Chapter 21
SAINT
It’s obscenely early when I reluctantly leave Isla alone in bed, make myself a cup of coffee, and meet up with Lucky in the kitchen of the safe house.
Yesterday was a whirlwind of dealing with the fallout from the bombing and getting our most vulnerable targets as safe as possible.
This morning, it’s time to get down to business.
“You could at least try speaking with her, you know,” Lucky says quietly as I fill my mug.
Obviously, he’s thinking about a different kind of business. The wrong kind of business.
I fill my mug to the brim—I’m going to need it—and try to be patient with my youngest brother, who’s always been far too idealistic for his own good.
“Antonella is the least of our worries right now,” I point out. “We’re going to war with the Russians.”
“Are we going to war, though?”
“They bombed our fucking restaurant. What else would you call that?”
“A death wish.”
An image of Isla, handcuffed to my bed, naked and terrified, rises in my mind, and my fury is so visceral I can taste it. “They also broke into my apartment and scared Isla.”
I haven’t told either of my brothers the full extent of the shape I found Isla in.
I don’t need them to start asking questions about why she was naked and in my bed in the first place.
It’s none of their fucking business, and I don’t have any good answers for why, other than that I’m obsessed with her.
“They did some incredibly stupid shit, and they deserve to be hit for that, but are we really going to do this while Priest is away?” Lucky asks.
I’m not the don, and I know it. I’ve just been doing my best to hold everything together until our eldest brother is back stateside.
I sigh. “I think Scorpion may have taken away the option of waiting when he decided to kidnap Ekaterina Sidorov in retaliation.”
Lucky winces. “Yeah. That was also pretty fucking stupid. We go at them hard, then? Is that the plan?”
“The plan is that we don’t have a plan yet,” I admit, taking a sip of my hot coffee. “First, we need to figure out why the hell the Bratva attacked us. Isla told me that the Russian who broke into my apartment said the Andriani crew is responsible for getting some of their guys thrown into prison.”
“So this is all payback for something we didn’t even do?”
Lucky looks as confused as I feel.
The sudden Bratva vendetta came out of nowhere. Years of a truce with the bastards, gone in the span of a few days.
“According to the bastard who warned Isla about the bomb they planted, yes.” I set my mug down on the table with more force than necessary.
“I did a little research last night, and it looks like a major sting operation just went down. Over twenty arrests for illegal gambling, all of them with ties to the Bratva. What I don’t understand is why they think we had anything to do with this. ”
“Could have something to do with the fact that the Pakhan appears to have disappeared and Mikhail Sidorov has obtained his throne,” Lucky points out.
“We haven’t had a whole lot of time to put out feelers, but word on the street is that Sidorov clipped Ivan Aleksandrov.
One of my guys heard Sidorov strangled Aleksandrov to death with his bare hands. ”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. Sidorov is a fucking wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
He’s notoriously lethal and violent, but you wouldn’t know it, judging by his appearance alone. Unlike his brother Dimitri, who’s as big as a mountain and built like an MMA fighter who could destroy a man with one solid punch, Mikhail looks more like a prince than a deadly assassin.
“So we’re dealing with a new Pakhan, a string of arrests that have knocked the Bratva’s bread and butter out of order, and Scorpion holding the Pakhan’s sister hostage. Not to mention the explosion that demolished our restaurant. All while Priest is on his honeymoon.”
“And the Bratva believing we’re responsible for the sting that wiped out a bunch of their key players,” I remind Lucky grimly before drinking more coffee.
That’s the part I understand the least about this whole fucking mess.
My brother shakes his head. “Why the hell would someone finger us for something like that? And who would do it?”
“That’s what we have to figure out.”
We have more than our fair share of enemies. Warring factions within the families, jealousy, power grabs, territorial disputes—you name it, we’ve dealt with it. Most recently, when we merged the Andriani and the Revello families, we had to clip Amedeo the Animal, the biggest threat to our power.
“Do you think this is somehow related to what went down with the Animal?” Lucky asks like we’re on the same frequency.
“It’s possible, but it’s been a year. Why now?”
“Priest is on his honeymoon. Shit goes sideways when we least expect it and the don is out of the country.”
“You have a point,” I admit. “You hear anything from any of your contacts lately?”
“Been a little busy, what with Mom showing up in town with our sisters,” Lucky drawls.
And we’ve come full circle, landing back on Antonella Rossi. The woman who gave us life and then left us to live ours without her.
