Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~NADIA~
N o. All I can think is no.
Alex is going to kill me.
And now, he’s going to kill Carmine, too.
“Let Carmine go,” I say through throbbing lips. “This is between you and me.”
Instead of answering, Alex slaps me and then lowers his face to mine and sneers. “Papa didn’t teach you to keep your cunt mouth shut, so I’m going to do it. Don’t you fucking talk unless I tell you to.”
“Why’d you do it?” Carmine asks calmly as he sits next to me. “Why’d you enlist Rich and go about this whole dramatic game?”
“Game?” Alex turns on Carmine but doesn’t hit him. No, he’s too much of a pussy to hit a man stronger than he is. “This isn’t a game. This is brilliant. I was just telling little sis here all about it, but I’ll explain it to you, too. She’ll just have to hear it twice. But you don’t mind, do you, sis?”
I shake my head no. From the corner of my eye, I see Carmine slip his phone out of his pocket. He taps on the screen, but I can’t see what he’s doing.
Hell, he can’t see what he’s doing.
“Papa is too set in his ways,” Alex begins. “He’s weak. He thinks we should respect the old ways of doing things. And because of that shortsightedness, he’s missing out on a lot of money. I’m not willing to do that.”
“You’re not rich enough?” Carmine asks.
“Fuck, no. Who’s rich enough ? There’s no such thing, you dumbass. Drugs. Drugs are where it’s at. And when you have a new brew, all the better.”
“That new brew you have kills people,” Carmine says. “That doesn’t make for repeat customers.”
“That’s not what we were selling.” Alex laughs. “That was just to get people out of our way. The stuff we sell is the best high you can have. It’s better than coke, better than meth or anything else. People will be begging me for it. They’ll pay anything at all for it.”
“What is it?” Carmine asks.
“It’s a synthetic. You don’t have to sniff it or shoot it. You pop the pill, and in twenty minutes, you’re on the best ride of your life. I call it Hades.”
“How original,” Carmine says calmly. “So, you went to some of Sergi’s people in New York, and they turned you down.”
“Weak assholes,” he says with the shake of his head. “They didn’t want to do anything unless they ran it by Mick first. And I couldn’t allow that.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is my fucking operation,” Alex yells and drives his finger into his chest. “Mine. Not theirs. And if they want to try to bring anyone higher up in, they get dead.”
“So, what about Richard? Or should I say, Dimitri ?”
What? Who in the hell is Dimitri?
Alex’s smile falls, and he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand before smiling again, but I can tell he’s nervous now.
“I figured you’d find out about that sooner or later,” Alex says. “It was so pitifully easy. With his background, he was just itching to get into something on the down-low. Something big. It was his idea to marry into the family. I thought he should marry Nadia.” He turns to me, and I want to throw up. “But he had a thing for Annika. He said Annika was weaker and would be easier to fool. And I hate to admit it, but he was right. She fell for the whole sappy I-love-you act—hook, line, and sinker. I mean, he actually got her to marry him! Women are so stupid. So easily manipulated. They’re fucking worthless.”
He turns to me and raises his hand, but Carmine stops him. He’s up in a flash and has Alex’s wrist in his fist.
“If you touch her one more time, I’ll rip your goddamn arm off.”
Alex shoves away like a pouty child. “Don’t touch me. Don’t fucking touch me.”
He reaches for his gun, but it’s gone.
“Looking for this?” Carmine holds it up, and Alex’s face goes white.
Oh my God. We’re going to live through this.
We’re going to live through this.
Carmine throws the gun across the room and turns to me.
“Don’t—” I begin, but it’s too late. Alex hits Carmine over the head with the tray that was on the coffee table. Carmine turns and backhands Alex, but then, to both of our surprise, Alex retaliates.
Carmine takes as many hits as he dishes out. I rush across the room and retrieve the gun, my hands still tied with the twine Alex brought with him. Still, I’m able to point it down at my brother, who’s now bleeding from the nose.
“Freeze.”
Suddenly, Rafe and Shane run into the room, their weapons drawn, and Alex sags against the hardwood in defeat.
“Fuck,” he says and then coughs and looks at me. “I will kill you. It may not be today, but it’s going to happen. My men should have done it in France, but they were too weak. I knew I should have done it myself. And I will. Every minute of your life, you’d better sleep with one eye open and watch your back.”
I look at Carmine. “Did you record everything he said earlier?”
He grabs his phone and nods. “It’s on here. But I learned everything from Shane. That’s where I was this morning.”
I look over at Shane as Alex starts to moan and whine. “Do you have all of the evidence my father will need to prove that my brother was behind everything?”
“I do,” Shane says with a solemn nod.
With the gun still in my hand, I look down at my brother, and I squeeze the trigger, killing him instantly.
“Call the cleanup team.” I drop the gun and let Carmine fold me into his arms. I ache all over from the beating Alex gave me, and my heart hurts, too.
“Shh.” Carmine rocks me back and forth. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
“He was an ass. A complete ass. But he was also my brother. And there was a time that I loved him.”
“I know.” He kisses the top of my head. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“We’ve got this,” Shane says, but before we can leave the room, he kisses my cheek. “You did the right thing.”
“Sometimes, the right thing really sucks.”
“I know.”
“Don’t worry about this,” Rafe says kindly.
“I have to call my father. There’s different protocol here.”
“I know,” Rafe says. “Don’t worry.”
Carmine leads me to the bathroom off the master, closes the door, and I fall into his arms, sobbing like I never have before.
