Chapter 26 #2
Things ended spectacularly—bad.
I didn’t give a shit that he was trying to fuck me after he went back to fucking his ex-girlfriend.
They were still on a break, but they fucked like rabbits whether they were together or not.
It was when he tried to pass me off to his best friend, Colt—who eventually got engaged to Sean’s wife, Nicolina, before she dumped his ass with epic glory.
“Like you don’t. It was one night, Tricia.”
That little hand-off wasn’t as sly as either of them thought.
They pushed their luck thinking that if I was willing to risk being with one mobster, I’d be fine being with another.
Not only did they try to pull that off, it also meant ditching Nicolina in a skeezy-ass dive bar in Southie.
While that area isn’t as bad as it once was, that bar was dangerous inside, let alone being left alone to go outside of it.
Nicolina was there with three girlfriends who were from mob families, so she wouldn’t have been alone.
But being the daughter of the Boston mob’s skipper and the granddaughter of the Montreal mob’s skipper—such stupid titles—wouldn’t have saved her.
Any guy looking to assault her wouldn’t have listened to her family tree.
I lost my shit, dragged Nicolina and her friends out of the bar while calling Tristano to pick us up.
He about lost his ever-loving mind when he heard where we were.
There was no way he was coming alone, so Rocco, Dante, and Edmondo were there too.
Poor Dante and Edmondo. Nicolina, her three friends, and I took up the second and third rows.
Tristano drove, Rocco was in the front passenger seat, so my other two cousins wound up riding home in the trunk of the SUV.
It was doomed to fail from the start because besides the shitty way he treated his sister, his dad would’ve insisted we break up since he headed the mob back then.
Tristano and my cousins visited him after he spread rumors that I was a dealer.
People started approaching me at parties and bars.
It went on all summer until Tristano and the others took care of it.
“I’m not the one who ordered a hit, Ewan—though I should’ve back then. Tristano was willing.”
“Believe it or not, I’ve been too busy to think about you, darling.”
I want to reach through the phone and slap him.
“Yeah, burrowing your nose up the O’Rourkes’ asses, hoping you’ll come out smelling like roses. I’ve heard about how things are going with them.”
“You don’t think I put a hit on you. You’re hoping to ferret out information by getting me riled up. Who’s it going to? Your mangey dad or that piece-of-shit boyfriend.”
“The only thing I want to know is why you put a hit on me. You’re avoiding the question, so the excuses are covering something.”
“Tricia, I don’t murder pregnant women. I do a lot of shady shit, but that’s beyond unforgivable. I’m not dying like Donovan did.”
Donovan targeted Laura Kutsenko. He would’ve died anyway, but Maksim went berserk because she was pregnant with twins.
“Then which of your little minions is trying to prove his balls dropped?”
“None of them. My sister already hates me. I don’t need her giving Sean the green light to off me.”
He has a point.
“What’d she already do to you?”
There’s a long hesitation before he responds.
During the silence, Joaquin returns. He raises his eyebrows, wondering who I’m talking to.
When I don’t mouth a name, he pauses before approaching the bed.
I put the call on speaker, and it only takes one word before he knows who it is. He stares at me in disbelief.
“She and Sean came up here last weekend. Nikki grilled me, and Sean sat back, cracking his knuckles. Neither of them believed me when I said I knew nothing. If there’d been anything to tell, Nikki would’ve picked you over me.
She would’ve called you or gone to see you with any info.
Nikki went to a friend’s place while Sean… finished the conversation.”
Tortured his worthless ass. So glad I never slept with him.
“How do you know I’m pregnant? I’m sure Nicolina and Sean didn’t give it away.”
“You don’t think I have eyes and ears at Mass General? You and Joaquin go to the ER twice in two weeks, and no one notices? Everyone knows you’re pregnant.”
The secret’s out among the Volkovs and Iglesiases—los Iglesias—I’m learning. I’m sure Joaquin already knows that. Whether he told Dad or Dad told him, I don’t know.
“Then who hates my dad or uncle more? The Russians or the Mexicans?”
“That’s a hard call. Neither of them can stand your family. The Diazes have had a few run-ins with both families in the last year or so. I can’t imagine either of them would risk running afoul of Enrique, even if it meant getting back at your family.”
I look at Joaquin, and he nods. I don’t know if it’s in agreement or to encourage me to keep going.
“All of you have a price. It’s just a question of how much and who can afford it. How much would a hit on me go for?”
Joaquin cocks an eyebrow. I think it’s something he’s been searching for but hasn’t found the answer to.
“Before you got pregnant, probably three or four million.”
There are houses that cost more than that.
“Now that you’re pregnant with a third-generation Diaz, at least twenty.”
That makes me feel a little better—I suppose.
When I meet Joaquin’s gaze again, he sighs and nods. I suspect that confirms what he’d already deduced. I mouth, “what else?”
He mouths back, “Volkovs.”
“Since it isn’t you, and it isn’t my family, and los Iglesias won’t move against me because of los Diaz, that leaves the Volkovs. That kinda money only comes from the Kutsenkos.”
“You’d have to talk to them about that.”
“I’m supposed to knock on Maks’s door—or better yet, ask Joaquin to do that—and say I’ll pay you twenty mill if you don’t kill me and my baby.”
“You might do better going straight to Maks than Rurik. You need to talk to Joaquin about what the Volkovs did to Alejandro and his wife.”
I look up at Joaquin, and there’s a tight expression on his face.
I know Yuri Volkov, who’s now dead, was Rurik’s uncle.
He’s the one who spread the rumor about Alejandro being a deadbeat dad.
That he’d gotten Rurik’s sister pregnant a few years ago and abandoned her.
I heard that if Catalina hadn’t finished him, Rurik would’ve.
It would’ve been the excuse he needed because I’d seen them together—Rurik despised Yuri.
His uncle deprived his own sister—Rurik’s mom—of cancer treatment while Rurik was away at college.
“One more thing before I consider your debt paid.”
Ewan snorts. “I never had a debt.”
“The fuck you didn’t. Going back to Maks. He knows what the Volkovs did.”
It’s a statement, not a question.
“Let me ask you one more thing, Tricia. Would the Volkovs make a second move—a move this big—against the Diazes if Maks didn’t know?”
“Know and condone are two different things.”
“To condone something, you have to know about it. The murder attempts happened.”