“Better you than me,” I tell him. “I need to get out of here and see to the capos. We’ve got to get a handle on this shit, or it’s only going to get worse.”
“I’ll come with you,” Lucky volunteers.
I shake my head. “I’m not risking both of us. Not with Priest in the islands and Scorpion God knows where upstate. You stay here and make sure the girls and Isla have everything they need. I’ll be back by dinner if everything goes according to plan.”
“You neglected to mention Mom.”
“I don’t know who that is, but if you’re referring to the bitch who abandoned us all, then I don’t give a fuck if she has everything she needs or not.”
“Alessio.”
Antonella’s voice cuts through our conversation. She’s hovering at the doorway to the kitchen, her eyes entreating. But she’s done enough damage, and I’m not letting her back into my life. She blew her chance when she walked out on my brothers and me.
I instantly stiffen, on edge. “You don’t have the right to speak to me,” I tell her coldly.
Then I slam down my coffee and walk away, determined to do everything in my power to keep shit from going even more sideways.
Isla
When I wake up, I reach for Alessio, but he’s not there.
My hand searches for him and finds Cid curled up on his pillow.
I sit up and hit a bedside light switch, illuminating the bedroom in a low glow, thanks to the dimmers we had on last night before we both fell asleep.
Cid blinks at me, then flicks his tail, offering up a yawn.
“Where’s Uncle Alessio?” I ask Cid like he’s going to answer me.
The thought of Alessio leaving me down here starts the subtle pressure on my chest that only seems to leave me when I’m at his side.
I force myself to stare at the window decals he applied to the walls last night for me.
But as hard as I try to pretend I’m back in St. Thomas, all the worries and cares lifted away, being charmed by a handsome bartender in the Caribbean moonlight, the band wrapped around me tightens.
“I can do this,” I tell Cid, throwing back the covers.
He just blinks at me and then sets his head back down.
It’s a mantra I keep repeating to myself as I venture to the en suite bathroom and quickly shower before dressing.
By the time I make my way out of the bedroom, the air is tinged with coffee, pancakes, and maple syrup.
I head to the kitchen, not sure what I’ll find and definitely not expecting to see Antonella at the stove, flipping pancakes.
Lucky, Camilla, and Bianca are sitting at the table, plates piled high. My stomach grumbles even as I notice Alessio is nowhere to be found.
“Good morning, Isla,” Lucky greets me.
“Morning,” the girls chirp in unison.
Antonella turns to give me an assessing look over her shoulder as she scoops up a finished pancake and slides it onto a plate. “Good morning.”
“Morning, everyone,” I return politely, painfully aware that all the people in this kitchen know where I spent the night.
It’s like a walk of shame, only breakfast instead, with siblings and his mom as my audience. Fan-fucking-tastic.
“You’re late for breakfast,” Antonella says.
I’m not sure if she’s making a slightly rude observation or if she’s judging me. Her expression is hard to read, and so is her voice.
I nervously tuck a strand of wet hair behind my ear. “I didn’t know breakfast happened at a certain time. I guess Alessio let me down. Speaking of him, where is he?”
“Not here,” Lucky says around a mouthful of syrup and pancake.
The band squeezes some more. I try to focus on small things.
The clink of silverware on plates. The scent of maple syrup that reminds me of happier days when my sister and I would sit at the kitchen island as kids, watching our mom make us chocolate-chip pancakes shaped like unicorns and zoo animals. The sizzle of the pan.
“Have a seat and eat some pancakes,” Bianca invites warmly. “Mom tripled the recipe. We’ll be eating these things for days if you don’t help us out.”
I feel a little like I’ve walked into a cozy family reunion. Without Alessio here, I’m the odd woman out.
“That’s okay,” I say hesitantly. “I’ll just go and read a bit until Alessio gets back.”
Hopefully he’ll be back soon. I try not to think about his absence or what it means. And I definitely can’t allow myself to think about what will happen if he doesn’t come back. If something happens to him out there. Because really, anything could. Those Russians are dangerous…
No. I tamp down my intrusive thoughts and turn to leave the kitchen.
“Wait,” Camilla says. “You must be hungry, and who knows how long Saint will be gone. Lucky said it could be a while.”
Lucky shoots me an apologetic look but keeps shoveling pancakes into his mouth.
“There’s plenty of pancakes,” Antonella adds from the stove. “Sit. Eat. You need some more meat on those bones anyway.”