CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Raina
V aldrin Sokolov is my father.
The DNA we lifted at the diner two weeks ago confirmed it. And right now, Quinlan Empire is breaching the black site he’s been sent back to and bringing him to Connor’s tunnel.
A mission I wasn’t allowed to be a part of. Mostly because Connor wasn’t entirely sure they’d find Valdrin alive. And God, that man didn’t want me to see that.
I saw my da dead, I don’t wish it on anyone else.
I worry I don’t know who Valdrin will stay loyal to once he’s confronted. Me or Noel?
Connor plans to tell him that he’s my father without me present to see his natural reaction. Valdrin might not know, but I feel strongly that he does. He’ll be given a choice. Either he joins Quinlan Empire, or rots in Noel’s prison.
The terms are harsh, but Connor is purposely playing hardball so I can have a father in my life. Before I accept Valdrin, I just need to know why he gave me up in the first place and why he lied to me.
I pace around the bedroom. Connor’s bedroom. Only, it feels like mine too now. My clothes take up half the closet. I’ve filled the nightstand on my side of the bed. His dresser was practically empty, so I filled that, too.
I’ve spoken to Ruby here and there. She sounds depressed, but Connor assures me she’s well-guarded by Nero.
My phone vibrates on the dresser, and I amble that way to look at it. Heart pounding, I see it’s a message from Connor.
Connor: We have him!
He’s alive! I leave the bedroom and sprint down the tunnel that leads to the chamber. When I get to the door, it opens before I can knock.
Connor grabs me and hugs me. “He’s okay. Only three men were guarding him. Trace, Rhys, and I killed two, and we let Valdrin kill the man who’d been torturing him.”
Self-defense. Self-defense.
I keep whispering that to myself about all these murders.
“We made it look like he killed all three and then escaped,” Connor adds.
Christ, that’s smart. I can’t live with any of this being traced back to Connor and his brothers.
“Did he come willingly?” I ask Connor in a painful whisper.
“When I told him he’s your father, and that he’d never see you again if he didn’t? Aye.”
“Show me,” I say, holding in emotions that are ready to spiral out of control.
“Come on.” Connor takes my hand and brings me inside.
Valdrin is sitting at a meeting table set up in the middle of the room where Connor’s torture slab usually stands. I’m surprised he’s not tied up or chained down. But Connor’s entire enforcer team surrounds him.
“Val,” I whine, using the name I thought he was fond of hearing coming from me.
“ Zemer. ” He smiles.
I recognize the word, and it knocks something loose in my chest. Heart . Valdrin called me his heart.
My mother used that term of endearment from time to time and used it in her letter. Was that a reminder to recognize him?
I sit down across from Valdrin with Connor’s hands on my shoulders. “Can you explain why my mother never told me who you were or where you were?”
“We were both young, your mother and I,” he begins a story that does not have a happy ending. “But she knew who my family was and what we did.”
“Why didn’t you marry Raina’s mother?” Connor asks man-to-man.
I wouldn’t have bothered to ask. Any excuse is useless at this point.
But Valdrin answers anyway. “The reasoning for that was deeper and darker than our ages.”
“Raina deserves to know everything so she can make a decision about what we do with you.” Connor stands up for me and is putting the power in my hands.
“My grandfather was kyre, ” Valdrin says with pride, rubbing sore knuckles that look like they’d been smashed with a fucking hammer.
Noel, that bastard. I want to skin him alive. But I nod to keep Valdrin talking. The room is quiet despite all the souls standing around.
“Grandfather died when my father was young. I never met him.”
Valdrin is a direct descendant of a previous king. My throat tightens. I am a princess after all.
“Maternal or paternal?” Connor asks.
“ Paternal ,” Valdrin answers with fire. “My father and Levin’s mother were brother and sister, but Levin’s mother was much older than my father. She was named Regent upon their father’s death, and Levin’s father essentially ruled as kyre .”
“Was Levin older than you?” I ask, realizing I was never even shown a picture of him and have no idea what the man looks like .
“Despite my father being so much younger than Levin’s mother, we were born around the same time,” Valdrin answers.
“You mentioned a sister.” I lean forward.
“Iliana. She was first born Sokolov,” Valdrin says with a warm smile for his sister. “And would have made an amazing kyriá .”
Queen.
“Where is Iliana?” I ask with a tight throat.
“Dead.” Valdrin’s eyes slip closed. “Tragic accident in Italy.”
“I’m sorry,” I choke out. “I, I have the comb, the missing one. Connor found it. I can give it back to you.”
“No.” He reaches for me across the wooden table and trigger-happy Quinlans knock their hammers.
“Stop. Stand down,” I yell at them.
Valdrin smiles at me. “I have a treasure trove of Iliana’s jewelry, original artwork, and rare figurines worth millions in a safe. They are yours, zemer .”
We exchange a look, and his eyes roam my braid dangling down one shoulder. “You look so much like her. The same green eyes and hair of Sokolov spun gold. That’s how I knew you were mine.”
