Chapter 32
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
DANIIL
My brothers’ faces are stoic. Along with Kira and Yulian, we’ve gathered in our offices, on the top floor of our garment factory in Brooklyn so I could tell them everything. Everything about Bianca’s betrayal—well, everything that I’m aware of at least.
Getting the words out nearly destroys me.
Splays me open, makes me vulnerable in a way that I hate.
I’d become so good at not feeling over the years, and now I remember why.
Emotions are a fucking bitch. And the worst part?
I still crave her touch, her smiles, her pussy …
like I crave my next breath. It’s a real headfuck.
“Shit,” Andrei finally mutters, his hands clenched into fists on the desk.
“So, let me get this straight. She’s been working with the feds for the last two years to take down Emilio—who she says had her parents killed—and when you married her, the feds insisted she spy on us as well. Like a two-for-one deal?”
I nod. It sounds ridiculous when he puts it that way.
“Not that we can believe anything she says, but she showed me her messages with her FBI handler. They’ve learned nothing useful about our family, that’s why they were losing patience with Bianca.
There is one more thing,” I add, my back molars grinding together. “She asked me to kill her uncle.”
“And why would you do that?” Yulian braces his palms on the desk in front of him.
“Because Emilio’s preparing to fuck us over, too. The feds intercepted a conversation Días had about taking over our shipping routes.”
Andrei’s eyes flash. “What does that fucking mean?”
“It means he’s a slippery fucker, and you should have listened to me from the start.”
Instead of the outburst of anger I expect for Andrei, a wry smile touches his lips. “I suppose I should have.” His expression flattens and the next words out of his mouth really take me by surprise. “I’m sorry this happened to you.”
“What! No accusations, no anger? Who is this man?” I say to the others at the table.
Kira scoffs and hits Andrei in the shoulder. “A man changed by love.”
“Now you’ve officially gone too far,” he mutters.
“Where is Bianca now?” Leo interrupts.
“The basement.”
Kira looks shocked at my response but holds her tongue, although I have no doubt she’ll take it up with me in private.
Leo and I spent all morning hunting down and smashing the bugs she planted.
We also did a thorough sweep of our properties for any more listening or tracking devices.
We found none, but still, venom courses under my skin like she poisoned me.
Andrei sits back in his seat, darkness crossing his features. “We’ll need to sort the feds ourselves. Find out what they know and shut down any further investigation into us.”
I have to look away for a moment, rage brewing in my gut again. “We’ll need Bianca for that.”
“Agreed.” Andrei points a pen at me. “Take care of it.”
I dip my head in agreement. “She betrayed all of us, and I’ll never forgive her for that. After I clean up this big fucking mess, you can deal with her how you see fit.”
Beside me, Kira stiffens. “What are you getting at? You can’t kill her!” she cries, her blue eyes wide with alarm.
“She’s a loose end,” Yulian points out with a shrug. “That makes her a liability.”
My heart curdles in my chest, and I stare at my hands because I can’t bear to look anywhere else.
“She did what she had to do,” Kira says, her voice raising an octave. “Like I did when I was desperate to find you, my brothers. Like we would all do to avenge our family. But she redeemed herself by coming clean. You said so yourself, Daniil.”
“She came clean,” I grumble. “I didn’t say she redeemed herself.”
Bianca wrecked me in ways I can’t yet fathom. There’s no coming back from that.
When I raise my head, Andrei is looking at me funny, like he can read my thoughts. My brother and I have had our fair share of differences over the years, but he and Yulian are perhaps the only two people in the room that can understand how vulnerable a woman can make you.
“She’s your wife,” Andrei intones, “you get to decide how we deal with her.”
I flash my brother a fuck-you scowl, but he simply raises an eyebrow in response. “I can’t think about that right now. But …” I pause, reach for my glass of Macallan, and down a shot even though it’s far too early to drink. “I am going to kill Emilio. He deserves to suffer.”
Yulian’s lips twist in distaste. “Killing the head of a cartel isn’t child's play. There will be repercussions,” he says, always the cautious one. “And with the feds up our ass, seems like a bad time to start a war.”
“It’s not a war if we wipe them from the face of the earth,” I bark. Bianca may have gutted me, but what her uncle did to her family is unforgivable.
Once upon a time, my family was also betrayed by a monster in the worst possible way—I understand how the need for revenge hums under your skin until it’s sated.
And I have plenty of reasons to gut Emilio and Jorge myself beside the fact that they are traitorous pigs.
“Emilio hasn’t set foot in the US since the wedding.
We could go after him in Colombia where the feds don’t have any jurisdiction. ”
Andrei’s jaw ticks in thought; a moment later he clamps a hand on my tense shoulder. “If you want to go after Emilio, then we will. We’ll burn the Zegas to the ground when the time is right,” he adds. “Right now, we need to wait until the heat settles.”
I nod, sitting back in my seat. I’m not sure if the time will ever be right, but it’s the one mercy I can offer Bianca before she must meet her fate, whatever that fate may be.