Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Drago
Song: Suffocate – Kayzo, Bad Omens
“Drago, are you listening?” Lev grunts down the phone.
Something is off today. I stare at the flashing red dot on my map. My gut has never lied to me.
“Yeah, jotting it all down. You talk a lot, old man.”
I don’t tell him I’m watching Lily closer than usual. Lev doesn’t need more stress while he’s running undercover through Russia, dragging men out of shadows to torture answers from them.
Watching her has been part of my life since Lev took me under his wing. I was part of the team tasked to ensure she was okay in America. We’d often fly out and do wellness checks for Lev at a distance, and then simple as that, we’d fly home.
That was until her final ballet show. It was just meant to be a routine check-in.
I thought nothing of it. It was the first time I’d seen her mom, Maria, in years.
Something didn’t feel right to me. All the other dancers had come out of their dressing rooms, but Lily hadn’t.
And Maria was already waiting in her car with the engine running.
The moment I opened the door, that’s the exact moment my world tilted on its axis. The exact second when checking on Lily for her father, over the years, turned into something more personal. A duty.
Telling Lev would have broken him. So, I kept it quiet and tasked myself with becoming her protector. She stopped being just Lev’s daughter, and she became something almost sacred to me.
An obsession that, even five years later, I cannot shake. Which is why, now more than ever, it’s important I remain in the shadows. That she never, ever, knows about my existence.
“I think I’ve hunted as far as I can in Russia, Drago.”
I sigh. We still don’t know who the Preacher is.
And every day we fail, more women and kids fall into his hands.
It puts all of the Quinn’s, including Charlotte and Isabella, at risk.
Because the Preacher has already tried to take some of their men down, it’s a matter of time before they come for it all.
Inferno holds secrets. Inferno hosts sin. It was created to lure predators so we could take them out. But in the wrong hands, it can become a funnel for more evil.
“Drago.” Lev snaps in that fatherly tone to make me listen.
“Yes, Lev,” I mutter.
“You sure you want to go after the Preacher? There is nothing stopping you from coming back to Moscow. You’ve got an empire here waiting for you to take over.”
I frown. “Take over? Where the fuck are you going?”
The thought of him not being a constant in my life makes my chest hurt. The fact that one day, it might be my reality, having to lead the empire we’ve created on my own. A task that, quite frankly, has never been my intention. I’m his soldier. His weapon.
He tuts. “Nowhere, you twat. It’s ours. We built this together.”
I rub my thumb along my lip. We’ve poured everything into our empire, bled for it. And I’m still young enough to turn it into something else. I’ve built different routes to go into if I do decide to settle down one day.
“Charlotte and Isabella are safe now, Drago,” Lev reminds me, his voice softening.
Shaking my head. “Nope. The Quinns saved my life. This is how I repay them. My skills, my contacts. I’ll chop the head off the cunt, and then I’ll return.”
I can almost picture him smiling. Our signature move. Brutal. Effective. I was just sixteen when Lev showed me the most efficient way to dismember a body.
“You learned from the best, boy.”
I chuckle. “When are you going to stop calling me that? I’m thirty fucking eight.”
“When you stop calling me old man.”
Touché.
“So, how useful is the next hit going to be?” I ask, staring at the address he gave me.
“Very. I’ve got as far up the line as I can. It’s up to you now.”
I scratch my head. The fact that both Enzo and I can’t locate this Preacher bastard worries me. There are no links to any past Mafia families. No leads to gangs.
“How’s my baby girl?” Lev asks.
“She’s fine.” Half a lie. How do I tell him she’s lost the spark he loved?
That she’s drowning quietly behind her strength?
I believe she’s where she’s supposed to be.
With Hallie. With her gallery. With our protection.
Which is my primary reason for keeping her in the dark.
Because the night I rescued her, I made that decision to keep her blindfolded.
To carry her shaking body in silence to the car.
I need to keep her safe from a distance; I can’t let the feelings that flooded my body that night come back to light.
I saved her because it was my duty to her father. I continued to because of my own vow. That no one would ever hurt her again.
And that includes me. I’m not a man who deserves her. All I would bring her is more violence and destruction—the reason Lev sent her away from Russia in the first place.
“She has her art showing tonight, right?” Lev asks, pulling me out of my spiral.
“Yes. She does.” I hesitate. “You know, you could just call her. Or visit.”
Silence. Lev’s paranoia is stronger than his desire. He always feared his life would bleed into hers. Lily has been through trauma that could have broken her. She needs to lead a normal life away from the mafia. She doesn’t need more pain; she only deserves happiness.
A gunshot cracks through the line, and my chest seizes. “Lev!”
His tires screech, and metal grinds.
“Lev. Dammit. Are you there? What’s happening?” I shout, my voice breaking.
I shake my head. Why the hell is he even calling me when he’s not in the safe house yet?
“I’m fine. Someone’s onto me. Let me get somewhere safe, and I’ll call you back.”
I clench my fist. I wish I were there like the old days.
“Be safe,” I mutter as he hangs up.
I lean back in my chair and pull up both trackers—one following Lev and one following Lily. Lev’s a feral animal even in his sixties, but age is creeping up on him, slowing what used to be effortless.
Maybe I do need to go home. But, I can’t. Because leaving America means leaving Lily. And with the Preacher on our tails, that ain’t happening.
Lily has ties to the mafia, and that in itself puts a mark on her. Which is what Lev sacrificed his happiness for. To cut those ties. And I owe him.
I’ve known Lev since I was fifteen. He murdered my piece of shit father and took me with him. Instead of killing me, he saw value. He trained me. Fed me. Raised me better than blood ever did.
Together, we forged an empire in Russia, moving between families, keeping our people alive—especially his daughter.
I remember the devastation on her face when her mother took her away.
She was ten. I was given the job of following Maria in the truck to the airport to ensure they got there safely.
Lev broke that day. I watched from the hallway as he gave her a little box.
How she cried as he told her to be brave.
I cleaned the destruction he left behind in his agony. He did it out of love. He let her go so she wouldn’t drown in blood.
And I took the job he couldn’t handle. I protected her from afar.
Her graduation.
Her ballet recitals.
Her gallery opening.
I reported it all. She never noticed me. She wasn’t supposed to. My job has always been silent protection.
Then fate dragged us back into the same world.
After Charlotte escaped Russia and found Declan.
That set off a chain of events in which the Russian mafia, led by Tatiana, turned on me for helping Charlotte.
I nearly died in that barn, and I’d do it again.
The Quinns saved my life, and destiny planted me here.
Which is Lily’s home, too.
And with Hallie married to Conan, keeping Lily safe became easier.
I swore to Lev I’d protect his daughter—a woman who is beautiful enough to crack my ribs open.
That is all this is. That is all it can ever be.
But, over the last five years, I’ve made some questionable choices. I’ve threatened men after they’ve taken her out on dates. I told myself it was to protect her, because these men can’t be trusted and don’t deserve her, any more than I do.
She’s better than any of us.
So I sit here, watching two blinking dots, wondering where the fuck I fit into any of this.