Mine.
“How did Levin become kyre and not you if it was rightfully your throne?” Connor asks to get past the mushy sentiment and lay out his plan for Valdrin.
“Levin’s mother lied to her father on his deathbed.
She promised to see my father ascend to the throne.
She and her husband then manipulated the council to keep them in power until Levin came of age.
My father died a few years later. Under suspicious circumstances.
My mother immediately made me bend the knee to Levin, fearing the same would happen to me.
I accepted that I would not be kyre and that Levin would rule instead of me. I had no choice.”
“And you stayed in the brotherhood for that reason?” I ask him to justify why he’d be part of this deadly criminal organization.
“Correct.”
“What did that have to do with you abandoning my mother?” I ask with a squeak.
Valdrin’s eyes close softly. “I was in love with her. I thought I was. For a young man who’d been stripped of a crown.”
“Did she tell you she was pregnant?” I ask, thinking of her letter. She spoke of a cold-hearted man who isn’t the man in front of me. But people change. “She said she kept me from you.”
“She found me and told me she was with child,” he says, deadpan. “I turned her away.”
“Why?” Connor asks brusquely. “Was a tailor’s daughter not good enough for you?”
My heart squeezes at how he is standing up for my mother’s honor.
“I turned her away for her own protection. And yours,” he says, looking at me. “She knew who my family was and was smart to listen and run.”
“But why?” I pound the table, finding my voice of frustration. “You said you were in love with her.”
“There was an accident,” Valdrin says, his voice low, his eyes dark. “Levin got hurt. The result was that he would not be able to have children.”
“What happened?” Connor asks, pacing behind me.
“Horse riding accident,” Valdrin admits, and the men around me wince.
The picture sharpens. Hooves. Groin. Ouch .
“What does that have to do with—” I stop and hold my throat.
“You’re so smart, zemer ,” Valdrin says with a prideful smile that reaches his eyes. “Doctors told Aunt Enya that Levin would not have children. She was fucking livid. She was already cunning and manipulative. If she knew I had a child on the way?”
“Levin’s mother would have killed me?” I swallow.
“ I was the rightful heir,” Valdrin gets passionate. “And I just fathered another heir.”
“My mother knew this, too?”
“Yes.”
“I’m thinking Levin’s mother didn’t want anyone challenging her son’s control of the brotherhood,” Connor says. “She was already killing Sokolovs, her own blood. What was one more?”
I sit back, emotions all over the place.
“Do I have any siblings?” I indirectly ask him if he’s been with someone else and made another kid.
Valdrin clears his throat. “No. I was lucky enough to meet a woman I loved once. And I turned her and my child away. I didn’t deserve another chance.”
I hope that finding me and having my forgiveness for turning us away will set him free. Give him closure with my love so he can find love again with someone else.
“Why did you lie to Tahiri that I was Levin Berisha’s daughter?” I sit back and cross my legs, controlling my emotions.
“When Berisha died, I knew it was time,” Valdrin says forcibly. “Time you were in my life. It was the only way to put you on the throne as kyria under my watchful eye.” Valdrin shifts in his seat. “Thanks to Connor killing—”
“I killed Berisha,” Shane handily admits. “He sprayed my wife’s nightclub with bullets and tried to rape her.”
Valdrin blanches and must have known Berisha well enough and what he was capable of.
After he looks at Shane again, he glances at Connor, seeing the resemblance.
Seeing how it was easy to make that mistake.
“I apologize for the accusation, Connor. And on behalf of Levin, I apologize for the hideous trespass against your wife, Shane.”
The room is silent, and Shane nods. “Apology accepted.”
“Why did Noel believe you about Raina without any proof?” Griffin asks.
“Noel believed I loved Levin until the day he died and that his true daughter would be precious to me. Tahiri wouldn’t have hurt you so long as I was around.”
“You didn’t love Levin?” I ask, biting my lip.
“In later years, no, I hated him. When he dragged us to this awful city and started this quest for power. He became someone else. Someone despicable.”
A man who would try to rape a pregnant woman.
But Valdrin had no choice but to follow. Everyone knew his lineage.
Everyone.
“Didn’t everyone know about Levin’s inability to have children?” I ask.
“He never told anyone outside our immediate circle.” Valdrin shakes his head. “He also never accepted it. Killed specialists who told him differently. Had women brought in and fucked them without protection, hoping the doctors were wrong.”
I swallow a lump. “Was that the basis for your trafficking operation?”
Valdrin notices the spite in my voice. “The kyre is in charge. Whatever he wants is law.”
It’s a harsh reminder that the mafia world isn’t always about fundraisers, gowns, and glamour. Blood and tears build power.
Connor squeezes my shoulder again. It’s like he feels the rage flowing in my veins.
I reach out and touch my father’s hand. “I understand.”
“Now, what do you plan to do with me?” Valdrin says, sitting up tall.
“We are going to kill Noel and install you on the throne, Val,” Connor answers him.