face has gone white. Her lips are parted, trying to form words that won’t come.
“What are you to him, ragazza?”
Bella juts her chin out defiantly in an effort to stay brave. “He was my brother.”
“Come here, child.” Don Leo beckons Bella toward him. “Let me get a good look at you.”
She doesn’t move.
I pull her closer to me, our shoulders pressing together. “She’s fine where she is.”
Don Leo’s cordialness evaporates in an instant. His face goes hard as all pretense of friendship is stripped away.
“Come to me. Now.”
Four guns start rising. Then, I feel the cold barrel of Nico’s gun pressing into the back of my head before it shrinks back just out of reach.
Bella’s hand clings to mine, and I squeeze back as if to say I’m here, I won’t let anything happen to you, I swear to God I’ll burn this whole yacht down before I let him hurt you.
But we both know the truth.
We’re outgunned. Outmaneuvered. Out of options.
Slowly, painfully, Bella releases my hand and moves through the water toward Don Leo.
He wraps a meaty arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side like a favorite pet. She goes rigid, her whole body screaming with the effort of not flinching away.
“There we go.” He strokes her wet hair with his cigar hand, ash scattering across her shoulder. “That’s better. Your brother was like family to me, which makes you family. And family should be close, don’t you think?”
“Please,” Bella whispers. “Whatever this is about—”
“Shh.” Don Leo presses a finger to her lips. “Here. Have a taste.”
He holds the cigar to her mouth.
She shakes her head, pressing her lips together.
“It’s rude to refuse a gift from a Don, ragazza.” His voice drops to a growl. “Especially on his birthday.”
Something breaks behind Bella’s eyes.
She opens her mouth.
Don Leo slides the cigar between her lips, and pushes it deeper than it has any right to. Panic flickers across Bella’s face and she chokes on the intrusion. But Don Leo doesn’t pull away.
He looks at me while holding her mouth and face still, and pushes the cigar deeper. “Suck.”
A tear slides down Bella’s face and she does as she is told. My hands ball into fists beneath the water, helpless to intervene because all four guns are now pointed straight at my head.
“That’s right, ragazza, nice and slow,” Don Leo purrs. “Swirl it around your mouth. In and out. Let the smoke get on your tongue so you can really taste it.”
Then her chest heaves, and she starts coughing. Don Leo finally pulls the cigar out of her mouth and starts laughing, looking around at his men like he’s just told the world’s funniest joke.
“I think she likes it, boys!” he chortles.
The guards join in on the laughter.
I’m going to kill every last one of them. Slowly. I’m going to fucking peel the skin off their faces.
“Whatever game this is.” The words tear out of me before I can stop them. “Name your price. Just let her go.”
Don Leo’s laughter dies. He looks at me with something approaching pity.
“What do I want?” He yanks Bella even closer to him. “I want my son back, Romanov. I want my daughter back. Can you deliver that?”
I can’t, and he knows it.
“That’s what I fucking thought. So here’s how it’s going to work. Since you were so rude and came without a present to my birthday party, I think I’ll take her as compensation. Right there.” He points his cigar at the bed behind my head. “So you can fucking watch.”
The water cascades off his fat body as he rises, and he drags Bella up by her hair. She cries out in pain.
Then, the gun at the back of my head is there again. As soon as I feel it, I move without second thought, snatching it out of Nico’s hand and bringing it around to aim directly at Don Leo’s head.
“Let. Her. Go.”
But Don Leo’s guards have already trained their weapons on Bella. And Don Leo himself has positioned her in front of him like a shield.
“Drop the gun, Romanov,” Don Leo says calmly. “Or we’re going to see what the inside of her pretty little head looks like.”
Bella’s eyes find mine. She’s not crying—she’s too terrified even for tears—but I can see the prayer written across her face. Please. Please do something.
I can’t.
There are too many guns. Too many angles. Even if I take out Don Leo, his men will kill her before his fat body ever hits the ground.
“So predictable.” Don Leo laughs, shaking his head. “You’re making the same mistake you made in the past.” He jostles Bella, making her cry out. “Tell me, ragazza, did this Russian prick ever tell you what he did to my poor Gia?”
Bella doesn’t answer.
She doesn’t have to.
“Put the gun down, Romanov. Or I kill her.”
I look at Bella. At the terror in her eyes. At the gun pressed to her skull.
I put the gun down.
Nico snatches it back immediately. Then, he pulls out his phone, and furrows his brow as he taps the screen.
“Father,” he says.
“What?” Don Leo barks.
“I think the two of them learned their lesson already. You’ve gotten what you wanted. Slava Romanov humiliated and cowed.”
“That’s not all that I wanted, boy.”
“She’s still a Farnassi,” Nico says. “Her brother did a great service to you in the past, and perhaps, by showing some clemency, the sister will also be of use for us in the future.”
Don Leo narrows his eyes at Nico, and he purses his lips in thought. I hold my breath as I wait, and Bella’s lower lip starts trembling.
“Fine,” He finally says. “Another time, then. Looks like you’re in luck, Romanov. You as well, ragazza. It seems that my son has a soft spot for both of you, so I’m going to let you go.”
Something cold moves into my stomach.
That’s too easy.
“Well,” Don Leo continues, his smile widening. “I’ll let one of you go.”
A meaty hand rises, and connects with the back of Bella’s skull.
She crumples.
Then, in one brutal motion, Don Leo throws her limp body over the yacht’s railing, and a second later, I hear the sickening sound of her body splashing the water.
“BELLA!”
I’m out of the hot tub before the splash dies, bare feet slipping on the wet deck, and shove a guard out of the way.
Then, I vault over the railing and dive after her.