Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Drago
I slap my hand across Lily’s stalker’s face hard enough to snap his head to the side.
I’m not fucking done with him yet.
He can’t be more than his early twenties. Barely a man. Old enough to make choices, but young enough to regret them too late. A shame, really. The mess he’s dragged himself into will follow him to the grave, assuming he’s lucky enough to earn one.
“Come on, boy. I thought you’d be made of stronger stuff than this.”
My voice is calm. Almost bored.
His body jolts violently as consciousness claws its way back. His eyes flutter open, unfocused, panic swimming in them. Blood runs freely down his cheek, dripping from his jaw onto the concrete floor.
“I told you, I was following orders. I didn’t know who she was. I was just told to scope it out.” His voice shakes.
I grab him by the scruff of the neck, fingers digging in, lifting him halfway off the floor, even with the chair he’s tied to. His toes scrape uselessly.
“Who gave you the order?” I snarl. “Who is he and what does he want with her?”
A whimper slips from him before he can stop it.
I nod once.
Reggie steps forward without hesitation, gripping the man’s left hand. No warning. No buildup. He squeezes with his hands.
Bones crunch, and the scream that tears out of him is animal.
“A necklace!” He screams. “They want a necklace!”
I blow out a breath and drop him, stepping back. Fuck. Reggie looks at me with a puzzled expression.
“Who wants the fucking necklace?”
“M-my dealer gave me the job. I swear, I just deal a bit of coke. But this was big money.”
I run my hand over my face. Sending a runner to do their dirty work. “And who is your dealer?” I ask, even though Enzo will have that information from this guy’s phone. He’s unnecessary now.
“We can make this stop,” I murmur, leaning in close enough for him to smell the blood on me. “Where can I find him?”
Before he can answer, laughter erupts behind me, and I turn slowly.
Madame Eve is watching us, head tipped back slightly as she cackles. Bruised. Bloodied. Cuts mapping her arms and face like a ledger of Charlotte’s patience running out.
Charlotte did beautiful work.
I tilt my head, studying her.
“What’s so funny?” My arms cross over my chest.
She makes my skin crawl.
“Men.” The word drops flat and venomous.
I blink once. “I don’t believe you’re in a position to find anything amusing.”
She shrugs, then winces, pain flashing across her face. Still smiling though. “You all believe it’s just a man’s world, don’t you? Just because you have a dick, you think you run everything.”
I step closer, my shadow swallowing her whole. “No,” I say evenly. “I don’t believe that at all. I mean, look at you. You held a very high position of power. One you used to destroy other women’s lives.”
I lean down until we’re eye level. “How does that make you better?”
She clicks her tongue. “You’ll see.” Her smile is wrong. Twisted. Blood streaking her teeth like war paint.
The boy screams again, raw and hysterical, dragging my attention back where it belongs.
I sigh.
I’m bored.
I turn back toward him, rolling my neck once, loosening the tension in my shoulders. “Let’s speed this process up,” I say calmly. “Do you know anything else that will help me?”
Defeated, he shakes his head.
And this time, I don’t wait for an answer. I look to Reggie. This guy has seen too much. He’s seen our faces. He’s seen Inferno. He can’t survive. “End it. Then turn the lights off and leave her with his body.”
I look Eve right in the eyes and choose my words carefully. “Now the next body that will be in here with you is your sons.”
Her face pales, so I smile.
I leave. Lev needs to tell me exactly what this necklace is fucking linked to. We’ve had the pictures removed from social media, but it looks like it’s too late.
Lily is the face of it now.
The door slams shut behind me, and her laughter follows.
It shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t touch me at all, but it stops me cold.
Despite the rage still burning under my skin, that sound settles something inside my chest. Her laughter is the only part of my day that’s brought me joy.
I lean against the doorframe, forcing my breathing to even out.
Lev and Lily are in the kitchen, talking softly over vodka, like time hasn’t carved a canyon between them. Like, years haven’t been lost. Like blood hasn’t been spilled for her.
I clear my throat.
Her eyes snap to mine.
They track me slowly, from my boots to my shoulders, to the white shirt soaked through with red. Her breath catches. I see her eyes widen just a fraction before she schools her face.
I give her a single nod and dig into my pocket, retrieving a handful of her crystals. I place them on the table in front of her. She looks at them, then back to me.
“I left them out to…” I pause, making sure I’m using the right term. “Charge. I left them outside to charge for you last night.”
