Chapter 30 #2
“I don’t give a fuck. I’ll prove it to you.
We’ll check our blood, our DNA. And if you are related to me, which looking at you now, I don’t doubt— Fuck .
The other day I knew there was something.
The way you talked to C and how you looked at Baby G, I knew there was no reasoning with you when it came to her.
Now, I know why. I recognized my younger self.
The way I was about Raven. You’re not my kid. But you’re probably my kid brother.”
“She said Stroviak. You’re the only Stroviak. And she was so pissed at you…”
“I don’t like your mother. Never did. And it’s mutual.” Sasha shakes his head. “But, you’re right about the names. Vasily’s last name isn’t Stroviak. If she said that, it was to mislead you.”
War tips his head back and looks up at the sky, exhaling. “At first, she said things about him but wouldn’t say his name. It was later that she finally said Stroviak. When a guy tried to kill me, she claimed she called you and you were coming. But you never did.”
“Could she have said that to try to get him to leave you alone?” I whisper. “Her only way of protecting you maybe?”
“She should’ve brought you back to the States,” Sasha says grimly. “C sent her money a lot of different times and was pissed she didn’t just come home with you. If he had known someone was beating on you.” Sasha spits out a curse.
“Whatever. That’s long over now. But I do want the truth.”
“Same. Let’s find out.” Sasha shakes his head. “But we’ll have to do it in secret. Can’t have our DNA floating out there on the internet. Not with what we do. We’ll get a private lab to run it. Give me a couple days. Trick will find and vet someone.”
“Trick,” War scoffs. “If we’re related, he won’t tell us the truth. If he could erase my connection to C, he would, believe me. The last thing he’ll want is for me to have another blood tie to the Crue.”
“Nah, he’ll come around,” Sasha says. “As long as you don’t do something to betray one of us. That’s kill or be killed time with any of us.”
“I guess I won’t take little Mac up on the fight she’s always trying to pick with me, then.”
Sasha exhales an amused sound. “She’d fight a lion if she could find one.”
“I know,” War says. “I know how she thinks.”
Sasha’s expression grows serious again. “We were kids when your mom left Coynston. C and I were fifteen years old. Yeah, we’d worked for the Palermo organization since we were twelve.
Started as runners. Turned enforcers. I did it to survive and pay my way in the world after my mom died.
Growing up the way I did, I didn’t give a shit about what Vasily Vesenina was doing.
He was nothing to me and vice versa. But later, when C and I were men, if we’d known to come and get you, we would have. ”
War’s expression eases, the truth sinking in like rain into the earth.
“Man, the stuff she said… I might’ve killed you.
My mom was underage when he went with her, you know?
He went for young girls and didn’t care what happened to them during or after.
‘Kill it before it’s born’, that’s what he said about me.
Your choosing to live with little girls, when according to her, you never wanted kids—Man, I thought the fucking worst of you and your intentions.
I wanted revenge for myself, sure, but also, I wanted to end your having kids and failing them.
Thought you might even hurt the little girls eventually. ”
Sasha exhales a fatalistic sound. “If true, you know who would’ve lined up to help you? Trick. Men preying on underage girls? He does not go for that. His first kill was to protect his sister, and he never looked back.”
My eyes widen. This is something I’ve never heard before.
“I’m heading back to Trick’s,” Sasha says. “There’s work to do. The rest of what’s between us… Blood will tell.” Sasha steps off the path to go around us.
After a beat, War’s gaze cuts to me. “What about it? We all right, Bonnie Parker?”
“No. How could we be when I don’t really know you?
” My voice sounds angry, and cold in a way it never has before.
Now that my shock has worn off, I’m furious he nearly destroyed a family I love.
Based on false information. “To involve two innocent little girls in some twisted revenge plot based on stuff your mother said? When you know she isn’t trustworthy or reliable? What the hell is wrong with you?”
His expression darkens. “I had reason to believe he was who she said he was. And like I said, when I was planning it, I thought they’d be better off.”
“That wasn’t your call to make. Even if Sasha had once been bad, you can see he’s not now.”
“Men can hide the evil inside them. You should know that better than most. It’s why the friends, neighbors, and even spouses of serial killers always say the same thing… We had no idea. That’s not how he was with us.”
“I don’t care. You needed to vet the information. And you needed to think about how your actions would affect people.”
“People meaning you?”
“Meaning all of us! But yes, definitely, meaning me.”
“I did consider that. Why do you think your brother’s not dead?”
I gasp.
“He’s in my way. Or trying to be. But if I hurt him and you found out…” He shakes his head.
“You better never!”
“Would I tell you if I planned to do it?” He shakes his head again. “I meant what I said. You and I are in this life together now. I wouldn’t do something that would destroy us.”
My fury is mixed with something I can’t name. I don’t even know how to respond to all these revelations. I stalk away, heading back to the house when he catches up and grabs my arm.
“Be careful.” My voice is low and so angry I could practically breathe fire.
“I’m long past careful, Ashling, and so are you.”
Looking up, I scowl. “You had a lot of chances to tell me the truth and didn’t. You claim we’re in this together, but you haven’t trusted me with the most important things. Ones I could’ve helped you figure out.”
“It’s not true that I didn’t trust you.”
“Bullshit!””
“I let you play with the tablet. I knew when you watched the video, you would figure it out.”
My brows shoot up. “No, you didn’t. If you—no. Why wouldn’t you just tell me?”
He shrugs. “Couldn’t. Thought you might take Stroviak’s side against me because there was something between you and him. And then?—”
“Then what?”
“I’d rather burn down the fucking world and us with it than lose you to someone who doesn’t deserve you.”
“Do you deserve me?”
“Not yet.” His eyes lock with mine, his voice fast and fierce. “But I’m working on it, because I can’t let you go. And I never will.”
The fierceness of his words and their underlying desperate need strikes at the core of me.
I’m angry he didn’t confide in me directly, but this kind of love for someone, where it borders on obsession and can’t be controlled, it resonates with me.
I think fiery and ungovernable is what I want, even if it is destructive sometimes .
“Don’t ever lie to me again. If you want us to be together, then your secrets are my secrets. And mine are yours.”
“Yeah, deal.”
I exhale and shove against his chest. “And I get veto power over your plans to kidnap or kill anyone I care about.”
“On one condition.”
“What?”
“You can’t let them interfere with us. And you’d better tell him not to try to kill me again, because next time, I will take that shit personally.”
“What? Who tried to kill you?”
“Your brother. You don’t think Sasha Stroviak found out about my plot to kill him and get his daughters adopted by a Russian oligarch on his own, do you? Trick set Stroviak up to kill me just now.”
My jaw drops. “No.”
“I’ll bet you ten grand and a week in a cabin in the mountains.”
“He would not.”
“So, bet me.” He’s so certain, I’m taken aback.
Speech fails me as the possibility that he’s right sinks in. Sasha loves his wife and daughters more than life itself. He would destroy any threat to them. My brother knows it as well as I do.
My mouth turns down into a frown. If true, that’s poor fucking form, considering War came to Scott’s voluntarily because he was bringing me home. In effect, I delivered War, a man I have feelings for, into a trap.
Now, that will not fly.
If War isn’t allowed to hurt Scott without my permission, the same goes for Scott not being allowed to hurt War.
For fuck’s sake.
These guys are going to give me a breakdown.