“I’m a monster.” I pull back, just out of his grasp. “Jesus, Carmine, I’m a monster. I killed my brother.”
Without a word, he takes my shoulders and turns me to look into the mirror, pressed close behind me.
“Look at yourself.”
My eyes are swollen and blackened. My lips are puffy and split. I have a cut on my shoulder from the kitchen knife.
“He knocked on the door about thirty minutes after you left,” I begin and swallow hard. “Of course, I let him in. Turned my back. And he started in on me. He had a baseball bat. I couldn’t react. Couldn’t defend myself.”
“He was a coward.”
“He told me that he was behind all of the killings. Said that he was going to kill me, then Papa. That he’d be the boss. Said he’d turn our family into a drug lord empire—exactly what Papa doesn’t want.”
“And he was going to continue hunting you, would try to end your life, Nadia,” he reminds me. “That wasn’t an empty threat. If I hadn’t arrived when I did, you’d probably be dead now. Can you look us both in the eyes and say that what you did was wrong?”
“No.” I shake my head slowly. “I don’t think it was wrong. Because he would have killed you, too, and I couldn’t live?—”
I turn back into his arms. “I couldn’t live with myself if he hurt you, Carmine. I love you so much, I can’t bear the thought. Oh my God, what would I do without you?”
He tips my chin up with his finger. “Do you mind saying that again?”
“What would I do without you?” I sniff, more tears falling at the thought of Carmine being gone.
“Not that part, baby.”
“I love you, Carmine. I don’t know how it happened or when. We went from being enemies to this. But I do. I love you so much it hurts. I really thought you’d come into this house and find me dead. That alone almost broke me. But then when I thought that he might kill you, as well, I just… You are the best part of my life.”
“I think that’s my line.” His lips touch the side of mine, ever so gently so he doesn’t hurt me. “I love you, too. With all of my heart and soul. You are meant to be with me. I feel that in my heart.”
“I do, too.” I snuggle into him for just a moment. “We’d better get me cleaned up so I can face my father. I don’t know what he’ll do.”
“He’ll love you,” he says simply. “And he’ll grieve.”
“Yeah.” I nod as Carmine reaches for a washrag. “We’ll both do that.”
Six of us sit in my father’s living room in Atlanta. Carmine and his brothers flew me here this afternoon, and their father, Carlo, met us.
We didn’t meet at an office.
We came to Igor Tarenkov’s home.
“Your mother is lying down after taking a sedative,” Papa says as he reaches for me. His eyes are shadowed and sad, but he touches me with tenderness. “How do you feel, little one?”
“A bit sore. It’s not as bad as it was in Seattle when I got—” I stop talking at my father’s furious look and swallow hard. “Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you about that.”
“I suggest you tell me now.”
I look over at Carmine, who’s sitting next to his father. All four men are imposing. Carmine nods. “It’s time, sweetheart.”
So, I take a deep breath and tell them all about getting attacked in Seattle, and how Carmine and his people helped me get well.
“But that wasn’t the first time.”
I tell him everything, going back to when I was jumped in Atlanta, and my hair was cut.
“It seems your brother has been terrorizing you for a long time,” Papa says quietly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I never saw it. I should have known.”
“He was good at covering his tracks,” I remind him. “Papa, I understand if you don’t want to see me again. If this is goodbye?—”
“What kind of nonsense is this?”
“I killed your son.” I bury my face in my hands and weep. “I murdered my brother in cold blood, and I would do it again. What kind of daughter does that make me? What kind of boss would I make?”
“No one asked for my opinion,” Carlo says, catching my attention, “but I’m going to give it anyway. You would make an excellent leader, my dear. Because you did what you had to do to keep the rest of your family and those you care about safe. Your brother was the bad seed. And I hope I’m not speaking out of turn when I say we all saw that.”
“You’re not,” Papa says. “I will grieve for the son I had and the man I needed him to be. But the punishment fit the crime here, Nadia. Don’t torture yourself. You were defending yourself. And me.”
Relief floods me. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry for the way this ended,” Carlo says to my father. “If there is anything my family can do for you, we are always at your disposal.”
“Thank you, old friend,” Papa says. “And likewise.”
“We still haven’t figured out who killed Elena’s parents,” Rafe points out. “That goes back farther than Alex.”
“That’s something we’ll have to keep digging into,” Shane agrees. “We’ll find them.”
“I have something to say,” Carmine says. “Mr. Tarenkov, I’d like to ask for your permission to marry your daughter.”
My eyes fly to Carmine’s in surprise.
Our fathers share a smile.
“Well, it’s about damn time, my boy,” Papa says. “Carlo and I have been throwing you at each other for years.”
“I thought they’d never come to their senses,” Carlo says with a laugh. “A couple of stubborn children we have here, Igor.”
“Wait. You wanted us to marry?” Carmine asks.
“Of course. Why do you think we’ve allowed you to spend so much time together?” My father winks at me. Winks! I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wink a day in his life.
“How do you like that?” Shane says with a laugh. “Pop’s a matchmaker.”
The brothers both laugh as Carmine crosses to me with humor in his chocolate brown eyes.
He lowers to one knee.
“Will you marry me, Nadia, and be the best part of my life until I’m no longer on this Earth?”
“Let me think about it.” I grin as he digs into his pocket and comes out with a rock the size of a baby’s fist. “Geez, Carmine. Did you have to get something so fancy?”
“Yes.” He slips it onto my finger and then kisses my knuckles. “I’m going to give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of.”
“I believe you.” He kisses me carefully.
“Is that a yes?”
“That’s a hell yes.”