She smiles, picking one up between her fingers.
“I know it’s not a full moon yet, but I read that any moonlight is okay.”
“Thank you, Drago” she whispers, and my chest swells at the way she says my name, fuck.
I clear my throat, turning my attention back to Lev. “I need to speak to you, outside.”
I don’t wait for an answer. I turn and walk past them, the smell of iron and gunpowder still clinging to me. I slide the door open and step into the yard, the cool air hitting my skin like a slap.
Lev follows.
“I need to know what the fuck that necklace means, Lev. No fucking around. People are after Lily because of that fucking chain.”
I don’t believe the guy outside Lily’s was part of the Preacher’s organization. He was too scruffy. Too young. Spoke too easily.
No. This is something else.
He rubs the back of his neck, a nervous habit I remember from years ago. “It’s a drive, and on the back of the lock, there’s a code.”
My jaw tightens. “A code to what?”
“Secrets, Drago. Everything we’ve learned all over the years. And access to a fuck ton of money. It was meant to be a safety net if anything happened to me. Something that could save her life.”
“Jesus.” I hiss. The word scrapes out of me as the weight of it lands. “Usually, people need to know what they’re in possession of for it to be useful. Now she’s just wearing a ticking bomb.”
Is he fucking serious?
“Why!” I shout, the sound tearing out of my chest. “Why give that to your daughter? Why not let me guard it? You know I’ve spent nearly my entire life protecting her.”
“No one was supposed to know about it.”
The restraint I’ve been clinging to snaps as I step closer, every instinct screaming. “Lev. Who the fuck else knows about that necklace, because it’s someone. You knew it was identifiable; that’s why you wanted her pictures taken down online. Now tell me who the fuck knows.”
He goes pale. “The Butcher.”
The world tilts.
Fuck.
“Vanos is dead, Lev. Ghosts don’t actually haunt from the grave.” I stop in my tracks. “But, their fucking daughters can,” I finish.
I slam my fist into the wall beside me, the impact jolting up my arm as a raw scream rips out of my throat. The pain barely registers.
“He had one made for his daughter, too. With everything for his empire.”
The realization hits like a controlled detonation in my skull.
“Tatiana has the same fucking necklace,” I mutter, trying to comprehend what the fuck I’m hearing.
The one woman we need to stay away from. One I worked for for years, stupidly protecting her. And then she left me for dead at the hands of her brothers. She is evil, and I don’t want her near Lily.
Lev’s voice shakes. “What the hell do we do, Drago?”
I close my eyes.
Behind my lids, I picture Lily’s throat. And not just how perfect my hands would look wrapped around it, but the way that chain rests against her skin. How easily it could become a death sentence.
“I’m going to have to cut a deal with the devil, Lev. We’ve got the Preacher to focus on; we can’t take on Tatiana at the same time. I’ll sort it.” The words taste like ash, because I know exactly what that deal will cost me.
Her family already tried to kill me once. Left me bleeding, broken, and discarded like I was nothing more than collateral damage in their rise to power. I survived it, but survival came with scars that never faded. And I won’t let history repeat itself.
Tatiana might be able to outsmart the rest of them.
She might move pieces on a board that none of them even realize they’re standing on.
But I spent ten years in her fucking home.
I lived under her roof. I watched how that family breathed, how they lied, how they buried bodies and called it loyalty.
I saw everything. It was my mission from Lev to see it all, to gather the intel.
I know her better than she thinks I ever did. Better than she knows herself. I know more about her family than she does, more than she wants to remember. Secrets locked away behind power and pride.
We all have skeletons. And her father had more than most.
I’m prepared to lay every single one of them out in the open if that’s what it takes to keep Lily breathing, to keep her untouched by the monsters that raised us.
I don’t care what it costs me anymore. I crossed that line the night I carried Lily’s shaking body out of hell and swore she would never be alone again.
Tatiana will have to drain every last ounce of blood from me to stop what’s coming.
Hurting me was one thing. That created a feud. A quiet, festering kind of hatred that waited in the dark.
But going after Lily?
That just started a fucking war, and I will burn her empire to the ground before I let her touch a single hair on Lily’s head.
My life was once sworn to Tatiana. But Lily has always come before any oath. Protecting her is my only purpose in this world.
I will die for her. And if I do, I’m taking that fucking bitch down with me.